Dear families, it was wonderful to meet with you all last week for parent teacher conferences.

In science, last week, teams of students have gone through planning stages for our circuit based gizmos and gadgets, creating labelled detailed drawings of their device.  We’ve since created prototypes of the circuits then thoughtfully planned the steps to execute designs of gizmos that demonstrate energy in the form of motion, light or sound. Some gizmo examples include, a moving drawbridge, a spiral art station, a leaf-cutter, an alarmed keep-sake box, and two variations on a boat.  We also began the work of documenting the process, creating a brochure and preparing a script to prepare for presentations we will make to our buddy classroom.

Our brain week activities culminated on Monday  of the previous week when neuroscience graduate students  presented information on brain function, diseases, and disorders through fun interactive hands on activities. Students  also viewed real human brains even getting the chance to hold pick up and hold a brain!

4th grade mathematicians concluded our unit on fractions and decimals and we are beginning our study of larger multiple digit numbers.  We built the next level of our base ten wall, each component increasing by a power of ten, and created a wall of a million!  This activity helped ground our understanding of large numbers, giving us a visual reference as we work through the powers of 10. 5th grade mathematicians have been an exploration of angles and shapes, getting extra practice measuring angles with protractors and playing “angle tangle” estimating a partner’s drawn angle and then confirming with a protractor, and finally calculating the difference between the measurement and estimate.