How Does Your Garden Grow

Book Fair Fiesta

Book fairs are highly anticipated events at TMA. Soon after school resumes in August, students start to ask, “When is the next book fair?” Our first book fair of each year is the December Book Fair Blizzard.

The wintery décor of a Book Fair Blizzard. 

Our second book fair of each year is in May; it has a warm-weather theme.

Students enjoying Book Fair Carnival, one of our previous May book fairs.

Our May 2014 theme is Book Fair Fiesta. 

Preparations are under way and Fiesta decorations and supplies are taking over the Library!

Our Book Fair Fiesta will be open 

Monday, May 5, through Saturday, May 10, 2014.

Please join us for this celebration of reading!

Spectrum of Light

Excitement abounds with the study of the spectrum of light in upper elementary. Besides enjoying many experimental activities, once the camera was introduced, the lights went off and the children couldn't wait to see what they could capture on film.

Grow-A-Frog

The lower elementary class is enjoying a new science and life experience. 

Our class has had 2 special kind of frog (Grow-A-Frog). These particular frogs are from South America, but we ordered them from Florida. The students have been comparing these frogs with basic frogs and noting their differences and similarities. 

The students were very surprised to find that these frogs always live in water, even as adults!

After being together for four years, our frogs spawned eggs. It was an exciting experience that we were able to observe through out the day. Currently, we have little eggs in our tank. 

What an awesome hands on learning opportunity this will be for our class. Friday, we observed the birth and learned about the life cycle  of a frog. We also created a time line to allow us to track the metamorphic changes we observe. 

If the eggs survive, our plan is each student will his/her own frog to study, observe, feed, and take care of in class. Every day the students will make certain the habitat of their tadpole is intact. The children will be recording their daily observations and observing their tadpoles' behavior.

The children will experience first hand the process of metamorphosis.  We will observe the eggs turn in to tadpoles, then tadpoles with legs and arms.  Eventually, the students will transfer their tadpoles to "new environments" in order to accommodate their growth. After the tadpoles change to frogs, the students will be allowed to adopt their animals as pets (with parental permission, of course)! The students will be required to demonstrate their knowledge of these rather fragile pets and how to care for them before they become adoptive parents. Some of the activities we will be doing include: mapping, writing poetry, observing, measuring, and planning. 

Stay tuned for more exciting frog news!

Submitted by: Jenn Darmogray

Each school year the lower elementary classrooms study how people record time, long ago and today. We do many activities to give the children a sense of when time passes and they discover that we all record time in some way. We keep diaries, check calendars, mark days off, etc

One of our activities is to make timelines of their family members. The children discover the older family members have longer timelines and the youngest members have very short ones.

Stop by Room 107 and see our Family Timelines. 

It is “knitting season” in Room 106!

Just before winter break the balls of colorful yarn, knitting needles, potholder looms and loops once again became a part of classroom life. The older students had been requesting that we start knitting, an activity that they have enjoyed for the past two years.   

Some of the students do finger knitting which allows them to create long strands of knitting while other students knit with needles. Students who are waiting their turn to be helped to learn to knit may choose use the potholder looms.  Knitting and making potholders are great practical life works for the lower elementary classroom.  In addition to learning how to do useful new crafts, students use concentration and further refine their small motor skills while creating original pieces that are often destined to become gifts for parents or siblings. The more experienced knitters are happy to help beginning knitters.  Older students help younger students take their potholders off of the looms. Those students who know how to do finger knitting offer to teach this to others.   Co-operation and community are evident throughout the classroom as our students become immersed in these works.