Changing Grades

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Mrs. Grady's Icon which reads "Hello SunShine".

One quarter of our classroom teachers changed grades this year. We wondered if it has difficult. We talked to Mrs. Grady, who taught 3rd grade and moved upstairs, to grade 4 this year. We hope you enjoy listening to our chat.

Reported by: Jane and Eddie

Grade 5 Forensic Scientists

Rubber model of a Brachiosaurus; it's classroom name is Herb.“Where’s Herb!” Is all you heard when you walked into Mrs. Chiavarini’s room. Everyone was frightened, we all wanted Herb back! Whispers filled the air. We had to find Herb, our green Brachiosaurus.

We found a note that the culprit had written, which said “Don’t worry. Herb is in good hands.” It was written in black marker. We didn’t think Herb was in good hands, so we had to find out who took him!

Luckily, Mrs. Chiavarini knew the procedure. We made a list of suspects based on teachers who have been acting suspicious and were still in their classroom during lunch. It was a long list but we narrowed it down to three suspects. The suspects were Mrs. Angelus because she told a student the day before “I’ll be acting suspicious soon.” Mr. Wadness walked in looking and playing with Herb. Miss Varley walked in and said in front of the class, “I like stealing things.”

Mrs. Chiavarini took black markers off the three suspects’ desks. We ran a chromatography test on each of the black markers. Using a coffee filter we drew a line with each marker and dipped the filter in water. We ran the same test with the culprits’ note and the result was … Mrs. Angelus. We kindly asked her if she took Herb and why. Mrs. Angelus explained she was sketching a picture of Herb to help the second graders with their dinosaur projects. She told the class Herb was in good hands and Herb was in Mrs. Mclaughlin’s project room.

Now everyone is very glad that Herb is in safe hands. Cheers filled the room, not one frown on anyone’s face. Once again Forensic Science saves the day!

Do you know what “Forensic Science” is? Well, Chickering 5th graders know.

“Forensic Science is the scientific method of gathering and examining information about the past which is then used in a court of law.” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensic_science 13 Nov 2014]

Atomic A teaches us about Forensic Science

We know this because Mrs. Antinellus [Atomic A],from the Natick Labs, came to our school to teach us about C.S.I. [Crime Scene Investigation].

We wondered what Atomic A likes about her job as a Forensic Science teacher and what is fun about her job. We  asked Atomic A if she had heard of any interesting cases that used Forensic Science to solve them. She said in a ‘hit and run’ accident, they can go back and test the paint on the car that has been left on the other car from being hit. If there is a murder case, the Forensic Scientist uses a blood sample to check DNA, which is compared to a suspect’s’ DNA.

Everybody is having fun Finger Printing

Atomic A likes being an Forensic Science teacher because you can scan blood samples for DNA by a computer. We asked her what her favorite tool was. She likes the DNA test because almost any case can be solved with it. We asked if she always wanted to be a science teacher. She always wanted to be a teacher not necessarily a science teacher. She said she has been a teacher for many years. She was a teacher for 3rd grade, pre-school and ESL [English as a Second Language]. Last we asked her what she liked least about being a Forensic Science teacher. She said her least favorite thing is carrying the heavy supplies to presentations.

All in all we learned that Forensic Science isn’t just science, it’s much more. It’s solving crimes, scanning blood samples, it’s finding crooks, but most importantly, uncovering evidence. Most of all, we think Forensic Science is one of the most appealing jobs in the world.

Reported by: Zach, Kristian and Max

Technology Time

Chickering Student Radio

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Today we will be talking with our technology teacher,
Our technology teacher in his office surrounded by digital devices and a yellow and black Bee-Bott.Mr. Harte, about his career. We  hope you enjoy learning about all the technology in our school, and our technology teacher.

 
 
 
 
[audio mp3=”https://chickeringreports.edublogs.org/files/2014/12/5M-HARTE-final-pirjqf.mp3″][/audio]

 

Reported by Rachel, Olivia, Katana, and Caden

Welcome to Chickering, new Fifth Graders!

Being a new student can be challenging. We decided to check in with four of our six new fifth grade students to see how they were getting along. (We tried to interview all six new students, but were unable to sync our schedules with two of the new students.) We wondered what was difficult about moving to a new school.

The first student we interviewed was Rebekka. Before living in Dover she lived in Helsinki, Finland. She probably received a good education there, seeing as Finland has the best schools in the world. Two of the new students, Max and Remi, come from Needham, and Jack comes from Dedham, both are neighboring towns to Dover. By far, Rebekka wins for coming from the farthest away.

