Welcome to Traver School
  • Home
  • Enrollment
  • Our School
    • About Us
    • Accountability Reports
    • General Information
    • Guidance
    • Goals for 2019-20
    • 4K-4 Information
    • 5-8 Information >
      • Student Information >
        • Gmail and Google Docs
        • Nutrition and Wellness
    • Sports & Activities >
      • Opponent Schools Addresses
    • Handbooks & District Policies
    • Technology
  • Staff
  • COVID-19 Info
    • Virtual Schedules
    • Return to School Plan Videos
    • Teachers' Virtual Open Houses
    • Traver Learns at Home
  • School Board
  • Community Club
  • Employment Opportunities
  • Traver Summer Series
  • Camp Traver

Day 6: Green Builder Visit

2/10/2014

0 Comments

 
The fifth through eighth graders participate in a year-long project-based learning experience based on a theme.  This year’s theme is about ecology and living sustainable lives.

We focused on alternative energies in the middle part of the year.  Students learned about harnessing wind and solar power, hydropower, nuclear power, geothermal power, and the use of biofuels.

Jeff Auberger, of Preservation Homes in Elkhorn, visited us in January to show our students how he uses alternative energies in the construction of his homes.  He brought along some alternative building materials, blueprints, and presented photos of the types of homes he builds.

At the end of his presentation, he even gave away a water-saving shower head!  Blake was the lucky winner.

We want to give sincere thanks to Jeff for taking the time to talk with our students.  His passion and enthusiasm for building greener homes made for a great presentation!

0 Comments

Food Web and Earthquakes

10/16/2013

0 Comments

 
The 5-8 students are learning about the Earth and its spheres in Day 6.  They have learned that each sphere: biosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere, are all connected and depend on one another. 
One example to show those connections was an activity that simulated a food web.  Mr. P had cards of living things and each student received one.  Students had to learn how each things was dependent on others.  A looooong piece of yarn was used to connect each of the students in a large web.  Then, Mr. P gave scenarios that would destroy one or more of the living things.  Students let go of their yarn and we watched the web collapse.  Students learned that taking a living thing out of the web, especially the bottom of the food chain, could be devastating.
The next Day 6, students did some activities with the lithosphere.  They made the layers of the Earth in a sweet way: a Red Hot candy for the core squished into a marshmallow to represent the mantle followed by a dip in some chocolate for the crust.  Later, they practiced how seismographs work by making their own "earthquakes".  They shook the tables while their partners tried to stay on the "seismograph" paper.
0 Comments

Old World Wisconsin

10/16/2013

1 Comment

 
Recently, grades 3-5 enjoyed a trip to Old World Wisconsin. The students spent the day learning about the 1800's while participating in activities from that time period. 
1 Comment

Guitar and Recorder Recitals

4/16/2013

0 Comments

 
The third graders had a small recorder recital recently.  The fifth and seventh graders showed off their guitar knowledge in recitals recently as well.  All performed very well!
0 Comments

Forensics

4/16/2013

0 Comments

 
Early in April, students in first through fifth grade do forensics presentations.  This teaches them the art of presenting a subject, demonstating something or interpreting a story in front of an audience.  The students work hard on this and it's always a fun competition! 
0 Comments

Fifth Grade Happenings

3/5/2013

0 Comments

 
The fifth grade took their first skiing lessons at Grand Geneva in February. Most had never skied before so Mrs. Mott took a video of their first time down the learner hill.

Recently fifth graders did projects about the different places colonists lived during the early 1700s...they all chose to share their information about the New England, middle and southern colonies as game show or talk show formats. This made learning about our American history fun for everyone.
0 Comments

Amazing Race

2/1/2013

1 Comment

 
Fifth through eighth grade students at Traver School participated in an “Amazing Race”-style activity last Wednesday as part of “Day 6” activities.  Instead of a race around the world, they raced around Traver School.

Students were introduced to the “Amazing Race” concept via YouTube videos and were instructed on how the Traver version would be played.  Students were then put into mixed-grade level teams of three and handed their first of many envelopes they would receive during the race.

The teams ripped open their first clue and were off!  Students had to answer questions about European countries, then use the clue to arrive at the correct classroom.  If they found the correct classroom, the staff member in the room would give them an envelope to their next clue.

Some envelopes led to challenges of physical and mental ability, such as a game called Kub (from Sweden) or a game on the Internet that challenged knowledge about identifying European countries.

After answering all the questions and completing all the challenges, students completed the final challenge by alphabetizing all fifty European country names.  And, by the way, they had to figure out that alphabetizing was what they were supposed to do with fifty slips of paper!

The winning team was Zander, Rigo, and William F.  They finished in one hour, three minutes. The other teams averaged about one hour, forty minutes to complete the race.  Unfortunately, three teams got stuck in challenges and didn’t finish in the time allotted.

Wondering what “Day 6” is? Day 6 is Traver’s modified six-day schedule that allows the fifth through eighth graders to meet in the morning all together.  About once a month, students meet all day for more activities.  Themes of Day 6 curriculum are based on global awareness and issues.  The middle school team strives to bring in speakers to help students learn different perspectives as well.

Students choose sessions hosted by the middle school team on various topics on a given theme.  This year’s theme is “Our World: Part II-Europe and South America”.  

This is the fourth year of Day 6 activities.  Past themes were: “The Earth Will Be Yours--What Will You Do With It?”, “Living in the 21st Century and Beyond”, and “Our World: Part I-Africa and Asia”. 

1 Comment

Day of the Dead

12/3/2012

0 Comments

 
Grades 5-8 participated in learning about the Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) in Spanish class. They also created some Day of the Dead crafts.
0 Comments

Trip to the Capitol

11/8/2012

0 Comments

 
Recently, the third, fourth, and fifth graders took a trip to visit our state's capitol in Madison. They had their picture taken with our district's State Senator Neal Kedzie.
0 Comments

Racine Trip

10/10/2012

0 Comments

 
The fifth through eighth grade students went on a field trip to Racine. We started our morning meeting a fisheries biologist from the Wisconsin DNR at the Root River Steelhead Facility. The biologist showed us how they artificially propagate Great Lakes Steelhead and Salmon at the Facility. From there we went to Zoo Beach to meet an environmental ecologist. The ecologist showed us how they restored the beach and how they monitor the water quality and keep it safe for us to swim.  We even got to bring our E. coli test back to school to look at the results the next day!
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Traver School

    We are a small 4K-8 public school in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.  We have great kids, great teachers, and great ideas!  We'd love for you to be a part of our family.  Thanks for visiting our site!

    Archives

    September 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    October 2011

    Categories

    All
    1st Grade
    2nd Grade
    3rd Grade
    4k
    4th Grade
    5k
    5th Grade
    6th Grade
    7th Grade
    8th Grade
    Art
    Assembly
    Basketball
    Building
    Classrooms
    Dare
    Day 6
    Drama Club
    Field Trips
    First Post
    Forensics
    Fun
    Grade 5
    Guitars
    Language Arts
    Library
    Math
    Mr. N
    Music
    Pacers
    Pe
    Reading
    Science
    Skiing
    Spanish
    Sports
    Spring
    Staff
    Tech
    Virtues
    Visitors
    Volleyball

    RSS Feed


Contents are property of Traver School W3490 Linton Rd. Lake Geneva, WI (262) 248-4067 fax: (262) 248-1050
This institution is an equal opportunity provider.
The district copyright agent: Allyssa Andersen, copyright.agent@ traverschool.org