Center Happenings 3/14/16 - 3/25/16

Favorite Character Election by Emilee and Reed

After waiting in line, they sign a piece of paper

to registrate! Photo by Austin and Colin

In class we held a Soleil caucus for our favorite book characters. Some students nominated book characters to be nominees in our caucus. We watched a video about what a caucus is, and then we had certain spots in the room where you would go if you voted for that character. The nominees were Fregley from Diary of a Wimpy kid, Hermione from Harry Potter, Percy Jackson from The Percy Jackson Series, Firestar from Warriors, Thomas from Maze Runner, Annabeth from The Percy Jackson Series, and Biggin from Spirit Animals.

4^th Year Math by Francine and Alexa

4th graders discussing math problems and solutions.

Photo by Kohl and Isa

This week, in 4th year math, we took our unit 4 test.  In unit four, we did rounding, measurement, and adding big numbers with different algorithms strategies. Some of the different ways we measured things is with volume capacity, mass and weight, length, and time.

Unicorn Reading by Neha and Mira

Student working on word bank while reading Lewis and Clark for social studies.

Photo by Jacob and Nicolai

This week in the Unicorns reading we just finished our nonfiction reading assessment. The assessment was about fire ants and killer bees. We were so close to earning a reading party! We earn one by reading in a total of 3,050 minutes.That’s almost 50 hours! We have to read that many hours each week for four weeks! Altogether every four weeks we read 12,200 for a reading party!  In total we read about 200 hours every four weeks in order to earn a reading party!

Himps Writing and Social Studies by Amy and Braeden

Photo by Lowata and Emma

In the HIMP’s writing and social studies, we are writing Western Expansion papers and starting an Oregon Trail simulation. The HIMP’s papers are about a specific topic from the Western Expansion such as the Trail of Tears, the Pony Express, and Cowboys. Our papersThey have to be at least five or more paragraphs, with a beginning and an end. We are finishing them around this time, and M, our teacher, is starting to read our work and grade them. Also, we are starting to work on our Oregon Trail simulation. We have our families and, the wagons, preparing for our “long” trip ahead. We have already decided who our wagon masters, who lead the wagons and make the decisions. Recently, someone’s wagon hasis been swept away by a flood, and they had to go home to wait for next year, and we wrote about what happened in journals.

 In conclusion, we are going to finish our papers and with much excitement, continue our Oregon Trail adventure!
Orchestra and Band Update by Sofia Marie and Sydney P

The piano, used in Band!

This week in advanced orchestra we went on a fieldtrip to The Edmonds Center for the Arts. During the day, we watched other schools perform, ate lunch, had a clinic on our playing, and performed with the Madrona middle school students. In band, we are preparing for a concert that will be soon for the advanced band. We are working very hard on the songs, and the advanced band only has a few more rehearsals before the concert is held here at Madrona.The band students are very excited to perform in the concert! Both orchestra and band are working very hard.

The new blogging rubrics. Blogging grades will be part of student communication grades.
Photo by Bam.  Caption by Cassie

Daylight Savings Time by Ethan and Billy

Photo by Amelia and Ava G

Last week on the thirteenth of March, daylight savings time made it, so parts of the world had to switch their clocks one hour forward to save daylight. This way, people can have more time in the light for spring and summer, and it will take a couple days to get used to, and then you will have more time to be outside in the sun. Daylight savings was first used by Canada in 1904. But some places don’t use daylight savings like most of the areas of Africa and Asia .