Our Final Days of DASH

Trying to cut and write with our non-dominant hands

With fifth grade comes the last unit of DASH presented to Topsfield students.  This year, students worked through physical disabilities.  The first week was centered around fine motor disabilities, with various simulations in the classroom.  It may look like all fun (and there is some fun involved), but students take away a greater understanding and appreciation of how people can be different yet capable of the same things. Isn't it a great and wonderful thing that we are all different?

Learning about various tools that someone with a disability might use and how they work.

Using a communication board requires a lot of concentration.

Trying to get dressed without the use of our hands.

Students also tried out various equipment for gross motor disabilities during their gym class. While it looked like fun, most students quickly realized how difficult it was to carry their book bag or their lunch while using the crutches or wheel chairs.

Looks easy, but trying carrying a backpack too.

Getting dressed and up and about when you can't move your leg.

Trying out the crutches.

Thank you to all the volunteers that helped with DASH this year.  It couldn't happen without you!

Four square with just one hand.

Strawbery Banke Visit

The weather was perfect for our field trip last week to Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  Thank you to TESPTO for underwriting the trip.  We spent the day at this living history museum just a few blocks from downtown Portsmouth.  Traveling back and forth in time, we explored the houses, hobbies, and lives of the immigrants that moved to this neighborhood.  The students particularly enjoyed trying on the clothes of colonial children, commenting that there were so many layers to put on.  They also considered what it would be like to come to Strawbery Banke when they assumed the roles of various immigrants to the area, from Irish servant to colonial slave.  I encourage you and your families to take another visit to Strawbery Banke to find out even more about this little local gem.  Check out the website at www.strawberybanke.org

Watching the meals being cooked.  That's a tray of dried pumpkin
which can be reconstituted with water.

The baseball hat is a bit out of time.

Dashing!

This was a favorite coat for the young men.

Smiles!

There was still another layer to put on.

Ahoy, mates.  Outside the woodworking shop.

Cardboard Challenge 2015

Another great year of the Cardboard Challenge!  Inspired by the YouTube video "Caine's Arcade", our 5th grade students, under the direction of Jen Larussa in the CLIC lab, designed, redesigned, and built their own cardboard creations.  Working in teams, they had to agree on a concept and then construct it.  Sounds simple, but it is always fascinating to me to watch how they grapple with the design problems that arise, not to mention how to work as a team.  Bringing their ideas to reality is no easy feat.  Here are just a few excellent examples of that creativity from our classroom:

All in all a really great afternoon of creativity.  Amazing what a little cardboard and duct tape can let loose.

Writing and Reading and Thinking About Einstein

On Friday afternoon, our class had a visit with the author Mark Peter Hughes.  Mr. Hughes is the author of several teen and tween novels, including Lemonade Mouth (which some students recall as a Disney movie) and A Crack in the Sky (of which we received a copy during his visit).  You can find out more about Mark Peter Hughes on his website www.markpeterhughes.com .

We were able to learn many things about writing during our seminar with Mr. Hughes.  As we are just starting our personal narratives, he gave timely advice on how to "show not tell" in our writing.  He told us encouraging stories of how he had to work at his own writing, sharing the first draft of one of his published books and the revised final result.  It was good for students to see that Mr. Hughes completely revamped his approach to the story.  If a professional writer has to revise, so can a 5th grade writer.  We were also able to practice using our five senses to write short passages.  Thank you to TESPTO for bringing Mr. Hughes to Proctor School.

We have also begun the Global Read Aloud for 2015.  This year we are reading Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt.  We've only read a few chapters together, but the students are making connections and beginning to relate to the main character.  What an exciting concept to be reading the same book as the rest of the world!

"Everybody is a genius.  But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." -- Albert Einstein

Welcome Back!

It's hard to believe that we have only been in school for four days!  The students have adjusted nicely to expected routines and are getting more and more comfortable in our classroom (despite the heat!). We have jumped right in to our first unit of math, learned how to switch classrooms for science and social studies, and selected "good-choice" books from the classroom library to keep in our desks.  I am still adjusting to a new room arrangement, but I've been told that it makes the room seem bigger.

We will grow and learn so much this year.  I am excited to be a part of this journey with your students.

Topsfield Food Pantry

With summer coming, it's difficult to believe that some families may find themselves without adequate food at this time of the year.  It seems as though everything is bursting back to life, things are growing, but in reality, this is a time of year when many food pantries find the stock on their shelves diminished as scouts who collect food are on hiatus for the summer, the churches who collect food may have fewer people in the pews, and other organizations find their members away on vacations.  Because of that, we are holding a food pantry collection at Proctor School until June 10.  Our classroom has a box set up ready to collect donations.

