"Kicks for Kids" Shoe Drive

         Fourth grade led a service learning project to collect shoes to donate to our FRYSC.  They provide shoes to any students who needs a pair throughout the day if something happens to their shoes.  Our goal for CCES was to collect 100 pairs in three weeks.  Our local Cash Express business said they would donate pizzas to the homeroom who brought in the most pairs of shoes and Mrs. Kara's class won this prize!  We exceeded our goal and collected 206 pairs of shoes!  Thank you to everyone who helped us with this project!

First Ever CCES Dance

     We had our first ever CCES dance for 3rd-5th graders last Friday night and it was a blast!  The dance lasted a couple of hours and we sold pizza, water, glow in the dark items, and students could have their pictures made in the picture corner. 

     It was a great fundraiser and we have a special treat planned for our kids- it's top secret though!  We had the dance because our fourth grade students had a class election and each president and vice president had to run on a platform.  After the election, the elected officials had a special lunch with our administration at school to discuss the changes they wanted to see take place.  The president and vice president from Studio 214 wanted to have a dance to raise money to update our school.  They actually wanted to have one every Friday night from 7:00-11:00 and Ms. Lisa said we would start with one from 4:00-6:00.  (ha ha)  It was so much fun and I look forward to the next one!

CCES Christmas Choir

We were rehearsing for our performance at the December Cumberland County Board meeting last Wednesday night.  They sung our Panther morning song and "We Wish you a Merry Christmas".  I was so proud of them!

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for Ice Cream

FRYSC arranged for fourth and fifth grade students to have a lesson on the Ag Mobile to visit CCES!  Our students made their own ice cream, including making predictions, and recording their data using state of the art equipment!  Each group had their own iPad to record their information.  After they made their ice cream, they of course got to eat it!

Mr. Ballard visits CCES!

    We had a special guest speaker this morning during our morning assembly!  Mr. Michael Ballard joined us to explain how our local road crew helps keep the roads clear and ready for students to make their way to school each morning, especially during the winter months.  He explained what actually happens when brine or salt is put on the roadways- ask your child!  We also got a demonstration of the big dump truck when we left the assembly.  It was really cool!

"Unpacked" Common Core Standards

           Here is a great link that a friend shared with me recently that shows all the standards "unpacked".  This is so helpful because it gives specific content for each grade level that our students should be learning int he state of Kentucky!

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/standards/common-core-tools/

Election Interview

This was an exclusive interview conducted by some of our election reporters!

Blog Report- Haley

Check out what we learned recently as reported by Haley!

Blog Report- Amanda

 

Check out what we learned this week as reported by Amanda!

Micah for President!

 

        We recently had a Presidential election in fourth grade to elect a fourth grade President and Vice-President.  All the candidates that ran for office got to have a lunch meeting with our administration and discuss their platforms and key issues!  They did such a great job!

TOMS for all Students!

Last week, every student at our school got a free pair of Toms shoes!  It was so exciting and we really appreciate the work our Family Resource staff did to make that happen!

Layers of the Soil

We made edible layers of soil during snack and discussed them as we ate.  This week, we will talk about which layer many fossils found.

 

Worms Do What?

          We have been watching some worms tunnel through a container to watch how a worm mixes up layers of the Earth as the move through.  Before we added the worms inside the canister, the layers of dirt and sand were not mixed together at all, but now, just look!  It's amazing what they've done in just a short amount of time!  Ask your child how worms at humus to the soil! lol

Intro. to Division

          On the first day we started learning about division, we began by using some Halloween candy and each group got a big mound of it.  Students were asked to divide the candy equally about each person in their group.  We then modeled the parts of a division algorithm and discussed the divisor, the dividend, and the quotient, and remainder if there was one.

Comparing Text to the Drama

          Students divided into two groups to produce a play in our classroom.  Half of the group were actors and the other students were in charge of creating props and back drops.  Students rehearsed through the script about three times, trying to read their parts with expression and then we performed it in front of the class.  We used a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the details we read in the script and different details were gained from the play performance.

Weathering and Erosion Experiment

 

          We just completed an experiment on weathering and erosion, using dirt, sand, and gravel with water, wind, and ice.  We conducted research first on some major Earth changes, including avalanches, landslides, earthquakes, and volcanoes.  Students discusses how those major changes were represented in our experiment.  We did the wind experiment first and recorded what we observed happened.  Next we added the ice and last the water.  We saw the most change when the water was added.  Students documented their observations in their science journals/notebooks.

 

 

 

 

Layers of the Earth

We have been learning about the layers of the Earth, so we decided to act it out as a class.  The inner core is solid and says, "I'm strong"!  The outer core circled around him and said, "I'm melting", because it is made of hot liquid, and they melted around the core.  The mantle held hands around the outer core and said, "Hot rocks".  The crust was last and they just said, "Crust", as they moved around the mantle.  This is a great visual for them to see the layers.

Then we created a play dough model so they could see a replica of the Earth.  Students then created their own diagrams on plates and wrote a summary about the layers of the Earth, based on what they have learned from our skit, the model, the diagram, and the video from Brain Pop.

 

 

 

 

Trip to the Judicial Center

     We are wrapping up our Government Unit in Social Studies and culminated it by participating in a mock trial at our Judicial Center with the Honorable Judge Kristie Costello residing.  Some high school students from Ms. Sue Elise's class were the lawyers, defendant, and witnesses, and our fourth grade students were called up for the jury.  They even got to deliberate and give their verdict and sentence.

      After the case was over, we got to take a tour of the center.  Many students had never been there before so this was a really neat experience!  (The mock trial was Gold E. Locks- being tried for trespassing and destruction of property.)

 

Studio 214 Class Members at the Judicial Center

 

 

Honorable Judge

 

 

Jury selection

 

 

Baliffs being sworn in to court

 

 

Foreman of the Jury- Announcing the verdict

 

 

Papa Bear- Witness

 

\

High School students as witnesses and the defendent.

New Sensory Room at CCES!

          We also have a new sensory room at CCES that includes a therapy swing, a crash pad, and some other cool items for our kids with sensory issues and special needs, to use with therapy.  Everything in the room was donated by community members and PTO, which we are very thankful for their help and support!  Kids first!

 

Crash pad with trampoline

 

 

Student work station

 

 

 

Huge tent with a ball pit inside

 

 

 

Chalkboard corner

 

 

Student Reading Nook

 

 

Therapy Swing with Mat

 

 

We used a Solar System theme throughout the sensory room.

 

"To Infinity and Beyond!"

 

 

Finished mural thanks to some very special volunteers!

 

 

New Panther Computer Lab!

          We have a brand new computer lab at CCES on the second floor and it is AMAZING!  The computers are brand new and there are new tables and chairs in the room also.  It was really exciting to take the PAS test in our new lab this week and we look forward to completing many technology projects in there!

Comparing Text and Illustrations

          

             We worked in small groups recently and read different books to identify the mood of each story.  Each group gave a summary of the book and compared the illustrations to the text.  We looked closely to see what information was provided in the illustration and not in the text.