Word of the Week- 10/25/2010

In honor of the haunted gym, the word of the week is:

 eerie 

Eerie means creepy or causing fear.  The house on the top of the hill was eerie in the moonlight.

Word of the Week 10/18-10/20

The word of the week is:

MASSIVE


Massive means very large or enormous. 
The high ceiling was held up by massive pillars.


Have fun using this word throughout the week!

The Enrichment Challenge

Today an enrichment challenge was sent home to students in each classroom.  Each student received their own personal scorecard, which will be used for tracking their completion of enrichment activities. The enrichment challenge is a year long, individual challenge!

The enrichment challenge is intended to provide activities in a variety of intellectually stimulating areas.  Students will have the opportunity to perform tasks in areas of strength and interest, and also try NEW things!

I would like to encourage everyone to look over the challenge scorecard, and TAKE THE ENRICHMENT CHALLENGE!

I would love to hear about progress towards completion of these enriching activities!
Have FUN!

Word of the Week 10/11-10/15

The word of the week is:
 ACCUMULATE.

Accumulate means to collect, gather or pile up.

Leaves accumulate on the ground in the Fall.

Word of the Week-Introduction and Purpose

One of my goals as the enrichment teacher is to provide school wide enrichment activities that impact daily classroom routine minimally, but deliver enrichment to our students.  With this goal in mind, we have created a school wide 'Word of the Week'.  

The expansion of vocabulary is beneficial and accessible to all students, and the usefulness of rich vocabulary will be seen in writing and verbal communication as well as reading comprehension.   

We  will select a new word each week.  The word will be announced in the Monday morning school announcements, accompanied by a school display in the front lobby, posted on my blog, and distributed to teachers in advance for their use during morning meetings or vocabulary discussions.

I would like to encourage family members to ask their students about the word of the week.  Try to help students practice the word and verbalize it in as many contexts as you can think of!  

If you have any questions or ideas/comments about the Word of the Week, please let me know.

Volcanoes!

At the end of today, I worked with two classes of third graders to create volcanoes! 40 students and 10 volcanic eruptions!

The third graders  have been studying these awesome geological phenomenons during science/geology and this was a great activity to ignite their enthusiasm on this topic.  We used the art room as our staging area (easily cleanable floors) and began with each group labeling their volcano.  Next students used simple household ingredients to create the volcanic eruption.

Students were enthusiastic and excited about this task, and I think it was very memorable!

Want to make your own volcano at home? Here was our method:

Materials (per volcano):
Half a sheet of poster board
small margarine container
2-3TBSP of baking soda (per explosion)
1/4- 1/2 cup of vinegar
1tsp of clear dishwashing detergent (thickens and slows initial reaction)
a few drops of red dye
1/4 cup of water
(newspaper to cover table and catch the 'lava')

Directions:
1.  Create a cone with poster board that is free standing and can support the margarine container in the top.
2.  In the margarine container place water, food coloring and dishwashing soap
3.  Spoon in baking soda and stir
4.  Pour in vinegar and stand back!

Have fun!