Lower Elementary News
6/6/2010
Lower Elementary
Debbie and Kristy's Class Enjoy a Grasshopper's Game
Celebrate end of school at the ballpark
Students from Debbie and Kristy's class celebrated the end of a great school year at a Grasshopper's baseball game. It was a great day all the ballpark!
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6/1/2010
Lower Elementary
2nd Level Students enjoy their trip to Earthshine!
On May 19-21st, all of the 2nd level students from Lower El traveled to Earthshine, a lodge nestled in the Smoky Mountains. They participated in numerous activities related to the Lower El Great Lessons and a special quest designed by the Earthshine staff. In addition, they enjoyed free time on the slopes of the valley near Lake Toxaway, NC in the tall, tall grass and ate lots of healthy, locally
grown food.
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3/10/2010
Lower Elementary
Lower Elementary Field Trip Dates
2nd Levels travel to Earthshine May 19th - 21st.
3rd Levels travel to Sound to Sea May 19th - 21st.
Have fun!
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12/10/2009
Lower Elementary
French Club Makes Tarte aux Pomme - Delicious!
French Club students enjoyed making (and eating) delicious Tarte aux Pommes (apple tarts) with Isabelle!
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11/23/2009
Lower Elementary
Lower El Students Raise $758.96 for Kids Path Garden
GMS students give back to Hospice
On Friday, November 20th, students from Debra and Kaki's Lower El class presented a check for $758.96 to Sally Cobb, Horitcultural Therapist at Hospice and Palliative Care’s Kids Path garden. Students baked and sold pumpkin muffins and coffee at school to raise money for the Kids Path garden in honor of Debra's husband Nick who spent his last months at Hospice. Kids Path assists children who are dealing with the pain of losing someone they love and offers a place for healing, spiritual reflection and therapeutic play.
The funds raised by the children will be used to renovate the roof of playhouse structure in the Kid Paths garden. In addition to a new roof and addition of a structural beam, new activities will be built inside of the playhouse. In addition to presenting the check to Ms. Cobb, the children toured the garden and helped plant hyacinths and pansies.
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Thanks to everyone who helped make this fundraiser for Kids Path such a success!
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4/8/2009
Lower Elementary
Lower El Student Visits Primary Class
Anna Katharine Reports on Sea Turtles
Lower Elementary student, Anna Katharine, presented to Evelyn and Tracy's primary class. Anna Katharine, a student in Kaki and Debra's class, gave a book report on sea turtles. The primary students listened attentively and asked numerous questions about sea turtles and Anna Katharine's visual aid. Anna Katharine graduated from Evelyn and Tracy's primary class last year and graciously visited with her younger friends. We would like to thank Kaki, Debra, and Anna Katharine for their time and support.
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3/20/2009
Lower Elementary
Mary and Dave's Class Celebrate Carnival!
Students in Mary and Dave’s class studied the continent of South America this trimester. They learned about the geography of the area, the flora and fauna, important crops and exports, as well as the various cultures evident in each country.
One major event is the annual Carnival held in Brazil. Students prepared for their very own Carnival by learning to dance the samba, making costumes, and preparing food. Students spent hours in the kitchen preparing an authentic feast. Children, teachers, and parents played, danced and feasted as if they were in Rio. The class had an extraordinary day.
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3/17/2009
Lower Elementary
Dave and Mary's Class Visits the Natural Science Center
3D Omnisphere is Amazing!
Dave and Mary’s class recently took a field trip to the Natural Science Center of Greensboro. The children have been immersed in their study of The Time Line of Life and took time out to view the movie “Sea Monsters.” It was a wonderful way to help understand what the world was like millions of years ago. Plus, 3-D movies are cool!
The class also toured the animal exhibits, explored the museum, and had lunch in the park. Students returned with lots of new information to help guide their next research.
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Related Links:
http://www.natsci.org/planetar/omnisphere.htm
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3/17/2009
Lower Elementary
Cathy and Margaret's Class Study Prokaryote Bacteria
Cathy and Margaret’s students recently studied bacteria, with activities across the curriculum, including a hands-on microbiology lesson!
Using Petri dishes and agar solution donated by a microbiologist classroom parent, students chose various surfaces to swab. The most entertaining swab was the inside of Frank's ear! They streaked the agar with their swabbed samples, and in a few days results were in. Our microbiologist friend joined us to to view the cultures and give us further information on both helpful and harmful bacteria. Students also made models of cells and their different shapes and arrangements.
