December 13 - 17

Hope everyone has a great week before Winter Break! This should be a fun week with the special events going on. Among other attractions, I will be having my head shaved at the Winter assembly (Friday at 2:10) if the students can bring in enough items to reach our goal of 2,000 points in our food drive. So far they've been doing a great job of bringing in items, so I may be looking for a hat by the end of the week!

Media Literacy

Lots of special things going on in Media Literacy this week! Our COW (Computers on Wheels) is now ready for use, so students will be learning how to properly use and care for the laptops contained within that cart. While using the COW, they will be organizing their server folders - with all the work they've been completing, they need cleaning! Students will learn how to rename files, create folders, and delete unneeded files.

In addition to using the COW, students will be entering their fitness test results on the computer this week. They will enter their height and weight on a web site to calculate their BMI (Body Mass Index), which can provide a basic idea of whether or not a student is at a healthy weight. To get even better information on their body composition, students will measure their (approximate) body fat percentage using a fat loss monitor. This device uses the "Bioelectric Impedance Method." Essentially, it passes a small, harmless current through the body and measures how much returns to the device. Different body materials (muscle, bone, fat) contain varying percentages of water, and therefore resist electricity at different rates. Higher resistance, or impedance, of electricity indicates a higher percentage of body fat, since fat has less water than muscle.

Lastly, students will be given an overview of some great new books we have in the library. We have processed the books for three different awards: Children's Choice, Sasquatch, and Young Reader's Choice. Students who read at least 2 books for a specific award will be able to vote for a winner in a state-wide poll around March and April. Prizes will be available for the students who read the most books for these awards.

P.E.

We'll be continuing our basketball unit this week. Students did a great job last week of practicing passing, dribbling, and shooting. It was a lot of fun to see them work together as teams to finish dribbling relay races, or to do timed passing drills. This week, we're adding some drills for offense and defense, and more shooting. Games practicing sets of those skills will also be played. Captain Ball, where they must get past the opposing team to pass a ball to their "captain," will be one of these, as will other simple basket-shooting games such as Around the Key. After the break, we'll come back and start playing games that incorporate all the skills together.

December 6 - December 10

Please remember that there is a late start this Wednesday, December 8th.

Media Literacy

Third graders will be learning more about using our file server this week. Classes that haven't yet been introduced to our keyboarding program, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, will log into the server to access it. After that, they will learn how to save a file to their folder, and how to open it again once it's been saved.
Fourth and fifth grade will continue with their sports research projects. After finding resources (and learning how to copy-and-paste and highlight on the computer), they will start to organize their notes so they can use them to create their final project.

P.E.

Fitness tests are all completed now, so we'll be able to begin our basketball unit (there turned out to be too little time to begin it last week). Students will work with a variety of drills and games to build their ball control, passing, dribbling, and shooting skills.