PreK

This week Preschool began a water and recycling study. We talked about where water comes from, what water is used for, and who needs it. Recycling keeps our earth clean and helps keep our animals, plants, and people safe!

Kindergarten

The Kindergarten students in Ms. LaGiglia’s class, with help from Ms. Ashlynn our student intern, learned about persuasive writing and community service this week. They recognized that there is no place to put  trash on the playground that they find during recess. As a class, they composed a letter asking Mr. Pagnard for help in getting a trashcan to keep our playground clean.

First Grade

Van Buren first grade students are learning how to code using Scratch Jr. Students are going to use Scratch Jr. to write a story that they will share with their class. One student said, “I love Scratch Jr.”

Second Grade

This week we have been working on opinion writing. Today the students wrote their opinion about their favorite snack. The students have a variety of favorite snacks of candy, fruit and chips. It was fun to see and read all about their favorite snacks and what made it their favorite. 

Third Grade

Third graders working hard on informational writing and reviewing for their ILEARN tests next week. 

Fourth Grade

Who says you have to sit in your seat to do school work?? Not fourth graders! We took advantage of the nice weather this week to do some of our work outside and we played Scoot in the classroom as we practiced decimals. We also had a few more students pass their math facts on XtraMath.

Fifth Grade

5th graders are having fun learning about the Constitution! Today we learned about the Bill of Rights! Students interpreted them and drew pictures to represent! Great job!

STEM

This week 4th graders created a miniature amusement park ride. Their goal was to create a ride that was fast and fun. However, they had to save riders from the ferocious alligator at the end of the ride. To do this, students explored how they could transfer energy the best. They had to give the ride as much energy as possible to start with, but find ways to quickly reduce the energy at the end to keep the ride from going into the alligator’s place of eating. They used marbles to help slow the ride down at the end. It was an awesome experiment and students learned even more about energy. This week they also learned more about energy in the body.

The week 5th graders continued to learn about our solar system. We spent some time outside a few times this week. We went outside and used chalk to make a scale model of our solar system. We also took the sundials out that we made and students used it to tell the real time. We even let them set a while to see how the time changed. Our modern day clocks are based on these original shadow clocks that really tell time. They are also very accurate. 

STEM Student of the Week: Axl Kinnaird

Axl has been working really hard lately. He has been very engaged and focused. Curiosity is something that Axl shows a lot. He has honed in on using this curiosity to help him learn. We have loved seeing Axl grow and blossom in our school.