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3/17/2009
Lower Elementary
Cathy and Margaret's Class Study Prokaryote Bacteria
Cathy and Margaret’s students recently studied bacteria, with activities across the curriculum, including a hands-on microbiology lesson!
Using Petri dishes and agar solution donated by a microbiologist classroom parent, students chose various surfaces to swab. The most entertaining swab was the inside of Frank's ear! They streaked the agar with their swabbed samples, and in a few days results were in. Our microbiologist friend joined us to to view the cultures and give us further information on both helpful and harmful bacteria. Students also made models of cells and their different shapes and arrangements.
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3/16/2009
Lower Elementary
Debbie & Kristy's Class Studying Antarctica
Group projects, Science Research, Geography, Presentations, and More!
Antarctica was the focus of this winter's cultural studies, with activities across the curriculum. The class worked in small groups to research the types of penguins that inhabit Antarctica. They created posters to display their findings and presented the information to their peers.
Students also had an opportunity to view the 16 research stations located on Antarctica using the internet. Students learned that each research station is affiliated with a different country. After learning the name of each station, the children made flags representative of each country's station.
Parts of a Flag, a traditional Montessori lesson, was integrated into this portion of the Antarctic studies. After coloring and labeling the flags, the children made a salt map of Antarctica and inserted the flag poles at each station's location.
During our Antarctic unit, we also learned about food webs, the insulating properties of blubber, and that Antarctica is the world's largest desert!
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Related Links:
http://astro.uchicago.edu/cara/outreach/coldfacts.html
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3/9/2009
Lower Elementary
Kaki and Debra's Class Experience Indian Language, Music, and Food
Students are also enjoying their studies of invertebrates
One of our students, Chaitra, is from India. Her parents came in to talk about India and share books, writing, and music. They even prepared a few traditional Indian food items for us to sample for lunch!
Currently, the class is studying invertebrates and the children worked on models of different insects. They worked together in groups to research their insect, then presented their research.
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12/15/2008
Lower Elementary
Lower Elementary Families enjoy Stargazing Event
Lower Elementary students, along with their parents, siblings and teachers, gathered at the Land Laboratory earlier this week for an evening of stargazing. Everyone enjoyed dinner together and warmed up around the fire. Dr. Danford, head of the Astronomy Department at UNCG pointed out Venus and Jupiter and explained that their locations in the night sky will change over the next few weeks. He explained where to look for them later in the year. Students learned how to use telescopes and were able to see the surface of the moon. Dr. Danford explained why the surface varies in different places and talked about craters, lava plains, and highland areas.
Students also had the opportunity to hold a piece of a meteorite!
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2/24/2008
Lower Elementary
Take a Tour Through Europe
Cathy, Jenn & Margaret's Lower El class share the wonders of Europe
Cathy, Jenn & Margaret's Lower El class recently completed an ongoing project on Europe which culminated in Europe Day 2008. Parents and other Lower El classes where taken on a tour of Europe and it's culture via presentations from student groups.
The presentations were the final product of a five-week long study of European culture, geography, history, art and architecture. Groups of parents where ushered through the class in shifts. The audience browsed visual aids and posters and then listened to oral presentations by each student group. Samples of European cuisine and examples of fashion were also a part of the day-long show.
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2/15/2008
Lower Elementary
Brrrr, Penguins Bring the Chill
Recent sightings of large penguins in Lower El!
Recently, the students of Kaki and Debra's classroom presented their classroom project on penguins. The students have been working on this project for the past 5 weeks and the exhibit consisted of an indoor and outdoor presentation.
Outside, there was a penguin blubber simulator. The simulator was made so the person could feel as if they had blubber on their hand. The students also displayed their global warming project, diorama and their mini-Antarctica posters. Also seen were maps of Antarctica made of tin foil and bubble wrap.
The students demonstrated the climate of Antarctica by showing different types of ice formations in Antarctica surrounded by paper maché penguins they had constructed.
Inside the classroom, the students made their own Rock Hopper penguin masks to wear during the exhibit. Also, to go along with the masks, one student dressed as a penguin by putting 5 large layers of jackets to simulate the penguin’s blubber.
Another "Antarctic Area" in the classroom was "Save the Egg" on the computer. This game shows how to keep a penguin's egg alive. Over all the exhibit was very well put together and it showed the students hard work and determination to their work.
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12/7/2007
Lower Elementary
Biomes of North Carolina
The students in Kaki and Debra's class just finished their study of Biomes of North Carolina. Small groups presented all of their research to the class and then went on a field trip to the Museum of Science in Raleigh.
