1st Grade Engineering: Building a Defense for a Food Supply

The first graders learned how plants and animals use spikes and spines, armor and shells, and camouflage to protect themselves. They used that knowledge to design and build models for protecting a food supply that could be left outside in the woods. Here are several of their models and some action shots of them building them.

Pollinator Pins Update

The second graders had a great time selling pins at the Farmers' Market. They sold the rest of the pins at Academy School over the last few days. We raised over $250 dollars to buy flowering plants for our school garden!!!!

These kids are busy planting a butterfly bush. We can't wait to see how much the butterflies and other pollinators like the new plants.

2nd Graders Want to Help Pollinators

The second graders have learned all about pollinators and how bee populations are declining. They wanted to help by planting flowering perennials in our school garden. To raise money to buy the plants, they made pins to sell at the Brattleboro Farmers' Market. Here's their commercial:

Rockets with 1st Graders (plus one kindergartener)

These students are studying rockets. They measured the hallway to see whether an actual rocket would fit. They made straw rockets and collected data on how far they could go. They wrote the directions for how to make the rockets. And then they celebrated by shooting their rockets straight up into the air.

The Engineering Design Process as Illustrated by 4th Graders

4th Graders Make Scribble-bots

The fourth graders studied energy transformations. Here they transformed electrical energy into kinetic energy using motors.

Winners of the Maple Leaf Writing Contest

The Maple Leaf Writing Contest is open to all 5th and 6th graders in the Brattleboro Town School District. This year there were 34 participants, 14 of which are from Academy School. They put a lot of work into their stories writing and revising for most of the school year; they are all winners!!! However, since it's a contest, there are some special prizes.

Congratulations to Nina North for coming in first place overall!
Congrats to Uma Sczupak for coming in second place!
And congrats to Wesley Sczupak for the best illustration award!

You can read their stories at the Maple Leaf website.