January 28, 2011
Dear RiverRun Families,
It was nice to see so many of you on Thursday at the Family Meal the students prepared. Special thanks goes to Debbie Proulx for organizing the menu, shopping, and guiding the students in their latest cooking endeavor. A good part of our four-day school week was spent in preparing for the meal and sharing the meal with guests. Some students also entertained the guests with songs. After the meal, students who stayed at class participated in fun, educational games such as Battleship, Rush Hour Jr., Dominoes, Gears Work, and assembly of toy vehicles.
Students continued their activities with measurement and received new lessons about the Work of Air and weather this week. In PE today, the students wrapped up their tumbling unit by performing creative combinations of several tumbling skills in sequence (jump, roll, kick). We continue to gather information about New York State and this week we read about George Eastman from Rochester, NY. We learned about his life as a businessman and inventor, as well as his kind acts of philanthropy. The discussion of Eastman’s work in inventing smaller, portable cameras and film was a great introduction to our studies of inventions.
We started the invention unit today with exploration of balloon engine-powered paper airplanes. Next week we’ll be trying out various models of these and students have been invited to bring in any interesting-shaped balloons they may find at home for this purpose. During this unit, the students will be discussing problems that need fixing, things that can be improved upon, and other creative ideas for new inventions. We’ve asked them to begin gathering ideas and discussing such things with family this weekend. On Monday they can bring to school a list of ideas or a sketch of one (or more) idea or even a small model of an invention they’ve thought of. We’ll work with this topic all week and by Friday each student will be asked to submit a short description and sketch of their favorite invention idea. These ideas will be submitted to the Invention Convention program sponsored by the Schenectady Museum. Entry forms need a parent’s signature so the forms will come home to you on Monday. Please return the signed form to school on Tuesday. Once the entries are complete (by Friday) all entries for the class will be submitted as a group. We plan to take the students on a field trip to the Schenectady Museum in May when the winning entry models are on display there. You can go to http://www.crd.ge.com/invent/index.html if you’d like more information about this program.
Have a nice weekend, Nancy Adis and Amy Poole
Upcoming Dates:
Thursday, February 10th – 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. Gallery Showcase and Parent Education Night
Friday, February 18th – No School - Parent-Teacher Conferences
February 21-25 – No School – February Recess
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