Throwing the Atlatl

What is an atlatl, you ask?  It is an ancient spear thrower used by the people who lived in this area hundreds of years ago.  The class made atlatls in Mr. Tulla's Social Studies class and then practiced throwing them out behind the school.  Some of the spears really went far!

Veteran's Day

Elementary students present gifts to area veterans.

Guest speaker, Paul Sailer

Hill City School Choir

Gwen and Maycee explain our fundraiser project

Hill City School Band

Isaiah reads a special essay he wrote

Hill City School sure knows how to celebrate Veteran's Day!  This is the second year we had a program attended by the entire school and many community members.

Happy Halloween!

Painted pumpkins

M & M Math

Reading our Spooky Stories

Mrs. Jorgenson and Miss Nelson

Halloween Party - Musical Chairs

Protons and Neutrons and Electrons, Oh My!

Miss Nelson has been busy teaching my 6th graders about the chemical elements.  Today they learned about atoms.  To help with understanding the structure of an atom, they created models showing the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus and the number of electrons zooming around the outside.

Learning about Nutrition

Jolene Gansen from the Aitkin County Extension Office has been visiting our room to talk about nutrition. We have learned about the amount of fat and sugar in foods and how to try to make healthier choices.  The kids love when she comes, because she always brings food!  We have made smoothies, trail mix and homemade (healthier) pop.

Real Scientists

My fifth graders were real scientists today.  They used the fancy compound microscopes from the high school biology department to look at plant cells.  We started our microscope unit by learning the parts of the microscope and how to safely use it.  Today they took a leaf off an elodea plant and saw its cells close up.  It was cool to see the cell walls and chloroplasts, just like we have been discussing for the last 2 weeks.

Tomorrow they will take a cheek cell sample and look at their own cells.

Figuring Out Fractions

My student teacher, Miss Nelson, has been doing a fabulous job so far this year. We continue to work together to plan lessons and run the classroom.  Lately, she has been doing a lot of the planning on her own and I am continually impressed with her fabulous ideas. The point of student teaching is for her to learn from me, but I am feeling rejuvenated as she comes up with new ways do do things.

Here's an example.  Today's math lesson in our teacher's manual was pretty boring.  It had students looking at pictures and doing word problems relating to fractions - halves, fourths and tenths.  Carley took the lesson and turned it into centers.  The kids got to play "basketball" with the garbage can, do a fun game on the Smartboard and work with colorful fraction manipulatives.

She still has 2 months with us and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!