October 21-November 1

MATH:  We have introduced multiplication in math and have had fun with games to help us learn our facts.  Here's one called spiral multiplication you can play at home with a deck of cards and a die.

Spiral Multiplication

Array for Multiplication!

SCIENCE:  The students have continued their study of oysters as we try to figure out how to help the Oyster Reef Keepers of Virginia increase the oyster population in the Lynnhaven River.  First they decided they needed to know something about the oyster's life cycle and how it fit into the food chain.  From there we explored food webs, energy pyramids, population and community, and ecosystems.  Next week we will see how the oyster fits in to what we learned.

Mrs. Sorabella came in to repeat the oyster filtration
experiment.  The first time it didn't work.  We learned
that scientists often have to repeat their experiments,
especially when they get unusual or unexpected data.

Oysters filtered this water in less than an hour!

Next we were off to research!  We have our own
Share point page you can see under Sites to See on the ODC homepage.  

LANGUAGE ARTS:  In addition to all the research and nonfiction text reading we did, we enjoyed a week with Junior Great Books reading The Fisherman's Wife.  We even had a guest teacher, Kriko Michaels, from the Great Books Foundation come and teach our class for a day!  The students are doing a great job learning about different types of questioning and are really pushing themselves and each other to develop critical thinking skills!

AND OF COURSE HALLOWEEN BROUGHT LOTS OF FUN!  

Dr. Hedrick booed us!  The boo grams were a blast and really got everyone in the spirit of giving and friendship!

It was so fun to see everyone's creative costumes!

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We used pumpkins to develop our scientific inquiry skills.  The children predicted the weight of their pumpkin, the number of ribs and circumference, how many seeds it had, and whether it would float or sink.  They each wrote a hypothesis (a testable statement) about the relationship of the size or weight and the number of seeds.  They collected their data, compared their data with other groups' data, and then analyzed the data before writing up a conclusion.