Monday, March 31, 2014

Final Reading Olympics Competition!

5th Graders at Commuunity School held their Final Reading Olympic Competition this afternoon at the  EPAC.  Teams of readers have been reading from a list of 20 books the past two months.  Prelimanary competitions took place and teams were narrowed down to two final teams.  The "Pickles" a group of 5th grade girls took on the "Spartans" a group of 5th grade boys.   The competition was back and forth with a TIE at the end  of 10 questions.......the tie breaker was broken using 'quote questions' from the different tiitles.  These questions are more difficult to connect to the pieces of literature.   After the tie breaker round the "Pickles" earned the top score!




Thursday, March 27, 2014

Tangram Challenge with Yahara 5th graders!

A group of 5th grader students at Yahara took the "tangram challenge" tooday and are working hard to solve mysterious puzzles with their visual and spatial skills.....can they do it?  We will find out next week!

Friday, March 21, 2014

Learning to "Construct" with iPads

Using the iPad apps., Constructit and Geoboard, a group of third grade students worked hard creating designs and solving brain teasing puzzles.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

State Qualifier in the Geography Bee!

This past week we received some very exciting news!   Edgerton Middle School 6th grade student, Michael Stockel, earned a trip to the State National Geographic Geography Bee in Madison, WI on April  4th.   After being crowned the Edgerton Middle School Geography Champion on January 23, Michael completed a 70 question written test that was sent on to the state level.  This past week we were notified that he earned one of the top scores in the state.  Michael will travel to Madison the first week of April and compete against other state qualifiers.  The state winner receives $100.00 and a trip to Washington D.C. to compete at the national level in mid May.  According to Mr. Zartman, Michael's Social Studies teacher, Michael has incredible knowledge of world geography and he would not be surprised if Michael was the first state winner from Edgerton!

"Math Rules" during Yahara TAG Time

Students in grades 3 and 4 took a break from their "Math Rules" activities.  Math Rules allow students to think about Math concepts at a higher level and try to figure out the answers independently or with the help of another student.  We focus on asking questions to better learn the material!

Monday, March 17, 2014

Math 24 Season Comes to an End

Edgerton Math 24 Students "showed their smarts" and brought home some Math 24 trophies!  Students from grades 4th-7th parrticipated over the past 3 weeks in Regional Math 24 Competitions.  The students worked hard to prepare themselves for a morning of mental math computation.  I would like to thank all of the students for their hard work, great sportsmamship, and positive drive they displayed in this fast paced math competition.   Local trophy winners were 4th graders Nadia Kim 1st place, Layne Hazzard 2nd place, and Grant Swenson came in 4th place.  7th grader Alex Apple also came in 3rd place in decimals and fractions which is the most challenging round of Math 24!








Monday, March 10, 2014

6th Grade Math 24

Last Wednesday the 6th Grade Math 24 Team competed at Whitewater Middle School.  Although the students did not place in the top 6, they were challenged and had the opportunity to reinforce their exponent and integer mental math knowledge!



Pondering Pages Book Club Exploring Mystery Books

Recently the 4th and 5th grade Pondering Pages Book Club members split in to three groups with each group reading a different book that involves a mysterious element.  The books are From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Chasing Vermeer, and Snow Treasure.  The students meet during their lunch and recess times and share their ideas about the characters, plot, and the writimg style of the author.   Students are learning how to engage in meaningful discussions and they are enjoying books with each other!



Saturday, March 8, 2014

Middle School National History Day Debut!

Evan Frawley and Ryan Tronnes, 7th graders from Edgerton Middle School, presented a documentary today at National History Day at Grainger Hall on the University of Madison campus.  After many hours of hard work, they produced a documentary connecting to the theme for this year's National History Day.  The theme was Right and Responsibilities and Evan and Ryan focused on Native American Hurdles and the controversary over school mascot names.  They researched and wrote a script that coincided with the still images in their 9 minute documentary.  Both Ryan and Evan agree that the experience was rewarding and tiring because of all the hard work that is needed to produce an educational film.  Being the first time these middle school students have presented at National History Day, a lot was learned and will be used if they decide to travel back to Madison next year.  Evan and Ryan deserve a lot of credit for taking on this academic responsibility.  And they would like to thank Mr. Molitor for allowing them to do this project as an out of classroom experience.  Look for these boys to be back next year with an amazing presentation!


Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Math "TAG Time" is in full swing!

This past week TAG Time Interventions started and we are exploring the area of Math.  We are learning math concepts ranging from mental math and computation to problem solving and word work.  Students will experience scenarios that will place them in real world situations where numbers are important and valuable.  Students will also use number tiles to build BIG numbers and a group of 4th graders are researching the differemt forms of currency in other countries.  I also want to thank my group of 5th graders who worked hard to research apps. to place on our set of iPads.  They tried each math app., discovered who the best audience would be and filled out an App. Nomination Form.  Because of these students, our class set of iPads have kid-approved applications for students of all ages to learn from.  Math TAG Time will continue until spring break!