Hot Air Balloon Science

Inspired by "The 21 Balloons," we've been working on a paper mache hot air balloon project, and we decided to study a little about how hot air balloons work - starting with an observation of a candle lantern. It was very exciting!

Mon Bon Homme de Neige

More Friday fun: Frosty ... in french!

First Friday

First Friday gatherings are always a lot of fun, but this week's was extra special! The Explorers and Navigators showed off some of their music skills with a bit of "Seabury On Stage." We have some accomplished pianists in our class, and some budding talents as well. I am so proud of these brave kiddos for getting up to perform in front of the whole school!

Following gathering, we got to partake in cocoa and goodies courtesy of the Serpents' fundraiser for victims of the hurricane in the Philippines. Thank you all for your contributions!

And finally, some middle schoolers joined us for reading and help with writing. We had an impromptu game of real vs. fictional strange science facts that had us all in stitches! These older kids are really cool!

Thanksgiving Feast

The Charlie-Brown style "Thanksgiving Feast" is a Seabury tradition. All the classes make contributions and the entire school comes together to say what they are thankful for and enjoy a treat. Family and friends all figured highly in student's comments. Here are pictures of our contribution (lots of good fruit and vegetable choppers in this class!), as well as a few of the self portraits we made of some of the things we are thankful for (could not post all of them because many of us used student names in ours). Look for these to come home soon - they are currently on display in the multi-purpose room.

Wampum Bead Math

Thanksgiving week we studied the Pilgrims and the Native Americans who helped them. After reading "Tapenum's Day: A Wampanoag Indian Boy in Pilgrim Times" by Kate Waters, we launched into our pilgrim week math adventure: wampum beads and their values.

The original wampum beads were used as money by the Wampanoag. Theirs were made out of shells - we made ours with modeling clay. Three purple beads were worth 2 cents. Three white beads were worth 1 cent. Students made their own beads, figured their value, and then used them to create their own equations. This involved counting and grouping by threes -- some students used small numbers, but many got excited about creating beads and had to do more complicated addition. Many students quickly moved from operations in addition to multiplication. Some even started creating new values for different colored beads! Math is so fun!