Masks inspired by the Kubi people

We created masks inspired by the Kuba people of the Democratic Republic of Congo.These people are known for their masks representing their important spirits and other things they worship.We created them using construction paper and seeds.Students were asked to use a creative design for their masks.

Research Ready

Fifth graders are finalizing their research into a presentation tool of their choice. Many are working on innovative PowerPoint slideshows, while others are creating informative display boards. We look forward to teaching one another through our presentations over the next couple of weeks.

All about Africa

Fifth graders are conducting research  about different cultures of Africa.  We are learning about the customs and traditions of Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Kush,and the Masai.  In addition to working on our research and note taking skills, each group will decide on a mode in which to present their information. We'll keep you "posted" wink wink, as our African adventure continues! 

Rube Goldberg Contraptions

Check out our Rube Goldberg projects in action!

MVI 0628 from JenZ on Vimeo.

Rube Goldberg Construction

Today was the coolest day yet; we made a Rube Goldberg project using common house hold matirials. We also learned that you'd have to make many revisions before your final results. The Rube Goldberg devices were complicated and fun at the same time. We did things like turning on lights, cracking eggs, cleaning dirty golfballs, hole punching papers, and other simple things we made complicated. 
The best part about this was the scientific thinking and processes involved.  Regardless of whether our experiment worked or not, we leaned a lot!

Meet the 5th Grade Learning Chefs!

Fifth graders have had an excellent first two weeks back in gifted class! We began our first day reviewing our "Daily Menu" and got right to work. First on the menu was our "Brain Boggler." This is a critical and creative thinking sheet we will do each day to exercise our brains.  Be sure to check out your child's brain boggler sheet in their binder. We talked about our school "Recipe for Success" theme and after discussion about ingredients for a great year students wrote their own personal "recipe" for their school year. Ask your child what ingredients they chose. What day in the "kitchen" would be complete without making tasty treats? We created our own trail mix and we talked about what ingredients each item represented (goldfish=teamwork; marshmallows= kindness; pretzel sticks=we stick togther, m&m's=fun, etc.) What a yummy and fun activity!
Today we learned about a cartoonist named Rube Goldberg. Rube Goldberg was known for taking a simple task and making it extraordinarily complicated. Rube Goldberg drew cartoons of contraptions such as – an elaborate set of arms, wheels, gears, handles, cups and rods, put in motion by balls, canary cages, pails, boots, bathtubs, paddles and live animals. He had solutions for How To Get The Cotton Out Of An Aspirin Bottle, imagined a Self-Operating Napkin, and created a Simple Alarm Clock to name a few. Our plan is to sketch our own cartoons and eventually build our own Rube Goldberg contraptions. We can't wait!

Iditarod 2012

Check out this year's route and find out more about this year's mushers: 
http://www.adn.com/2012/01/18/2270467/iditarod-2012-map.html

This week in Fourth Grade Gifted, we learned all about certain types of columns. Columns are arechitectrural support items. Architecture is the art of designing buildings and studying how the buildings are created. Columns are used to support certain structures, perhaps roofs, things like that.Columns became famous for their use in the Greek Golden Age of Architecture. There are three different types or "orders" of Columns: Doric, the Doric column has no embellishments or flourishments on the Capital (The top of a Column) and on the Base (The bottom of the Column), Ionic, embellishments start to get very noticable, sort of looking to me like a moustache or cinammon bun, both at the Capital and the Base, and Corinthian. The Crinthian Column has the most ornate embellishments and carvings on both the Base and Capital. We measured varius dimensions of Paper-Columns, and stacked books on them and recorded our data. There were many Variales that affected how many books were stacked on the Paper-Columns. For example, the thickness of the books. Those who stacked thin books on their Columns resulted in a large number of books. My group stacked books varying from 200 to 300 page books, our maximum ammount of books being only ten.
Written by: Conor Naccarato

Iditarod- 3rd Grade Unit Resources

To learn more about the Iditarod check out the following links:
http://iditarod.com/

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/iditarod/

To learn more about Sled Dogs check out these sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sled_dog
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/sleddogs/index.html


To learn more about other breeds of dogs, check this out:
http://www.akc.org/breeds/index.cfm?nav_area=breeds
http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/

Battle of the Books!!

The list is out!  Have you started reading yet?  Check out some of these great titles for this year's Battle of the Books.  If you have read any of them leave your comments and recommendations here for your friends. 

The 100-Year-Old-Secret by: Tracy Barrett
Xena and Xander Holmes think living in London will be boring.  One afternoon they are handed a cryptic note that leads them to a hidden room-and a secret society.  When they discover they are related to Sherlock Holmes and inherit his unsolved casebook, life becomes so much more exciting! Click on the link above to watch a video trailer for the book.

