White Christmas

What a surprise to actually have a white Christmas this year. Everything looked so beautiful! I was sorry I didn't get to visit with my father's family but I enjoyed just being at home. What did you do in the snow?

Speas Holiday Program

On December 7th the Speas 3rd - 5th grades presented a holiday program. The students did a wonderful job - singing carols and telling a holiday story. I appreciate the students who came - Arien, John, Axel, Malik, Avery, Ricardo, Daniela and Micah - and I'm very proud of their effort.

Creating Ecocolumns

Studying Ecosystems

This quarter we have been studying ecosystems. Students were divided into groups of three and each group built an ecocolumn. Each column consisted of an aquarium and terrarium. Our aquariums contained mosquito fish, snails, elodea, duckweed and algae. The terriums had crickets, isopods (roly polys), rye grass, alfalfa, and mustard. We observed our ecocolumns and took observation notes about the plants and animals. Here are some student drawings illustrating their group's ecocolumn. These drawings were done by Daniela, John and Avery.

A walking trip to Reynolda Manor

We took a trip to Reynolda Manor to learn how math is used in real life. First, we used a trundle wheel to measure how many feet it was from Speas to Reynolda Manor - over 6000 feet, so more than a mile. We visited several businesses to see how they use math on a daily basis. We visited the public library, Hancock's Fabrics, the Frame Gallery and Lowes Foods. What was your favorite part of the trip and what was something you learned?

Stream Tables

Tell something you learned this quarter about land, water and our stream tables.

Maps and Location

Last week we began studying about maps and how to locate places on a map. We talked about relative and absolute location and different parts of the world. Write about something you learned last week.