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.

Shortly after winter break, the sixth, seventh, and eighth graders traded in their Macbook laptops for iPads.  The iPads are the students' new technology that they will carry with them at school and take home.  Their are lots of similarities with the iOS and the Mac OS, so students transitioned easily.  Students learned about changes in file storage and navigating through different apps to do work.  They are having fun with their new equipment!

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.

This last Day 6 (our 5-8 Project-based learning time), students were able to experience some of the cultural practices that stem from India.  Students tried out yoga as will as visualization/meditation.  The students will tell you that some yoga positions are pretty challenging!

Students in 5-8 grade math classes have been busy working on projects since
Spring Break. Geometry is a unit that allows for many hands-on activities. Fifth graders
created bi-lateral bunnies by following careful directions and cutting out specific polygons. Later they also had a chance to see math in real life by measuring various
boxes and items in the classroom and calculating the volume.

On a bright sunny day, sixth graders were able to get outside to apply their
knowledge of proportions. By measuring a friendʼs height and shadow, they were able
to calculate the actual height of large objects by measuring their shadows.

Students in seventh grade became the experts in geometry. Each student
studied a various topic and created a Keynote presentation to teach the rest of the
class. They did a great job incorporating various learning styles as well!

Lastly, eighth graders became authors and illustrators to write their own
childrenʼs story about geometry. Each student created an inventive story using twenty
geometry terms, illustrated their pages, and then shared them with the first grade. It
was great to see how students put their creativity and intellect to use!