The Magic Half by Annie Barrows
Eleven-year-old Miri Gill fells left out in her family, which has two sets of twins and her, until she travels back in time to 1935 and discovers Molly, her own lost twin, and brings her back to the present day. Click on the book title to watch a video trailer!

dancin'n in the street

Hi! Do you like dancing?Well than you will like this!

It reached top 10 on the billboards!

Marvin and the Vandells sang the song!

When relesed in UK it reached #28!

Writen by Marvin Gaye, William Mickey Stevenson,and Ivy Jo Hunter!

Recorded in Hitsville U.S.A June 19,1964!

Relesed on July 31,1964!

Relesed on the heights ofthe civil rights!

Rock 'n Roll is here to stay!!!

Hey people!! Do you like rock 'n roll? Well we are going to tell you about a song called Rock 'n Roll is Here to Stay!

• Written by David White and performed by Danny and the Juinors
• Written in 1957 and performed in 1957
• Rock 'n Roll is Here to Stay a billboard hit and it was #27 on the chart!

information about Elvis Presley BY:MACY D.

This is young Elvis with sideburns.

Elvis was born on January 8,1935 at 4:35 A.M..His middle name is Aaron and, later, his nickname would be "king of rock and roll".On his 11th b-day he got a guitar.When he started singing his songs he sold over 1 billion records.He served in the U.S. army.He won a black belt in Karate.Soon after that he sang "hound dog" to a basset hound.He got married on May 1, 1967.Died on August 16, 1977.A stamp design was made for him.

ROCK'N ROLL IS HERE TO STAY!

Hi its Abby,Alexandra and Amanda and we are going to tell you about the song rock'n roll is here to STAY!

• Danny and the juniors sang the song Rock'n roll is here to stay 1957
• David White wrote the song in 1957
• Rock'n Roll was just started so they were trying to say it will go on and on and Rock'n Roll will  NEVER DIE!
• Danny,Dave,Jo,and Frank are the names of the members in  Danny and the juniors.

Thanks for reading this
Peace out

Everyday Superheroes

Better late than never!
If you missed the I Movie that we shared during our gifted family night, here it is at last! We took such pride in the creation of this movie as it stars all of our 3rd-5th graders, and was actually created and pieced together by the 5th grade class. It took a lot of hard work and dedication, but certainly paid off as you can see. What incredible superheroes we have!

Superheroes 2011-2012 from JenZ on Vimeo.

rock n' roll research

Today in Gifted we did research on songs in the musical that we are singing.We learned various
facts about the songs & about what was happening during the time when it was written & published. We completed our research using several different informational sites, and look forward to displaying the posters that we created about our research around the cafeteria during the musical.
-Written by Isis (4th grade)

Destination Rock and Roll

Today , Mrs . Zawis's fifth graders were working hard on their musical songs, dances , and speaking parts . Everybody's dance looks great so far. All the gifted students are preparing for the big day. The musical is called, " Destination Rock and Roll" and will take place on February 2nd, at 10am, 2pm, and pm. Rock On!

--Franchesca and Morgen

3rd grade's11/16/11 day

In 3rd grade gifted 11/16/11 we are writing a report about the state of our choice.Macy,a student in this this class,picked Maine while Alexandra,another student,picked New Jersey.For presenting this report you could pick from:a scroll book,domino book,or a poster. Most people are still gathering facts but some people are starting thier projects.We ALL can't wait for next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week in gifted class...

What a fun week we have had in each of our gifted classes! The month of October is flying by, as do our weekly gifted sessions:)
Our third graders are beginning a study of our "Nifty Fifty" United States of America. This unit of study will be an in depth study of the USA, inolving research, critical and creative thinking, art, as well as science.
The fourth graders are studying forensic science, and have had a great time engaging in the fascinating processes involved in this unit of study. We've arches, loops, and whorls of fun as we've studied and analyzed our own fingerprints! We conducted a "crummy chemistry" lab to analyze and determine some basic ingredients/chemicals based on their physical and chemical properties, and we are embarking on a handwriting analysis the week after next. In the meantime, we are creating glogs about eminent scientists, learning about artists, and working on lots of logic puzzles. Wow!
The fifth graders have been learning all about Rube Goldberg. We learned all about his work as a cartoonist, and applied some serious critical thinking strategies as we successfully put the puzzle pieces together to demonstrate one of his famous inventions: "A Better Moustrap." We've also been working in teams and to plan and draw an accompanying cartoon to our very own Rube Goldberg devices. Next week, we plan to actually build them ourselves, and incorporate some of the concepts we have been learning in our science classes such as energy, and force and motion.
All three classes have been hard at work learning all of the songs and lyrics for this year's musical performance. We are having a blast singing along to some old favorites.
I am so proud of each and every classes hard work. What an incredible bunch of superheroes!

Detective Work

Today we started detective work. We went around the room looking for fingerprints, footprints, and notes. We talked about what it takes to be a detective. We had fun being detectives.

By Kendall and Ryan