Weekly Blog Post #11
January 24, 2014
Written by: Piper, Olivia and Cole
Announcements:
Last Friday was Maddie's last day in Parkinville, so we decided to have a surprise party for her. We put together a book for Maddie telling her what we'd miss the most about her. We also had some treats, gave her some presents and took a class picture. We'll all miss Maddie! Take a look at Maddie's send off...
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| We'll miss you, Maddie! |
MAP Testing
We are all happy the MAP testing is over. We finished up the Reading section on Thursday!
Our Augusta Field Trip
We had a great time on our field trip to Augusta! We started out at the Maine State Museum. We made arrowheads, by carving the edges with antlers. This was a huge hit!!
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| Making arrowheads. |
We also learned about a cargo ship, called the St. Mary, which was built in Phippsburg, Maine. This ship transported goods from the East Coast to the West Coast via Cape Horn. Unfortunately, the ship ran aground in the Falkland Islands. There is a 40 foot section of the starboard hull located at the museum. During the St. Mary presentation, we learned all about making sails. We each took turns sewing a sail using a thick needle.
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| Sewing sails |
After the museum, we went to the State Capital (after going through security!). We visited the House of Representatives and the Senate chamber. Our tour guide told us some interesting facts about the building, the portraits on the wall and the beautiful dome. We were so excited to sit in the big chairs in the House of Representatives, while learning about the role they play in our government. At each seat, there is a box with a green "yea" button, a red "nay" button, and a yellow "page" button. This is how our Representatives vote! If they have a message they'd like to give to another Representative, they push the "page" button and someone comes to deliver their message.
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| Maine State Capital |
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| Look at us sitting in the big chairs!! |
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| Yea, Nay and Page buttons |
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| Future Maine State Senators! |
Math
We started Unit 7 - Fractions! We played the Around The World game to learn facts about fractions. We learned that the denominator number has to be bigger than the numerator number and lots of other interesting facts about fractions.
Science
We are working on our Motion & Design Unit. We built cars with Kinex pieces, then attached a piece of string and a paperclip to the car. We put washers on the paperclips for weight. We hung the washers over the table edge and watched the car move along the table. The more washers we put on the paperclip, the faster the car would move. We were given a challenge to move the car across the table between 4 and 6 seconds. We had to figure out how many washers to use to get the car to move across the table within that amount of time.
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| Kinex car |
Writing
We are still working on our blog posts on KidBlog. We are writing about the books we are reading, including information about the characters, the setting, and the story arc.
Reading
Mrs. Parkin is reading Ruth and the Green Book. This story talks about the difficulties African Americans faced in the 1950's.
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| Ruth and the Green Book |
Come back next week to find out what's happening in Parkinville!
