In the Intermediate hub, all students will have Britney Koetsier for Math, Meg Schindler for Literacy, and Nancy Boymer for Science and Social Studies. They will rotate from classroom to classroom as a group, sometimes combined with another grade, other times their grade will be alone. Children will begin and end the day with their homeroom teacher.
The Place-based Education Initiative we started last year will be further developed and implemented this year. Our goal is to use the social, cultural, and natural environment in which our students live as an inquiry-based learning environment to gain knowledge and skills across the curriculum. This includes plans for more visits to local farms and businesses. We plan on expanding the Forest Friday programs across the school and to integrate more gardening and cooking into the curriculum. The primary goal in our minds is to build in students a love of nature and a desire for stewardship.
STEAM (Science Technology Engineering the Arts and Math) Initiative will continue to be further developed and implemented this year, including the addition of Makerspaces. We will continue to develop strong inquiry-based units integrating questioning techniques, critical thinking and problem solving skills, tasks will be designed to build knowledge of concepts at a deeper level.
See photos of the fifth and sixth graders as they “drive” their Spheros, spherical robots that are programmed through blue tooth on their Chromebooks. The Spheros light up, and have a “skin” so they can roll on various surfaces. The next step will be to learn how to program the robot using Blockly Code. This will require geometry skills and correct use of a protractor to get desired angles for turning. They are great fun, and educational too! Ask a fifth or sixth grader for more details on this cool, new robot.
The bottom photo collage shows students learning how to use our new Cricut machine. They will soon be creating flags in the cricut design space to go along with a Spanish unit.
September 26, 2018
See photos of the fifth and sixth graders “driving” their Sphero, spherical robot that is controlled through blue tooth on their Chromebooks. The next step is to learn how to program the robot using Blockly Code. The coding will require geometry skills, including correct use of a protractor to plan for angles. The Sphero lights up and has a “skin” to grab onto various surfaces. They are extremely fun and educational! Ask a fifth or sixth grader to explain with further details.