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10/16/2007
Lower Elementary
Lower Elementary Planet Walk
Students in several of the Lower Elementary classes took a walk across the solar system. We did this on Drawbridge Pkwy., the street that runs alongside our playground. The purpose of our planet walk was to demonstrate the relative size and spacing of the sun and planets.
Our walk started at the corner of Horsepen Creek Rd. and Drawbridge, where we placed our 8” diameter replica of the Sun. The children measured a distance of thirty feet and placed our Mercury replica, a pinhead, on the sidewalk. The walk continued until the last planet, Neptune, had been placed. The total distance from the Sun to Neptune was 2,331 feet.
The children were amazed to see how tiny the planets were compared to the vast distances between them. Classroom models of the solar system simply can’t communicate this concept.
If you’d like to learn more about the lesson you can visit the website below.
www.noao.edu
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10/15/2007
Lower Elementary
New Educator in Debbie & Kristy's Class
Sylvester Taylor Makes Debut as Game Master
In the beginning of the year, Sylvester Taylor (Noah’s Dad) indicated to Debbie and Kristy that he would like to volunteer in the classroom every Friday morning. This fit in perfectly with the class’s new schedule. Debbie and Kristy had been giving some thought to changing Friday’s routine, Friday being Friday, after all, to keep everyone engaged in their learning. One thought was to reintroduce free choice math. Each child is required to do a math work but they choose which material or operation they would like to work on. In the past, many of the math based games were popular choices but difficult for the teacher’s to monitor. They approached Sylvester with the idea of him becoming Game Master. Sylvester quickly agreed. Math with Sylvester made it’s debut in early September. Currently, they are playing Pizza Fractions. This is a wonderful game that offers multiple levels of learning. First Level students are learning about how parts make up a whole. Second and Third Level students are learning about equivalency. It is a delight to watch Sylvester at work!
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4/16/2007
Lower Elementary
Spanish in the Library
la Biblioteca
National Library Week 2007
Come together @ your library: celebrate National Library Week
Last week we celebrated National Library Week with "Spanish in the Library." Sandra and Lauri worked with Lower El classes on library vocabulary and conversation in Spanish. We shared many resources with the students that will enhance their study of the Spanish language.
A special thanks to Maribel Ramos for reading Spanish stories and to Dr. Joseph Aceves for sharing his Spanish Dictionary from 1899.
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2/19/2007
Lower Elementary
Dedication of our Peace Pole
special thanks to the Amend family
Our Valentines Celebration was marked with a special dedication of our new Peace Pole. we started this project at the beginning of the school year and quickly discovered the enormity of this project. We sent out a plea for help and Andrea Jung volunteered to come in and help place the word peace in thirteen different language around the pole. After this was done Eileen Wood , Ali’s mom, came to assist us in burning the words into the wood. We realized once again our expectations exceeded our capabilities and sent another plea for help. We were answered by a Knight in shinning armor Michael Amend and his apprentices Sir Matt and Sir Michael. We can not thank them enough for their gallant efforts. Come see our Peace Pole it is stunning!!!!! No less important in our efforts was our very handy handy-man Brian Talbert who was instrumental in the physical installation of the pole.
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1/31/2007
Lower Elementary
Middle School Students to the Rescue
Middle School Students to the Rescue
The Lower Elementary children think of our Middle School students as special friends and helpers. They rush to greet them on campus, love sitting with them in assemblies, and look forward to Study Buddy visits. Recently our Middle School students demonstrated again just what good friends they are.
One morning in early January, Lower Elementary teachers and students arrived to find water flooding the classrooms. Several of the teachers took the students outside for an unscheduled recess while the remaining teachers rushed to save valuable classroom materials from damage and to begin the cleanup. Within minutes, a group of Middle School students arrived in Lower El. They wanted to know how they could help. They gathered mops and buckets from across the campus and began mopping, moving furniture, and rescuing classroom materials. When one task was completed, they asked what else needed to be done. They gave up time they could have used for themselves to help their Lower El friends and former teachers. With their help, teachers were able to clean up, avoid damage to furniture and materials, and return students to their classrooms quickly and efficiently. If the older students hadn’t been there, we would have lost much more valuable learning time. Our younger students are lucky to have such loyal friends and great role models.
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1/5/2007
Lower Elementary
History
In Debra and Kaki's they are busy learning about time. How people marked time throughout history. They marked time with their bodies, creating the first human clock. We also made clocks with paper and stones.
