Tuesday, April 5, 2011

1st and 2nd Grade - The vocabulary word of the day was Spry. Someone who is Spry is nimble or lively. Abraham Lincoln was the Pilgrim of the day. During their years at the White House, the Lincoln children provided a lot of entertainment and challenges for those visiting as well as the staff. President Lincoln's reply was that they would only be young once. Plexers were the warm up activity of the day. These puzzles are visual renditions of common phrases that students have to decipher. The affective lesson centered on the idea that no one is perfect. After reading No, David and David Gets in Trouble, both books by David Shannon, students discussed telling the truth and whether some of David's problems were caused by accident or on purpose. We then began our trip to Crystal Pond Woods. Jordan the Judge was playing a type of card game with Max the Magician. We will finish this story tomorrow. 5th Grade - Colossal was the word of the day. It mean enormous, gigantic; huge in size, extent or degree and sounds like Fossil. Percy Spencer was the Pilgrim of the day for 5th Grade. One day, while working for the Ratheon Company, Percy spent too much time near some magnetron tubes. Later, when he remembered he wanted to eat the candy bar in his pocket, he found that the candy bar had melted. He started asking for food from his coworkers to see what would happen. This was the beginning of microwave ovens. These students also worked on the Plexer puzzles. Trying to be more empathic or understanding was the focus of the affective lesson. After lunch, students visited the idea of moving continents. This will prepare students for the experiment they will explore next week. They then received the third clue that would help them search for their lost family in the SOS project. The final activity of the day was to add more pieces to our invisible men.