Kanwisher's Kids

May-three weeks until summer

It is so hard to believe that we only have three weeks left in the 2007-2008 school year.Our Fifth Graders will be moving on to middle school, and I will really miss all of you. I had some of these students in my third grade class,therefore we have been together for three years.I am sad to say goodbye.

The fifth grade has enjoyed our shark unit.We have completed our paper mache sharks,we have our reports written, and our games finished.All we have left is to memorize our speeches and dissect our sharks. We will dissect on Tuesday May13,2008.Please come help as this requires many helping hands.

The fourth grade is trying to learn all they can about the Middle Ages in the next three weeks. The students are creating Power-point slide shows,building castles ,and having a medieval festival to wrap up the year.

The second grade is finishing up their archaeological dig, and trying to learn about ancient Rome and ancient Greece as well.

The sweet first grade is completing their first year. They are becoming expert logic puzzler solvers,they know the elements of a fairy tale, and will finish this year with SCAMPER, and happy feet. i am so proud of how willing to take a risk they are. They really learned a good deal on beginning  use of research.

Awesome April

It is hard to believe that April is here already. I am looking forward to my Spring Break at the beach,and I know that you are as well. Very soon after our return from Spring Break the students will take the CRCT. We will continue to have Target classes.They will start a bit later in the day,but that is not a problem.

First Grade

We will continue to use our multiple intelligences.The students will use SCAMPER to create something new out of an  old sock, and they will continue to research using the internet.

Second Grade

We will have a mini archaeological dig, and determine if our found artifacts can be radio- carbon dated or tree ring dated.

Fourth Grade

We created our manor and we are learning about the medieval people. We will begin construction on our castles,and learn how to become a knight,and learn about heraldry.We hope to end the unit with a festival

Fifth Grade

We are making our paper mache sharks,our multilple intelligence projects and book reports are complete.We ordered the sharks for dissection,and we are learning about the interior parts and their functions.

March Madness

   March Madness in Target

        Spring has arrived and March madness is in full swing. We have been very busy in target this month. The highlight has been the trip to

Cumberland

Island

with our fifth grade students. The trip began with the students learning about

Georgia

sea turtles at the Jekyll learning center. Next, they enjoyed their trip to

Cumberland

Island

.What a treasure for Georgians. The weather was beautiful and we found a plethora of sharks’ teeth. The final day we visited St, Simon’s lighthouse and Jekyll’s Millionaires Row. The students and teachers had a great trip. We would like to thank all of the parent chaperones who attended the trip and who were awesome with the students.

               Going, going, gone! Please make a bid at the auction to spend some time with Mrs. Dunlap and Mrs. Kanwisher. We are offering a walk along the

Chattahoochee

River

, followed by a cheesy slice of pizza at Mellow Mushroom, and the day will end with a trip to Brewster’s ice cream shop for a sweet treat. Yummy! We may need to walk again after all that food. Mrs. Dunlap and I can’t wait for you to join us.

               We are so delighted to report that our first grade is growing as we add more students to our roster thanks to the motivation portfolios. We have had to add an additional first grade class which meets on Tuesday. Thank you to our wonderful students and parents for being flexible as we move classes around. The first grade continues to learn about their multiple intelligences through fairy tales. The students have learned to research using dictionaries, encyclopedias and on line. It can be difficult but the students are tenacious and we are learning a lot about feet.

               Second Grade is digging into our ancient civilizations. They got all “wrapped up” in making a mummy at our in house field trip. The students are learning about radio carbon dating and tree ring dating. I think that we have some future archaeologists in my class.

               Fourth Grade is learning about all things Medieval. This unit will culminate with a feast, including lords, ladies, jesters, and craft guilds.

               Fifth grade is testing in preparation for our dissection. The students are enjoying the multiple intelligence projects. They are making games, and writing cartoons, and writing puzzles.

February Post

.

Happy Valentines Day

          Excitement is in the air this month as we wait for Valentines Day. I still have special memories of Valentines Day as a grammar school student. What fun we had making and receiving valentines! We are beginning the fourth week of our new units.

All of our first, second, third, and fourth, grade students have completed a transformation. They are decorating our halls and classroom walls.

          The second and third grade students are studying archaeology beginning with

Mesopotamia

. They have learned the tools used by archaeologists and some new vocabulary words such as site, excavate, and cuneiform.

          The fifth grade is learning about specific sharks, and are preparing to create a shark model as well as learning about shark body parts in preparation for dissection. Come see some of our reports hanging in the annex.

          The fourth graders have written a report about some historical figures in the Middle Ages. They are displayed in the hallway of annex as well.

          The first grade is going to learn dictionary skills this week as well as which intelligences are their strongest.

As you can see we are moving along through our units and learning as we go!

November Blog

Wonderful, creative experiences have surrounded our students the past few weeks.  It has been a pleasure watching your children grow with new discoveries and knowledge expansion.

2^nd Graders have discovered and learned about bat anatomy, new bat species, habitats, classification plus so much more.

3^rd graders are about to solve the ‘The Great Who Dunnit” mystery… Was it Salty the Cracker, Jewel Treasure, or Nelmira Simpson?  What was the motive?   Stay tuned for the amazing results.

4^th graders researched the tropical rainforest high and low (literally)… We have studied about animal and plant inhabitants, the layers of the strata, worldwide locations, weather and climate while culminating this unit of study with the construction of the rainforest model.  Also, the fourth graders had a fantastic experience touring the “frog” exhibit at Fernbank.  Students were able to see the following: mossy frogs, fire-bellied frogs, three-horned frogs, blue poison dart frogs and red-eyed tree frogs just to name a few.  The Imax Sea Monsters took us on an incredible journey through time allowing us to see how creatures once lived on earth and left behind their stories through recently unearthed remains. 