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11/10/2006
Lower Elementary
Science Lessons in Lower Elementary
The Montessori Great Lessons Are Followed by Exciting Classroom Activities
The Montessori Great Lessons, which have recently been presented to the Lower Elementary students, generate many follow-up lessons, demonstrations, and research.
Cathy, Margaret, and Jennifer’s class just finished the study of sound. The children performed demonstrations to learn about sound and described the results on lab sheets. They listened to sound waves travel through water in a jar and from a metal rack through string. They also used sound to make pepper flakes bounce up and down.
Children in Kaki and Debra’s class are studying the properties of water. The children illustrated water tension by placing colored drops of water on wax paper and, using a straw dipped in liquid soap, learned to break the surface tension of the colored drops. They observed the water droplets suddenly break and spread across the paper.
Mary and Dave’s students have been studying the formation of The Earth. The children used sand and soil to create a large volcano. Its eruption was greeted with “oohs and aahs.”
Students in Debbie and Kristy’s class have been learning about the life and death of stars. They created timelines which included the nebula, red giant, white dwarf, black dwarf, and ended with black holes. They also studied the eight phases of the moon. The children created books showing the sequence of the phases.
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11/7/2006
Lower Elementary
Cider Making in the Garden
Cider Making in the Garden
Lower Elementary students recently discovered the joy of making and drinking fresh cider. Gardening classes took a break from tending to their gardening chores to participate in this traditional autumn activity. The cider was made in an antique cider mill as gardening instructors supervised.
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11/7/2006
Lower Elementary
Field Trip to Natural Science Center
After studying sound in the classroom, Cathy, Margaret, and Jennifer’s class visited the Natural Science Center to learn more about sound. While there, they also attended an exhibit on money.
In the sound lab an eyes-closed demonstration dramatically demonstrated the superiority of the children’s hearing to that of their teachers and chaperones. The children could easily hear sounds inaudible to the adults. The students also learned more about the speed of sound, sound waves, and witnessed proof that sound cannot exist in a vacuum.
A favorite spot in the money exhibit was the Kid’s Market, a simulated produce stand where children could take the role of shopper or cashier. The children also enjoyed designing and printing currency with their own faces on the bills. A simulated stock market game allowed students to experience buying and selling stocks. Finally, the value of a good education was demonstrated in an exhibit that allowed students to project their income as adults based on their level of education.
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11/7/2006
Lower Elementary
Authors Visit GMS
Bill and Mary Lavender, whose grandchildren attend GMS, recently visited the school to talk to students about the writing process. Bill is the author of a number of novels for young adults. Mary does the research for the books.
The students in Cathy, Margaret, and Jennifer’s classroom, where the Lavenders’ grandson is a student, were thrilled at the opportunity to meet and talk to a real author. They excitedly questioned the Lavenders about the life of a writer and convinced Bill to read passages from Aftershocks and Just Jane, two of his books that are being donated to the GMS library. At the close of the visit, the children were so inspired they could hardly wait to get back to their own writing!
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10/6/2006
Lower Elementary
Cherokee Field Trip A Success
Cathy/Jennifer/Margaret’s Lower El class is studying the cultural curriculum this year as it relates to indigenous people, mostly Native Americans. They began the year with a focus on the Cherokee people, researching the fundamental needs of people in a typical Cherokee village before the Trail of Tears and looking at the biology and geology of the region where the Eastern Band of the Cherokee still live today.
During the last week in September, the class participated in a 3-day/2-night field trip to Cherokee, NC where they stayed in a campground and visited several sites relevant to their study. They took an interpretive hike along the Oconoluftee River, visited the Oconoluftee Indian Village, viewed the Nikwasi Mound (a former Cherokee village site in what is now Franklin, NC), and learned about the legendary Cherokee Little People of Mingo Falls. In addition, the children visited a gem museum, mined for gems, waded in the river, and visited a virtual forest of river cane. The first, second, and third level students built community by sharing meals, tents, cabins, and songs around the campfire with the help of teachers and parent chaperones as well.
The students are continuing their research, incorporating first-hand experience into their understanding of Cherokee life and will expand their study of more native cultures throughout the year.
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9/21/2006
Lower Elementary
Preparations for Cherokee Trip
Students are integrating their study of animal groups and biome work to learn about the animals that live around Cherokee. We made posters of Invertebrates, Fish, Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals who are found in the Temperate Forest Biome.
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