March 2018
Lenni Lenape in River Edge Schools
Roosevelt School's 4th grade classes held their first annual Native American Exhibit. Students studied the Lenni Lenape culture and crafted Lenape artifacts. Each class studied an additional Native American tribes, such as the Sioux, Navajo, Inuits, and Tlingit, and then created display boards specifically for their topic. The boards highlighted clothing, food, beliefs, shelter, culture, tools and weapons. They also presented a slide show comparing their tribe to the Lenape. Roosevelt School hopes to keep this event as a long lasting tradition!
(See first 10 photos below.)
Cherry Hill School 4th grade students were treated to a visit from Mr. John T. Kraft, Director of Lenape Lifeways, Inc. Mr. Kraft is an archaeologist and educator who has helped discover and excavate Lenape villages and artifacts, and has added much new information about their family life, dwellings, diet, spiritual beliefs and technology. He has been working with the Lenape people, creating museum exhibits, consulting with editors for social studies textbooks, and lecturing for nearly 30 years. It was a visit that the Cherry Hill 4th graders will always remember!
(See final 6 photos below)
(See first 10 photos below.)
Cherry Hill School 4th grade students were treated to a visit from Mr. John T. Kraft, Director of Lenape Lifeways, Inc. Mr. Kraft is an archaeologist and educator who has helped discover and excavate Lenape villages and artifacts, and has added much new information about their family life, dwellings, diet, spiritual beliefs and technology. He has been working with the Lenape people, creating museum exhibits, consulting with editors for social studies textbooks, and lecturing for nearly 30 years. It was a visit that the Cherry Hill 4th graders will always remember!
(See final 6 photos below)
S.T.E.A.M.
Mrs. Patrocinio's 6th grade class at Cherry Hill School visited the STEAM Lab! Her students went into the lab to create homes that the pioneers that moved out west would have built. They used the Maker Space materials plus materials they brought in from home. They were to use their knowledge from SS we discussed in class as well as some research to come up with a group plan. They then had to gather materials they needed and begin building. It took about two weeks total to finish. Once complete, the group was required to write a blurb about the piece and how it represented someone who moved out West in the 1800's. Below are photos that captured the STEAM projects.
March MATH-ness
Every March, the math CREATE classes put on a special month of math fun called March MATHness. The pun is intentional, to tie into the NCAA college basketball excitement, but the fun is all home grown. These students not only are good at math, but they really enjoy spreading their love of this subject and making math fun and enjoyable for the entire school.
The 5th grade CREATE classes are responsible for the day to day activities, which include reading a daily math fun fact at the end of every day over the announcements. Students can choose anything - their ideas range from jokes to quirky facts about mathematicians or math subjects. The only rule is that is has to be something interesting that most people don’t know. The 5th graders also sponsor the Weekly Math Contest questions. Each week, there is a puzzle or brain teaser posted for the students to try. This year we had two puzzles per week - one for the younger grades and another for grades 4-6. The puzzles are all original - designed, developed and tested by the Math CREATE students. Each puzzle must have an answer key and an online Google FORM version, so that the links can be posted on each school’s March MATHness website, located on the Student Technology Playbook. The idea behind the puzzles is to encourage all students to try their hand at a fun, engaging math question. In fact, the CREATE students keep track of the student participation and calculate their rate of participation in each class. They’re happy when students get the correct answer, but more thrilled with seeing how many students tried their puzzle. At the end of the month, the wining classroom is awarded the “Pi Plate” to keep in their room as a trophy all year. As their last project for the month, the students assembled math jokes and any extra puzzles they created into a March Math Magazine that is distributed to all the teachers online. It also includes all the daily math fun facts in case students missed hearing them.
For the past 3 years, the 6th grade Math CREATE students have had the fun responsibility to host the annual Family Math Carnival. The night is a family event open to the entire school where kids, their parents and siblings can come and try out some new games, logic puzzles and various math stations. Again, the theme here is to share how much fun math can be and encourage everyone to explore and try something new. The CREATE students decide exactly what stations and games there will be and they write all the directions, signs and flyers advertising the event. Lastly, they act as hosts that night, teaching and showing visitors their particular math station.
The 6th graders also run the Pi Digits Contest. This is an annual tradition held around the country and world, in honor of all things mathematical. Many years ago, mathematicians chose March 14th (3/14) as a day to celebrate math. As Pi is such an interesting and somewhat mysterious math concept, Pi Day began to be celebrated each year on March 14th. It’s become customary for students to challenge themselves by trying to memorize as many digits of Pi as they can. We’ve been amazed each year at the students from both schools who walk in that day and can recite over 100 digits of Pi. For the past 3 years, we’ve had students memorize over 200 digits and this year, one of our 3rd graders orally recited 811 digits of Pi. Anyone who attempts this feat is rewarded with a Pi Digits pencil or a water tattoo of Pi, as their reward.
We hope that everyone enjoyed March MATHness this year and we look forward to sharing our favorite month with you next year!
The 5th grade CREATE classes are responsible for the day to day activities, which include reading a daily math fun fact at the end of every day over the announcements. Students can choose anything - their ideas range from jokes to quirky facts about mathematicians or math subjects. The only rule is that is has to be something interesting that most people don’t know. The 5th graders also sponsor the Weekly Math Contest questions. Each week, there is a puzzle or brain teaser posted for the students to try. This year we had two puzzles per week - one for the younger grades and another for grades 4-6. The puzzles are all original - designed, developed and tested by the Math CREATE students. Each puzzle must have an answer key and an online Google FORM version, so that the links can be posted on each school’s March MATHness website, located on the Student Technology Playbook. The idea behind the puzzles is to encourage all students to try their hand at a fun, engaging math question. In fact, the CREATE students keep track of the student participation and calculate their rate of participation in each class. They’re happy when students get the correct answer, but more thrilled with seeing how many students tried their puzzle. At the end of the month, the wining classroom is awarded the “Pi Plate” to keep in their room as a trophy all year. As their last project for the month, the students assembled math jokes and any extra puzzles they created into a March Math Magazine that is distributed to all the teachers online. It also includes all the daily math fun facts in case students missed hearing them.
For the past 3 years, the 6th grade Math CREATE students have had the fun responsibility to host the annual Family Math Carnival. The night is a family event open to the entire school where kids, their parents and siblings can come and try out some new games, logic puzzles and various math stations. Again, the theme here is to share how much fun math can be and encourage everyone to explore and try something new. The CREATE students decide exactly what stations and games there will be and they write all the directions, signs and flyers advertising the event. Lastly, they act as hosts that night, teaching and showing visitors their particular math station.
The 6th graders also run the Pi Digits Contest. This is an annual tradition held around the country and world, in honor of all things mathematical. Many years ago, mathematicians chose March 14th (3/14) as a day to celebrate math. As Pi is such an interesting and somewhat mysterious math concept, Pi Day began to be celebrated each year on March 14th. It’s become customary for students to challenge themselves by trying to memorize as many digits of Pi as they can. We’ve been amazed each year at the students from both schools who walk in that day and can recite over 100 digits of Pi. For the past 3 years, we’ve had students memorize over 200 digits and this year, one of our 3rd graders orally recited 811 digits of Pi. Anyone who attempts this feat is rewarded with a Pi Digits pencil or a water tattoo of Pi, as their reward.
We hope that everyone enjoyed March MATHness this year and we look forward to sharing our favorite month with you next year!
