Berkshire School News
Egg Drop Challenge
The recent science topic in second grade at Burton Elementary School was to learn how gull parents communicate and take turns to care for their young. Once students and teacher Janet Sherman read the article about seagull moms and dads in their Science Spin magazine, it was time to see if the second-grade scientists would be good at caring for their young the way gulls do.
The STEM activity for this month was to construct some type of nest, or container, to keep an egg from breaking if it were to roll out of the nest and fall to the ground. The students were placed in groups in which they planned and communicated with each other as to what type of protective material they could use in their nests such as cotton balls, pipe cleaner, tissue paper, plastic wrap, Kleenex and Easter grass.
After they constructed their egg-saving nests, they had to test them out with an egg-drop. Many raw eggs were broken, but some were saved. The class discussed the results with their teacher and some of the comments were: “some of our spaces were not covered enough,” “we were too far away from the nest,” “we hit the edge” and “we packed all the hard stuff on the bottom and the softer stuff on top.” It was a learning experience that was fun for all.
Building a Community of Readers
All students at Ledgemont Elementary School from pre-kindergarten through sixth-grade read “Appleblossom the Possum” by Holly Goldberg Sloan from Jan. 19 to Feb. 24. Each night, the students and their families read one to two chapters at home. This way, the entire school read one book at the exact same time.
To kick off the One School, One Book adventure, Principal Kelly Timmons and four students narrated and put on a skit. Ms. Timmons played Mama Possum and taught her three baby possums how to be possums. They acted as snakes, played dead and built a possumid.
At school, each classroom chose an animal to go with the animals of the door book. Possums are both nocturnal animals and marsupials. The pre-k through third-grade wing was designated the nocturnal animals and the grades 4-6 wing was designated the marsupials. Each classroom door was decorated with their animal along with facts that the class discovered about each animal. In the classrooms and during specials, the students completed activities and delved deeper into learning about their class’s animal.
During the first two weeks, the Ledgemont Elementary PTC held a Read-A-Thon where the students were challenged to get pledges that corresponded with how much they read. As a school, Ledgemont raised $1,077.66 and read 15,050 minutes. The student who raised the most money was second-grader Charlotte Townsend, who raised $270. The student who read the most minutes was third-grader Michael Skedel, who read 1,556 minutes. Charlotte and Michael each won a brand new Kindle Fire.
One School, One Book was followed by Read Across America Week. Students celebrated Dr. Seuss’s birthday Feb. 27 through March 3 by reading Dr. Seuss books, participating in a slew of Seuss activities, wearing crazy clothes and making Dr. Seuss crafts. Tess Shimko visited to perform magic at her Seussapalooza show on March 2. Afterwards, everyone enjoyed some of Dr. Seuss’s birthday cake. Thanks to PTC for sponsoring the show.
Projects like these that a engage students school-wide and are supported by families and focus on providing great opportunities for students really solidify what a great community Ledgemont Elementary School really is.
