On our way. . . .

Things are picking up speed in fourth grade as we head for the finish line in two weeks. Can you believe it? Two weeks. It seems unreal and entirely too fast. But here it comes!

McKenna and Jessica spread the Flops and Tops news to first grade.

We are thrilled to be hosting parents for our Colonial project shares this week. Half of our twelve projects will present on Tuesday, with the other half sharing on Wednesday. Students are so excited to be sharing with you all what they have learned about topics chosen by them, planning creative presentations to engage and inform.

This week and next we will spend four sessions in the computer lab finishing up the digital portfolios on which we have been working all year. Students have been busily selecting their final pieces to include and planning and writing reflections about that work. While the portfolio collects work from each year in the Lower Division, the bulk of the reflections speak to the work done in fourth grade. Our share will take place on Tuesday, May 29th at 8:20 a.m. in the computer lab. The share will take place museum style, and after you view your child's work, you may browse the portfolios of some of the other students. Each student will take home a copy of the portfolio on a dvd on the last day of school.

In science, students are learning about dichotomous keys as we gear up for our investigation of the system of animal classification. Last week, students in small groups were instructed to sort a pile of small stuffed animals. Groups were banned from speaking to members of other groups about the task or how they accomplished their goals. In the end, students found out that each group sorted their animals in different ways. In addition to that, students found other difficulties as they sorted as well as identified problems with the resulting systems of classification. First, when sorting (and after many proclamations of "What?! This will be sooooo easy!"), students found that many of the animals would either not fit into a category, so one had to be made for that single animal, or more often, an animal would fit into more than one category. Which category those animals were assigned to became arbitrary. Then after sorting, we found that some categories contained a large number of animals, many that were very different. For example, an elephant and a koala bear may have been in the same group, simply because they both live on land.

After our initial investigation of categorization, students were introduced to the concept of a dichotomous key. A dichotomous key is a series of questions that leads to the identification of a single item. When using a key, a large group of any set of objects can be classified from a large group down to individual objects. In this way, an elephant and a koala bear may start in the same group, but with additional qualifiers added, they become members of sub groups (see the "dichotomous key" tab above to view specific instructions on how to create one). From here we will move on to learning about the system of animal classification, and students, through participation in a webquest, will identify unknown organisms based on their characteristics.

Josh and John present to third grade.

To support our work in science, next Monday we take a trip to the Lowry Park Zoo. We will leave immediately after Town Meeting and be gone all day. Because drinking fountains are sparse at the zoo, we ask the students to bring along water bottles that day. While they can be a bother to carry around all day, it ends up being worth it when the weather is hot. Lunches will be left on the bus while we enjoy the first half of our trip, so I encourage everyone to pack lunches in insulated bags with ice packs. As when we went to Ringling, students will be allowed to bring music players for the ride, but those too will remain on the bus.

A note from the coaches: The PE staff is so excited for this Friday May 18, 2012. Our regularly scheduled "Splash Day,” will have to be modified in order to comply with recent water restrictions. The PE staff has arranged for a large inflatable maze to be delivered in place of the water slide. We will also provide multiple play areas and other (dry) activities that are sure to put a smile on your child's face. Spirit wear will take the place of swim wear for our "Friday Fun Day.” We are certain our students will enjoy what we have in store for them and we appreciate everyone's flexibility in this matter. We can't wait!

Please continue to donate gently used or new shoes and hats for the fourth grade service learning project. Students are able to wear a spirit shirt with uniform bottoms each day they donate items.

Until next week. . . .