Yesterday was the first of two Cow Eye Days, one of the highlights of the 5th grade. Students who have 4th period dissected yesterday and students with a 5th period science class will dissect Monday with Mr. Doss and Mrs. Merwin.
Makes me look forward to the next dissection day.
Saturday, January 31
Tuesday, January 27
Nature Journal Collaboration
Over the course of the fall quarter the 6th graders went outside to do a little nature journaling as a part of their environmental science curriculum. They wrote about the changes in the weather and trees; they drew pictures of what they saw and composed poems.
While the 6th grade was journaling, Mrs. Williams' 9th age girls were doing the same. Last week we got together to share what we had seen.
I was extremely proud of the 6th graders that volunteered to share their journal entries, to talk about their thoughts and to critique their own work publicly--their openness allowed the 9th agers to feel really comfortable sharing what they had done.
Wednesday, January 21
Tests and Planetariums
6th graders are taking their first astronomy test this coming Friday. It's all about the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun. The most important ideas are the causes of the tides and the phases of the moon, and being able to discuss the relationship between the two concepts. I believe this is the students' first exposure to gravity in a science setting, and we've been talking about Newton's First Law of Motion. Some of the ideas can get a little confusing, since all the forces are invisible and they interact in what I consider to be cool and exciting ways (some students may believe differently).
We've also scheduled our first planetarium visit for the 27th of January. We'll be heading over to the lower school so that Ms. Wlodarczyk can show us some more of the sites of the solar system. It should be one of the academic highlights of January. Now is a good time for students to start to generate questions that it might be easier to explain in the planetarium, and it's a great time for parents to ask "what did you learn in school today?"
A parent sent this great picture from the Hubble Space Telescope. It's of the Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across.
We've also scheduled our first planetarium visit for the 27th of January. We'll be heading over to the lower school so that Ms. Wlodarczyk can show us some more of the sites of the solar system. It should be one of the academic highlights of January. Now is a good time for students to start to generate questions that it might be easier to explain in the planetarium, and it's a great time for parents to ask "what did you learn in school today?"
A parent sent this great picture from the Hubble Space Telescope. It's of the Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across.
Monday, January 12
Happy New Year!
Hi All,
I hope your holiday and new year was fantastic. It's a time for new things and fresh starts, so in the 6th grade we've changed topics from hydrology to astronomy. It's going be a blast (especially the rockets)!
The students have already begun learning about motion and forces like gravity and all of Newton's laws that accompany them. Feel free to quiz them about inertia and Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation--6th graders love to talk about how everything (and everyone!) is attracted to everything (and everyone!) else through the force of gravity!
With astronomy come trips to the Luetkemeyer Planetarium over in the Lower School. We get to play with the telescopes, build space stations, and even launch some rockets. If the students get as excited as I am about looking at the stars, we may even throw a "star party" after school one evening. I am a telescope amateur, so any and all assistance would be appreciated. Let me know if you have a telescope at home you'd be willing to bring out to Calvert and we'll order some pizzas and warm up hot chocolate and let the kids check out what's happening out there in the universe. The sooner the better; as the year progresses it will start to get light early again and we'll have to bump the party back to later in the evening.
I hope your holiday and new year was fantastic. It's a time for new things and fresh starts, so in the 6th grade we've changed topics from hydrology to astronomy. It's going be a blast (especially the rockets)!
The students have already begun learning about motion and forces like gravity and all of Newton's laws that accompany them. Feel free to quiz them about inertia and Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation--6th graders love to talk about how everything (and everyone!) is attracted to everything (and everyone!) else through the force of gravity!
With astronomy come trips to the Luetkemeyer Planetarium over in the Lower School. We get to play with the telescopes, build space stations, and even launch some rockets. If the students get as excited as I am about looking at the stars, we may even throw a "star party" after school one evening. I am a telescope amateur, so any and all assistance would be appreciated. Let me know if you have a telescope at home you'd be willing to bring out to Calvert and we'll order some pizzas and warm up hot chocolate and let the kids check out what's happening out there in the universe. The sooner the better; as the year progresses it will start to get light early again and we'll have to bump the party back to later in the evening.
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