Elena - Wildcat of the Week

We would like to thank Maria Rangel, Elena's mom, for visiting our class on Friday, April 17th. She helped Elena tell us about her pictures on the board - many of which were from her old school in California. Elena is doing a wonderful job learning English, so the language barriers are starting to fade! It's so much fun to hear her talk more and get excited about understanding things we are talking about in class!

Brooke - Wildcat of the Week

Brooke's mom, Angie Reinke, came to visit with our class on Friday, April 17th. Angie is a personal trainer at Tryon Gym in Brandon. She helps people who come to the gym not only by showing them how to exercise properly, but by advising them on nutrition as well as supplements/vitamins. She is also a National Level Figure Competitor (which is similar to body-building). She has won 4 State-Level Figure Competitions which allowed her to qualify for her first National Level Show in Cleveland. She has also started training for another National Show which will be held in Pittsburgh in July. We wish her the best of luck and thank her for taking the time to come and visit with us!

Brooke's dad, Scott Reinke, came to visit the class on Monday, April 20th. He talked about his job as a Bond Underwriter. He told the kids that he uses the skills of math, english, reading and writing letters every day. That is why they need to stay in school and work hard on their spelling, math, and other subjects. He told them that no matter what you do in life, your education is one of the biggest things you need to have! So...have fun with school and continue to learn. He also mentioned that he just went back to school to get his MBA, so no matter what your age is, you never stop learning!

Constellation Posters

The kids had a fun time creating constellation posters. Each group got to choose a constellation and research it to find the shape, the story (myth) behind it, when it can be seen (some can be seen all year long - others can only be seen during certain times/seasons), and whether or not there are any notable stars or groups of stars in it. They also got to use glow-in-the-dark star foamies and chalk to create their constellation.

Here are the constellations the groups chose:
Mitchell & Dylan S. - Scorpius (Scorpion)
Korbyn & Monte - Scorpius (Scorpion)
Kiana, Kaysha & Chayla - Cygnus (Swan)
Carter & Tanner - Orion (Hunter)
Dylan T. & Eli - Orion (Hunter)
Mia, Elle & Elena - Virgo (Maiden)
Payton & Devon - Taurus (Bull)
Brooke & Maddie - Pegasus (Winged Horse)
Abby & Hannah - Leo (Lion)

Mitchell - Wildcat of the Week

Thank you to Janelle Rentschler, Mitchell’s mom, who came in to visit with us on Friday, April 24th. Janelle is a 5th grade teacher here at West Lyon. She talked to the students about some of the things they will be learning in 5th grade (US History in Social Studies - learn about many of the Wars) and how their day will be organized in 5th grade (only 2 recesses, specials in the mornings, opportunity to join band). She also stressed the importance of knowing their multiplication and division facts before they come to 5th grade!!! We would like to thank her for taking the time to come and speak to us!

Mitchell's dad, Tom, is a veternarian in Tea. He had come to speak to our class earlier in the year when we were learning about Body Systems (he talked about the body systems of some of the animals he works on). You can see pictures of his visit by clicking on "Older Posts."

The MOON

We did a couple of fun activities while we were learning about the moon - Moon pictures and Moon mobiles. We spent 2 days really learning about the moon (1 day on what the moon looks like and what its surface is like and 1 day on how the moon moves). We learned some very interesting facts on both days. Here are some of them:

* There is no water on the Moon (but scientists have found ICE in some craters!)
* There are about 500,000 craters on the Moon (one as big as half of the USA!)
* The moon is a rocky ball that looks gray w/ lighter patches (because there are plains, mountains and valleys on the moon).
* The moon may have originally come from the Earth (a piece that broke off when a meteor hit it).
* The moon is the brightest object in our night sky (but it doesn't make its own light - we see it because of the Sun's rays reflecting off of it).
* Four moons could fit across Earth.
* We only ever see one side of the moon (because of the way it revolves around the Earth).
* It takes about 1 month for the moon to revolve around the Earth (in fact, the word "month" came from moon).
* While the moon is revolving around Earth, we see different shapes (phases) - New moon, Crescent moon, Half moon, Full moon.
* The moon rotates on an axis.
* The moon is a satellite of Earth.
* If we wanted to drive to the moon, it would take 4 months (about 240,000 miles away) - but astronauts got there in 3 days!
* The first 2 people to walk on the moon were Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin in 1969.

Planets Research Project

Each student got to pick one of the 9 planets (counting Pluto - our "Dwarf" planet) to create a model of and research (some students also chose the Sun and the Moon). We learned about the planets in our Science books (Planets, Sun & Moon chapter), and the students also got to go to the computer lab to check out various websites to find facts about their planets. They then created posters about their planets as well as paper-mache models. Here are pictures of them with both their poster and their model. Can YOU tell which planet they have???

Sun - Eli & Korbyn
Mercury - Elle & Hannah
Venus - Devon
Earth - Kaysha & Kiana
Earth's Moon - Maddie
Mars - Monte & Carter
Jupiter - Abby & Elena
Saturn - Mia & Tanner
Uranus - Dylan S. & Payton
Neptune - Chayla & Brooke
Pluto - Mitchell & Dylan T.

Iditarod - Musher Journals

These girls chose to write "Musher Journals" for their Iditarod projects. They pretended they were rookie mushers racing in the Iditarod for the first time. They had to keep a daily journal of their experiences along the trail (much like Gary Paulsen did in his book, Woodsong).

Chayla B., Elle F., Hannah S. and Brooke R.