Our Watsons go to Birmingham novel study is in full swing. We're studying the 1960's and the impact this time period had on the plot of this novel. Christopher Paul Curtis is a gifted author who combines humor and historical elements into a tantalizing story.
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Our fourth grade unit on the Holocaust has begun. In class work is being extended with discussion, novel study and article analysis. We're reading Anne Frank Remembered, Miep Gies story of her life and Anne Frank. Her important story is told with great clarity and honesty. An excellent jumping off point for discussion and research.
Fourth graders are in the midst of their Bridge to Terabithia novel study. We're practicing scholarly discussions and the important roles that we can play in these discussions. We created collaborative capstone iMovie trailers that we're excited to share with you!
The Mensa Foundation is providing a year-round challenge to kids of all ages based on the National Endowment for the Hummanities’ “Summertime Favorites” reading list, with some alterations. The directions for the reading program are on the site and now your child can earn a Mensa For Kids Excellence in Reading T-shirt!!
We like these reading lists because they represent many books that students should read before they leave elementary school, as well as some for middle and high school aged children. Below are the links to the website and the links to the lists: Mensa For Kids: Excellence in Reading ChallengeNational Endowment for the Hummanities "Summertime Favorites" Complete Reading List Mensa Excellence In Reading Program T-Shirt Order Form Reading Lists K-3rd Reading List 4th-6th Reading List 7th - 8th Grade Reading List Students are using Project Based Learning to investigate poverty in India, Sudan or the United States.
This Wiki Wormhole can be useful, for this, and for choosing a topic for other research projects. We didn't compete in this contest this year, but we are starting to prepare for the next year's contest!
The contest is to create a 15 second video to illustrate one of the New York Times Word's of the Day. You must include the definition, part of speech and pronunciation, as well as a visual representation of the word. The winning videos are pretty great! Check out the 2016 winners here. Check out last year's winners here. Get ready Collinswood -- we are competing next year! the green book news channelOur third grade students have been working diligently on creating their very own news broadcast of some very important events in the novel, The Green Book by Jill Paton Walsh. Their news channel is called The Shine Report. Check out their newscasts below! Please note, if you plan on reading this book, you may want to wait to view the videos. They do spoil the ending! Fifth grade students are in the first steps of planning their Spring Gardens in the Collinswood raised garden beds. They researched numerous plants including their expected heights and widths, ideal temperatures, time to harvest and many other details to choose plants for their raised beds. They drew out detailed (to-scale) drawings of their plans and are implementing their plans this week!
One specific garden bed is half shaded during certain times of the day, so students chose to do an experiment to see how those plants will be affected by the the lack of sunshine. Mrs. Sprankle's Camp students took the lead and are very excited about this opportunity! We'll keep you updated on their growth! Bud, noT buddy podcastsFifth grade students have been working diligently researching and creating a series of podcasts that feature the 1930's, circumstances and characters from the novel, Bud, Not Buddy. The podcasts are in little pieces right now. I've uploaded them below. Your mission is to weave them together. We'll feature the competed podcasts here.
After months of nurturing our carrot seeds into robust carrot plants, we were finally able to harvest!
We also harvested beets! The carrots were especially sweet, and we enjoyed eating them straight from the garden! The beets were a unique experience. Everyone tried a bite and many students asked for seconds. It was almost everyone's first time eating beets! |
Mrs. Fergusson
loves gardening, cooking, quilting and the three R's (reduce, reuse, recycle). Archives
May 2017
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