All posts by lspady

Scholastic’s Breaking Barriers Essay Contest for Grades 4 – 8 (CLOSED-STAY TUNED FOR 2018 INFO)

Other Events & Contests

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The Breaking Barriers Essay Contest is a chance for students in grades 4 – 8 to share their personal stories and show how they use Jackie Robinson’s values to face their own barriers.  There are prizes for the winners!!!

Visit this link:  http://www.scholastic.com/breakingbarriers/kids/  for more details.

If you have any questions, please ask your classroom teacher, or your school’s EY teacher.

Deadline for entry is March 14th, 2016

Westside Community Schools does not sponsor or endorse the organization or activity described here.  The sharing of this information is provided as a community service.

Breaking Barriers Essay Contest for Grades 4 – 8

Uncategorized

Screen Shot 2016-01-05 at 3.33.17 PM

The Breaking Barriers Essay Contest is a chance for students in grades 4 – 8 to share their personal stories and show how they use Jackie Robinson’s values to face their own barriers.  There are prizes for the winners!!!

Visit this link:  http://www.scholastic.com/breakingbarriers/kids/  for more details.

If you have any questions, please ask your classroom teacher, or your school’s EY teacher.

Deadline for entry is March 14th, 2016-Check in the spring for a new contest

Westside Community Schools does not sponsor or endorse the organization or activity described here.  The sharing of this information is provided as a community service.

Early Enrichment #12: Building Strong Shapes

Early Enrichment

This is an easy, fun experiment to find out how strong different shapes are. Shape 1 sheet of paper into different shapes and see how much they can hold. We made a triangle, square, and cylinder.

AFTBstrongshapes-1

A hypothesis is a special word that scientists use for “an idea that you can test,” it is also a kind of prediction. Make a hypothesis of which shape will hold a book best. Do you think a circle will be stronger than a square?

Test your hypothesis out! Does your shape hold more than one book?

Can you think of other shapes or structures that might be stronger? Share your ideas below!

Activity from  All for the boys 

Early Enrichment #11: Beethoven’s 245th Birthday

Early Enrichment

Did you know that on December 17th, 2015, Beethoven would have turned 245?!

So who is this guy, and why is he so important?

Beethoven is one of the most famous composers in history. He played the piano and composed a lot of different symphonies. 

For this Early Enrichment activity, build your own musical instrument out of recycled materials and see if you can play Happy Birthday for Ludwig von Beethoven. 

homemade-musical-instruments

Share your pictures and/or videos with your EY Coordinator! 

Early Enrichment #10: Hour of Code Reflection

Early Enrichment

Last week around the world, many students in our school district participated in the Hour of Code. Did you?!

f you didn’t get a chance, check out this video and the link below.

If you didn’t get a chance to code, check out this link: https://code.org/learn

For those of you that participated, reflect about your experience. Comment below answering the following questions.

(1) What was your favorite part of the Hour of Code?

(2) What was challenging?

(3) What is your favorite coding website or app?

(4) Why do you think coding is an important skill to know?

(5) Do you think you will continue to practice Coding?

#13: BOTB Reading Goals

Reading Enrichment, Uncategorized

The Battle of the Books is a quiz-bowl competition where students work on teams to read books from this year’s list.

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your language arts mini spark recording page: #13: BOTB Reading Goals

2. Check out the reading lists for elementary and middle school. If the list has not been updated, email your EY teacher so they can be changed.

3. How many books do you want to read this year?  Add a list of the book titles that you are going to read to your recording sheet.

4. Everytime you finish a book, add a picture of the book to your recording sheet.

5. When you meet your goal, share your language arts mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

Check out the BOTB badges at the EY Website

Free JavaScript Workshop-January 30

Other Events & Contests, Spady Blog
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I have an interest in coding and learning more about JavaScript so I registered for a free event here in Omaha on January 30!    Even though it might be over my head, I’m certain I’ll be able to connect with someone at this event who will teach me more!  Would you like to  join me?
Sign Up:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nodeschool-omaha-free-javascript-workshop-january-30-2016-tickets-19707653121
From the Site:  Learning JavaScript gives a new developer access to run their code in any browser in the world. Learning Node and NPM can give established developers new skills that are currently in demand. But as with any new skill, just getting started is often the hardest part.

That’s why we’re here to help you level up with a FREE workshop from Nodeschool.io!

Westside Community Schools does not sponsor or endorse the organization or activity described here.  The sharing of this information is provided as a community service.

#12: Factors & 276

Math Mini Sparks

This math mini spark will do a little bit of review on how to find factors and will take you on a journey to find out why the number 276 is amazing!

Spark your math thinking!

1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #12: Factors & 276

2. Watch this short reminder video on the factor pairs. Take notes on your recording page showing the factor pair rainbow for 100.

3. Watch this Numberphile Video that takes proper factors and does some pretty amazing math. A proper factor of a number is any factor of the number except the number itself. Make a mini math dictionary on your recording page with at least 10 of the math terms from this video

4. Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

Who is Siri and Where Does She Live?

Spady Blog
Siri, who let the dogs out?

At one point, my boys couldn’t get enough of Siri’s response to this question.  “Who, who, who, who?” she would reply and there would be laughter and begging to do it again and again.  At the time, Toby was 3 and he wanted to know all about Siri and where she was.  The conversation went something like this…

Toby:  Mom, who is Siri?

Me:  She helps answer questions that people have.

Toby:  Have you ever met her?

Me:  No, she’s not real.

Toby:  Where does she live?

Me:  Well, according to Siri, she lives right here in my phone.

The boys remembered that question a few days ago and asked Siri again, “Who let the dogs out?”  Her reply this time?  “Due to unforseen circumstances, that witticism has been retired.”

This morning, I got a notification that I had a new follower on Twitter…Susan Bennett (@SiriouslySusan) is a voice-over artist and singer.  She is also known as the voice of Siri.  Whaaat!?

Me: Hey boys!  Guess who just followed me on Twitter?  Siri!

Trea: (my 8-yr-old comedian) Mom, did you know Siri is a spider?

Me:  Huh?

Trea:  She lives on the web!

Oh the joys of raising kids in this ever changing technological world!  My boys will never know what the world was like pre-Siri.  What else will they never know existed?