Upper Elementary Friday Newsletter- November 30, 2012November 30, 2012

November 30, 2012                                                              

 

Dear Families:

This week we were able to reflect on our school year.  We all have new goals as we continue to make progress academically and socially.  Today our assessments are in our folders.  Please keep the copy you’ve received and return the envelope so that we can reuse it in the spring.

We have started a unit on maps.  Many of us spent several hours thinking and coloring like cartographers.  For generations, mathematicians have argued about what the minimum number of colors would be to color any map.  This problem went unsolved until recently, when they put a computer to the task.  The computer, along with two mathematicians, Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken, at the University of Illinois, wrote a proof that shows the minimum number of colors needed to color any map.  The Scientific American October 1977 has an article on this. 

We are still enjoying books written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola , and from his biography we have learned that his liturgical mural at the Dominican Retreat House next door to us is one of two remaining murals in existence from his early years.  Most of his murals have been dismantled or painted over in the course of redecoration.  We can’t wait to visit.

We are studying the NASA space program and have begun to solve math problems related to the program.  The stack is everything sitting on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center.  Today we found structures in the world that are taller than the 184 foot stack.   We also found the latitude and longitude coordinates for designated abort sites if the shuttle had to end a mission.  Next week we’ll work on a space timeline puzzle.  We are also planning to launch our rockets Tuesday afternoon if the forecast is favorable!

For a music experience this week we sang several spirituals that were sung by enslaved Africans living in the American South.  Go Down, Moses, Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd and Swing Low, Sweet Chariot were all available on You Tube, so we were able to sing along.

On Tuesday, December 11, we will travel to the Schacht Theatre in Troy to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  More information will come home early next week. 

 

Have a great weekend,

Debbie & Crew