Busy, Busy, Busy....

We've hardly had time to come up for air here in the 5th grade! 

Our fifth grader's paired up with their Kindergarten buddies to write Valentine's Day cards to our veterans. Their collective kindness and thoughtfulness made us all proud. 

Students kicked off their extended President's Day weekend with the annual Valentine's dance, which consisted of plenty of smiling.....dancing...........

and strangely, mummies who seemed to appear out of thin air!

For the record, the last mummy above was voted "Best Mummy," but his identity will remain nameless, so as not to scare the living. Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking...

Earlier this week, our students were lucky enough to watch an example of true selflessness and social awareness when Brendan O'Brien, a member of this year's senior class, took off on his "Raise the Flag Run." Brenden ran for The Travis Manion Foundation, which raises money for veterans and families of veterans. Before he took off on his 15 mile run from our Edison campus to his home in Sayerville, our students were lucky enough to witness this true example of inspiration.

The students continue to work hard on their Capstone research and thesis papers. This process has not only been one of hard work and perseverance, but also one of generosity, as the fifth graders have been given a helping hand by several different groups from the Wardlaw-Hartridge community. 

Below, we see two of our senior buddies come and talk to the students about the Capstone process in general, and offered much advice during the Q and A session. Their pearls of wisdom were a huge help. Thanks guys!

Next, students were lucky enough to watch 8th grade group Capstone research presentations. It allowed them to not only view presentations first hand, but to also watch the 8th graders handle questions from our panel with aplomb, an experience that will no doubt help our 5th graders moving forward as they prepare for their own Capstone presentations!

Lastly, after our 5th graders were able to talk about and study earthquake proof structures built by the Upper School Stem class, (big thanks to Ms. Borzumato!!!), they got right to work on their own designs, which will be put to the test in two ways. 

First, using our earthquake shake table, each structure will have to withstand three different earthquake magnitude simulations. Secondly, they will be put to the test in five pound increments to measure strength. Sadly, we continue to add more and more weight until they reach their limits, at which point they will crumble under the weight of the earth's gravitational pull. Without giving too much away....here is a sneak peak at their designs!

More pictures of their progress is soon to follow, and many of them are already three stories high.

'til next time.....

What a blast!

Our unit of plate tectonics these past few weeks has been centered around volcanoes, specifically the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helen's in Washington.

After doing some topical research, students were exposed to an article and documentary that chronicled both observations and first hand accounts of the months and weeks leading up to that fateful day.

Once done, we then shifted to our study of topographic maps. 

Students were both exposed to their practical uses, as well as how to read them with respect to contour lines, index contour lines, contour intervals, steepness, identifying hills/mountains, valleys, ridges, liquid flows, etc.

Once finished, students were then able to map out multiple unique hike elevations using a topographic map. 

 Lastly, it was tied all together with our Mount St. Helen's lab, where students were able to create a 3D before and after model of the volcano pre- and post-eruption. 

We were able to see where it erupted, where the lava/melted ice and snow flowed, as well as the landforms its aftermath left behind.

Like they say...sometimes.....

The water's always changing, always flowing....

              Feast your eyes, as they did a fantastic job of bringing the volcano to life before their very eyes!

There were plenty of "ooohhhhs" and "aaahhhhs" all around as the 3D models began to take shape. The end result (besides the smiles of amazement) were eight amazing before and after models created by this great bunch of eager learners. Moving forward, I worry students may have to flip coins over as a means to decide who will assume ownership.

 You guys did a great job! It was a blast (pun intended)!

'Til next time....