Geek Dad Day - June 17th

The latest issue of Wired magazine had an excellent article by 'Mythbusters' host Adam Savage featuring some fun projects to build with your child. Just in case it's raining on Father's Day I thought I would share the link with you http://www.wired.com/geekdad/geekdaddaypackage/ 

MS Technology - Websites are finished!

The Middle School students have finished their websites. Using the Microsoft Expression Web program they had to design and build a website from scratch, taking either the Revolutionary War or Body Systems as their subject matter. You can view the results of their labors at http://www.mrsmorlidge.com/Student%20Work.htm

3rd Grade Technology

Taking a break from the English-Spanish Dictionaries they have been working on in Publisher, this week students used their Technology time to create covers for their State Reports and to finish the research they have been doing for the reports. For this latter task they used the Netstate and 50States websites which you will find links for on the Social Studies page of www.mrsmorlidge.com

4th Grade Technology - Lego Animations

Fourth Grade are in the production stage of their animations. This week they started photographing their sets and characters. Next week they will finish taking the photos and then upload the photos to the animation program we will be using, Frames 4.

Second Grade Technology Star!

We reached an exciting milestone this week - Olivia became the first Second Grade student in the history of CHA to complete Type to Learn 3. With her classmates cheering her on she completed the final mission today. Well done Olivia! 

Jeopardy Review Game in Spanish

Last week Fourth and Middle School students reviewed for the Chapter 1B test through a game of Jeopardy in Spanish class. They needed to work in teams to write down the answer to the question to earn points for their team.  They love playing Jeopardy as a review game!

Spanish- Zoo Animals in 3rd grade

Third graders have been learning the zoo animals in Spanish and this week listened to the book "Oso pardo, Oso pardo, Que ves ahi?" (Brown bear, Brown bear, What do you see?).  They have started making their own zoo animal designed Brown bear books in Spanish.  They also shared with me their favorite zoo animal in class by writing "Mi animal favorito es..." and drawing their a picture of their favorite zoo animal.

La ropa (Clothes) in Spanish

Second grader students started learning the clothes in Spanish two weeks ago, and this last week began looking through magazines to find pictures of clothes to add to their projects.  They cut the clothes out and are labeling them in Spanish!

2nd Grade - Classical Musical Chairs

 2nd Graders enjoyed a post-musical 'soiree' with a game of Classical Musical Chairs. To help prepare for the game, students studied some well known composers and works for orchestra. Some of the favorites seemed to be "The Aquarium," "An American in Paris," "Dance of the Knights," and the very infamous "Duet for 2 Cats."

Teamwork in PE!!

This week is all about teamwork in PE!!  Fourth graders work together to save the "Space Medicine" in this cooperative skills activity.

2nd graders are having so much fun painting on canvases for our 'Not So Ordinary Birds'

After we read a book called 'Ice Cream Cone Coot and Other Rare Birds' by Arnold Lobel

we created Not So Ordinary Birds out of Ordinary objects last week.

This week, we created the background for our birds.You can see their amazing creations at the Art Show!! ( Friday, June 1st, 2012 from 5:00pm to 6:00pm)

Fourth Grade Technology

The students have been waiting all year to get started on their Lego Animations and at last we are ready! This week the students got sorted into teams, started thinking about their characters/plots/settings and got to explore my Lego box for inspiration. I have said they can bring their own Legos to school in a named ziploc bag - please no big, expensive models! If you haven't seen a Lego animation before, here is an example that I shared with the students.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=tox6gS4B5Iw&NR=1

 I also shared with them that I am looking for a plot with a beginning, a middle and an end - not just random action scenes!

First Grade Technology

First Grade students have been teaching Bee-Bot (a Bee Robot) how to spell! The aim of this is to introduce the students to the Logo programming language created by Samuel Papert at MIT as a tool for teaching sequencing, estimation and problem-solving. Students first created sequences of instructions (left, right, forwards, backwards) on the computer, and then entered the program on the BeeBot.

Recital Time!

Last week over 50 students performed at the annual CHA Music Recital. It was great to hear so many great performances and such a variety of music!The students were fantastic both onstage and as audience members as well. Bravo!

Fourth Grade Advertising Campaigns

Fourth Graders have spent the last two weeks preparing for their advertising campaigns. This week, we watched some pretty silly commercials, listened to some catchy jingles, and looked at some very creative logos.

K--Other Rare Birds

 One Tuesday afternoon, one of the Middle school students visited Kindergarten Art class and read a book called ' The Ice Cream Cone Coot and other rare birds' by Arnold Lobel. After the story, we created these beautiful birds out of paper cups, mini cupcake cups, tissue paper, and feathers.

Drums!

Students have been exploring and jammin' on the drumset. It's great to see what each student will do on a set of drums when given the chance! We talked a bit about the various parts of the instrument and upper grades learned a basic rock beat. Basically, 8 notes in the right hand, and the left hand hits together with the right on counts 3 and 7. Also, the famous 'We Will Rock You' beat seems to be a fan favorite.

Feliz Cinco de mayo!

Since Cinco de mayo falls on a Saturday this year, all the CHA students are celebrating early (Wed, Thurs, & Friday).

Students have learned that Cinco de mayo is NOT Mexico's Independence Day (Mexico's Independence Day takes place in September), but that it is a celebration of Mexico's victory over France in the Battle of Puebla.

Classes celebrated by eating some cultural food (churros or chips and salsa), and hitting a pinata that was made by the 4th and Middle School students.  All students have really enjoyed the Cinco de Mayo celebration!  FELIZ CINCO DE MAYO!!!!

Students finished painting and decorating their pinatas, maracas, or sombreros last week, in order to get them ready for Cinco de mayo celebrations this week!  This week students learned about why Cinco de mayo is celebrated in the Hispanic culture, along with the historical events and culture events that take place in May.