Kachina Dolls

 The 5th graders have been studying Native American tribes from across the United States.  One of the tribes they have studied is the Hopi.  They read about the Hopi tradition of using kachina dolls to teach their children.  Today we made our own kachinas using paper mache.  Check these out in the downstairs showcase the next time you visit the school.

School Forest in Late Fall

The weather has been unseasonably warm these last few days, so we took another little visit to the school forest to check out what is happening.  All of our adopted trees are leaf-less and we noticed how bare everything seemed.  We could see a lot farther through the trees and a few kids even found some softballs hit into the woods last spring by the girls softball team. 

Soon it will snow and our trips to the forest will be less frequent.  We will go out there a few times in the winter to check out animal tracks and other winter wonders.

Honoring our Veterans

Presentation of Colors

The band plays the National Anthem

Veteran Wayne Weller

Reading our letters to Veterans

Hill City had its first Veterans Day program in many years today.  It was a wonderful program full of remembering and patriotism.  Our community is honored to have many Veterans living among us, and it was nice to have the students show their respect to these important people.

Climbing Mount Everest

David Lien climbed Mount Everest a few years ago and came in to talk to us about his exciting and dangerous adventure.  We learned all about the tremendous effort it takes to prepare for a journey like this.  He showed us photos of the beauty of the mountain and the dangerous conditions he faced.  The class got to try on his gear to get a feel for what it takes to be a mountain climber.

Happy Halloween!

Today was our Halloween party at Hill City School.  Many schools in our area have done away with Halloween, but I guess we are kind of old fashioned. The kids love dressing up in costumes (and having an excuse to eat candy during school).

I'm not sure why, but I always seem to be absent Halloween afternoon.  Today Mrs. Jorgensonsen subbed for me.  That's her in the green pantsuit in the picture above.  The kids said she was a lot of fun, but they had a little trouble understanding her Scandinavian accent.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Jello Cells

Animal Cell

Plant Cell

 My fifth graders are well into our study of cells in biology class.  We have discussed the structures and purposes of both animal and plant cells.  We have looked at cell photos and diagrams. Each student drew diagrams of the cells and labeled all the parts.  Today we made jello cells to make the concepts stick in their brains even better!

The animal cell was made in a plastic bag (cell membrane).  We used a jawbreaker as the nucleus, Mike and Ikes for the mitochondrion, and miniature marshmallows for the vacuoles.  The cytoplasm was red jello squeezed into the cell membrane on top of the organelles.

For the plant cell, we used a plastic cup for the cell wall.  Technically we probably should have lined it with a plastic bag because plant cells also have a cell membrane, but I didn't have enough plastic bags.  Oh well...  The nucleus and mitochondrion were the same as the animal cell.  We used one large marshmallow for the vacuole, green candies for chloroplasts and the cytoplasm was green jello (of course).

Next we are going to look at real plant and animal cells under the high school microscopes.  Hopefully by the end of this unit, these 5th graders will really know their cell parts!

Homecoming Week

It is homecoming week at Hill City School.  Because we are kind of in a unique situation - having kindergarten through 12th grade all in one building - the elementary kids get to participate in homecoming festivities.  Today the seniors put on a pep fest for the elementary students.  The band played the school song, there were cheers, and goofy games like the three-legged race and orange pass relay.  Friday is Purple Pride Day and we even get to attend the first half of the homecoming football game!