Third Grade began the month of April finishing up our unit “The Fates of Traits”. Students explored how different environments can impact your survival, and how who your parents are can impact your survival. We wrapped up our unit with a review, and quiz. Students did phenomenal and I was so proud of their hard work.

Following Spring break, we read the text “How Emily Roebling Built The Brooklyn Bridge”. This introduced us to our showcase project “Bridging the Gap”. Students have been placed into groups and given a scenario. They are building bridges in the arctic, desert, mountain, and jungle. They have been using a variety of materials, and are so excited to show off their creations. They will be presenting these to friends and family at the “Best of NEST” showcase. This will be May 28th from 4-7pm. 

Some highlights include our read aloud, getting our groups, and starting the building process! 

This May, students will continue to work on their showcase project. With state testing, and many culminating projects, every day counts! Following the showcase, we will do a short unit on the rocks that make up our world! We look forward to sharing them with you all and celebrating our hard work in June! 

Fourth Grade began the month of April, wrapping up our Animal presentations. They then did a written reflection on how our different senses impact our survival in the natural world. 

Following Spring Break, students were introduced to our showcase project. They have been tasked with researching various forms of renewable energy sources. Then they will design a mechanism that will convert that renewable source into energy that will power the apartment complex being built on Houston St. (a few blocks west). They have been using a variety of materials, and are so excited to show off their creations. They will be presenting these to friends and family at the “Best of NEST” showcase. This will be May 28th from 4-7pm. 

Some highlights include being introduced to Tinker Cad (a 3D design platform, hearing about our peers' research, and collecting recycled materials to use in our projects! 

This May, students will continue to work on their showcase project. With state testing, and many culminating projects, every day counts! Following the showcase, we will do a short unit on the rocks that make up our world! We look forward to sharing them with you all and celebrating our hard work in June! 

Fifth grade began the month of April continuing our Scratch Unit. We focused on creating stories and games to round out our unit! Students loved creating their own “How To Survive Fifth Grade” stories, and their own “Pacman Game”. 

It has been great to see their growth with coding, and watch them become more confident! Students have been motivated to create with Scratch, so we decided to extend our unit a bit longer than intended! It has been worth it! They are loving every second. 

Some highlights include creating our own pacmen, our Day of Play, and many fun debugging challenges. 

As we have now wrapped up our Scratch Unit, students will end the year creating on Tinkercad, for the months of May and June. They will learn how to create different 3D objects, and create their own chess pieces! I am so excited to see how they turn out. What a fun way to end fifth grade!

Third Grade began the month of February continuing to complete typing boot camp. Students were practicing using the home row, procedures when logging in, and how to use mice properly in class.  

Students then enjoyed, after mid-winter recess, jumping back into the final days of our animal development unit. We watched our mealworms change through their life cycle, and learned why some animals choose to live in groups. Students were able to create their own CEEs, where they backed up a claim with evidence. This claim was based on the question, why do some animals live in groups. We then began our third unit “The Fates of Traits”. Students have begun to explore the pros and cons of certain characteristics different animals and plants have. We pretended to become Aliens, and explored how different characteristics can impact our survival. 

Some of the highlights include watching our mealworms turn to beetles, our alien hands lab, and playing “rock paper scissors PREDATOR”. 

Students will continue to learn about different animal and plant traits, and how they impact survival. We look forward to beginning our science fair projects in April!

Fourth Grade began the month of February continuing to complete typing boot camp. Students were practicing using the home row, procedures when logging in, and how to use mice properly in class. 

Students then enjoyed, after mid-winter recess, getting back into our “Organism Structure and Behavior” unit. We talked about how animals have certain features that help them survive in their environment. We explored the frogfish, and compared its traits to other sea predators. In learning about different animals and their characteristics, we are now wrapping up our unit with a research project. Students have been given the chance to research one animal's internal and external features. They then have to explain how those features help their chosen animal survive. I have loved seeing evidence of strong research, and fierce collaboration amongst students. I was incredibly proud of their presentations and know these scientists are getting ready to rock 5th grade! 

Some highlights include our frogfish study, learning about the four body systems, and researching our animals! 

Students look forward to unpacking how these patterns show up in our everyday lives! Additionally, we look forward to beginning our science fair projects in April!

Fifth grade began the month of February celebrating our beautiful Black History Month bulletin board. Students were so proud of their work, and excited to share with the school. 

We then transitioned to a short graphing unit. Students were introduced to the platform “Tuva”. In partnership with Ms. Christou’s science class, students participated in a Data Jam project. They took the platform Tuva, and were able to create corresponding graphs using their data sets. They did wonderfully with this, and really enjoyed the convenience of Tuva. We then enjoyed a three week “typing boot camp”, and have been wrapping up our Scratch unit for the remainder of March. 

Some highlights include “character challenges”, another “debug” challenge, and our extension creating a story for fourth grade on “How-To Survive 5th Grade”. 

Students are now finishing the last two weeks of their Scratch unit. Upon the return from spring break, we will begin our Tinkercad unit! Students can’t wait to put their skills from fourth grade to the test! 

Third Grade began the month of December diving into our Animal Growth and Development unit! Students were recalling information about life cycles from second grade, and finding connections between the plant and animal life cycles.  

Students then enjoyed in January actually getting to plant seeds, and watch our plants grow in real time. We were introduced to our mealworms as well, and plan to look for similarities and differences in both life cycles. We have now begun our Typing Bootcamp, and will continue that, until our mid-winter recess! 

