The Sixth Grade Trip

 The Sixth Grade Trip

By Nathaniel and Hanna

Next week, the 6th graders are going to Vantage. On this trip, the students will be exploring rocks, studying the rock formations, plate tectonics and will continue building understanding of geology in their science class. On Monday, they will be stopping at Grand Coulee Dam and will be spending the night at Sun Lake/Dry Falls State Park. There, the students are going to study the geology of the Glacial Missoula Floods. From there, they will follow the flood water downstream to a rock climbing area near Vantage. Where they will improve their rock climbing skills that were acquired in the fall trip. The trip leaders are Lauren, Glyn, Mike and Michelle along with experts from the YMCA BOLD/GOLD program.

Calbuco Eruption

By Nathaniel and Emilio

Calbuco is a stratovolcano in Southern Chile, located southeast of Llanquihue Lake and northwest of Chapo Lake, in the Los Lagos Region. The volcano and the surrounding area are protected within Llanquihue National Reserve.

The Calbuco volcano in southern Chile has erupted twice in the span of a few hours. Calbuco last erupted in 1972 and is potentially one of the most dangerous volcanoes in Chile. About 23½ inches of ash fell in some places, according to the Ministry of Interior and Public Safety.

The situation is relatively calm right now, although people are understandably anxious about what could happen next. There are no reports of deaths, missing people or injuries.

“In this situation, with the eruption column so high, the main risk is that it collapses, falls due to gravity because of its own weight and causes a pyroclastic flow,” Gabriel Orozco, a volcanologist with Chile’s geological and mining service, said on local TV.

“It sounded like a big tractor trailer passing by the road, rattling and shaking, guttural rumbling … We left everything there, grabbed my kid, my dog, got in the car with my wife,” Moffat said. A pyroclastic flow is a superheated current of gas and rock that can destroy nearly everything in its path and travel at speeds upwards of 200 km to 300 km per

This situation could turn worse because of the pyroclastic flow. However, hopefully Chile will be fine.

4th Grade Spring Break Interview

4th Grade Spring Break Interviews

This last week was Spring Break and the blog decided to interview Amanda's 4th Grade class about their break, what they did, where they went and where they would've gone if they could go anywhere. Here is what they had to say.

Declan

Declan stayed home, his favorite thing he did was go to the Beard Hat Night to see the Mariners against Texas Rangers game. If he could of gone anywhere he would of gone to California.

Joshua

Joshua stayed home too, his favorite thing was getting his soccer game to state cup. If he could of gone anywhere he would of gone to Spain.

Owen

Owen stayed home over break and spent his days playing on his computer. His favorite part of break was going to the Spring Fair. It was his favorite part because it was the only fun thing he did outside during break. If he could go anywhere over Spring Break he would go to Hawaii. He would go there because it is warm and the water is good for swimming.

Morgen

Morgen stayed home over break. She went to the mall a lot over break. Her favorite part of spring break was going to the spring fair. She liked it because there were lots of rides and it was fun. If she could go anywhere she would go to Huntington Beach, California. She would go there because it is warm and big waves for surfing.

Santo
During Spring Break, Santo stayed home and relaxed but his favorite part was staying at his friends house for two nights to play video games and walk to the corner store to buy candy. If he could've traveled anywhere over the break he could've gone to New York because he really enjoys himself whenever him and his family go there.

Jackie
Jackie went to Lake Chelan during Spring Break with her family. While she was there she went fishing, played mini golf, volleyball, soccer with her brothers. Her favorite part was fishing for trout. Although she would've preferred catch and release  because she is an animal lover but Jackie enjoyed reeling in the fish and looking at them. If Jackie could've gone anywhere over break she would've gone to California because she loves the hot weather and sandy beaches.

Emma
The best part of her break was receiving a call back for Seattle Children's Theatre for the play, the Gulliver's Travels. She went to Great Wolf Lodge and enjoyed spending time with her family over break. If she could have gone anywhere, she would have gone to Hawaii.

Molly
The best part of her spring break was going to Great Wolf Lodge. In addition to going to Great Wolf, her grandmother visited for a few days and she then visited her other grandparents house. She wouldn't have gone anywhere if she could have gone anywhere.

Hana

For break, Hana went to Disneyland. Her favorite part of break was watching the Hunger Games and riding the Tower of Terror. If Hana could go anywhere, she would go to Disney World.

Giacomo
His favorite part was watching his sister's game of soccer. He also enjoyed going to the Seattle Art Museum. He also went to ferris wheel, Museum of History and Industry, and he was almost late for the bus. If he could have gone anywhere he would have gone to Hawaii  

Katie

During break, Katie stayed at home. Her favorite part was going swimming.

If Katie could go anywhere, it would be to Hawaii.

Lena

For this years spring break, Lena went to Arizona and rode horses at the Flying -E- Ranch. She enjoyed riding the horses as well as visiting museums in the area too. If she had the opportunity to have gone to anywhere though, she would have gone to France, Italy or Russia because of all the ballet.

Ysabel

During the past week of spring break, Ysabel went to the Puyallup Fair and took a soccer camp as well. She won a pink and purple lemur at the fair and beat a hard soccer team in a game, 2-1. If she could have gone anywhere this spring break she would have gone to the Big Island in Hawaii.

Liana
I interviewed Liana. I asked her three questions about her Spring Break. Liana went to Kauai and boogie boarded and had shaved ice. Her favorite part was the sun and having sand on her feet.  

Mckenzie
I interviewed Mckenzie. I asked her three questions about her Spring Break. Mckenzie went to the San Juan islands like she does every weekend. There she went sailing and skateboarding.

Ryan
I interviewed Ryan, his house was was being re-floored so him and his family had to stay in a hotel. His favorite part was being able to swim every day in the hotel pool. If Ryan were able to go anywhere in the world he would go to Brazil to explore all of the animals.

Hudson
I interviewed Hudson, he went to the big island of Hawaii. His favorite part of the break was being able to swim in the ocean.  If he were able to be anywhere he would go to Mexico.  

3rd Grade Native American iBook Projects

by Kayla

The past few weeks the third graders have been studying Native Americans. As their culminating project for this unit, they were each assigned a different tribe from different regions (they also had the option to request a partner). They were then asked to make ibooks based of the information they collected. The students had to first fill out a packet with all of the information they collected from their research and then reformat it for the ibooks. 

Students went into great depth on their tribes, researching every detail about them such as what they used for weapons, gear, transportation, clothing, their belief system, if they were involved in conflicts, shelter, and language. Students also learned about the citation aspect of researching, making sure that they did not plagiarize; instead paraphrasing the information. They started out by reading books and trying to find the most they could about their tribe and if they were missing anything, began researching online.

It is the first time that the students had done a research project in so much depth. They had done other projects that required research, but not to this extent. Learning about Native Americans is a very beneficial subject to be studying at such a young age, as well as research and citation techniques as they will use these skills for the rest of their life.