May - June 2011

My, Spring Break must have lasted a long time! Sorry for the lapse in updates. Here's what's been going on, and what we will be working on for the rest of the year:

Media Literacy

3rd Grade: Students have been hard at work on their bird reports. Many of them have finished typing their reports in Microsoft Word. Some have started finding pictures of their bird on Google Images. As we finish this, they will put these pictures onto their PowerPoint slides. We'll also be working on summarizing, so they can put nice, short bullet points on their slides. This will probably take most of the rest of the year, but the end result will be a nice, polished report and PowerPoint that the students can be proud of.

4th Grade: Students have been working hard to finish the library unit on reference books. After discussing different types of books (dictionaries, atlases, encyclopedias, almanacs, etc.), they used them to answer research questions. A few classes need to finish this up, and then it's on to our next unit: the Oregon Trail. Students will first see artifacts that would have been brought on the journey and discuss what they could have been used for. Then, they will be researching web sites with information on life on the trail. Finally, they'll be able to play the computer game Oregon Trail. This simulation has come a long way since the Apple ][ days, and is now a fairly accurate representation of life on the trail.

5th Grade: The fifth graders have been working on a project that's all about them: an iMovie slide show with pictures of themselves. They have created a title for this using PowerPoint and their school pictures, and a few students who have brought in pictures are working on the rest of it. The rest of the students need to bring in pictures. I'm hoping for at least 10 per student, of themselves, friends, family, pets, etc.

P.E.

There have been quite a few game days lately with testing going on, and we've also learned a few new games. Most popular of these has been Capture the Frisbee, a variation of the game we've already played titled Capture the Cone. We've also had a bit more running outside to gear ourselves up for our trip to the track, which is coming up the week of the 31st-3rd. Look for permission slips to be sent home this week. Other upcoming events are the second round of fitness tests, and after that it'll mostly be cooperative games and activities as the year winds down.