The 12 hour Challenge

March Reading Madness starts today at 3:30! The students are tasked with reading as frequently as possible throughout the entire month of March.

Our 9-1 class is doing a special challenge...a "day of reading"! I am asking the boys to try to read for 12 hours this month, with each 30 (or more) minutes being noted nightly on the homework sheet by a parent. We will then display their name on a clock in the front of the classroom. Every student that reaches 12 hours will earn a book for their choice for independent reading and a book to be donated in their name to the Calvert School library.

Good Luck 9-1 Boys!

International Week Begins!

Hola! Today begins International Week with Spanish Day! We have loved learning new words and tasting the Spanish cuisine!

Tomorrow we celebrate Greek Day and get to experience a special Greek mythology presentation!

Ghana for Black History Month

The boys created Kente mats to learn more about the weaving performed by the Ashanti people in Ghana. While our mats were paper, the true mats are made of cloth. Notice the similarity between the colors incorporated in the mats and the colors in the flag of Ghana.

The boys also got to examine an instrument, a spear and an authentic mask from Ghana!

The Egpyt Game

Each of the students created a final project focusing on "The Egpyt Game" to share with their classmates. We created timelines, missing chapters and new characters, the 9th age reading students did a terrific job!

Science Quiz

One of our students has put together a quizlet for our next science quiz! Check out his notecards below. Remember to also review the review sheet and know different places where Celsius and Fahrenheit would be used to measure temperature ( example – checking the weather in Canada)

http://quizlet.com/4546136/science-quiz-notecards-flash-cards/

History Prezi 31-33

The link below will take you to a Prezi presentation that I have created for the history test. It is similar to a "powerpoint presentation" but instead of linear slides, the information is set up with moving visual connections. Let me know what you think!

The "more button" allows you to view the presentation in full screen, or to have the slides self-advance. You can also navigate through the slides using the arrow keys or the arrow button at the bottom of the slides.

https://prezi.com/secure/b8c41ccd1cc724a1e55397b0d8b8aa48517337bb/

We are partnering with a 7th grade advisory group once a week to work together during compositions. This week the partners worked on "Letters to Roxana", which many of the 7th graders remember completing when they were in 9th Age! We are looking forward to next week's visit.

Reading Buddies

Our reading buddies joined us for a reading class last week. Together we created "Wordle" masterpieces by focusing on important words from our 7th age buddies' most recent stories. Feel free to spend time on the wordle site, http://www.wordle.net/, working with the words clouds was a very exciting activity!

Super Bowl Pool Winners

We had four winners of our Super Bowl pool, two have selected to use a "recess" pass and two selected to "switch desks with the teacher".

History Test 31-33

Our next history test (31-33) is scheduled for Thursday, February 24th. Below is a link to the "quizlet" vocabulary notecards from the test.
http://quizlet.com/4441965/history-31-33-flash-cards/

Technology

We are working with a new website on Thursday during technology to explore an another style of expression. Feel free to spend time exploring it at home!

I created a Calvert image using words from our Calvert website and a silhouette image.

We look forward to sharing our creations with you!
http://www.tagxedo.com/

Chinese Acrobats

We had a wonderful time celebrating the Chinese New Year! The acrobats were incredible!

The acrobat below is balancing several glasses on top of a soccer ball, on top of a sword.

Wow!

Check out the video below, we had a wonderful experience!

Newest Student Blogger

Our newest student blogged below:

This week we made clay landform in geography, we also finished testing in P.E.! We are almost finished our play practices.

New Composition

As the boys have finished up their Martin Luther King, Jr. composition, we are beginning to focus on our next topic: Pandas!
We spent time looking at the "Panda cameras" at a variety of locations. Feel free to view from home. (Some are only available during specific time periods).
Enjoy!

National zoo: (scroll down)
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GiantPandas/default.cfm

San Diego:
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/pandacam/index.html

Several cameras, on one page!
http://home.comcast.net/~dreidel/pandacams/index.html