Post date: Mar 11, 2012 12:59:50 AM
Hello All!
What a fantastic day to not be inside! I took a bike ride to town and then weeded a portion of the garden... felt like Spring! The clouds are coming in over the mountains now and the wind is picking up a bit. Maybe we'll get a bit of rain soon. Fingers crosses.
Recap of the week:
English: The main task for the week was the descriptive essay. Since the kids are reading Steinbeck books, I decided to have the kids do a writing assignment that heavily utilizes descriptions of scene and character to involve and entertain the reader. Many students turned them in on Friday and from what I've read so far, they really "got it". To support that them, I had them choose descriptive words for the weekly vocabulary exercise. Lastly, the kids continued reading their lit circle books, and entered words into their group's collaborative spreadsheet. For grammar, we watched a 12 minute clip from a "Standard Deviants" video on grammar and then started a worksheet that is due Monday (some kids have already turned it in).
Science: The highlight is always the hands-on stuff, and for this week it involved using D-cell batteries to light a bulb and to then create series or parallel circuits to increase voltage or amperage. Another activity for this unit on electricity involves some Kill-A-Watt meters. You should have noticed your kid testing the power usage of a variety of things around the house and entering the data onto this form. Here are the results so far. I think I put those links in last week's newsletter as well.
The students' science projects should be winding to a close. Please ask your kid to share with you their (online) Science Experiment Control Sheet and discuss progress.
There are a couple of school science events coming up, including the Element Fashion Show (T-shirts) and the schoolwide Science Fair (that Mrs. Stuart coordinates). We'll make big progress on those two things next week. Yes, the science experiments that they have been doing for many weeks now can "count", with slight adjustment/additions for their science fair project.
Trips:
San Jose Student Planned Trip: Other than a slight spike in interest as a showed them a preview of the new Eddie Murphy movie, "1000 Words", I haven't heard much more from the kids on this. I am hopeful that each group will do its part to make this happen.
Salinas: Finding a date for this one is becoming a challenge. It might happen during Spring break. This is an optional trip, and about 16 kids are likely to attend, between the classes.
DC Alternate: For the 20 kids staying here during DC week, the trip is coming together but plans and attendees are not finalized yet.
Enjoy the rest of the day!
Chris