Saturday, March 19, 2016

The Budding Scientists Are in Bloom!



As always, this year's Science Fair was quite the extravaganza. The Navigators generated great questions, came up with interesting experiments, creatively displayed their new-found results and knowledge, showcased their interests, passions and personalities and, in the process, love science all the more. 
























 

Friday, March 18, 2016

How Far is a Mile? Experiencing the Oregon Trail


The Navigators and the Pioneers went on a mile walk around the neighborhood to get a glimpse of what it was like to walk the 2,200 miles on the Oregon Trail.

Check out the Seabury Pioneers' blog to see more including a wild prairie dog!


Saturday, March 12, 2016

Future Techno-Meteorologists of the World

Is it a culminating activity 
or is it a jumping off point 
for these first graders at Seabury?!

For the past several months we have been having great fun studying meteorology. To show our parents and our schoolmates what we have learned, we each made and presented a PowerPoint weather forecast. 

Each student chose a favorite place in the entire world and used the internet to find a map,  some pictures and some weather data. It always amazes me how fearless and intuitive they are with using a computer--searching, saving, cutting, pasting, enlarging, inserting, fonts, backgrounds, colors, clip art, etc.

We warned our audience to dress for any kind of extreme weather and to tighten up their seat belts for a wild ride (we also had discovered lots of PowerPoint's moving and shaking animations and transitions!)

In a list of things one parent loves about Seabury, here's how she describes the experience:
The communication skills being put to the test along with the demonstration of tech skills to create the weather power points.  The humor and confidence and poise that emerged as 6-year-olds presented to a room of 50+ people without blinking an eye."




 



Here are some screenshots that show our hard work, our unique interests and our big personalities. 

 








 



It's looking like this is just the beginning
 of our life long interest in meteorology!

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Coding for First Graders: https://scratch.mit.edu/

We're getting equipped for the future!

Quotes from the website that fit right in with our Seabury ethos:
"Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century."

"The ability to code computer programs is an important part of literacy in today’s society. When people learn to code in Scratch, they learn important strategies for solving problems, designing projects, and communicating ideas."

~~~

Every First Friday of the month, both the middle and lower schools at Seabury get together for enrichment classes. This month the Navigators were greatly enriched by some of their older friends who offered to teach how to code. In typical eager-beaver, no-fear, I've-always-wanted-to-do-this manner, we logged onto Scratch and got started!






Scratchcat.svg


Watch the video


Wednesday, March 2, 2016

ReAd AcRoSs AmErIcA dAy!!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming
 to bring a very important public service announcement:



It's the birthday of Dr. Seuss
commonly known as
 Read Across America Day. 


So we had 
PJ, stuffy and blankie day,
Wacky Math with the Pioneers,
Seussical Obstacle Course in PE,
Buddy Reading with the Gumshoes
and a
Dr. Seuss Trivia Contest 
with the entire lower school.

It was a wacky, zany, fun,  
educational, relational
day!