Volunteering Opportunities

I think using volunteerspot will work well for us this year! I have added another sign up for the next two weeks. Here is the link and directions from the site:

Here's how it works in 3 easy steps:

1) Click this link to see our Sign-Up on VolunteerSpot: http://vols.pt/ZEC7xd

2) Review the options listed and choose the spot(s) you like.

3) Sign up! It's Easy - you will NOT need to register an account or keep a password on VolunteerSpot.

Note: VolunteerSpot does not share your email address with anyone. If you prefer not to use your email address, please contact me and I can sign you up manually.

Thanks very much in advance for supporting my classroom!

Volunteering in the classroom

Last week I tried Volunteerspot to organize volunteers for the first time. I think it worked pretty well, so I will be posting here and sending an email to folks with volunteering opportunities in the future.

Be sure to take a look and see if any of the times will work with your schedule. We love having you see and experience our class! Thanks in advance for any volunteering you may be able to fit in this year.

I wouldn't call it a book ban....

We have been together for about a month now. For the first month, I was letting anything go for reading (within reason of course!). However, it is time for us to get serious and so some deep thinking about our reading. Therefore, I have asked students to no longer read Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Big Nate, and other graphic novels without a continuous plot throughout the book. After we talked about it during reading class, the students understood and jumped onboard.

I am also asking students to finish a book a week (or week and a half). Therefore, it would be helpful if students read the same book at school and at home. This will also help them for 5th grade, bring home work and returning it to school the next day. Please be sure to contact me with any questions/comments regarding our new class reading policy.

Dragonfly nymphs...Where oh where are you?!?

We had a wet day for collecting dragonfly nymphs at Jordon Pond.  And, because of a very rocky bottom of the pond, we were not that successful at collecting the nymphs. :(  I think we all had fun anyway (and a story when we returned back to school).

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different nymphs (sorry it is upside down!)

Need some food before the collection begins.

And the collection begins!!

Be careful!! 

Learning proper collecting procedure

Starting to look a little cold...and they aren't even in the water yet!

Do you see any?

We were lucky to have the scientist from UMO, Sarah Nelson, who began this project with us today! She will be presenting the findings from last year at a conference next month.

And they are off!

We got one!

Classifying

Heading home!!!

Sand Beach Field Trip

We had a beautiful morning at the beach. We learned a lot about weathering and erosion, reading a topographical map (and creating one), and learned how glacier activity helped form the mountains on our island. We also saw some surfers and cheered them on when they caught a wave!

Surfers catching a wave!

What makes up the sand at Sand Beach.

Look at what the sand is made of!

Recording findings

What happens when we add vinegar to the sand?

Being waves!

Making our elevation map.

Checking out the different size of dirt!

Look at these monkeys!

Being Glaciers