The children in k3 will do a unit on taking care of their pets. They planned a field trip to Pet Land at the end of the month. This week they will talk about animals that live underground, like the groundhog. They plan to go outside to see if they see their shadows.   If they see their shadows, that means six more weeks of winter.

In Mrs. Janet Johnson’s K4 class they had a great time at the 1^st annual snowball fight with K3, fun was had by all. They are excited about celebrating groundhog day with cupcakes and wearing groundhog headbands.

Mrs. Johnson’s kindergarten class has had so much fun learning about nocturnal animals. They read some neat books about bats, owls and raccoons.

They also made a bat necklace, a paper plate owl and a raccoon puppet. Each student made their prediction for Groundhog’s day, and then watched to find out if the groundhog did or did not see his shadow.

First graders have been very busy learning all about space in Science. They have studied the sun, the moon, the stars, and the planets. They have done experiments to find out what makes day and night and why the moon shines in our nighttime sky. They will enjoy the final day of this study on Friday as they travel with the second graders to the Planetarium to see stars up close and personal.

The second graders have been learning about measuring capacity this week in math.  They compared the capacity of cups, pints, quarts, and gallons.  To aid them in remembering these capacity comparisons, they had fun making “Gallon Gals” and “Gallon Guys” and displayed them in the hallway. 

Second grade students are also looking forward to a trip to the Planetarium at the end of the week to kick off a unit on the universe.

Have you ever gone to a garage sale and bought something you didn’t need? The third graders this week learned just how easy it is to spend and then have nothing in return. The story, “Alexander Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday” helped to teach them the value of money and the concept Opportunity Cost.

The third graders also learned the differences between needs and wants. We want a lot, but we really don’t Need everything that we think we want. Maybe we could all save more if we made better decisions.  Happy Savings!!

The Fourth Grade has been studying measurement . They put their knowledge to good use by doing scale drawings and a scale model of the H L Hunley, the first submarine to sink an enemy ship during war time. The model is about one fourth the size of the actual submarine! Students also put their measuring skills to work in a measurement lab where they worked with linear measure ,weight , volume , area, and capacity. Fourth Grade is getting in the Valentine mood by making heart mobiles for their February book reports.

The 5^th grade is reading the novel, The Report Card, by Andrew Clements. It has lead them to have many discussions on grades, name-calling,  and labeling someone as “smart” or “dumb”. The students have also been preparing for a 50 capital/state test in History for the last month. They have especially enjoyed playing BINGO to review the capitals because the prizes were a Homework passes. Wish them luck as they take their test today!

The sixth graders were excited to watch the movie on Sunday night on ABC called “A Smile as Big as the Moon”.  They were able to see how children cope with dyslexia, autism, and downs syndrome, three disorders that were studied in science.  But the highlight of the movie was to see that is was filmed at Space Camp in Huntsville, AL. They were excited to see some of the simulators that they will be experiencing, and knowing they will be there in April.

Elementary Spanish students celebrated winter birthdays.  They also begin learning about the weather. Younger students read El Día Nevado while older students learned seasonal weather phrases.