Mrs. Harcourt's Class  

Click on "more" to see "It's Science - Flight Projects" and under Field Trip to see some photos taken on the trip to Northfield.

Click on the movie title below to go to link for our movie.

Quick Notes

5-15-12

MAP testing is finished and the children are enjoying our final story before next week's unit benchmark.  This will be the last unit of the reading series we have time for.     

Our film titled "Flight" won for the Elementary Class Film! at the Greenfield Student Film Festival.  Thanks everyone! Especially Ms. C-T for helping our idea turn into a great little film to show what we learned about the physics of flight.  The film also won the Audience Award for the evening. Very cool!  Click on our movie title to go to the link.

This isn't a great picture, but the kids there were very proud to be in front of the audience to answer a few questions about the film.

The Loft Transformed!

Our space explorers have been busy!  The lower loft is now Mission Control and the upper loft the International Space Station complete with solar panels and satellite dish!  There is a plant experiment  to observe on the ISS and the students will be observing and labeling the continents as they "pass" over them to review important information from last year.  Below, the children can monitor and track the ISS using NASA links.  Those interested in researching more specific details of the ISS or Shuttle will be doing that over the next couple of weeks.

Discovery School at Four Corners Home Page.

Lunch Menu Page 

Scholastic Book Club
If you have a login, you can log in and go right to the ordering, if not, you'll need to create an account with a log-in.  Our class activation code is HDMTQ.

 Hopes and Dreams

Our new Hopes and Dreams are finished. Again, I was impressed with the thoughtfulness of the students' goals for their own learning.  We agreed that they rules we agreed upon in the fall still apply.  I am looking forward to the remainder of the year with students excited about learning.

Franklin and Benjamin 

Franklin and Benjamin Bear have been enjoying the classroom and being with the children.  They are well-loved members of our classroom community.  They join us for Morning Meetings, lessons and work time.  It is a tradition that they get to go home with a child from the class over the weekend. They and the children have been looking forward to this year's visits and adventures since the beginning of school.  They are very happy bears since their weekend visits have started.  They and their hosts have had fun and busy days each weekend.  We love hearing the stories on Monday mornings.    

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Some places to think about for day trips (click on names for links):

• Springfield Museums.  You can get passes from the Greenfield Library to cut down the cost. 
  
• A walk up to Poet Seat.  You can start at Highland Pond and follow the trail all the way to Poet Seat.
• Barton Cove is a great place to walk around and look for some dinosaur prints and enjoy a picnic.
• The New England Air Museum at Bradley International Airport.  Admission is $6.50 for kids and $11 for adults.  I am not sure if passes are available.
• Look Park in Florence is a fun place to visit.  Lots of stuff kids enjoy and a nice place to be on a sunny day for families.
• Mt. Sugarloaf State Reservation in South Deerfield.  Nice walk up the mountain road and a great view of the valley.  I used to love this place for a picnic with my own children when they were young. 
• Northfield Mountain Environmental and Educational Center in Northfield.  There are trails for hiking and a place to enjoy a picnic.  The Visitor Center has information of other area places to visit.  We will be going here May 3rd to learn more about ponds. 
• Historic Deerfield is a fun place to walk around. The Memorial Hall Museum has some interesting artifacts from the area and lots of information about the history of this area.

I hope that you find this list helpful. If you have a fun place for a day trip to add, let me know. :)