Comic Books

How might the Wampanoag felt about the arrival of the pilgrims?  We did a lot of research, learned some strong feeling words, and then wrote comic books to share our ideas.

Dissecting an Organism (Don't worry; it was a flower.)

Last week we dissected lilies to learn more about the life cycle of plants.

Here are some pictures of us focused on our work:

Writing Partners

We have writing partners.  We practice telling our stories to our partners before writing.  Our partners give us ideas.  And our partners help us check spelling and punctuation.

Nate the Great

Rachel's book group treated us to a short performance of Nate the Great.

Where is the best place for a wind turbine at Academy School?

We knew that wind could be used to make electricity, so we did some research to find out the best place for a wind turbine at our school.  Then we wrote letters to Mr. Paciulli explaining our findings.  Here are two of the letters:

Dear Mr. Paciulli,

            My claim is that none of the areas around our school are good enough for a wind turbine.  An anemometer is a piece of technology that measures wind.  It will work if you engineer it correctly.  I know it wasn’t windy because the anemometer spun around 0 times.  And we looked outside 5 days in a row and none of the days were windy.  It should be windy a lot if you want a wind turbine.  And you don’t want it just for decoration.

Sincerely,

Kayli

Dear Mr. Paciulli,

            How are you?  My claim is that none of the areas around our school are good locations for a wind turbine.  First we built and designed an anemometer.  An anemometer is a piece of technology that helps people tell how fast the wind is going.  Orly put us into groups of threes or fours and those groups made one anemometer each.  We made lots of changes so it would really work.  Then we tested our group anemometer out in front of a fan.  If our anemometer did not work, then we would fix the stuff that we thought was making the problem.  Then we would test it again to see if it worked.  When all the anemometers worked in front of the fan we looked outside for a few days but no wind!  So finally we decided just to go out anyway with the most successful anemometer.  First we went to the circle in front of the school, next the sidewalk close to the parking lot, then on the driveway by the side of the gym, then we went to the middle of the playground, and then the pavement just outside our classroom.  But in all the places the anemometer did not spin once so maybe we just did not wait long enough or we just should not have a wind turbine at our school.  Maybe we could have a solar panel instead?

Sincerely,

Gretchen

Building Anemometers

We spent a week building, redesigning, building, redesigning, and so on until we were finally successful.  It took a lot of perseverance.

A Short Simile Poem

(We are working on writing similes, practicing using capitals and periods, and writing poems.  This is just the first draft of a poem.)

My rock is shiny
like gold.

My rock is white
like the clouds.

The rock is bumpy
like a bumpy slide.

The rock is special
like my family.

by Alex

Designing an Anemometer

What is an anemometer?  It is a machine that measures wind speed.  We are designing anemometers to determine the location around our school with the fastest wind.  Yesterday we conducted some research on how different materials responded to fast wind and slow wind.  (We made the wind using a fan.)  We tested an egg carton cup, a small paper cup, a flat piece of cardboard, a flat piece of aluminum foil, and the bowl of a spoon.  Today we used that data to plan out the design of our anemometers.

You can see these engineers are working hard with their teammates.  Next week we'll build our first anemometers and see how they work.  We know we will probably need to refine our designs, but we're not worried.  That's part of the engineering process.

Pinwheels for Peace

There are about 60 pinwheels in front of the school.  Created by the third graders, each pinwheel has words of peace written on it.  We hope you think of peace when you drive by the school this week.

We made a cloud!

We are studying the water cycle and today we made a cloud in a jar.

Here's a link to the directions for how to do it, in case you want to try this at home:
https://eo.ucar.edu/webweather/cloudact1.html

Last Day Fancy Lunch!!!!

Sharing our organism reports

Well, we didn't all finish writing our reports, but we all worked hard.  We read made a plan for our research, read information in different texts, decided what information was relevant, took notes on paper or on an ipad, wrote paragraphs, and more.  We had to be organized and many of us used googledocs for the first time on the chromebooks.  So, lots of work and lots to be proud of even if we didn't finish our writing.  Then we got to read each other's work:

What would you do if you had the power?

Mrs. Greenblott's book group read a book together called The Word Eater by Mary Amato.  In this book, a girl named Lerner has a pet worm named Fip.  Fip is a bit unusual because he likes to eat words off of pages.  Even more unusual is that when he eats a word, that thing disappears from the world.  If he ate the word matches, all the matches in the world would disappear forever.  Should Lerner use Fip to get rid of the annoying dog that lives next door?  Should she get rid of war and diseases?  Here's what we think:

     No, I would not use his magic.  Instead I would write "Fip's Magic" and have him eat it.  So he would become a normal worm.  But before I make Fip's magic disappear I would delete money.  I would delete Fip's magic because of the consequences if he fell into the wrong hands and if someone deleted humans.
     by Ridley

     If I had Fip or a worm like Fip, yes, I would use his power but not to hurt anyone.  First I would get rid of war with people fighting because I don't like shooting or calling bad names or people dying.  Second I would get rid of tobacco because smoking is really bad and can make people die.  Last I would get rid of laws in some countries that don't allow women to go to school.  In conclusion, this is what I would do with Fip's power.
    by Xiaohan

     If I had a worm like Fip I would use him for good.  Fip is a magical worm that eats words and what it eats disappears.  First I might get rid of tobacco.  People die quicker because of tobacco.  Also I would get rid of illegal drugs.  Next I want to get rid of diseases because it makes people ill.  In conclusion I would use Fip for good because I don't want the world to go wrong.
     by Bryer

     If I had a worm like Fip, I would get rid of bad stuff.  I would get rid of bad stuff like viruses, tobacco stuff (but not the plant), McDonalds, heroin, bad drugs, ticks, murdering, suicide, cavities, nuclear stuff, bad and unhealthy school lunches, coleslaw, and selfishness.  I can still think of more stuff but I don't want this list to be a mile long.  I want to get rid of stuff I don't like.
     by Kaliyah

     If I had a worm that eats words and whatever it eats disappears, I would use his/her power...sometimes.  I would use him for good.  Here are some things I would use my worm for.  I would use the magic to get rid of bad drugs.  Another thing I would get rid of is mosquitoes.  I have a few more ideas.  One is serial killers and another is people who do suicide.  There is also tetanus and splinters.  That is what I would get rid of if I had a worm like that.
     by Maya

     If I had a worm like Fip I would use him for good because I don't want anything bad to happen.  First I would stop hunger because I don't want people to starve.  Also I would get rid of tobacco so people can be healthier.  Last I will get rid of people dying because people should live.  In conclusion I would use it to make good stuff happen.
     by Owen

What's the mass?

We are finding the mass of objects in the classroom.  First we are predicting the mass.  Then we are measuring the mass on a balance.  We're recording our predictions and observations on our ipad.

Exploring the Stream behind Academy School