April 23- April 27

This week we continued our study of Australia.  We learned to compare and contrast cultures from different biomes of Australia.  We compared the people of the Australian deserts and wetlands.  We learned how these different cultures met their needs for food, shelter, transportation, clothing, and culture.

We continued studying simple machines, learning about the inclined plane and doing experiments that showed us how inclined planes do in fact make work easier to do.

In art, children learned about traditional Aboriginal bark painting.  Plants and animals of the tropical forest are an important part of the Aboriginal culture.  Knowledge about the forest is handed down through stories, song and artwork.  Bark paintings are a traditional artwork still made.  Bark is taken from trees after rains stop, when it is most flexible.  The bark is dried over a fire and then painted on.  The painting usually tells a story about the creation of the world or the importance of nature.

The Grasses for the Masses project is growing long, healthy grasses to soon be planted in the Chesapeake bay.  We have really enjoyed watching and monitoring the rapid growth of these aquatic plants.

The class enjoyed making traditional Australian damper bread.  Damper bread is a simple bread that is made from dough of flour and water cooked in a pot over a fire.  The class had fun sampling this treat and watching a video on how damper bread is traditionally cooked over the campfire in the outback.

April 16- 20

This week we continued our studies on the biomes of Australia.  We studied the plant and animal life of the wetlands, the grasslands, the deserts, and the tropical forests.  We learned about so many fascinating plants and creatures: the archer fish, the kangaroo paw, the barramundi, the crucifix frog, the compass termite, the red kangaroo, and the platypus were a few.

We began our studies on simple machines with a fun discussion about how in the world we would go about  moving an elephant from the Norfolk Zoo all the way to our school.  The children came up with a number of creative solutions that set the stage for our discussion about what simple machines are.  We began by learning about the inclined plane.

Poetry studies are well under way and the children are learning about different kinds of poetry and poetic devices.

Our new reading groups are encouraging the children to dig deep into literature.  Everyone is enjoying their group and participating with enthusiasm!

In spanish we are learning the parts of the body.

We ended our week with a fabulous trip to the Norfolk Zoo.  Our class had a tour of the zoo by one of the zookeepers that lasted about an hour.  All the animals were particularly active and it felt as if they were giving our class a show!  The tigers were the highlight of the day!  They went for a swim along the glass as we got to watch =)  After our tour, we split into small groups and the children did some first hand research on an animal of their choice.  We enjoyed a picnic lunch and some playground time in Lafayette Park following our time at the zoo.  It was a great way to end a wonderful week back at school!

playful tigers

Trail of the Tiger

busy researching

great trip!

HUGE Aldabra tortoise 

End of March Summary

I am happy to deliver a summary of lessons and events that went on in the classroom over the past few weeks!  March was a very exciting time in the elementary classroom!

In history, we discussed the concept of B.C. and A.D. as well as B.C.E and C.E.  The children had a very impressionistic lesson that included lining up two thousand chains along with 12 golden beads to get a visual impression of how long 2012 years really is.  It was fun to find the beads that represented our birth years on the long chain.

 The children were enthusiastic to help raise money for Preston's March, an organization working to pay it forward to provide adaptive bikes to disabled children.

In art, we studied Jackson Pollock and had a chance to do a little "action painting" ourselves!

Spring is officially in the air!  We enjoyed a walk with extended day students to look for signs of spring all around.

Our first Elementary World's Fair was a HUGE hit!  Thank you all for making it a special day for the children.  

We began studying the biomes of Australia.  We started by learning about the plants and animals of the temperate forests of Australia.  We learned about the river redgum (eucalyptus) tree, the tailed emperor butterfly, the kookaburra, the frilled lizard, the White's tree frog, the river eel, and the koala.  The children broke out in song when we discussed the kookaburra remembering a song they learned in their primary years when studying the continent of Australia!

