Winning Video

The students got a double dose of Mystery Skype with Mrs. Allen’s class from Texas and Mrs. Bailey’s class from Indiana. With the help of some excellent clues, the students were able to locate the two schools.

During the fifth week of the garden, our plants reached new heights. So high, that we are going to have to put in another support pole for the peas. The peas are so large that they are flowing out of the back. Blueberry and raspberry bushes are brimming with berries that are about to turn. I just hope we have some to taste before the kids leave.

Today the school received a special treat. The students got to leave math early to enjoy the sounds of the Soul Singers. My class has four members: Madeline, Kate, Britt, and Larah. Three of them had speaking parts and al four sung their hearts out. The school enjoyed their spectacular show and showed it with a standing ovation. If you would like to see them, they are singing the National Anthem at the Smokies baseball game on Saturday.

With the abundance of rain and sunshine this week, the garden has really taken off. The students had to string the garden poles because the peas and cucumbers have started to vine. The peppers have finally sprouted through and the radishes are almost ready to be harvested. In the berry box, the blackberries have continued to expand and are covered with flowers. The blueberry bushes are covered with buds and we are hoping the birds do not steal them away.

Boys’

Girls’

Each year, the PTO puts together a pancake breakfast to raise funds for the school. This year it was at Aubrey’s on Papermill. It is a great event where teachers serve their students pancakes, eggs, and bacon. We even got to put out a tip jar. This year I took my family and my daughter had a great time.

Girls

Boys

Lemonade War Boys

Lemonade War Girls

Our ePals from Bulgaria sent each of our students a PowerPoint on the Easter holiday.  Even though it is a shared holiday, we still have different aspects of the day It is very interesting to see the shared culture of our friends who live thousands of miles away.

Right before Spring Break, the students took part of the World Education Games. Students competed with other students from all around the world. In all, the students set a world record with 293,571,830 correct math answers.

GoAnimate4Schools.com: Claire and Alysia’s Energy Lesson! by Claire B

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We have some wonderful special area teachers at Rocky Hill and last Thursday their hard work paid off. Ms. Boyd and Mrs. Bertolini applied and won a grant that brought the Wooden Strings Theater to our school. The company did a puppet making class with each 4th and 5th grade class, worked with 3rd graders on a performance, and put on their own show of Anansi: An African Tale. The students loved making puppets and the show so much, we decided to make our own puppet shows. The students are working on the videos and will be posting them to their blogs.

The students got a special present when they returned from break, a Christmas card from Bulgaria. Each student received a card with a message on it from their ePal from across the globe. Even though the holidays were over, the students got to relive what makes that time so special.

Tuck Everlasting Movie Trailer – Girls’ Group from Jordan Haney on Vimeo.

Tuck Everlasting Movie Trailer Boys’ Group from Jordan Haney on Vimeo.

Girls’ Group

Ansh and Allan have a friend in England. They have been writing to him since the beginning of school. Last week, they got to Skype with him and they finally got to meet face to face. The students also have exchanged addresses and sent each other stamps and Christmas cards.

In our 6th Skype challenge, the students met Mrs. Griffin’s class from Houston, Texas. With the help of their great clues, the students were able to figure out where their classroom was.

For Veterans Day, we had two special guest talk to our class via Skype. Mr. and Mrs. Platun Skype with the class and answered questions about their service in World War 2. The veterans are the grandparents of one of our teachers, Mrs. Caswell. The students had a fantastic time interviewing the veterans.

In our second Fai-To!, the students took on Our Lady’s College Greenhills in Ireland. The students won the trophy in 5 rounds! Way to go math students!

Through out the year, the students have been writing to Mrs. Panayotova’s  class in Haskovo, Bulgaria. They are fantastic ePals, and they write to us every week. The students have written about their school, town, and country. Click here to take a look at their profile page on our Learning with the Word Wiki. They also sent us Halloween power points and a scary story. Click here to read the story about a Halloween party. They have fantastic friends and we are looking forward to working with them for the rest of the year!