Moving is tough and we wondered what obstacles our new students faced. Max said that setting up all the technology in his new house was difficult. Jack and Remi miss their old house and friends. Rebekka by far had the hardest move. She moved to a completely new country. She had to learn a new language and make new friends; leaving her friends and extended family behind.

Not all schools are the same so we were curious about whatPicture of luggage which is part of the sculpture at the Sacramento CA Airport. was different from their school and our school. Jack answered there was not that much of a difference. Remi said she, “attended a private school.” Max felt, his old school had mean teachers and also that he could go to a better school, moving to a town with larger houses.  Rebekka said, lunch/recess is 45-minutes two times a week and three times a week it’s 30-minutes and the students can choose how much of the 30 minutes is for eating and for recess. Students can choose to learn academics in Finnish, or English, or French. Another difference is Physical Education runs once a week instead of twice like Chickering but sometimes for 2 hours, not 40 minutes. In addition to recess at lunch time, there are two more 15-minute recesses each day, usually following an academic subject. Vacations are more prevalent in Finland, for example, they begin school for a month and then have a week off; around Christmas time they have three weeks off; in February they have a week vacation to ski; and in the Spring they have a week vacation for Easter. It is interesting how the United States and Finnish schools are so different.

We queried what activities and/or hobbies they do outside of school. Both Remi and Rebekka take part in horseback riding and Remi does boxing while Rebekka does jazz and hip-hop dancing. Hockey and Lacrosse are Max’s favorite activities and Jack participates in soccer.

Don’t underestimate the challenges of moving to a new school. Making new friends and learning new routines are difficult. It surprised us that in Finland they have a skiing holiday. We wish we could also have a longer vacation and a 2-hour Physical Education session! And soon enough, the chances are high that you will begin to get used to a new school.

Reported by: Abby, Beck, Calden, Cyrus, Matthew, Rebekka

Image: “luggage6.jpg” Pics4Learning.com 16 December 2014 <http://www.pics4learning.com/details.php?img=luggage6.jpg>.

Destination: Dover Days!

Girl playing catch the duck with a fishing net.Excitement fills the air upon arrival. Laughter was heard all around and the aroma of mouth watering food was wafting throughout the town. Can you guess where we are? No? We’re not at a fair, we’re at Dover Days, September 13, 2014! What goes on at Dover Days you ask? Only Dover residents know but we are about to tell you all about the food, the games & prizes, and how we prepare!

What is that heaven-like smell? Is it hot dogs being roasted on the grill, or greasy hamburgers being topped with gooey, melted cheese. Trick question . . . its both! Dover Days always has a lovely assortment of delicious food. If you would rather eat healthy, try out the salad bar or the make-your-own-trail mix booth. You could smell the grills cooking for miles around! When you went to order your food, you could hear the mouth watering sizzle of food being heated on the hot grill.  At this event, you’ll never go hungry!

The thing that attracts most of the audience here, on this fantabulous day, is the games. You’ll have no trouble finding one, because there are lots of them! Enough so everybody leaves with at least a prize or two. There are games like spin the wheel where you spin a wheel to win tokens. Sam, a fifth grader from Chickering School ran a game, with the help of Ryan.  They ran the Marshmallow Toss, a game where you try to get a marshmallow in a basket, if you do … you win tokens! They said they loved watching all the customers that came to play. They loved working and plan to be back next year to bring joy to little children. Then, there is plinko, a crowd favorite, where you drop what appears to be a giant connect four piece into a wall of spikes, and whichever slot it falls into at the bottom you win the amount of tokens listed on it. You have to pay real money to get tickets, but they’re worth it! With tickets you can play games and win tokens. With tokens you can buy prizes. But don’t feel like they’re ripping you off by charging a dollar a ticket. Dover Days is a non-profit fair, and all the money they make goes to the Dover PTO and the town of Dover. The prizes are much better than any prizes you would find at an arcade. They have everything from alien slime, to inflatable baseball bats, to super huge whoopie cushions. You name it, they had it! Well, maybe not a pet dragon, but they have almost everything. What’s not fun about getting to dunk a unfortunate man/woman into a tank of cold, smelly, filmy water? We’d definitely want to do it! The victims change every year. Once it was Mr. Wadness, a fifth grade teacher and Dr. Reinemann the Vice Principal, once it was even Officer Harry, a D.A.R.E. instructor and police man. Who knows? Maybe it could be you next time!

