Jamon!

Spain is famous for Jamon, the local ham. We have one sitting in a vice in Cory's apartment! Not for me, but Mr. Smith and Colin love it!

Ghent, Belgium

Happy Holidays to everyone! I hope you had a great day yesterday. We had a very long trip to get here in Belgium.

A word problem for you: Our flight from New York took 6 hours. We left the airport at 10:00 p.m. The time in Madrid is six hours later than in New York. What time did we arrive in Madrid?

Our daughter Cory met us at the airport and we took a bus and the metro to get to her apartment. We rested for a while, ate some lunch, and then headed back to the airport to catch our flight to Brussels, Belgium. Our son Colin met us at the airport at midnight, and drove us to the apartment where we are staying in Ghent. The apartment is great--small rooms and lots of floors--I'll send pictures later. We cooked a great meal last night and today we'll spend the day walking around sightseeing. Back to Madrid tomorrow!

Giving Thanks

Hello Class,
The backgrounds you have been working on in Paint look great. Your task for today is to think about something that you are thankful for in nature and post a comment. This idea will help you plan your artwork later on.
Ms. Francke and Ms. Peterson

November Moon

Full Moon!

Phases of the Moon

Farmer's Almanac

Moon Calendar

Last night was an amazing full moon! I was out walking Cooper along Old Stage Road when the moon rose up from behind Mt. Mansfield like a giant ball--it was amazing! Look through the links that are above and answer the following questions:

1. What was last night's full moon called? Why is it called this?
2. Which full moon is in your birthday month?
3. What is the phase of the moon on your next birthday?

Here are pictures of the giant pumpkin from our garden. What do you think will happen to to this pumpkin in the spring?

Pumpkin Jack

Today we read "Pumpkin Jack." For your comment today, explain the following:

1. Describe the life cycle that is in this story.
2. Tell about a tradition that you and your family have at this time of year.
3. Explain what Tim did that was generous.
4. If you have time, draw your favorite pumpkin face in Paint and save it in our file.
   

CARES

We have completed our CARES project and your wonderful drawings are going up on our board to show how you demonstrate each of the different letters in school and at home. Remembering that the CARES acronym stands for

• Cooperation
• Assertion
• Responsibility
• Empathy
• Self-Control

Today in your post, write an example of one of the traits that either you have demonstrated yourself, or seen someone else do. For example, Yesterday Reilly shows that he was RESPONSIBLE when he talked with Seth about how to get ready to go to lunch safely and calmly. Your post should give at least one example of something you or your friend did to demonstrate that our clas CARES!

CAR...

So far we have completed CAR of our

• Cooperation
• Assertion
• Responsibility
• Empathy
• Self-Control

CARES community-building work. The books on Shelfari are some of the stories that we have read to give us examples of characters being cooperative, assertive, and responsible. Which is your favorite book so far? Which of the letters do you think is the most important so far? Which trait is easiest for you? Which is one that you need to work on more? Write back!

Spiders, Spiders, Spiders, Oh My!

We had such a great 4 Winds lesson on Wednesday. I learned so much about spiders that I didn't know before. I didn't know about the different types of webs, or that spiders are always letting out silk so that they are ready to start a new web if they fall. I think that most of the spiders that I have been seeing make orb webs. But I know there are lots of cobwebs in my basement. Did you know that spiders aren't insects? Since our 4 Winds lessons I have been seeing spiders everywhere! When you post to our blog, insert a picture with a caption and write about something that you learned about spiders!

Roman Clans

On Friday the students worked in table groups and received Roman names and designed a clan flag. Students first drew their clan name out of a jar, which became their middle name. Male names, and the name used to address the entire clan, ends in ius. Female clan names end in ia. Students also drew individual praenomen, or first names and cognomen, or last names. After the students had their new Roman names they worked as as clan and designed a clan flag. The slide show below shows the clans with their flags and Roman names.

Kenyan Research

Students were filmed with their research partners using our Flip camera. Due to a glitch in the software that came with the cameras we had to wait a bit to receive the new software that would work. We then pieced the film clips together using Movie Maker. You can scroll ahead to find the clip(s) that interest you. Students are also showing their Kenyan batiks that they made. Be sure to check out our wall of Kenyan batiks when you come for our Writer's Open House on March 26th (8:00-9:00 a.m.).

