Weekly Update by Natalie and Annika

We have been working on our design project.  Once we had our plan, we started making our idea come to life.  We got materials and started building.  

These are some materials we’ve been using:

littleBits

pipe cleaners

cardboard

duct tape

felt

netting

wire

paper plates and cups

recycled materials

foam

...and more!

We got a new app to explain our steps of building and making our idea come to life.  It’s called, “Explain Everything”.  To use it, we have been taking pictures of what we have been working on and then record our voices and answer questions the teachers asked.

In SSW, we’ve been working on our babies and some people have been finishing our tunics.  We are excited for finishing our babies.  We’re also making cradleboards for our babies in Woodshop.  To make the cradleboards, we have to drill holes for the straps that will hold our babies.  We also have to cut a footrest.  Once they are all done, we will try to experience the life of a Native American mother.

From, Annika and Natalie 

Last Week's Blog by Pablo and Arya

Two Friday’s ago was Parent’s Day!  On Parent’s Day, the parents came to school with their kids.  Our whole class did Morning Meeting with our parents.  Parents got to experience a lot of different things that we do in school on a daily basis. 

At the end, we had an assembly.  It was very crowded.  It was really crowded!  We sang seven songs in 30 minutes.  We sang the Orchestra Song and normally only the kids have a part in it, but for the first time, the parents had a singing part.  They were the bassoons.

We are starting a design project.  To start the project, we went to Quirky and we met with an engineer at school.  Quirky is a school of invention!  They make inventions to solve problems and they make things that are easily accessible.  We learned that there are a lot of steps to building and inventing something.  We saw a “Porkfolio”.  A “Porkfolio” is a piggy bank that counts your money.  They showed us a mini version and a regular-sized version of the “Porkfolio”.  The mini version was just a prototype.  They decided to change the final “Porkfolio” from its shape when it was mini.  We also got to go on a tour of the whole company.  On the tour, we got to see a laser cutter and a few 3D printers.  At the end, both classes competed to see who could design the best drone.  Our class designed a drone with a money slot that turns into a car and has a camera.  It’s controlled by your phone.  If you are lazy it can buy you stuff from the store. 

We also started a design project.  We started by planning and thinking about what we are going to design and make.  We got partners to work with and we drew a rough sketch of what we want to make.  Everyone’s design has to stand up, fit in a bin, and it has to be stable enough not to be able to be blown over.  It also needs to have a function.  We’re excited about this project, but we’re most excited about building it!

Goodbye peeps!  See you next week!  Hope you enjoyed the blog!

Arya and Pablo

Weekly Update by Ava and Sawyer

Last week, 3S went on a trip to the Natural History Museum.  First we went to the hall of North American Mammals.  We saw a lot of mammals that lived or are living in North America.  We were allowed to draw animals that lived in the Northeast.  Ava sketched a baby coyote and a cottontail deer and Sawyer sketched a wolverine, a porcupine, and a lynx.

In the afternoon, we went to the hall of Eastern Woodland Indians.  On our way there we stopped at a case that had furs of animals from New York State.  In the hall of Eastern Woodland Indians, we saw artifacts that different tribes used.  We saw a bunch of wampum, a large dugout canoe, bows and arrows and other weapons, lacrosse sticks and other games, instruments, traditional clothing, and so much more!  We also saw an empty case where false faces used to be, but are not there anymore.  A false face is a mask that holds a spirit and power.  It was supposed to bring good luck or scare away bad spirits.  The false faces are not there anymore because they are too special and sacred.

We enjoyed the trip a lot and wish we could go back again! (Hint hint, Mom and Dad!)

Weekly Update with Blix and Spencer

Bee Bot App

This week we started coding with Bee Bots and the Bee Bot app. So far we have also used Light Bot and we are looking forward to using Scratch Jr.. Light Bot is way more complicated than Bee Bot, we are still figuring out how to play and get past certain levels.

In SSW we started beading out tunics. First we drew pictures and then copied the picture on the tunic and then we started beading it.

Light Bot App

Last Friday was the Martin Luther King Jr. Assembly. we sang a song called 'Back of the Bus'. we remember Jay trying to film it but when our clapping got loud the sound didn't work very well. It was like we couldn't hear in one ear. The assembly was very good because every single grade sang a song. Spencer liked the song the fifth graders sang and Blix liked the song about the Underground Railroad.

Blog Update by Taji and Brie

An affinity group is when a bunch of people come together who have something in common.  Last week we started race based affinity groups (RBAG).  We started in the gym with all the kids in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades.  Laura, our ethics teacher, spoke about affinity groups and Rama interrupted Laura with a dance.  All of the teachers started to dance with Rama out of no where!  It was AWESOME!  We loved affinity groups.  After the groups met, we were able to talk about it.  We talked about the norms of the groups and how we felt about coming together with 4th and 5th graders.  At first we thought this would be hard.  After doing it for the first time, we feel really excited that we know other kids now and we feel more confident that we can share anything we want to in the group.

This is a video of the teachers dancing to “All About the Race”.  Enjoy!

Here is the official video that was posted by Rama:

Weekly Update from Caleb and Zachary

Week of January 15, 2015

In Woodshop we are learning how to wood burn so we can make lummi sticks and to make decorations we are going to wood burn on the sticks. Lidia is teaching us how to wood burn during woodshop. The tools are extremely hot so we have to be careful so we have to wear gloves and the tools are delicate. One is broken but it works well for making circles and different shapes like curvy lines and waves.

In science we are making a document about our trees and how they function. We are also learning the measurements of our tree, like how tall and how wide. 

In math we are learning addition and subtraction algorithms. Some people are also working on a big word problem like the ECFS bicycle picnic problem.

We have two trips we are looking forward to! We are going to the Natural History Museum and Greenbrook Sanctuary to hike. The Sanctuary was supposed to be a surprise but we found out. Ooops! We were told to bring a lunch, I wonder why. :)

In Social Studies Workshop we are starting to bead on our tunics. We already inked our design on the tunics so now we are beading over the design. We made these for the winter assembly.

In Art we are supposed to draw the details of trees and sky. Corinne is helping us think about the details needed of the type of tree we are making. For example, if it’s a climbing tree it needs to have branches in certain places.

In P.E. we are doing a lot of fitness and basketball. In ethics we are going into groups of our race to talk with 4th & 5th graders.

We are learning the names of our body parts in spanish.

In library we are doing book talks about books we have read.

Have a good 3 day weekend!

Happy New Year! (Last Week's Blog Post) - Cassidy and Andrew

Welcome to the first blog of 2015!  How was your winter break?  Ours were great!

In Social Studies, we started a new read aloud called Lightfoot.  It is about a boy named Lightfoot and he lived in an Iroquois Tribe.  We’ve only heard the first chapter so far and we listened to an audio of Harry reading the chapter.

In science, we’re learning how to use microscopes.  We looked at magazines, pencil shreds, pine needles from the Eastern White Pine Tree, and some other things.  When we looked at the magazines, we saw that the words and pictures were made out of dots.  The Eastern White Pine also had dots for taking in carbon dioxide.

Click here to do a word search. The word search has words from our Native American study in it.