What is Happening at School?

Being able to write at GT/RA begins in preschool. Students learn to grip a writing utensil, form letters, and begin to write familiar words such as their name. Preschool students attempt to read or pretend to read what they have written.

Mr. Girres has the transitional kindergarten class writing words that they can identify the beginning, middle, and ending sounds. They also use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose pieces. Below we see them at work and a few of their Santa letters.

Mrs. Jacobson's first grade class wrote narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use signal words to order events, and provide some sense of closure. The first grade students wrote about selecting, decorating, and taking down their Christmas tree.

4th Grade Students in Mrs. Klepper's classroom are learning about potential and kinetic energy. Students used coding to create a program on the computer. They also designed an experiment to learn about energy by measuring distance traveled by a match box car using different slope with their ramp. At the end of the unit students will use evidence to construct an explanation relating to the speed of an object and the energy of the object.

Mrs. Hunefeld's fifth grade students read the poem, "The Night Before Christmas" by Clement Clark Moore. They identified the similes, metaphors, hyperbole, and personification throughout the poem.

Middle school and high school students participate in an advisory daily. Students are arranged in small groups with peers from different grade levels. On Thursday's students participate in Circles. A question is posed to the group, a talking piece is passed, students speak and listen to their peers.

Mrs. Goodchild has the 6th grade social studies making interactive notebooks. Students are identifying the major and minor tectonic plates. This helps students construct geographical representations to explain regional and environmental characteristics.

Students in Mrs. Geelan's 7th grade literacy class are reading "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. They are using an interactive notebook to learn about the tone and mood of the story.

The high school foods class had their own episode of Chopped to complete the semester. Students were given one hour to make a meal with these ingredients: chicken, potato, apple, onion, cranberries, honey, and a sugar cookie. Students were assessed on the meal preparation, presentation of the plate, taste, and clean-up. Students had to think, problem solve, and create to complete this activity.