It's Electric

This is by far my favorite science topic. I traded in my electricity script for some new ideas. Let the practice be the learning with some online simulations. We built circuits using a simulation website and took that experience to create real circuits to identify materials that will or won't carry electricity. The final challenge comes after vacation. May the force be with us!

After a day of working on simulations, the students had to look at real examples and determine the working parts of circuits in flashlights. They noticed things like:

• the switch completes the circuit
• the metal pieces inside of the bulb
• the lens magnifies the light
• the metal behind the bulb reflects the light
• and more

All of this practice finally led us to the point where we built our own working circuits to determine through their own experiments what will and won't carry an electric current.

Just wait and see what they do when they come back!

Hour of Code

What the Hour of Code does in a class is far larger than the thinking and planning. The social interactions between some unlikely friends is truly mesmerizing. Watching the children problem solve and interact based upon skills is one of my favorite benefits of our Hour of Code. I hope you get a chance to try out your child's games in Hopscotch.

Fifth Graders Pay It Forward

Fifth graders at Francis Wyman reach out to a young lady in need. All she wants is letters for Christmas to make her season bright. Safyre's goal is to fill her Christmas tree with letters and these students are working hard to make her wish come true.

Want to know more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/safyre-terry-girl-who-lost-family-in-fire-has-one-christmas-wish/