Science standards are changing and there is a push to make learning science more relatable to what we can see in our world. As part of this change we began a forces and motion unit by showing a video of 30,000 dominoes falling over. Students had to draw a representation of what they believed happened and caused the dominoes to fall. Through a series of in class experiments students were introduced to ideas and vocabulary to help them explain the dominoes. A final activity will be students re-examining their original picture and using their new found vocabulary and understanding to describe the forces that were present when the dominoes we standing and when they fell. Overall students have been excited and engaged in this learning and we look forward to moving forward with this model of science lessons. Watch the video, with which we began the unit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GpVB4z22u4
Although there is not a lot of snow on the ground, the 4 Winds topic this month is snowflakes. Before the 4 Winds class began, we read the book Snowflake Bentley, and viewed his beautiful photographs. During 4 Winds, students helped perform a puppet show, learning about the different patterns of snowflakes, and what conditions produced the different results. Afterwards, they created their own beautiful 6-sided paper snowflakes. We went outside with magnifying lenses, looking for needles, columns, plates and stellar dendrites. We set up an experiment to complete in the classroom, making predictions about the amount of water in cups of loose snow and cups of packed snow. Then we performed a snow dance that we are hoping will entice the clouds to give us more snow.
Math
Third grade math has focused on learning and understanding the strategies and concepts of multiplication and division. Students are working to memorize basic facts but have found ways to solve problems when a fact is unknown. They can use skip counting, arrays, tape measure diagrams and break larger facts into smaller known facts. We have also been working on solving problems and identifying multiplication and division writing story problems. In an effort to encourage learning multiplication math facts students have started to do Rocket Math daily. It is a quick 5-minute check of basic facts that builds on prior knowledge before introducing new facts. Your child should find five minutes each night to practice multiplication facts. This can be done with flash cards, orally asking facts, playing games, using iPad apps or other creative ways! Let me know if you need suggestions for helping with this practice.
Fourth grade math has focused on deepening their understanding of place value, working with numbers up to 10,000 and beyond They explored more efficient strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems, which included the U.S. standard algorithms. They also learned to find key words and phrases in word problems to help them determine the correct operation they needed to use to solve the problem. Students also worked on rounding to the nearest ten, hundred, thousand and ten thousand, and using estimation to determine what answer would be reasonable. Students who still do not know their facts, should spend time at home practicing, as this greatly impacted their accuracy when doing more difficult equations.
Exciting Events that are Coming Up:
Pajamas, Books, and Bears, Oh My! Day
Please join us in the Fayston Elementary School gym on Wednesday, February 3rd at 7:40 to celebrate I Love to Read and Write Month on Pajamas, Books, and Bears, Oh My! Day. We are going to welcome guest readers all around! Bring your parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles! We invite the Guest Readers to the school for a short read aloud followed by a Snack. Please feel free to bring your child’s favorite book in, but just in case, we will also have some here! Feel welcome to wear your pajamas as the rest of the school will be wearing theirs. Please feel free to contact MJ Wright at [email protected] or 496-3636 x 108 or a classroom teacher if you would like to join us, or have any questions.
Cool Schools
On Wednesday, February 10, we will be featured on Channel 22’s program - Cool Schools! The day will begin early with interviews of staff, parents and students. We will have a Whole School Meeting at 7:40, focused on kindness, with interviews happening before and after that.
UPDATE - Here's the link to the interviews - they are "cool"!
http://www.mychamplainvalley.com/news/cool-school-fayston-school
Valentine’s Day
We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day on Friday, February 12. Students do NOT have to bring in valentines, but if they do wish to participate, they need to bring them in for EVERYONE in the class. This is also true if they want to include the other ¾ class. If they want to hand them out in the other room, it also needs to be for everyone.
Field Trip- Leo: The Anti-Gravity Show
Grades 3-6 will be traveling to the Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center in Stowe to see Leo: The Anti-Gravity Show on Wednesday, February 17. The performance is at 9:30, so students will be leaving early in the morning, and returning in time for lunch. The cost of a ticket is $8.50. Please send in the money by Friday if possible. If that is a problem, please let us know. Here is a brief description of the program as listed on their site:
What would happen if the laws of gravity suddenly changed? This mind-bending and grin-inducing work of sustained magic and acrobatics asks just that, leaving us wondering which way is up! Thanks to a groundbreaking interplay of live performance and ingenious side-by-side video projection, a jaw-dropping acrobat challenges our senses and tests our perception of reality. When a lone performer stands up, he discovers that the room has changed and gravity no longer sets the rules—a rotated video screen next to the set has made the wall a ceiling, and the floor a wall. This funny, surreal, and surprisingly touching spectacle bends the laws of physics and has dazzled audiences on Broadway and around the world. LEO is a once-in-a-lifetime experience not to be missed!