Welcome Back
from Spring Break!
We hope you all had a relaxing time with your family!We loved hearing about all of your adventures!
Check out some our scientific experiments
using levers as simple machines:
Wow! I can use a lever to catapult this into the air!
Catapult!
Lifting heavy books with levers
Can I make this lever balance? 
Check out how well I can use the fulcrum and get my lever balanced!Here's What's Going on in
the Beacons' World:
Reading and Writing: We're also integrating reading and writing with our current research projects. Students are doing an amazing job narrowing their research into manageable subtopics,discerning important facts, and translating those facts into their own words. The next step will be to put the facts into paragraphs with topic and concluding sentences and create transitions between the paragraphs to flow into a well written essay.
Math: The name of our next chapter in math is: Measure Capacity, Weight, Volume and Time. While these skills are essential in life, so many of them can be taught through real-life means. We'll be doing lots of measuring and weighing in science for example, so we'll skim through this chapter rather quickly so we can spend more time on upcoming fractions and decimals this year. In the meantime, we had a great time making "Gallon Man" (or boy or girl) to show the relationship of gallons, quarts, pints and cups. Ask your Beacon all about it!
Science: Simple machines truly make our lives easier and we're learning all about them. We'll be conducting lots of experiments using simple machines. This week we'll be lifting a stack of heavy books with just one finger! Amazing!
Here's a fun website to play some activities with simple machines. www.edheads.org/activities/simple-machines/
Social Studies: Thursday and Friday we will be discovering the amazing art of Japanese orgami and the phenomenal artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). Perhaps one of Hokusai's most famous pieces of art is the wooden block print "The Great Wave". Its correct name is "The Breaking Wave Off Kanagawa" from his series: "Thirty-Six Views of Fuji". Hokusai was single mindedly obsessed with art and created over 30,000 (yes you read that number correctly) works of art! Be ready for all the information and art work that your Beacon will be bringing home in the near future!
"Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.
The rain makes running pools in the gutter.
The rain plays a little sell-song on our roof at night.
And I love the rain." -Langston Hughes- April Rain Song.
Here's to another exciting week with your Beacon!
Betsy and Tamara
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