This Week's Science and Art

This week, the students continued to work on the terrarium. Each child selected a plant to be placed in the terrarium. Then they had to draw their plant in their log book along with the name of their plant, which they looked up in various books provided by Ms Pat. The students took turns in groups placing the gravel, sand and soil in the terrarium, along with a water container.

Then each student placed their own plant in the terrarium with help from Ms Pat....



The result is a gorgeous terrarium that sits in the classroom's Rainforest Lab. The students are looking forward to adding animals over the coming weeks. Everyone is wondering if it will be tadpoles, a turtle or a type of lizard.

In Art, the children applied a "wash" made of diluted paint over a drawing they had colored. The results were beautiful and original.

Elementary Adventures

The hands-on approach to learning is one of the ways Trilogy is different from traditional schools. The students often use games or other manipulatives to learn. In math, the "100 boards" are a fun way for the students to learn. During younger elementary thematics, the World rug helps the students locate the continents. Make sure to ask your child to sing the "Continents" song. 

 

There are many games and activities for the children to participate in throughout the classrooms as well as time and areas for the children to play freely. On this particular day, the children played dress-up and attended a tea party!

 



Fun First Friday!

So, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. When life gives you lots of rain from tropical storm Isaac and poor drainage, you make a science lesson! At least that's what Ms Pat did for this week's science class for the elementary students. Today's lesson was an introduction to different types of habitats, with an emphasis on wetlands. The students collected water and soil samples to see what, if anything, was living in the area affectionately called "Lake Trilogy" by some students!

                                   

After collecting their samples, the students returned to the lab to examine them as well as a large tub of water, soil and plant life collected by Ms Pat. It seems we had mosquito larvae (surprise, surprise) as well as beetle larvae. Some tadpoles were spotted at the edges of the water, but the students weren't able to capture any.

After science, it was time for lunch. Friday is the day we order pizza for the students who would like it. This Friday was special because we were also celebrating the birthday of one of our students, with cupcakes!

The second part of the day was again spent with Ms Pat, this time in Art class. The students will be creating a terrarium throughout the year as a way to study habitats. Ms Pat had some examples of the types of plants we will be using. The children made leaf rubbings as their art project for the day.

First Week of School: Fall 2012

     To all Trilogy students and teachers, new and old, welcome, and welcome back! The first week of school has been a time of transition. The students have been getting to know one another as there are many new faces this year. With the loss of Lisa Rooney due to a move, we have also had some additions to the faculty as well. While Terry, Pam, Mimi (Linda) and Courtney are still working with the students, we have the additon of Tricia and Nina during the academic centers portion of the day. We are continuing the science and art enrichment classes on Fridays with Ms Pat.

    This should be an exciting year as the focus will be on biomes. This will include the plants, animals, and climate from various regions around the world. The children will learn about deserts, oceans, rain forests, the arctic, and more.

     There is one more change that should be mentioned. As Lisa is no longer maintaining the Trilogy Blog, I, Rychane Marsac, have volunteered to take on the task. Lisa has set the bar high and I hope to be able to do the job half as well as she did. As I am a parent of two Trilogy students, and have been for over five years, I feel proud to be able to help in this way. I will do my best to post weekly reports to keep you updated on what goes on in the classroom.