Some of the highlights include bean dissections, planting our seeds, and meeting our mealworms! 

Students will continue to practice typing skills through February. Please reach out if you did not get your student's log-in information. We will then revisit our life cycles, and hope to see some changes with our mealworms! 

Fourth Grade began the month of December talking all about our senses and how we take information in. We learned about the sensory response process, and put our sensory receptors to work. 

Students then enjoyed, in January, really diving into our photoreceptors (sensory receptors that help us see).  We discussed how organisms take in light, and how that varies across a spectrum. We even explored why we see color, and where rainbows come from! We have now begun our Typing Bootcamp, and will continue that, until our mid-winter recess!  

Some of the highlights include our study of a preying mantis, examining our suncatcher, and playing animal Pictionary   

Students will continue to practice typing skills through February. Please reach out if you did not get your student's log in information. We will then revisit our Organism survival unit, where we will discuss what helps us survive! 

Fifth Grade began the month of December enjoying our Scratch coding unit! They have done a fabulous job working on creating animations, and solving our debugging challenges. 

Students then enjoyed in January, creating different stories with Scratch! Students were then introduced to our AI Black History Month project. Students have been tasked with researching influential  Black scientist, inventor, or engineer. They have been using AI, and practicing the skill of "fact checking". They will create a hexagon with their research that we look forward to hanging in the hallway for Black History Month. 

Some of the highlights include our Build-A-Band challenge, our 10 block challenge, and connecting our hexagons in class!  

Students will now take a moment to practice data collection, and creating graphs using the platform Tuva. This aligns with their Science project. When finishing this, they will do a short typing unit, and dive back into Scratch! 

Third Grade began the month of November doing a phenomenal job on their Force and Motion assessment. Thank you families for your home partnership studying, reviewing, and assisting our scientists achieve greatness! 

Students then enjoyed a Force and Motion celebration! We believe in the importance of celebrating our learning, to wrap up our unit. 

Students got to put their knowledge of forces to the test with some more PHet simulations, hands-on magnet time, and creating contraptions.

Some of their highlights included exploring iron and its magnetic properties, seeing how the earths magnetic poles can manipulate a magnet, and creating our own "gobble wobblers". 

Students returned from break reviewing expectations and are looking forward to beginning our new unit of "Animal Behavior", exploring "Life Cycles". 

Fourth Grade began the month of November embarking on the daunting task of moving a marble from point A to point B, with a twist (literally)! 

Students created rollercoasters, out of paper. They applied their knowledge of kinetic and potential energy. We discovered how to manipulate the energy using various elements of the coaster. This included loops, hills, drops, funnels, curves, etc. 

Students then celebrated their hard work enjoying amusement park day! They got to test each others coasters, and give constructive feedback. 

We then concluded the unit with a written portion. We reflected on how the energy transferred throughout our coasters, what we thought were good strategies used, and how we felt the project went. It was so lovely to see such thoughtful reflections in class! 

Students returned from break reviewing expectations and are looking forward to beginning our new unit of "Organism Survival and Development", exploring "Sensory Receptors". 

Fifth Grade began the month of November wrapping up their Digital Safety unit! We utilized the platform "Canva" to create flyers that can be hung around NEST+m to encourage digital safety! They have been very patient with me, as I print them out. 

We then began our new unit diving into the coding platform Scratch! We have been learning what coding is, how we can create, and are looking forward to many fun challenges! 

Some of their highlights included creating a surprise on scratch, sharing work to our studios, and completing the "10 Block" challenge. 

Students returned from break signing our "Computer Contract", and discussing technology use. We are looking forward to continuing this unit and participating in a "hack-a-thon".

Third Grade began reviewing the scientific method. This is a key part of every unit, and the building blocks for evolving as a good scientist. 

They then began their first unit of force and motion. Students have been exploring balanced/unbalanced forces, magnetic forces, and static forces. 

They have been using PHET online simulations, hands on explorations, and hands on creations! 

Some of their highlights include "PHET tug-of-war simulation",  magnets are weird lab, and creating a lock for a paper door. 

Students will continue to practice identifying forces and will wrap up this unit with an assessment and creating their own "static snake". 

Fourth Grade began reviewing the scientific method as well. This is a key part of every unit, and the building blocks for evolving as a good scientist. 

They began their first unit of energy and transformations. This included studying gravitational potential energy, kinetic energy, elastic potential energy, and how energy transfers. 

They have been using PHET online simulations, creating their own marble runs, and testing how the transfer of energy affects an end result. 

Some of their highlights include "PHET skateboard park simulation", bumper jumper lab, and saving marge the marble. 

Students will continue to practice identifying Kinetic and Potential energy. They will continue to identify its transfers. They will wrap up this unit with a assessment and creating their own rollercoasters for the energy amusement park! 

Fifth grade began with their first unit on digital citizenship. We believe that before we explore all that technology has to offer, we must first learn how to use it! 

Fifth Grade outlined the main topics we would cover. They spoke about digital design, digital footprints, digital etiquette, and digital safety. 

They have been engaging in productive conversations surrounding internet usage. We explored why safety is important, what we can do to avoid hacking, and how to put our best foot forward online. 

Some of their highlights include creating a binder cover on "Canva" or "Google Slides", writing an email to a teacher that has impacted them at NEST+m, and exploring "Interland" to learn digital saftey tips. 

Students will continue to practice digital citizenship througout this month. They will wrap up this unit creating a digital safety flyer, that can be hung around the school!