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!
1 Comment
To prepare for the holidays there were clay projects galore in the art room, especially in the lower grades. First graders made thumb pots with lids and celebrated their completion with a tea party. Second graders made hot chocolate mugs; third graders made ornaments, and fourth graders made Christmas trees. Seventh graders worked very hard on a carving project using blocks of sandstone. They watched their ideas come and go as the nature of the material came into play. The results were very pleasing. They then researched and gave presentations on this sculpture technique.
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.
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!
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! Our seventh graders participated in a small recital here at school a couple of weeks ago. They showed off their strumming skills very well! The seventh and eighth graders were able to experience the inner workings of frogs. Our young scientists poked and prodded to learn about the various body systems of these amphibians. 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! Just before Spring Break started, the fifth through eighth graders took the afternoon to go bowling. They bowl every year as part of the PE curriculum. Mr. N does a candy bar challenge that if a student scores over 100, he buys them a candy bar from the bowling alley's concession stand. There were quite a few students that earned treats and they were very proud! |
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
Categories
All
|