5^th graders are gearing up for our Robotics competition on Jan 12, 2008.  Missions are being attempted, re-tried and hopefully perfected by January.  The audit team is researching state of the art technology and innovative ways to improve our energy use here at

Mountain View

.  A big thanks to Mr. John Butler for speaking to our students about solar and wind energy sources and the new exciting ways General Electric is exploring alternative means of creating electricity.  Our students were extremely insightful with their questions about these topics.

Our first semester is winding down.  Classes will end the week of Nov. 12 and will resume in January.  The field trip permission form for 5^th grade is coming home today (11-01-07) for the Cumberland Island Trip next spring.  More details to follow!

January Blog

January 2008

First Grade- Stepping Into Target

Welcome to our program!  We will use fairy tales to introduce our students to the multiple intelligences as well as the learning progression expressed in Bloom’s Taxonomy.  Students will become more aware about higher level thinking and problem-solving using fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration.

                        

Second & Third Grade- Puzzled by the Past

Students will explore past cultures to help them better understand how they have impacted our present-day culture and help them prepare for the future.  By learning about other civilizations, students start to better understand their own world.  Beginning with pre-history, we will explore how our ancestors communicated and left their stories for us to discover.

Fourth

Grade-

Castles

, Keeps, and Kingdoms

Students will learn about life during medieval times through this unit based on language arts and social studies standards.  We will explore the history, culture of this time period and connect our traditions still present today that originated in the Middle Ages.  Students will evaluate the feudal system and compare it to the government today.  Classic characters from literature will be discovered as we research this time period.  Critical thinking and reading skills are put into practice this semester as we uncover the secrets of the Middle Ages.

                     

Fifth Grade- Predators of the Aquatic Biome

Listen carefully…. Do you hear the theme to the movie “JAWS”?  Our students will learn through this interdisciplinary unit about oceanography, biology, and environmental science.  By increasing our knowledge of life in the underwater biome, we will gain a better understanding, a different perspective and a greater appreciation for the shark’s symbiotic relationship in this habitat.  Extensions for this unit include our class dissection of sharks along with our trip to

Cumberland

Island

.  More specific information will come home at a later date.

December Blog

December, 2007

We are currently evaluating new students for target therefore; classes will be finalized before students leave for the winter holidays. Target classes for new and current students will resume in January.

Special congratulations to our robotics team for placing 3rd in the area of research at

East

Cobb

Middle School

on December 1, 2007.  We competed against 32 other elementary and middle schools.

Supply List for New Students

3 ring binder for class

Dividers

Pencils (regular and colored)

Scissors

Have a terrific winter break and we look forward to starting new units in January.

Super Second Grade

Second Grade is batty for bats. You might be tempted to say that we have bats in the belfry! The students created habitats and began research on a specific bat. All of the presentations were wonderful and the habitats were very creative. Our essential question for this unit is: Why are bats feared if they are so beneficial to our environment? Please discuss this with your student. The kids seem to be enjoying the novel Silverwings. It reinforces several of the concepts that we have learned in class. For example, the bats roost in a colony inside a tree; they use echolocation to hunt, fathers are not allowed in the nursery, and they meet up with the fathers in order to hibernate. We are focusing on vocabulary development as well. We continue to work on logic weekly and I am seeing improvement in logic puzzle solving. The students loved learning a little bit about flight. I was so impressed by the students who knew that in order to fly one would need the following forces weight, thrust, and lift. Through our flying activity we learned that humans stay “airborne” for less then one second, and that the tallest students do not necessarily jump the highest. Ask your student to explain the difference between macro- chiroptera, and micro-chiroptera bats. We really enjoyed our speaker Dr. Stephen Barnett, he had a very informative power point presentation and we saw three bats.

   Fantastic Fifth Grade

Newsflash! Newsflash! Newsflash! Newsflash! Newsflash!

Parent Information Meeting October 11, 2007 on Robotics.

Please attend in order to volunteer. We have two sessions scheduled: 7:45 am-8:45 am  or 6:30 pm-7:30 pm

We are registering for our competition on October 5, 2007 and as soon as we know the exact time and date I will update our blog.  The students are excited about the new computer refresh as we will have two computers per team. This week the students will be introduced to the competition missions and will apply their programming knowledge to successfully complete each mission required for the competition. The students will research alternative energy sources and write and perform a skit for competition. All of the students’ energy will be focused on competition starting this week. Please be aware that the students will need to stay after school in order to perfect the missions and be ready to represent

Mountain View

.

Fabulous Fourth Grade

Our creative intelligence will take us through the mystery of the “

River

of

Venom

” while trying to solve the situation at hand.  What is the conclusion?  Was it a bee sting or perhaps a food allergy, read along and draw a conclusion.  We will learn about allergies, anaphylactic shock, venom and much more as we travel through the rainforest in search of clues!  We will develop a better understanding of this biome instead of developing a fear of the unknown.  As we continue our research through the tropical rainforest we will take a short detour to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History to learn more about some of the amphibians that call this habitat home.  Our construction of the rainforest will soon begin… watch for updated pictures of our progress.

5th Grade

How are scientific and mathematical principles used in robotics helpful in the real world?  We are learning how through our study of the NXT Robotic program.  Our students will identify the parts and functions of robotic pieces, understand the functions of sensors as well as other key components so that they may ultimately build a robot to compete in the First Lego League contest.