As a little bit of fun on Halloween, we worked to graph candy colors. Each of the 4th and 5th graders received a bag of skittles, then separated them into colors and graphed the colors. A tastey and fun way to collect and graph data!

Candy Graph Pictures

Who doesn't love board games? During our flex group time on Fridays, the 4th, 5th and 6th graders who have completed their homework for the week have the chance to relax and play board games with their peers. We have found that the students both enjoying this time and benefiting from the social interactions. We are practicing taking turns, following directions, working collaboratively, winning and loosing gracefully and having fun!

Board Game Friday Pictures

Question: How does the steepness of a slope affect the amount of sand eroded by water.

For the first experiment this year, 4th graders worked hard to set up their lab notebooks and use the scientific process in a quest to answer the question. When writing our hypotheses, we used research and background knowledge to make our predictions. We then tested our hypotheses, with our experiment.

We determined that the steepness of the slope does affect the amount of sand eroded by water. The data showed that when the steepness of the slope increased, the amount of sand eroded also increased.

Water Erosion Experiment Pictures

The 4th grade has recently been learning about earthquakes, in both science and langague arts. In language arts they read a nonfiction book Earthquakes, an excerpt from the historical fiction book Quake! Disaster in San Francisco 1906 and two myths about earthquakes. At Greek myth Earthshakers Bad Day and a Japanese myth Monster Under the Sea.

In science we've been exploring how tectonic plate boundaries interact causing earthquakes, volcanos and changing landforms. They created models of convergent, divergent and transform boundaries as well as exploring world maps and comparing plate boundaries to major mountain ranges, volcanic activity and earthquakes. Tectonic Plate Investigation Pictures

The fifth graders spent the first part of the school year learning about colonization of New Hampshire and life in the 1700's. The students created their own settlements, following specific directions, with the end goal of owning a piece of property. It turns out setting up a town is hard work!

They also learned about the jobs that children might have, the process of being an apprentice, the work that both men and woman completed during the day and about the African American communities in New Hampshire during that time.

As a final project, we made butter. They determined making butter was hard work! However it tasted pretty good with corn muffins.

Butter Making Pictures

The fourth graders spent the first part of the school year learning about the Native Americans who lived in the area that we now call New Hampshire for thousands of year. Did you know that Native Americans were here for around 12,000 years before European explores arrived?

One of the activities that the 4th graders worked on was determining how Native American communities met their needs. First we determined what needs communities have ( food, clothing, shelter, education, healthcare and transportation). The we brainstormed how our community has its needs met, finally the students worked with resource cards and created a web that showed how Native Americans used the resources available to meet the needs of their communities.

We love active collaboration and discussion!

Check out more of our photos!