Learning Updates

Dear Families,

What a week! Our last 5-day week together was filled with fun and surprises. Market Day. Egg Drop. An unexpected offer to drop our top 5 parachutes from the top of Eastside Fire & Rescue's 75 foot tall ladder truck! And a cameo appearance by my two boys--William & George at the end of our day on Thursday.

Market Day

Our second Market Day was a huge success! Students had so many innovative and creative ideas. Plus they really seemed to apply the lessons learned from the first Market Day. Also, I'd like to thank all the parents who helped out before and after--Tulika Gupta, Lynn Brueckman, Helen Yantus and Eden Zasloff--we couldn't have done it without you! Be sure to check out some amazing photos Michelle Enebo captured of Market Day.

Egg Drop

For more egg drop pictures, click here to view the photo album. And now for the full story, which I'm sure you've probably already heard all about...We were on our 28th and final egg drop Thursday. Christian held his parachute over the rail and prepared to release it. Suddenly, alarms blared all around us. Fire drill! I yelled at him to drop his parachute NOW, and drop it did! The .75 seconds it took to fall 18 feet won Christian the distinction of fastest drop. The egg landed with such force that gooey yolk shot straight up in the air. We quickly cleared his parachute and our garbage bag landing pad out of the way of the building exit and headed for the field, parachutes, clipboards, data sheets, and pencils in hand. 

After the drill was over, Mrs. Otley pulled me aside and said the Firefighters noticed we had egg drop parachutes in hand and wanted to know if we'd like to drop our top 5 parachutes from the top of their ladder truck. "Um, YES!!" was my almost automatic answer. I donned a firefighter's hat and, holding our top five parachutes (reloaded with eggs), climbed in to the bucket. One of the firefighters clipped us in and he fully extended the ladder 75 feet above our sand field. Students counted down and we dropped each of the parachutes. Jacqueline's parachute floated for a record 16.3 seconds to the ground. All 5 eggs landed in tact! I think these students may have a design and engineering future! :) Big thanks to Eastside Fire & Rescue Ladder 73 crew for absolutely making our day. Very very cool!

Why? Because our 18 foot tall staircase just wasn't high enough! :)

Egg Drop--who would've thought it would end like this?

Market Day Setup

Market Day in full swing. Our room saw lots of shopping traffic.

Special visitors. My sons William and George made a quick appearance at the end of our day Thursday to meet the class. William made himself right at home.

Science

• Created a parachute, an airplane, and a bird's flight pictorials
• Students reviewed and brought home their graded Air unit tests Friday
• Conducted our class Egg Drop and analyzed results and average drop times

Math

• Finished our 12th and final math unit
• Took and reviewed the End of Year Math test
• Per district policy I cannot send the end of year math assessment home, however you may make an appointment with me to review it

Reading & Writing

• Finished class-wide literary essay thesis brainstorming. Students chose one thesis and worked to support it with evidence. Later we held a thesis clinic and discussed strengths and weaknesses in the approaches students took.
• Though we won't have time to fully draft out and publish these pieces, students are learning some valuable lessons about in depth reading of excellent literature. They are also learning how to frame a quality thesis and supporting sections. I've told the class that this is advanced writing work that students in high school and college often undertake.
• Read Aloud, historical fiction -- The Watson's go to Birmingham--1963: we made much more headway this week. The students are loving the humorous adventures of this family. The Watson's have just arrived in Birmingham against the backdrop of the Civil Rights movement in the U.S. Ask your student to fill you in on some of the Civil Rights issues they've begun to encounter, as well as some of the funny things that have happened lately.