4th and 5th grade students beat the mid-winter blues with fun hands-on experience in science!
4th Grade Castle Projects
The fourth grade has recently completed the Castle Project. In tandem with our study of William the Conqueror and the Crusades, fourth grade students worked in groups to research the history and purpose behind castle construction during the Middle Ages. Students received a listing of suggested materials and required elements for the castle construction. Each group consulted several sources provided from the classroom and school libraries and made notes on specific details to include in their project. They also drew upon information from class discussions and class texts. Students had two history class periods for research and another to create a detailed aerial view /floorplan of their castle to submit for approval. Once approval was granted, students developed a materials list and assigned group members to provide various items. Construction began on the fourth day of the project. Each group was provided with four Pringle chip cans and brought all other materials from home, including an appropriately sized box and platform, glue gun, tempera paint, rocks, construction paper, small chains, and popsicle sticks. After three days of construction, students mixed sand with paint to cover the exterior walls of the castle. When all the details of towers, moat, portcullis, drawbridge, and gate were completed, students began to work on their oral presentations for the class. The fourth grade classroom became an active construction site for two weeks in order to provide students with a hands-on opportunity to engage history as they studied one the primary defense system of the Middle Ages.
Goldilock and the Three Bears Remix
Kindergarteners love retelling stories with props! Complete sentences and dramatic expression – sign these girls up for rhetoric!
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Kindergarteners love retelling stories together!
Practicing Ss with Sixes and Sevens!
WA Loves Reading!
How Does a Cell Work, You Ask?
Well, our 6th graders would love to tell you! They have been learning the components of a cell and the relationship of those components to each other. Mrs. Dormois uses a kinesthetic exercise to help cement the information for students. Each student is assigned a role, perhaps as tRNA or mitochondria or endoplasmic reticulum or the nucleus:
Then, as the cell comes to life, students representing energy and nutrients run from one part of the cell to another, creating the cyclical systems that allow our cells, and by extension us, to live.
Breaking News: WA Scientists Create DNA (out of candy!)
How Did You Spend Your Rainy Day?
WA loves reading!
WA Loves Questions!
You know those off-the-wall questions that children can come up? Out of the blue? WA loves those questions!
Mrs. Dougherty keeps track of those questions, encouraging students to do their own research and come back with answers. During their history discussion of the Aztecs, one 5th grader began to dig into the Aztec culture, asking all sorts of questions about their religion, their fascination with maize, and their fashion sense. Finally, he came up with a doozy of a question:
“Did the Aztecs wear popcorn for jewelry?”
Mrs. Dougherty encouraged him to do the research for himself. And he did. And to his, and everyone else’s, amazement:
THEY DID!
Westminster Academy 