We are in for the “home stretch” at Southside as we return from April vacation with high hopes and expectations as we intend to work hard to finish out this school year. The weeks leading up to the April break were delegated to the MEA/Smarter Balanced testing for all three of our grades. We are happy to report that testing has been completed and we couldn’t be prouder of our staff and students for their efforts. Classrooms are back on track with our regular day-to-day schedule, instruction and activities.
Some fourth graders in Ms. Merry’s room had an opportunity to paint with watercolors! As part of their study of the Northeast region of the United States (and as a nice break from testing!), we were studying Winslow Homer. Homer was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and was one of the first artists to create and sell watercolor paintings. Mrs. Audrey York kindly came into our classroom to share her talents with students, and they painted their own landscapes. They tried to mimic Winslow Homer’s ability to show perspective with faded colors making things appear far away and brighter colors making things seem very near. The arts help us think!
Robotics students are busily working away on their robots in preparation for the upcoming Spring Robotics ‘Track Meet’ to be held in Ellsworth May 16th. Students are designing and programming robots to compete in events such as the fastest robot, a robot that climb the steepest slope, robots that can walk and many other events.
Mrs. Owen and Mr. Davis’s fifth-grade students have just completed our unit in science on How do Animals Grow and Change? Each student was able to choose an animal of their choice to research and learn about. After the researching phase, students created a file folder project that incorporated a variety of text features and an informational essay about their animal’s habitat, prey, predators, adaptations, life cycle and a few other interesting facts.