African Paintings

On Wednesday and Thursday we went to Mrs. Baker's art room with Mr. Willis' class to start our African paintings. We originally thought we would do a traditional Kenyan batik, but Mrs. Baker told us that the melting wax can cause problems (such as smoke detectors going off...) so we found a great website which taught us how to do a fake batik. First the kids outlined their African animals, people, or landscapes on their paper with white crayon. The next step, shown in these photos, is of the kids painting their first layer of paint on to their papers. Next we will paint a second layer over the first, and then finally we will "batik" the paintings by covering them with India ink and then rinse the ink off. Stay tuned!

Kenyan Safari

We have been viewing slides and pictures from the trip that I took to Kenya when I was in college. What a coincidence that Mr. Willis did the same trip when he was in college! We have viewed many plants, animals, people, and landscapes that are found in Kenya. Yesterday you chose what you would like to study further. Today I would like you to post a comment telling me what you chose to study and why you chose it. After you do that I want you to go to paint and do a drawing of your research topic. Be sure to save!

Thoughts on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the Inauguration

Today we viewed the video, "Yes We Can" with Mr. Willis' class. After our discussion I would like you to respond to the following prompts:

• Comment on the connection between the celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, whcih was on Monday, and Barack Obama becoming our 44th President on Tuesday.

• What does President Obama mean when he quotes the Declaration of Independence saying, "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal."

• What does "Yes We Can" mean to you?

Be thoughtful, and be sure to edit your comment with your partner before posting.

This photo is a picture of people sliding quarters at quarters for our science workshop. Two of the quarters fell off of the stack and onto the table. Every time we slid the quarters at the quarters we wrote down what happen. We wrote down how many quarters fell off the stack. Usually one or two of the quarters fell off the stack. Most of the time, it was the bottom quarter that fell off. My partner was Liam Drake; we both got to slide the quarters at the stack to see how many we could get to fall off. Then the other person had to pick the stack up.
By Nevin Hood and Liam Drake

By Grace and Laura

Last week Pinnacle students were in groups. Marybeth was teaching Newton’s second law and so was Mr. P. too and I was in both groups. We used 2 books and I clipboard and a ruler and a Lego car. We put the clipboard over the 2 books and put the ruler on the bottom and made a ramp and then we let the car go down the ramp and marked how far it went. Then we put 5 magnets on the car and let it go and then we marked it again on a piece of paper. Then we put 5 more on it which makes it 10 and then it went slow. It was fun!!!

We were in Mr. Willis’ group we got a table cloth and a water bottle filled with water and we tried to have it stay in place on the table and not even fall over. It was very very hard to keep in place. We tried it with a slippery side up and slippery side down. There were different table cloths and water bottles at each table. Each table had a table cloth and a water bottle. The activity was very fun. I am glad I was in Mr. Willis’ group. We were learning Sir Isaac Newton’s first law of motion.
By Nathalie Paquette and Sierra Polley

In Mrs. Petersons science workshops, Mrs. Peterson blew up a balloon and we tied it to a string that went across the room. When Mrs. Peterson let go, the balloon flew across the room. When there were pennies in it, it didn’t go very far. It only went about half as far as it did without pennies in it. The next day we tried different balloons. We tried a yellow, lumpy balloon, a long, straight, green balloon, and a small, red balloon. The yellow balloon went the farthest and the smoothest. The red balloon didn’t go anywhere but it spun in circles. The green balloon simply deflated immediately. When we timed the normal sized balloon, it took only 4 seconds!

By Griffin and Seth

We were pulling on a tablecloth and trying to keep the water bottle on the table. We were in science work shops in Mr. Willis’s class in Pinnacle house on Monday. There were three people in every group.
It was hard but we did it. The peoples name in my group were Nevin, Danielle, and Sophie.
By Sophie

New Year's Resolutions

Today we have talked a lot about the word resolution. At this time of year lots of people like to make a New Year's Resolution, or goal, for the upcoming year. I would like you to think about resolution for yourself that has to do with literacy. Your resolution can be about anything that has to do with reading or writing. Below is an example of a resolution:

This year I would like to read more non-fiction books for pleasure. I always have a book going, but tend to stick mostly to fiction. I am going to have every third book that I read be a non-fiction book. I just finished reading Barack Obama's "Dreams From my Father," which I absolutely loved. One non-fiction read for 2009 already!

Respond to this post with your own literacy resolution for the 2009 year. I can't wait to see what your hopes are for yourself for the year!