Claire and Nick’s Podcast on Jane Addams

Derick and Caroline’s Podcast on Jane Addams

Diamond and Madeline’s Podcast on Jane Addams

Eli and Alysia’s Podcast on Jane Addams

Haley and Branson’s Podcast on Jane Addams

Kate and Gabriel’s Podcast on Jane Addams

Anna and Larah’s Podcast Janes Addams

Riley and Isaiah’s Podcast on Jane Addams

Allan & Chelsey Inventions Podcast

Anna and Haley’s Inventions Podcast

Britt and Branson on Inventions after the Civil War

Diamond and Derick’s Inventions Podcast

Eli and Ansh’s Inventions Podcast

Gabe and Nick’s Inventions Podcast

Hammad and Isaiah’s Invention Podcasts

Inventions By Claire and Alysia

Kate and Madeline’s Invention Podcast

Larah and Caroline’s Invention Podcast

On Tuesday, the teachers picked up a shift at McDonalds to help raise money for our school. Hundreds of Rocky Hillers showed up to support our school and enjoy a meal together. McDonalds held competitions across the county between schools and individual stores held competitions between classes. The school with the most participants gets a prize and so does the highest class at each store. Thank you McDonalds for a great time!

The students got new ePals this week from France. They will be writing to students in Mrs. Calard’s 6th grade class. I have been teaming up with Mrs. Calard for the past three years and the students have always enjoyed their French friends. We will be writing to each other weekly and sharing our culture, history, and other educational tidbits.

Last year my students planted pumpkin seeds among other fruits and vegetables. A couple of days ago, my new students harvested them and carved them. We are entering them in the school pumpkin contest. We are going to have the smiling pumpkin side watching a video with pumpkins in a field and the scared pumpkin side watching a video of the students carving them. When we planted the seeds last year, I had no idea how great they would turn out. I hope the students from last year come to the Pumpkin Party and see how their seeds turned into a story.

Each year the students paint a canvas for our Fall Harvest fundraiser. We are extremely thankful for Mrs. Carter who headed the project. The students really enjoyed painting the trees in the different seasons. Hopefully it raised some money for our school.

The students got a double dose of Mystery Skype this week. On Tuesday, the students met Mrs. Taylor’s class from Austin, Texas. On Thursday, the students were introduced to Mrs. Gleades’s class from Omaha, Nebraska.

In our first Fai-To! (Pronounced Fight-On in English), we defeated Lodge Park TC from the UK 5-3. A Fai-To is an online math competition between two schools on the incredible math website Mangahigh.com. Our Fai-To hero of the match was Ansh who earned a trophy for his domination on the court.

The students received letters from their pen pals from India and Spain last week. It is incredible to see how much the students have in common with someone who lives so far way. The students have already written back to their friends from New Delhi, India and are looking forward to writing back to their friends from Valencia, Spain.

For the second blog challenge, the students had to write about where they live. Some of the students made slideshows. Take a look at one of the student’s slides. Check out the other students’ blogs to see other slideshows.

GoAnimate4Schools.com: Ansh nick jim crow laws by Nick C

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It’s hard to believe at one point our country segregated  people because of the color of their skin. To help the students understand the concept of the Jim Crow Laws, they created their own cartoons. Take a look at a couple of students take on the Jim Crow Laws. If you want to see more, visit the students’ blogs on the sidebar.

In our third round of the Mystery State Skype Challenge, we found a class in Arizona. Mrs. Hamman’s 5th grade class to be exact. The Arizona class gave us clues like: Jordan Sparks was born here, Mountain time zone, same square footage as Italy, and their border states. After hearing the first 8 clues, most of the students were convinced it was California. When they heard the border states, they quickly changed it to Arizona.

The book fair is here, and it brought aliens with it. The PTO each year partners up with Scholastic Books to help raise money for our library. This year’s theme is outer space. So to get the students excited, we had a dress up day to kick off the fair. The PTO turned our gym into a book showcase room with lights, rockets, and space music. The students have really enjoyed shopping between classes.

In our second round of the Mystery State competition, we got paired up with Mr. Even’s class from North Dakota. The students had to use clues (central time zone, 39th state, Badlands) to guess where the 5th grade class was located. Surprisingly, most of the students figured out the state before I did!