6 Months of Mold
5/18/2018
It's the end the of the year, and we frantically wrapping up loose ends and projects from the year. The three main projects that we are working on are our Choose Your Own Adventure Story, our novel writing project, and our mold experiments. Choose Your Own AdventureStudents are finishing up their CYOAS projects. They created nonlinear stories that begin during the American Revolution, which is our social studies topic. The stories can take many different directions and illustrate how individual choices can dramatically change our personal and collective histories. Projects will be published to a website I created. I will share the link with everyone when they are complete. Novel ProjectStudents wrote the majority of their novels in November and early December. During second semester, students worked on editing their projects, and now in May students are publishing their novels through Amazon's publishing company Createspace. This year's novels ranges from around 50 pages to nearly 200. They have done a great job. I'll send along links to their novels when we finalize them next week. Mold ExperimentsIn early December, we were finishing up a unit on ecosystems, which included decomposition. Our project for that unit involved allowing oranges and pizza to mold for 6 months with a different variable on each plate. We also had a control plate, meaning there was no added variable. Watch the video below to learn more. Photography Elective
5/11/2018
Electives are an important way for students to explore interests outside of the traditional curriculum. One of the electives that I just finished up with the students was photography. This elective was open to students in 1st through 5th grade. Each class had a different skill focus and a different element of photography. Classes focused on the importance of color, texture and pattern, and landscape. After learning about the topic and analyzing some example images, students first explore the element in the classroom. After some practice, students share their images with other students. Finally, once the class seems to have the hang of it, the class goes outside to search for pictures that are good examples of the photographic element for the day. Students were very creative in what they used for subject matter. They were encouraged to zoom in and find the beauty in simple things, and they did very well at it. Below, you can see some pics of students exploring the outdoors with their cameras. Students take landscape photos. A student takes a texture photo of the grass. Students search for texture and pattern photos.
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Elizabeth FerryMs. Ferry's experiences include teaching with the Peace Corps in Tanzania, teaching high school English in Maine, and this is her second year at PNA. She loves moose, outdoor activities, and being with her students. Archives
April 2021
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