Photos (2012-13)

Students had a BLAST on this trip. With so many activities and new friends to make, it was non-stop from Monday to Friday afternoon. There are nine separate photo albums contained in this section dealing will all aspects of the trip, including a series of short video clips. Check out pictures of the Boat Trip, Camp, the Climbing Wall, Free Swim, Hikes, Kayaking, Marine Biology Labs, and Snorkeling.

Ah, what fun?! Dress up as some unique critter and parade around the main lawn with your buddies.

Each year sixth grade science students take two weeks to build a bottle rocket in class. Great care is taken with the fins and nose cone. When January rolls around, we launch on the playing field. It's a great project and a good way to learn about Newton's three laws of motion.

Capoeira is a strenuous dance / martial arts combination from Brazil. Students enjoyed the Friday afternoon introduction to Brazilian dance. 

One Friday afternoon sixth grade students gathered in Laverty to learn African Dance. It was a an exhuberant change from their earlier classes that day.

The annual trip to the American Museum of Ceramic Arts introduces students to well-known ceramic arts and projects. In addition students have a chance to try out their own skills! This time we made gargoyles.

Using string, tape, paper, and popsicle sticks, students are challenged to make a boom that hangs over the edge of a table that will hold weight. The strongest boomilever wins the competition.

Given only tape and straws, can you make a tall tower that will hold up a golf ball for 10 seconds? Well, some groups succeeded.... and others.... well, they needed more time!

In this Mystery Architecture class students were challenged to make a popsicle stick catapult that would fire a marshmallow the greatest distance. It seems that regardless of how the popsicle sticks were connected, it was the placement of the rubber bands that made the most difference.

With a stack of books covered with sandpaper sliding over the top of sandpaper strip, students simulated the movement of two tectonic plates. Data was collected on the amount of friction present in the system.

For our unit on Volcanoes, students began by asking their own questions. What was important? What did they want to know about volcanoes? We divided up into four or five inquiry groups for each class and then used Evernote to collect our research, reflect on what we had learned, and share analysis of our reading.

The Chadwick Spring Concert lets students involved in music and orchestra show off their skills and impress the audience with the pieces they have learned. It is always so amazing to see the groups up on stage!

Podcasting is an integral part of the sixth grade science curriculum. We start by recording audio stories of adventures at CIMI. Later we add current events podcasts -- one each month.

For this science lab students measured the density of regular objects (density cubes) and irregular objects (apples, oranges, limes, golfballs, racketballs). For regular objects they could measure the sides using a ruler. For irregular objects they had to use the water displacement method to determine volume.

In social studies classes students chose a country to study and then produced a 3-D display model introducing visitors to their country. 

There were so many creative ways of illustrating buildings and natural landscapes for the 3-D country projects that we just had to capture closeups!

As a culminating activity for our studies of density and buoyancy, students work in teams of 2-5 students to build a boat out of recycled plastic bottles. The boat has to successfully float one or two of the team members. On race day, all of the boats hit the Chadwick pool for the final competition.

At the end of the year, humanities students put on Shakespearian costumes and recreate shortened versions of two of Shakespeare's plays. 

While the other class is presenting their play, one class of students has to wait in the "black box" room off stage. During this 'down time' we tried to capture individual pictures of the players.

At the end of the year, MrC asks his science students to make a card with a picture on the front and a message inside that captures their thoughts about their year in science. This photo gallery captures a few of those pictures and messages.