But if you want to get your body working and still have fun, definitely check out the bouncy houses. There are tons of them, Inflatable bouncy house - called racing course.increasing by number every year. It’s located on the Dover Library lawn, right across from the main section. There are racing courses where you try to race your friends through inflatable obstacles, and there are mile high slides that send you plummeting down a slippery surface at what feels like 100 mph!

Boy, all these games and prizes are making me tired. Why not take a ride on the world famous hay ride? The hay ride comes and you get in the oversized tractor full of hay, and ride around town on a voyage you won’t soon forget.

In order to make all this happen, you need to prepare quite a bit. We interviewed Sam, a fifth grade student that witnessed the set up of Dover Days. He even helped! When asked how he helped he elaborated on constantly having to create new signs to make sure people don’t get lost at this extraordinary event. He also described how many volunteers they had to hire in order to put Dover Days in Farm tractor pulling hey wagon with people.motion. They needed one person at each of the booths and at least 2 people at the prize table. Oh, he also had to help brain storm prizes for token winners. Even the adults played games too. That would take a lot of knowing what kids like to encourage them to play the games and get the prizes.

Dover Days was a big success this year, and sure, maybe the Cupcake Booth wasn’t there. But  hey, nobody is perfect, right? No matter how anyone puts it, Dover Day will ALWAYS be with us, here in our hearts.

Reported by Lauren, Audrey, and Ryan

Reported by Lauren, Audrey, and Ryan

Do Re Me … Mrs. Law-Linck’s Music Class

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Chickering Student Radio

Music is wafting from our music room and stage with our new music teacher, Mrs. Law-Linck. She teaches music with instruments and movement as well as Chorus to Grades 3, 4, and 5. We hope you enjoy listening to our chat with Mrs. Law-Linck.

Meet Mrs. Law-Linck

[The music you heard in the podcast are exerpts from a 4th/5th grade chorus practice.]

The Name Game

Reported by Liza and Emily

If you’re a teacher, is it hard to change grade levels?

Eight teachers moved grades this year at our school! We were curious to know what their experience was like. We chatted with two of these teachers, Mrs. Hickey and Mrs. Gentilli, who both moved into grade 3, to learn about their experience and teaching.

Image of new third grade teacher, Mrs. Gentilli

Mrs. Gentilli

We wondered, if they could choose a grade to teach, which grade would it be. Mrs. Gentilli shared, she is “happy teaching grade 3 and there is a lot of new material”. She also likes the American Revolution unit and the science units. Mrs. Hickey said, “If I could choose a grade to teach, it would be either grades 3, 4, or 5.” She also likes to teach in grade 3 because she gets to know where the kids start in 3rd grade and where they end up in 5th grade.

Mrs. Gentilli commented, she liked moving to 3rd grade because she already knew most of the kids from the previous year and didn’t have to go through the “get to know you stage”, when asked if it was hard to adapt to 3rd grade from second grade. She also thought it  almost felt like extending the school year.

Image of new third grade teacher, Mrs. Hickey.

Mrs. Hickey

“Not hard to adapt” from 5th to 3rd grade, responded Mrs. Hickey. The major difference between 3rd and 5th graders is fifth grade students are more mature and independent so they can do a little bit more independently.

Do you like teaching different grades? Mrs. Gentilli claimed that she does like getting to teach different grades, and has taught grades 1, 2, and 3. Also, she likes it because she gets to work with different teachers and different curriculum  in each grade. Mrs. Hickey shared that she also likes getting to teach different grades and she has been in grades 1, 3, and 5. She thinks it is good for teachers to get to teach different grades, so they can learn what kids are learning in other grades.

We wanted to know if they preferred their old room or their new room. Mrs. Gentilli prefers her new room better because it is much quieter and much cooler than her old room. Also, she gets the view of the trees instead of the kids at recess. She thinks her room is the best room in the building. Mrs. Hickey said that she likes her old room because she fixed it up over the years. She is getting used to her new room, but it is still a work in progress. She is starting to put things where they belong, trying to make it look like her old room.

Clementine and Roald Dahl books are favorite books Mrs. Gentilli likes to use with her students. She also likes to teach using Knuffle Bunny books because everyone can relate to them or has a favorite stuffed animal. She always likes to do some sort of countdown at the end of the year. A lot of things she does with the students, she can adapt from grade 2 to grade 3. Mrs. Hickey shared she can also adapt things from grade 5 to grade 3; she just has to make it easier. She likes to use picture books and her favorite books are William Steve and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble.

We were surprised to know that both Mrs. Gentilli and Mrs. Hickey like to read some of the same books that we do. They both also use some of the same strategies as each other. We hope they have a great rest of the year in grade 3.

By: Ava B. and Caroline  R.