May 12, 2009

Parents and students,

     It has been a great pleasure to serve as a gifted teacher for 28 years in the Lamar County School District.  I will be retiring at the end of May to seek new and exciting adventures as I travel a new road in my life.  I will miss many aspects of education but look forward to many different avenues of travel that I haven't been able to experience while working.  I hope that I have contributed in some small way to your child's educational aspirations and created in them a desire to seek out the answers to the unusual and a desire to create the new and different.  I look forward to hearing great things about my students in the future.  God bless. 

April 16, 2009

Parents, we are still studying about the earth.  We have found out many interesting things about the rocks and minerals as we "smashed" open some of the rocks.  We are now in the process of finding out the relationship between minerals and rocks.  We are also studying about the gems that come from our earth, what kind of rocks contain the gems, descriptions of the gems in their natural state, and how the gems, crystals, minerals, and rocks that form our earth are related.  This unit will end in a couple of weeks but students will know and understand much more about the earth they live on when it is complete.

The last few weeks of school will concentrate on the higher level thinking skills, what they are, where they fit, how they are used, and how students can identify those skills as they are used.  This is a very important task to master as it will be important to the students should there be an audit next year.

March 6, 2009  Parents and students.  We are finishing up the part of the "earth" unit on volcanoes and earthquakes.  We are beginning the activities on rocks and minerals.  The students begin with learning the three main kinds of rock and where they are found in the earth.  They will discover how the rocks are alike and different and why the composition is different.  They will also identify examples of each.  Various items commonly used will be researched to find out if they come from the earth either directly or indirectly.  A variety of soils will be examined using "Eyeclops."  Students will record an ant's view of these various soils.  Students will also develop a chart on these "teeny, tiny rocks." At this point, students will be able to complete the activity on the "Rock Cycle."  Students will be able to categorize many of the rocks, minerals, and gems at the end of the unit.  They will also be able to find the "crystals" in the rocks at our "smashing" activity where they will find and identify surprises that will be found after the rocks are cracked open. Many more activities are planned as students discover their planet earth.  Students will create their own special "rock" at the end of the unit.

Feb. 5, 2009   Parents and students,   We are well into the unit on volcanoes and earthquakes.  Students have completed research on both and learned many new vocabulary words involving both volcanoes and earthquakes.  Students know how and where volcanoes begin and end on the earth and they also know what causes earthquakes.  We have studied fault lines and where they are located.  We have studied what layers of the earth are affected by both volcanoes and earthquakes.  We have studied the relationship between volcanoes and earthquakes.  Students have illustrated many of the things learned with visual pictures/posters.  Many of these hang in the hallway outside the EXCEL classroom.  Students are now in the process of creating powerpoints of hotspots and  active volcanoes of the world.  These will be shared on the Promethean Board when all are completed.Students will research further information on volcanoes and earthquakes to provide them with the information to create and complete experiments involving this information.  These will be completed in the classroom but some students may create projects at home that can't be done in the classroom.  These will then be brought to the classroom to share.  I am also encouraging students to enter some of these projects in the Science Fair in March.  Also, in March or April, there will be a Spring Exhibit for the District gifted students and outstanding work from each school will be featured at the exhibit at Oak Grove.  I would love to feature my student's work so I am hoping that students will work hard to prepare their projects on volcanoes and earthquakes.  Please provide help and assistance when needed.                           As always, Mrs. Graham