March 5-9

This week we had the key lesson on the Clock of Eras.  The Clock of eras is a graphic aid to help us visualize geologic time. The Clock of Eras uses the analogy of a circular clock to represent the development of our planet in geologic time. One can see at a glance the relative time lengths of each major geologic era. This lesson precedes the key lessons on the Timeline of Life.

We had a lesson on the Precambrian Era of the Timeline of life.  We discussed the history of Earth beginning with the moments following the big bang.  The Precambrian Era spans Earth's entire history prior to 600 million years ago before the formation of the oldest rocks with recognizable fossils in them.  There are no fossils from this time since the primitive living things did not have bones or hard parts to fossilize.  We leared that the Precambrian Era is divided into three eras the Hadian, Archean, and Proterozoic Eras.

We continued our study of the Timeline of life with lessons on the Paleozoic Era.  We learned that the name Paleozoic has Latin and Greek roots meaning "ancient life."  The Paleozoic Era is split into six periods: the Cambrian, the Ordovician, the Silurian, the Devonian, the Carboniferous, and the Permian.  Life on Earth was beginning to expand and diversify into more complex creatures like the trilobite, crinoids, brachiopods, ammonites and primitive vertebrates.

At the end of the week we had the opportunity to visit the Virginia Aquarium.  This trip brought our timeline studies alive for everyone!  The "Restless Planet" exhibit explored each period in the timeline of life and had interactive displays, fossil collections, and simulations of what was happening on planet earth millions of years ago.  The trip was amazing =)

putting together a puzzle of Earth's tectonic plates

observing fossils through a magnifying glass

interacting with stingrays

watching the location of Virginia change throughout Earth's history and the shifting tectonic plates

jumping to create vibrations picked up by the seismograph

exploring the horseshoe crab, thought to be a descendant of the trilobite

The grasses are growing rapidly in our "Grasses for the Masses" project!

In art we illustrated and colored pictures of creatures from the timeline of life.  Some students are illustrating their own copies of books written about each era.  Others are enjoying coloring pictures and writing sentences about the timeline.

This week in P.E. the children focused on learning the basic skills of field hockey.  We are excited for the Shamrock Final mile coming up!  It will be an exciting culmination of our class efforts to run a full marathon together!

February 27- March 2

This week we continued our study of Europe.  The children were introduced to the European biome canvas mat with which they can practice learning all the land and water forms in Europe.

We had an interesting lesson on Wednesday to celebrate leap day.  We discussed the reasons why we have leap day and the relationship between the calendar year and the solar year.

From P.E. Teacher Ashley:
This week P.E. was very exciting for the children and I because we received new equipment!  For the next couple weeks we will be developing and building field hockey skills!

The returning students have been enjoying reviewing piles of work they did last year to select pieces to form personal work portfolios.  Each child has selected their best work then sewn their own portfolio.  This will be done at the end of each year.  When the children graduate they will receive their collection of portfolios from all three years.  It has been a meaningful, fun, and nostalgic process for everyone so far!

The Grasses For the Masses project is fulling sprouting grass.  The children are working on a journal to document growth and changes in the grass.  We are enjoying this whole process as a class.

Thursday, the third and fourth year students had the opportunity to maintain our adopted trail at First Landing State Park.  The perfect weather made for a perfect day!

We ended our week with a gustatory tour of Europe!  To celebrate the varied peoples and cultures across Europe we sampled cheeses from seven different European countries:  feta cheese from Greece, buffalo mozzarella from Italy, manchego cheese from Spain, gouda cheese from Holland (the Netherlands), emmentaler cheese from Switzerland, cotswold cheese from England, and brie cheese from France.  It was a sensorial experience comparing and contrasting each cheese while we listened and learned a bit about each country.  We also tied in economics by discussing the meaning of exporting goods and importing goods.  Ask your child about the new flavors they enjoyed.  The class favorite was the English cotswold.  All the cheeses we tasted are found at Trader Joe's =)

This week in art we finished our wetlands installation.  It is AMAZING!