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.

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.

Last Day of Science and Art

Yesterday was the last day for both Science and Art class for the elementary students.

They learned about the nature of light in science.





As usual, Ms. Pat had some fun, hands-on activities to help the children understand and remember the concepts she discussed.
This activity demonstrated wave.










A wave generator:



For the final art class of the year, the children looked at photographs of the human eye and looked at their own eyes in a mirror. Then they were asked to draw an artistic interpretation of what an eye looks like.









They also wrote the dialog for a comic page and colored it.





Please remember, next Tuesday is a half day in the morning. The children will be released at noon, but we'd like them back by 6 p.m. to rehearse their songs before the celebration begins at 6:30 p.m.

The elementary students have been working very hard to prepare for the end of the year celebration. They have made displays of the work they are most proud of and will be preforming three songs. We also have two students who will be graduating from younger elementary to older elementary.

Eighth grade graduation is also part of the program.

You will be able to take home all of your child's/children's work right after the celebration, with the exception of the math books, which you are welcome to look through, but we will need for next year.

The Whole School to Ourselves

The middle school and high school students were gone yesterday, so the elementary students were able to take over the "centrium" in the high school building. Ms. Pat and some of the middle school students had used tarps to build a dark tunnel, lit by a black light, and filled with glowing stars and planets, for the children to play in.



My camera didn't work well in the black light, but you can sort of get the idea.


They also reviewed some of the science topics that had been covered during their space unit, using Ms. Pat's very large collection of posters.






They also watched the movie, Alien Planet, which can be seen in full here:



On Friday's, we usually order pizza, but with so few people on campus, we decided to have a potluck lunch instead.



It was a very impressive selection of food and I would like to thank all the parents who contributed.

Wrapping Up the Year

It is getting close to the end of the school year and we are starting to wrap things up. In science class, this past Friday, Ms. Pat handed out certificates showing that the children had finished their "astronaut-in-training" program.



















Then they went outside to explore their new space colony.