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.

Mr. Nottestad recently finished a square dancing unit with some of the classes.  Mr. N likes the square dancing unit because it teaches teamwork, helps practice good listening, and, as you will see, is just plain fun!

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.