Mrs. Sander's first grade class had a Pumpkin Investigation: We weighed pumpkins, measured them, and then tried to count all of the seeds inside the pumpkins. First graders think pumpkins are awesome, slimy, and cool!

Eighth grade students began their study of gas laws by investigating Alka-Seltzer rockets.

New reading standards emphasize close reading, so students in 5th grade accelerated reading are developing their annotation skills. They are using pens, highlighters, and sticky notes to mark up both informational and fiction texts. In The Witch of Blackbird Pond, they are highlighting examples of figurative language and characterization. In a related informational text about the Puritans, they highlighted the author’s claims and evidence to support those claims. Then they determined the article’s central idea and support. Finally, they compared the factual information about the Puritans to the depiction in the novel.

When you’re an 8th grader, functions just seem easier to learn when you get to model functions with sidewalk chalk on the playground. Algebra I students created models of functions and other non-function relations in the form of tables, mappings and graphs and then quizzed each other with their models. Students also learned how to read and use function notation, finding functions of various values on the school wall!

To hone their spatial reasoning, third grade accelerated math students solved polyomino puzzles. They recreated outline designs using only “L” and “I” triominoes. At first some thought the puzzles were impossible to solve, but the children employed the primary mathematical practice of persevering in solving a challenging problem; they eventually solved the puzzles and used their newly developed skills to complete even more complex puzzles. The students will continue to work with a variety of polyominoes to develop their skills of mentally manipulating the shapes, visualizing what the new result will be when a given shape is reoriented and even turned over.

There were lots of eurekas in 7th grade accelerated math as students worked in pairs and then two different groups to discover what Pythagoras figured out 25 centuries ago.

Students in 3rd grade accelerated math participated in Electronic Show and Tell, presenting to classmates digital pictures they took of acute, obtuse, and right angles in their community. Then they did a mystery picture hunt, searching for parallel lines in their angle pictures. They were surprised to find how very many parallel lines are out in the world. They found dozens of parallel lines in the classroom too!