Fourth and Fifth Grade Health
Bob Whitelaw
In fourth grade health we have begun our next unit on No Smoking. Students will not only learn about the affects of smoking, but also learn about our lungs and our respiratory system. Students will then create small posters with a message about smoking. They will also have handouts, and other green and white contests to participate in during class time. 

In fifth grade we finished the nutrition unit. We have begun our next unit Love Your Lungs. Students read the booklet before break in class and were asked to turn in five questions pertaining to the reading. The students will then answer those questions for green and white points. Students have also begun their health project for this year. We will be spending time in the Info Center during the next few weeks doing research and putting together a brief oral presentation on a health related topic. Some topics will include teeth, food allergies, fitness, smoking, and stress just to name a few. Students are expected to do all the work in school during health period and will not have any homework related to the project. The students are excited about the project and have shown great enthusiasm. We will work on this project through the month of April.

Fifth Grade Physical Education
Bob Whitelaw
In Physical Education the students continue to be active and are having lots of fun. We have just finished our Olympic unit in which each class was divided up into four teams. Each team represented a country and competed in a variety of games for points. The students seemed to have fun and showed strong Olympic spirit. Due to recent weather outside we will do our Volleyball unit next. Students have also begun their final push to the fitness challenge. They need to continue to practice at home when they can. Final testing for the fitness challenge will begin in late April. After our Volleyball unit, we hope to go outside and play some ball games and Ultimate Frisbee.

Music & Drama Notes
Erin Schlesinger
Frank Bonanno
It is that time of year… time for the Appleseed Play. I have been very impressed with the quality of work from all of our young thespians, and the play is already at a point where we can run large sections of it without stopping. 

This year’s play is THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES, with music and dialogue written by Dave and Jean Perry. The show is set in your average, everyday, run-of-the-mill fairy tale kingdom, with an Emperor who has a taste for very fine fashion. However, the Farabutto family thinks they have found a way to make some money very quickly while pulling a fast one on the Emperor… they’ll create a suit that can only be seen by the wise. If you use your imagination, you’ll have a great idea of the hilarity that ensues! 

Dress rehearsals will be on April 14th, 15th, and 16th. Please make sure that your child’s costume pieces have made the trip to Applewild by Monday, April 14th. I have included a costume list in the Slice as a quick reminder of what each child will need. 

The show will open on April 17th, and run for two performances: April 17th at 7 p.m., and April 18th at 9:15 in the morning. So mark your calendars, and be ready to join us for an evening of music, storytelling, acting, and imagination! 

In the Recorder Ensemble we are working on increasing the range by learning new notes. The students have had the challenge of covering the holes properly so that the notes come out easier. Recorder students are reminded of their hand position so that their fingers will be able to cover the holes.
In the fifth grade band, the Brass players are working on the high register. Which involves playing certain warm up exercises, which will help build their range? The Woodwinds are working on hand position and mouth position for a more controlled sound. The percussionists are working on playing more independently of each other by trusting their counting abilities. The Bass players are working on tuning their basses and to focus on the music and not to watch their fingers on the fret board.
In both Recorder Ensemble and fifth Grade Band we have started rehearsing music for the spring concert. These compositions are 3-6 part musical arrangements so the students need to trust their musical reading abilities and not speculate on what the music is telling them.

First Through Third Grade Shop
Ed Thomas
The day finally arrived in the first grade. All the balancing toys were completed and now it was time for the big test. With great excitement and a few minor adjustments all the toys balanced and were able to go home with their creators. The colors were beautiful, reflecting each child’s preference and personality. They were very proud of their efforts, which I am sure they expressed when they presented the finished toy to you at home. Now it’s on to the second toy – the basketball game, which will be finished in paint or stain. For this project they will be introduced to the use of the cross cut handsaw and square, both of which are considered adult tools by the students. 

All the measuring, cutting and sanding components of the cruise ship creation have been completed in the second grade. They are now painting each piece separately using paint fixtures, and they are using the colors they chose on their ships deck plan. Assembly, the most exciting phase, is next using glue, nails and hammers. 

In the third grade with the copper tubes all cut and most of the frame completed, it is now time for the assembly, paint, stain and stenciling of the tubular glockenspiels. The mallets will be the last pieces to be made, which will allow them to strike the tubes for the fine-tuning of the instrument. Once the project is completed, we will learn how to play several songs, and hopefully they will increase their repertoire when they bring the glockenspiel home.

