Third Grade

Third Graders have begun our unit on inventions. They are very excited to get to work in the Lego kits on simple machines. We have talked about systems and will go over safe lab proceedures and the Wheel of Scientific Investigation and Reasoning. Our first experiment will be on friction and our first simple machines will be the screw and the wedge.

Fourth Grade

The 4th graders will finish up their research on an emminent person this week or next and we should soon begin creating a project to present their individual. The students completed their first Math Olympiad and although we didn't get a lot of points everyone had a strategy and attempted most of the problems. I was proud of their persistance.

Dream Rocket

Students last year were sponsored by the Huntsville Fiber Guild to participate in the Dream Rocket (www.dreamrocket.com ). Our panel was displayed in Alabama Constitution Hall (www.thedreamrocket.com/in-the-schools/item/447-chaffee-elementary-school?tmpl+component&print=1 ). We have now been awarded another panel sponsored by Lowe Mill. The panel is only 2 feet by 2 feet so I can't have that many students work on it. I need to decide which group will participate and which theme to address. If any parents would like to help out, I am happy to have help. The students really want to stitch, but they are unskilled and it is time consumming to rethread for them. I also will need some supplies since I have no budget for this.

Fifth Grade Robotics

Wish our 5th graders luck. On Friday December 3 and Saturday December 5th, the students will participate in the FIRST Lego Robotics. They have been learning to program the robot to complete missions as part of the competition (www.usfirst.org ), and they have prepared a presentation to address a body system problem. One group will present a comfort room for cancer patients and one group will present an innovation to help patients with prosthetics get up stairs. We got to visit Fourroux prosthetics and learn about the great innovations occurring right here in Huntsville.

Chaffee SPACE

Turning a new leaf. Today I begin to use this blog to communicate what is happening in SPACE to parents of Chaffee students. I certainly will appreciate any feedback since I am not sure what parents are looking for.
It is tough to know what needs to be communicated. Some parents are looking for more information than their child is sharing. Some parents are on overload, and just need to know what they need to do to keep their child learning. I don't have a good idea of who will even take the time to read this.
A brief summary of the activities occurring are:
3rd Grade-
Mystery of the Moli Stone (Numerical Systems)
4th Little Pig (Creative Problem Solving)
Inventions (Systems)
Mary Cook Center (Logical thinking)
4th Grade-
Math Olympiad (first test 11/18/2010)
Images of Greatness (giftedness)
Natural Disasters (Creative Problem Solving)
At the Mall (Algebra)
ABC Book of Me (giftedness)
5th Grade-
Math Olympiad (first test 11/18/2010)
FLL Robotics (competition December 3 and 4)
What Are Your Chances? (probability)
Learning contracts