Mrs. Giammusso's Class: May 2017

Saturday, May 20, 2017

Upcoming Technology Night

June 15^th – Save the Date for Technology Night

Come to EMES from 6:00 to 7:30 to:

see student created technology projects
learn how to program
be challenged to code robots

All students from 1^st through 6^th grade are invited to share projects they created this year. In addition to viewing student work, there will be several stations set up and run by the 5^th and 6^th grade Tech Club. Adults and students are encouraged to move around the stations to learn how to code a variety of robots.

We hope you can join us for an evening of student work (projects range from videos to print media and are integrated across curriculum content areas) and interactive robot challenges!

Classroom News

E.C.O.:

Our final E.C.O. lesson of the year will be next Tuesday, May 23rd. We will be learning about star-nosed moles. Please help your child wear appropriate clothing and footwear for spending the morning outdoors. Depending on the weather, students may want to wear layers, sunscreen, a hat, and/or bug spray.

Also, a special request… if you have a bandana or something that could be used to cover your child’s eyes for a star-nosed mole activity, please send it in with your child on Tuesday morning. Thanks!

Special Events:

Our class participated in several special events this week! On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to watch the U32 Middle School band perform along with some older EMES students. It was exciting to watch the musicians play and to learn the names of the various instruments.

On Wednesday, we had a PBIS Kindness All-School Meeting where we honored students’ participation in activities that spread kindness throughout our building and beyond. In our Thursday morning PBIS groups, students worked on these projects, which included making cards,creating dog toys for the dogs at the Central Vermont Humane Society, and painting rocks with special messages. Ask your child about his or her group project!

On Thursday, we participated in the K-3 Spring Concert. I was so impressed by the hard work and positive attitudes that our class showed throughout our practices and this final performance. Thank you to everyone who was able to join us for this special event!

Discovery: Learning about the States and Properties of Matter

This week during Discovery/Science time, we looked at two different animated models of the atoms in solids, liquids, and gases. We noticed how the speed of the atoms changed as the state changed and how this was a result of how much heat was added or subtracted.

Next, we participated in a demonstration called Racing Molecules. First, students had to create a hypothesis that explained what they thought would happen when I added a drop of red food coloring and a drop of blue food coloring to hot, room temperature/warm, and cold water.

We also talked about the importance of controls and variables when creating a fair test. In this experiment, the some of the controls were the amounts of water and food coloring, the type of jar, and the type of liquid. The variable was the temperature of the water.

As you can see in the photos, students carefully observed what happened during the demonstration, drew scientific drawings, and wrote about our observations. Ask your child what happened in each jar!

Montshire Museum Field Trip:

On Monday, June 19th, the 1st and 2nd grade classes will be taking a field trip to the Montshire Museum. Please keep an eye out for our permission slip coming soon.

We have room for a limited number of chaperones to join us on this trip, so please let me know as soon as possible if you would be interested in coming. We especially need Level 2 volunteers, but may have some spaces for Level 1 volunteers, too.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Comfy Cozy Day on Wednesday, May 10th!

Our class has filled another classroom "tree", so we have earned a Comfy Cozy Day tomorrow, May 10th! Students are welcome to wear pajamas or other comfy clothes. They can also bring slippers for the classroom, but should have outdoor shoes for recess. Also, they can bring in a small stuffed animal. If you have any questions, please contact me at lgiammusso@u32.org.

Thanks!

Thursday, May 4, 2017

E.C.O. Field Trip to the Frog Pond

On Tuesday, April 25th, we took a walking field trip to the Liebermann's frog pond. We were given a mission to move the frog eggs further into the pond, since they were too close to the edge and may not survive if some of the water evaporated. I just heard today that the tadpoles successfully emerged from their eggs. We also had the opportunity to visit the goats, including one pregnant goat who gave birth later that night. Students did a great job making observations about the frog eggs, as well as the salamanders and stonefly larvae we found. Thank you to Tracy, Jill, Sian, Angie, and Eve for helping out with this field trip! Also a big thank you to the Liebermann family for allowing us to continue this wonderful tradition of visiting their pond!

Our next E.C.O. lesson is scheduled for Tuesday, May 9th. Please help your child come prepared to spend the morning outdoors.

Classroom News: Measurement and Geometry

During our geometry unit, we have been building and naming two-dimensional shapes. Students have learned important vocabulary words (side, angle, and vertex) that help them describe various 2-D shapes, such as triangles, squares, rectangles, trapezoids, pentagons, and hexagons. As part of this learning, we have been using geoboards, geoboard paper, pattern blocks, and square tiles, which are lots of fun!

Last week, we learned how to build rectangles with a specific area. Then, students created their own Rectangle Riddles in which they built, traced, and then described their rectangle based on the area, number of rows, number of columns, or number of tiles in each row or column. This week, students had a chance to solve each other's riddles.

After that, students worked in pairs, small groups, or independently to create all of the possible rectangles with a specific area, such as 18, 24, or 36 square inches. The posters that they created will be on display in our classroom.

At the end of April, we measured the plaster casts that we made from rubber models of different animal tracks. In some cases, such as with the cottontail rabbit, students were able to compare the difference in length between the front and hind paws.