Lower School Library
Michelle Janoschek
Happy Spring! Here is a preview of upcoming topics being covered in the library fro Grades K-4.
In Kindergarten and First Grade we will discuss the production of maple syrup for the rest of March. I will read Sugaring by Jessie Haas and The Sugaring-Off Party by Jonathan London. This will be followed by reading Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran. This is the story of a hill covered with rocks and wooden boxes, which becomes an imaginary town for a young girl and her friends. In mid-April I will start a unit on Gardening. I will begin by reading two wonderful books about worms; Wiggle and Waggle by Caroline Arnold and Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin. Students will learn the role of earthworms in gardening and composting. Then I will use the book How Groundhog’s Garden Grew by Lynne Cherry to begin a discussion of seeds and how to plant a vegetable and herb garden. 

Second, Third and Fourth Grades will begin a unit on the Iditarod. I will read The Great Serum Race by Debbie S. Miller, Togo and Akiak, both written by Robert Blake. Third and Fourth Grades will visit http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/sleddogs/index.html to help them gain more information and to continue practicing their research skills. This unit will be followed by a gardening unit that reviews planting vegetables and herbs but also covers hidden life in a garden and backyard biodiversity. They will visit http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/secretgarden/ to gather this information on their own.

Science in First through Third
Tracy Reardon
First Graders are just finishing up with the Solids and Liquids Module. They learned new vocabulary words to describe liquid items and they did a fine job of using them during class to provide descriptions during class discussion. They also played games like Go Fish and Memory with the pictures that went along with the property and they needed to use the scientific word when matching the items, or asking for them during Go Fish. We are wrapping up by looking at solid items in liquid to see how some solids change after they have sat in water for a period of time. We will be moving into the New Plants module next week, with the children planting and then observing the growth over time while taking measurements to log the growth of their plants. We use rapid growing specimens and we keep them under lights to help the process move along. 

Second Graders have finished discussions of Balance and are now moving into the Motion section of the module. We have talked about counterweight and when and where to add counterweight in order for materials to balance in new ways. We talked about stable positions and unstable positions and tested out our theories to see what would happen. In talking about motion, we made spinning tops and the children had to reflect back on what they learned previously about balance to know where they needed to place their disks in order to make a top that would spin for the greatest period of time. We will be working with more objects that move to see how things work. We will then work with systems that use different-sized wheels and observe and compare how the roll, and what happens when weight is added to those systems. Lastly, we will look at marbles and observe how they roll from high places to low places by setting up runways in the classroom. 

Third Graders have finished up discussions on Magnetism and have moved on to concepts of Electricity. Students have been introduced to circuits; some learned about short circuits and the need to do things differently. Just this week, we discussed open and closed circuits and the children created their own by using a switch to turn a motor off when we didn't want it to work and on when we did. They have been working with D-cells, which are a safe source of electricity for us to be working with. Using the D-cell, students have added additional components such as wire and a light bulb and have been able to create a circuit in which the light bulb would light. They have been introduced to a circuit base in which they incorporated the use of a motor and then a switch to control that motor. Our future discussions will take us to completing circuits and the used of conductors and insulators.

Fourth and Fifth Grade Science
Maura Lyons
We welcome Spring and eagerly anticipate our final modules of study. The excitement is electrifying as fourth graders discuss ideas for their inventions for the upcoming INVENTION CONVENTION. This special event is scheduled for GRANDPARENTS/SPECIAL PERSONS DAY, May 9, 2008. Your child will be sharing with you more information about this assignment and event. We kick-off this final unit with an inter-disciplinary field trip to the Tsongas Industrial History Center in Lowell. Here students participate in the Invention Factories Program, tour the mills and view a multimedia presentation on Lowell’s Industrial Revolution. 

The Ideas and Inventions module consists of sequential investigations that promote student creativity and inventiveness. Each investigation provides valuable science content while introducing a conventional 
technique for revealing the unseen. 

In fifth grade, after completing a successful Mission to Mars, we are wrapping up an exploration of our Solar System. Students are working on a Planet Travel Brochure Project. Teams of students are responsible for conducting research on a planet and putting that information together in a creative way through a Travel Brochure and presentation to the class. A project description and a grading rubric have gone home with your child to be shared and signed. 

Our final unit is VARIABLES. Through a series of fun activities (building boats, flying planes, manipulating catapults) students will explore the concept of a variable. A variable is anything you can change that might affect the outcome of an experiment. This is an important concept that will be built upon in subsequent years. The lab report writing process will be re-introduced and reinforced.