LS Blazer Buzz 20 May
This week's highlight: X,Y, Z- Yo sé el alfabeto! I know the alphabet!
“All I really need to know, I learned in kindergarten”- Robert Fulghum. This quote holds true for students in Woodlawn’s kindergarten class. Students have been working hard all year long to learn the entire Spanish alphabet! Each week in Spanish class, students have learned a different letter that is incorporated with a theme. Of course, with all of the recent excitement in the kindergarten class surround Hatch Day, if you ask any student what his favorite letter is, you will most likely hear the letter “P” for “Pollito”or baby chicken! There’s no doubt about it, kindergarten students are on their way to building a successful Spanish language foundation.
Contributed by Elizabeth Morgan
LS Blazer Buzz 13 May
This week's highlight: Brawley Animal Hospital
Woodlawn first graders recently visited Brawley Animal Hospital in Mooresville to explore pet care as part of the service learning curriculum. Drs. Shivers and Finkes gave the class a personal tour of the animal hospital and a behind-the-scenes look into the world of pet care through the eyes of doctors. The students were shown equipment, x-rays and a variety of parasites the doctors have encountered in their practice. This was a very educational field trip for both our first graders and chaperones!
Contributed by Tracy Hoskins
LS Blazer Buzz 6 May
This week's highlight: Overnight in Atlanta
The fifth grade class had an amazing overnight trip to Atlanta. The trip was focused around the students’ study of water and environmental issues. The voyage began with a visit to the Georgia Aquarium, where students explored different aquatic environments including tropical, polar, saltwater and fresh. They also had the opportunity to take in the “Dolphin Tales” dolphin show and the environmentally focused movie, “Deepo’s Undersea 3D Wondershow.”
On day two, the class toured a waste water treatment plant, getting an in-depth look at the stages involved in making sewage safe to return to the environment. It was certainly an eye opening experience and the students all agreed that they had no idea it was so much work to clean the water that goes down their drains.
The trip concluded with an adventure to the Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center. The students saw sustainable building practices in action as they learned about the building’s green roof, reclaimed granite façade and various other features such as waterless toilets, tinted windows and native plant landscaping. The class finished the visit by conducting an environmental analysis of a stream on the facility’s property. They participated in a field study of the stream’s macro invertebrates while also testing its pH, dissolved oxygen level and electrical conductivity. The fifth graders had a great time while simultaneously preparing for their upcoming research on environmental issues and solutions.
Contributed by Jarod Jones
LS Blazer Buzz 27 April
This week's highlight: Eggs!
The kindergarten class studies the life cycle of a chicken every spring. This year, hatch day is predicted for Thursday, May 2. While the students anxiously anticipate the arrival of their new flock, they are learning everything possible about oviparous animals, or animals born from an egg. Woodlawn's 11th and 12th grade environmental studies students teamed up with the kindergarteners this week to celebrate Earth Day with plenty of oviparous activities. The day began with an egg hunt in the gardens. Each egg revealed a secret code that when put together was a hilarious joke about a chicken! Next, the students created an egg head out of an actual egg shell. Soil was placed inside the top of the open egg and grass seed was planted. The "hair" on the egg heads should sprout around the time the actual chickens hatch and soon enough, our egg heads will need a hair cut!
Contributed by Nyasha Grennan
LS Blazer Buzz 22 April
This week's highlight: Back in Time
Woodlawn’s third grade students took a trip back in time to 1905 when Theodore Roosevelt was president and the American flag still had 45 stars. Students experienced an authentic school day at The Davidson Schoolhouse located in Rural Hill. The one-room schoolhouse was built in 1890 and is the oldest in Mecklenburg County. Students have been doing an in depth study of the Oregon Trail and after a reading about one family’s long journey out West, they finally made it to Oregon! The students “settled” in Oregon and prepared to get an education by experiencing pioneer school life first hand.
Instead of having to make the long journey to school that many children had to endure back in those days, our students got lucky and were given a hayride to school. They were educated using methods and materials from 1905. Students sat in the old schoolhouse desks and were given slate and chalk by their new teacher. After completing several tricky division and multiplication problems on the slate, students read from McGruffey’s readers. They quickly learned how distracting it was when everyone was reading different texts aloud all at the same time! Students ended the school day with a geography and spelling lesson.
The schoolhouse contained the original potbelly stove located in the middle of the room, but unfortunately, it was not working on the chilly day they visited! The third graders quickly appreciated modern day central heating! There was also an outhouse on site, but students were happy to have other facilities to use. Luckily, discipline from 1905 was not used and no one was forced to wear a dunce cap! The students truly enjoyed their schoolhouse experience and were able to learn more about early American school life.
Contributed by Jamie Gunby
