A Perennial Favorite - Native American Projects

How much do you know about Native American tribes - Creek, Cherokee, Iroquois, Apache, Navajo and others? You would know quite a lot if you had attended the third grade project presentation in March. Luckily for the library, some twelve students displayed their projects in the library for the month. The Native American display is always a perennial favorite and this year was not exception. Students shared what they learned about their tribe through hand-crafted pottery, woven items, models of various homes and many other means.

Country Reports Add Interest

On display in the library during February and March, fourth grade reports in Spanish gave interesting and colorful insights into the people, culture and geography of countries such as Cuba, Chile, Peru, Costa Rica and Spain, among others. Many students selected their home country as the subject of their inquiry and it was exciting to see the pride with which these students shared information and created beautiful illustrations for their project.

Circulation Figures Go Up, Up, Up

Wow! Books have been flying off the shelves this year . . . as of the end of March, our primary school students have checked out about 2,500 more books than they had as of the same time last year. As you can see from the photo, our younger students check out books and then look at more books while they wait for classmates before returning to class. Miss Pascale, Miss Birgit and Miss Sharon are so happy that the students are reading so much!

Fourth Grade Spanish Class Projects on Display

Fourth grade Spanish classes displayed their projects on various world faiths in the library during the months of February and March. Student groups created models of different types of worship environments, including the synagogue, church and mosque. Written reports about each faith accompanied the models.

First Stage of Accelerated Reader Challenge Achieved

In February, some 175 students earned bag tags evidencing their participation in the first stage of the Accelerated Reader challenge. Participating members of each team were awarded a tag with the logo of their team. As of February 15, the Ocean Team led with a point total that reached about 34.5 % of the overall goal for all team members. This total did not included points achieved by students in excess of their goal. Those points will be recognized at the end of the AR Challenge. It did include AR quizzes taken in English, French and Spanish as well as credit for Antolin participation by students in the German track.

Exhibition Shows Strong Results

Fifth graders completed their Exhibition projects on healthy lifestyles, investigating such topics as obesity, body image, drug use, exercise and emotional health. The students presented their projects to parents and faculty at the end of the unit. The projects reflected the students' learning on these topics as well as evidenced student understanding of the key concepts and themes of the PYP. Students had the opportunity to follow the inquiry cycle and practice their transdisciplinary research skills. Some student ideas for action included informing the community by means of a survey, creating hand balls for students to use as stress relievers and creating a painting to illustrate the ill effects of smoking.