Week of February 23-27

After not meeting for 2 weeks our 5th graders had the challenge to work independently at home to complete their Primary Source Letter. I am proud to report all students sent out well written, formal emails and letters to professionals in their field of interest. SO many students are getting responses back! YAY! I am excited to see how each of the students will integrate the new information from those responses into their Pitch Presentation.

On Monday we have invited school leaders and administration to come see our Pitches. Students have tapped into their creative minds and are producing AMAZING presentations! I am so excited for each of the 5th graders to share what they are passionate about and how they plan to impact our community!

5th Grade HW reminder:

1. Pitch must contain WHAT YOUR PLAN IS LOCALLY (there should be a slide or 2 explaining your action steps towards solving your problem/bringing awareness to our community)

2. School leaders will be popping in to see your amazing presentations! This means you should be practicing at home over the weekend so you feel confident about your great work! 

3. If possible send me your presentation so I can load it on my computer and play it through the Promethean Board. 

4th grade began testing methods and materials used to clean up oil spills. Now that we understand the impact that an oil spill can have on the entire ecosystem we know how important it is to clean up every last drop of oil in a spill! We spent our time together testing each of the following materials/methods in isolation: yarn, rubber band, cotton ball, spoon, felt, nylon, sponge, paper filter and a pipette. Each group had to plan how to use each material so that it would be most effective. We learned through our testing that some methods we tried (dipping, scooping, sucking, dragging, etc.) worked better than others.

After we tested each material/method we listed to pros/cons of each and worked independently to imagine ways to combine materials/methods to result in the best clean up! Once we had a variety of ideas each team worked to nail down a final plan which we will test in a “river” next week. I am excited to see the results each group gets and how they work to improve their plan even better!

4th Grade HW: Final Project! Whoo hoo! We have learned so much about oils spills, their impact on the ecosystem and materials/methods to clean them up! The final project is very open ended and gives a variety of project topics and presentation options. Each student received a copy of the final project assignment. NEXT WEEK I will be looking to see that each student has chosen a topic (one from the list or a new one they find interesting) and a way to present it.

3rd grade got to test out their improved water filter designs this week! Each group made significant improvements in their waters’ color, clarity, removal of particles and overall cost! We wanted our improvements to be as strategic as possible so we referred back to our original plan and data collected from the first test results. Once each group revisited their old plan they were able to determine the layers of the filter that was successful and more importantly the layers that were unsuccessful or unnecessary. When we meet next week we will revisit our goal and try once more to improve our filters in hopes to filter CLEAR and CLEAN water or a LOW COST.

3rd Grade HW: Students received their final project in 3rd grade as well! We have learned so much about water, the impact of contaminated and polluted water the ecosystem and explored several methods to filter water! The final project is very open ended and gives a variety of project topics and presentation options. Each student received a copy of the final project assignment. NEXT WEEK I will be looking to see that each student has chosen a topic (one from the list or a new one they find interesting) and a way to present it.