What's Up at St. Mark's? 4-14
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA["…We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus…" II Corinthians 4:14
Preschoolers and Kindergarteners learned about the Emmaus disciples for their Bible story this week. They are all starting to create a large spring mural on the wall between their classrooms. Spring is a good time to study the wind and its effects. The PreK 3's did this by making small kites, which also reinforced their math knowledge about the rhombus since that's the shape of a kite. PreK 4's and Kindergarteners went online and looked at modern windmills. PreK 4's were introduced to the letter J and Kindergarteners worked on J pages for their books. They all read about Jungle Jim the jellyfish who ran into Jello with a jolt and a jerk! Preschoolers and Kindergarteners all really enjoyed the egg drop by 2nd and 5th graders last Friday. Preschoolers are very happy to have been given a computer for their room. They used it for math games. There are new pictures of Preschoolers and Kindergarteners on their website.
First grade enjoyed hearing the Easter stories in the week after Easter. We heard how the tomb was visited by the women and Peter and John, and how Thomas didn't believe that Jesus was risen, and then did believe. We also had the chance to sing Easter hymns in music. It's fun to celebrate Christ's victory over sin, death, and the devil.
In math we are learning new addition facts. We also learned how to add three numbers, and used our Easter bunnies to help us compare. We found out that Megan had the biggest bunny, and Dalton and Samantha had the smallest bunnies. Megan's had the longest ears (9 1/2 inches), and Dalton and Samantha had the shortest bunny ears. The longest bunny legs were Megan's (7"), and then Dalton (5"). Dalton had a small bunny with very long ears and legs. Five children had short bunny legs, only 2": Adrienne, Adison, Casey, Claire, and Samantha. We also practiced using rulers to measure.
Each 2nd grader made some form of protective packaging for a raw egg. These creations, together with those of the 5th grade were dropped out a Latchkey window on Friday morning as the rest of the students in the school held up signs to predict which eggs would break. Everyone had a great time!
3rd and 4th graders have been working with poetry. This week they listened to some silly songs and wrote their own rhyming verses. They then illustrated their verses and shared them with the PreK and K students. 4th grade adapted the couplets in the song "Down By the Bay". Below is some of their work:
Have you ever seen...
...a flower with power?
...a hog kissing a dog?
...a daisy going crazy?
...a mouse wearing a blouse?
...a rat playing with a gnat?
...a duck driving a truck?
3rd grade adapted the song "Fooba Wooba John". Below are their silly sentences. Can you find the 3 rhyming words?
I saw the sun eating a bun because it was fun.
I saw the duck chase the buck through the yucky gooey muck.
We saw a mouse chase a grouse all around the house.
I saw a door do a chore on a sandy seashore.
5th grade wrote and decorated essays about Easter break using Microsoft Word. The class participated in an "egg drop" out the 3rd floor windows with the 2nd graders. Eight students' eggs didn't break! Everyone had fun! We also learned about the three branches of the government using fun visuals and videos.
6th graders are finishing a unit on the Renaissance in world history. When talking about the artists of that time, they lay on their backs under their desks and tried to imagine painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel like Michelangelo. They found out that artists during the Renaissance often studied corpses to learn anatomy so they could make their paintings more realistic.
7th graders brought the first four parts of their geography projects to class to be critiqued and to show that they were almost halfway to being ready for the Geography Fair in May. The next deadline is to complete the children's books by the end of the month.
8th graders made sales posters of many of the inventions of the late 1700s-1800s. Inventions such as the telegraph, the daguerreotype, the John Deere plow, the spinning jenny, the cotton gin, and many others are now being advertised on the classroom walls.