We have just finished up the end of our first 9 week rotation. By looking back at our vision, we felt that we accomplished so much and now are prepared to move forward and tackle even more. After Thanksgiving, STEM will do a three week student led  problem based learning session. Mrs. Siemons will be introducing the students to new technology that they can choose to use in their project. This will be a fun adventure and the start of many more.

Here are just some pictures of from the last session of Earth Patterns where the students learn about the Earth's rotation and how it affects them. Probably the most surprising they learned was how a clock represents the movement of shadows from the Sun. I would love for us to build a Sundial.

STEM students learned about Photosynthesis. We ended our day with a spontaneous dance party. Science is so much fun!!

New STEM mini units!

Today we started our third and final rotation in our Earth Science Unit! This rotation will lead us right up until Thanksgiving break.

Government Kick Off

3rd, 4th, and 5th graders discussed why we have a government and what that looks like. We looked at the preamble to the Constitution along with the three branches of the government. We will be  starting a 3-5 Legislature. All students will be able to suggest ideas and with the help of the elected representatives, we may see some great changes coming soon. 

More pictures!

Drone Day!

STEM students had an amazing opportunity to suggest changes to their community and learn about drone technology too! The town of Fairfax is working with UVM to map the Main Street corridor as part of a study to make improvements. Students were able to see the drone and ask questions as it took pictures of our town. 3rd, 4th and 5th graders are also being asked for their ideas to improve our town. Some current ideas being suggested by students include.....

Bike paths, A public pool, Larger sidewalks, A stoplight, More maple trees, and a "Welcome to Fairfax"sign. 

                                               

In the Earth Patterns STEM class, we ended our three week session by using sundials outside and also seeing just how huge our Solar System is let alone the universe. It truly is amazing! The students also completed the CER which is a paragraph about their learning. First they made a claim, which had to do with the Earth patterns found in shadows. Then they had to share their evidence which was the data collected on shadow lengths throughout the day and their observations of the sundial. Finally they had reason or explain the "therefore" of this which is that the Earth rotates.  I was able to send home most of the students' house maps with their compass rose so they could determine where North, West, and South were in their house too.