Spring 2015

Schoolwide Enrichment Model

Ellison Park SEM DAVIS EDUCATION FOUNDATION GRANT

Our SEM program here at Ellison Park received a $250 grant this year.

I am so excited about the educational materials purchased through this

grant and some funds leftover from a previous grant. The SEM class-

room now has a variety of science oriented supplies. I was able to pur-

chase several sets of “Snap Circuits” that assist in teaching students

about the flow of electricity and how to build circuit boards that per-

form a variety of functions. I was also able to purchase several things to

aid in teaching about physics and engineering. The most notable is 2

sets of k-nex designed to teach about building gravity cars and vehicles

propelled with motors and gears. I also purchased several pairs of

binoculars so that we can do some bird watching in May (if the birds

will cooperate). There are posters and books available to students to

accompany these new supplies.

LOOKING BACK

SEM students have just finished up some of the most enjoyable units of

the year.

6th grade math students had a lot of fun learning about engineering.

We talked about newton’s laws of motion and experimented with con-

structing vehicles powered by gravity. There was a lot of planning and

revising as students competed to make a vehicle that would go the far-

thest and the straightest. It was also interesting for students to see

some of history’s greatest engineering feats and failures.

6th grade Language Arts students learned about film making

(which will be used in coming weeks). We also learned about the surre-

alist art style and completed some pretty amazing works of surrealist

art. These art pieces are hung on the wall across the hall from the gold

workroom. Many students also had time to write a Haiku to go with

their artwork.

You can be creative in anything - in math, science, engi-

neering, philosophy - as much as you can in music or in

painting or in dance. Ken Robinson

5th grade language arts students completed stories based on “The

Mysteries of Harris Burdick”. There is a lot of creativity amongst our

SEM students. Each student selected a picture from the Harris Burdick

book along with a title and caption and wrote a story based on these.

We discussed the various genres that could encompass these pictures.

There were lots of Mystery stories, Fantasy, a few science fiction stories

and even some comedies. Hearing the wide variety of stories that come

from this same group of pictures always amazes me.

5th grade Math students have been training hard for our SEM Math

and Science Olympiad. We have trained in SET, Krypto, Tangrams,

Float a boat and Logic links. Students can sign up to compete in any or

all of the events. The Olympiad is taking place April 28-May 1.

INSIDE STORY HEADLINE

This story can fit 150-200 words.

One benefit of using your newsletter as a

promotional tool is that you can reuse

content from other marketing materials,

such as press releases, market studies, and

reports.

While your main goal of distributing a

newsletter might be to sell your product or

service, the key to a successful newsletter

is making it useful to your readers.

A great way to add useful content to your

newsletter is to develop and write your

own articles, or include a calendar of

upcoming events or a special offer that

promotes a new product.

You can also research articles or find

“filler” articles by accessing the World

Wide Web. You can write about a variety

of topics but try to keep your articles

short.

Much of the content you put in your

newsletter can also be used for your Web

site. Microsoft Publisher offers a simple

way to convert your newsletter to a Web

publication. So, when you’re finished

writing your newsletter, convert it to a

Web site and post it.

4th grade Math stu-

dents just finished up a

unit on measurement. We

worked on conversion

between standard and

metric units and also esti-

mating metric measure-

ments. We made metric

rulers and went on a

scavenger hunt with

them.

2

4th grade language arts students just completed their “journeys”

unit. We began by reading “Grandfather’s Journey” by Allen Say. This

book tells the story of a man’s journey from Japan to the United States

before, during and after World War 2. The story is compelling through

both words and artwork. I asked the students to think of a journey they

had been on and convey their emotions about that journey to me. After

writing, we made torn paper collages to illustrate the stories. I read sto-

ries about trips to visit grandparents, trips to national parks, Disney-

land, and many other places. The students were very effective in mak-

ing me feel like I was right there with them. The stories were humorous,

and poignant. There was plenty of sibling squabbles, car sickness and

excitement in the stories. The artwork (with the story laminated to the

back) are hanging on a window of the gold workroom.

3rd grade language arts students wrapped up an “under the sea”

unit a few weeks ago. We learned all about fish, inside and out. We

played fish bingo and completed puzzles about fish. After all of that the

students wrote a “fish tale”. Again, the

genres students chose to write in were

varied. The stories were everything

from fantasy and realistic fiction, to

nonfiction. We also made some fish

origami.

3rd grade Math students

recently completed a mul-

tiplication quilt unit. This

is another unit I really

enjoy because of the crea-

tivity of our SEM stu-

dents. We began the unit

by working on multiplica-

tion quilts that are done

by working multiplication

problems on a quilt and

coloring them in using a

key. While working on

these quilts we learned

about symmetry

(translation, rotational

and reflective). Now for

the creative part: stu-

dents designed a quilt

square, named it and

made a key to color it in. I

took all of these designs

and put together a color-

ing book for each student.

I then took their colored

quilt squares and made a

very beautiful paper quilt.

The result is hanging in

the hallway across from

the lunchroom.

3

4th grade “Journeys” torn art project