Archive for the 'The Classroom' Category

Peabody’s Movie Theatre

Published by
Merriweather
at Jun 18, 2010 in The Classroom and The Workshop. 0 Comments

During the last week of school, Nettie and Peabody brought home a year’s worth of school projects. Here Peabody is holding his movie theatre featuring the diaster film “The Xsplozin.” The theatre is a shoe box with scenes drawn on a scroll. His summary of the scene here: “Some dudes are playing four-square and suddenly the ball is going so fast that it’s flaming. It shoots into the air and hits a plane. The plane crashes and then there is lightening, a tornado, rain and a tree on fire. Did I mention the tidal wave?”

To Kill a Mockingbird

Published by
Nettie
at Jun 4, 2010 in The Classroom. 1 Comment

Last week, my middle school performed To Kill a Mockingbird at the Live Oak Theater. I played Dill, which was an AMAZING part. Dill is very dramatic and likes to make up stories, so it was very fun to be him. I also enjoyed having the audience laugh at my lines, since I rarely get a funny part in plays. This was also my first time being a boy. Our set was three house fronts and their porches, a painted backdrop, and the Radley tree, which I helped to make. We used rough cardboard-y pots to make the trunk, and covered wooden poles with cellulite clay and gravel to use as the branches. It was the best part of the set. I also helped with gluing on the knothole, which sadly fell off in the second performance. The costume committee did great, as you can see from the pictures here. I wore a white button-down shirt, khaki shorts, black knee socks, black shoes, and my Spanish teacher’s dad’s cap, with the name “Alejandro Madrid” written inside. Everyone did wonderful, and all the performances were very fun! This was the best play I’ve ever been in, and I’m very sad it’s over!

Off to Mexico

Published by
Nettie
at Apr 24, 2010 in The Classroom. 1 Comment

Today my eigth grade class and I set off for El Molino, a camp in Erongaricuraro, Mexico. There we will attend workshops, such as weaving and animal care, and go on field trips with a school from Chihuahua. We’ll be back in one week and I’ll write about my adventure then!

Making a model Earth

Published by
Merriweather
at Jan 31, 2009 in The Classroom and The Laboratory. 0 Comments

Peabody’s class made tiny Earths with Crayola’s Model Magic. First they rolled a small red ball to be the inner core. Then they wrapped additional layers in different colors: yellow for the outer core, orange for the mantle and brown for the crust. He let it dry overnight and this morning we sliced it in half to reveal its cross section. Model Magic is also perfect for creating model cell’s like these. Although Nettie prefers Jello for her cells.

The Earth Goes Around the Sun

Published by
Merriweather
at Oct 29, 2008 in The Classroom. 0 Comments

With two other classroom birthdays last Friday, Peabody decided to have his Birthday Circle yesterday. In this ceremony, the student holds a small globe while orbiting a candle representing the Sun. The kids sing, “The Earth goes around the Sun, the Sun. The Earth goes around the Sun: One!” At a full revolution, the student stops and the parents tell a story from that year. The kids sing again and shout “Two!” for the second year. After making six orbits, Peabody blew out the candle and the teachers sent the kids off to the day’s first projects.

Stepping Up

Published by
Merriweather
at Jun 13, 2008 in The Classroom. 0 Comments

End of school week has been bittersweet for the Derringdos. Nettie is “stepping-up” to middle school and leaving the classroom and teachers she has had for the last three years. For graduation, the kids put on a short play where they took on the roles of totem creatures they selected earlier in the year. After the play, the younger classmates gave short speeches describing why the totem animals fit the student. Gifts have been given, pictures taken, and tearful hugs shared as we move into summer. We’re looking forward to a new season of adventures!

Evolution of Island Animals

Published by
Nettie
at May 15, 2008 in The Classroom. 2 Comments

Every year at our school, the 6th graders do a report, a year long project, (Otherwise know as YLP.) that we work on for most of the year. I chose The Evolution of Island Animals. It was really fun, and we did our presentations to the parents in April. For the first part, when I was talking about Darwin, I held up a little Darwin puppet and made him talk about himself. In this picture he is talking about the finches on the Galapagos Islands. You can see another picture of my posterboard version of Gondwanaland, (a supercontinent made up of Australia, North America, Antarctica, Africa, South America, and India.) and how I made Australia break off from it here.

Chinese New Year

Published by
Merriweather
at Mar 5, 2008 in The Classroom. 0 Comments

chinese-new-year-022.jpg

Last week, Peabody’s preschool put on a colorful Chinese New Year celebration. It started with two kids performing the lion dance in a class-made costume. After the dance, the students, paraded with paper lanterns and percussion instruments. They wrapped up with songs and dances (above). As they headed back to class, the students received hong bao (li see), red packets filled with a couple new pennies and good luck from their teachers.

Math Night

Published by
Nettie
at Feb 22, 2008 in The Classroom. 1 Comment

Powers of Three Cube

Every year, on the 100th day of school, is Math Night. Math Night is when you go to your classroom, and give a math or geometry mini presentation to parents that come to visit. Some examples are Test Tube Division, How to Make a Polynomial of Your Name, and Make a Nautilus. The work that I did was The Powers of Three and How to Make it Into a Chart. If you want to see more pictures and an explanation about this, go here. In the Lower Elementary classrooms, you make a 100 project, by collecting 100 things – anything – and then writing a piece on why you chose it, how you made it, etc… Usually the 3rd graders do 1000 projects. When I was in 1st Grade, I took 100 goldfish and put them into 10 lunchbaggys. In 3rd Grade, I took 1000 used stamps from all over the world and pasted them onto a board. We still have it!