Kanwisher's Kids

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.