     I talked to the students briefly the other day about what they might do to collect food.  Sure, they can ask for a can from your pantry or for an extra box of cereal at the grocery store.  But wouldn't it be more meaningful if they had to contribute to getting that food, making them realize that food does not just magically materialize on the table?  I suggested that they earn each food donation by doing some small chore around the house.  Empty the dishwasher, get a can of soup.  Weed the patio, earn two boxes of macaroni & cheese.  Whatever chores and rewards work for you and your family.  I would love to hear from them about what they did to earn their donation to the pantry.

Our Visit to Concord

     We had a great day for a field trip!  Although the bus was crowded, Mrs. Salomon's class, Mrs. Nicholson's class, and our class all made the trip to Concord this past Wednesday.  Even the rain held off for us.  At the Concord Museum, our docents were very impressed with the level of knowledge that our class had about the various townspeople of Concord and their roles in the events of April 19, 1775 as each family was introduced.  We visited a few rooms of the museum (didn't get a chance to view Ted Williams' glove--maybe next time) where we learned about the value of tea and the part it played in bringing about the start of the American Revolution.  We saw one of the lanterns used by Paul Revere and his cohorts on their famous ride.  After the museum, we traveled to the North Bridge to learn more about how the colonial militia faced the British Regulars as they approached from the center of town.  I think that the students were particularly awed by seeing where "their person" lived.  Our class even met a "real live Tory", Mrs. Ingram.  After a quick lunch, we headed back to the Concord Museum to participate in a debate about whether or not Harvard College students should be relocated to Concord to allow space for the local militias to all gather in Cambridge to train.  In all things, the students represented Topsfield and Proctor School very well.  Even when they were playing Museum Guard while waiting for the other classes to finish their activities.

 Hearing about who is buried in the Hill Burying Ground

 Walking from the center of Concord back to the Concord Museum











We learned that there are many very old houses still standing in Concord.  Do you know what a boot scrape is?

Nothing like a good game of Museum Guard to end our trip!

Toilet Paper Solar Systems

We have been amazed!  Recently, we began our science unit on astronomy.  Over the past few days, students have been grappling with the size of our solar system, not to mention the magnitude of the universe as well!  It's hard to believe, but if the sun is 1 cubic centimeter, Pluto would be over 42 yards away.  Now imagine that within that 1 cubic centimeter sun, there are 1,300,000 Earths!  That would make Earth pretty tiny, indeed.  And yet, we have the ability to conceptualize all of this in our brains.  Wow.

Using an algorithm developed at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, students made a scale model of our solar system using toilet paper...over 42 yards of it.  A completed model, with that 1 cubic centimeter sun, stretches from the school office door to the school kitchen (when you include Pluto).  Working together, students had to calculate the distance between the planets and measure on their toilet paper solar system using metric values to place each planet.  Probably more challenging was the fact that students had to engineer a solution to working in the small space of our classroom to create their entire model.  Students quickly realized that rolling up what they had completed of their system saved space for everyone.

Now you know why we needed all that toilet paper!

Measuring and working among everyone else

Folding to make measuring meters more efficient

Even making it work in really small spaces

Everyone in on the act

Vroom! Engineering Race Cars

What a fantastic couple of days we have had.  Over the past few days, we have been working on a mini science unit on force.  We learned about the forces of drag, friction, and gravity and how they might be involved in designing a fast car that can go straight.  After doing a little research and discussing how the forces might work together, it was time to build our cars!  The students were able to decide how they could balance the weight of their cars and where they could use friction in their designs.  After some tinkering (otherwise known as redesigning in the engineering process), several students were able to make their cars go straight...and fast!

And the build begins! 

Testing the ability of our cars to travel straight and fast.

After a little redesign, another car has a straight ride.

And here's something great!  After the students completed their cars, they wanted to continue to redesign them in various ways, even working through recess to test them.

What to Do?

I hope that everyone is enjoying this snow.  I love the beauty of it, but I admit, I am beginning to feel like I want to and need to get out.  I'm ready to be back in the classroom.

That being said, I have discovered an opportunity for exploration not too far from home.  In the old mill buildings of North Andover, a new hive of activity has opened.  The Maker Mill ( www.themakermill.com ) is open and ready for play and learning.  This open concept learning center is offering drop-in courses, as well as week long programs during February break and summer vacation.  Check out their offerings.

Another learning place, not too far from Topsfield, is the Essex Art Center.  Located in an old mill building at the southern edge of Lawrence, this non-profit organization offers weekly after school classes, as well as programs during the February break.  See what they have to offer at www.essexartcenter.org.

If staying closer to home is more appealing, have your students fill spray bottles with colored water and create a snow mural that they can post on their Kidblog.

Stay warm.  Stay safe.