November & December Highlights

Here are some highlights from the past few weeks, including our field trip to the Westgate Library, math games, a geography game, making landform books, and our Winter Party. Thank you to all the parents who organized the party, sent in items, and came to help out.  Have a wonderful break with your children!

Salute!

The children have been enjoying a fun new math game called Salute! This one can be played at home with a regular deck of cards.  (See directions below- click on each photo to see it larger.)

Ann Arbor Map Exploration

Last week we explored maps of downtown Ann Arbor. We partnered up to find the grid locations of several locations in our home town, including a building we traveled to on a field trip! We also used the key (legend) to find parking structures and learn about the different districts of the downtown area. Learning about our own community is a very meaningful experience, and the children were extremely enthusiastic about locating spots they are familiar with. 
 (The maps that came home are for the children to keep.)

Brain Development

Today in science with Mrs. Brennan we learned about brain development and "intellectual growth".  This is part of our Life Cycle Unit.  

The students have been thinking about how humans change and grow.  Today, they looked specifically at how brain intellect grows.  They looked at some PET scans to see how different parts of the brain are active depending on our activity.  These PET scans are what scientists use to observe brain activity.  

Then, students tried four interesting foods (fennel bulb, roasted seaweed, coconut chips, and gherkins).  After students tasted them, they discussed how our brains were making connections.  They made a list of descriptive words for these connections (taste, smell, emotions, etc.).  It was a very interesting day, some students even discovered a new food they liked!