Our Dreams for the World

Over the past few weeks, students in the Lily Pad have been working on creating a visual representation of a dream they have for the world.  Students read about the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and his famous dream for our world.  We then read a fabulous book put together by elementary students appropriately called We Dream of a World... After reading and discussing this book, students were encouraged to think of their own dream for our world.

They then looked up a fact or two about an issue related to their dream.  We used some of the websites found on under the tab We Dream of a World websites tab found on the homepage of this blog. These facts were included on their final project.

This book was published by Scholastic

Here are a few of the beautiful finished projects.

Properties of Minerals
In science this week students were given 4 minerals to describe using various properties. They recorded their observations about luster, color, texture, scent, edges, etc. in their science notebooks.

Students then learned about another property geologists use when identifying minerals: hardness.  Students learned that hardness is the resistance to being scratched. We practiced doing a scratch test using chalk and a ceramic tile first. They used 3 different tools: their finger nail, the penny and a paper clip.

 They then used these tools on the four different minerals: Calcite, Gypsum, Fluorite, and Quartz. They recorded their findings on a chart in their science notebooks and then ordered the minerals based on hardness ( a special property of minerals.)

Measuring Perimeter
Students traveled through various stations this week exploring area and perimeter.  They had to measure a mysterious polygon that appeared on our carpet (correctly identified by Gryphon as a nonagon), use geoboards to build various rectangles with the same perimeter and did a tiling activity with pattern blocks.

Twin Day
Student council sponsored another school-wide spirit day...Twin Day!  Here are a few of the twins from the Lily Pad.

Adjective Frames
In writing we explored a bit more about adjectives and created adjective frames for our classroom wall.  Each frame has 15 or more adjectives about each person and frames the student's face.

Upcoming Events:

• Valentine's Day Party on February 14.  A note went home on Friday detailing the party and with a list of the students in the Lily Pad.
• Dream Camp Group B meets on Tuesday