Taylor Gray

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The lesson objective is to transform trigonometric equations such as y = sin x, y = cos x, and y = tan x into works of art suitable for greeting cards, posters, or other means of display.  Students interpret their design, sometimes writing a story.

"Taylor’s work exemplifies the integration of Trigonomoetry and Art.  Her selection of trigonometric equations blended with color give life to the butterflies in her story.  The magnificence of Taylor’s work is even more successful when one acknowledges the many physical challenges she has dealt with during her high school years."

Mrs. Bohan

(Spanish)

Students had nine choices for this project that concluded our unit on “the Individual and Personality”.   Students were asked to choose and complete three of these nine options. Each choice connected to this theme and/or the cultural components of the unit.  One of Emily’s choices was a collage about someone who was important to her.

"It was clear that Emily put a lot of time and effort into making this project creative, neat and grammatically accurate.  As a result, the final product was a lovely visual representation of her grandma and the love that she has for her."

This piece is a study in linear perspective and monochromatic color.

"Angelea is a ninth grader who shows great promise.  She is both dedicated and talented."

During our fitness unit, Rachel was injured and unable to participate physically.  For class credit, she developed a power point defining the four components of fitness which we test for the State of Connecticut.

"Rachel’s powerpoint is fantastic!  She gives thorough, accurate definitions.  For each fitness component, Rachel provides numerous ideas for how to improve each component, and she also has pictures showing these activities.  Finally, Rachel included a lengthy bibliography."

As a class, we read various fables and discussed their unique characteristics and history.  The culminating assignment was to plan and write an original one.

"Tom’s fable had a professional appeal to it.  It was cleverly designed and well written in every way.  He told me he didn’t want to write “just an ordinary one” – but strived to bring greater depth to his.  I was also impressed to learn that his fable was inspired by his recent reading of Animal Farm by George Orwell."

Students were asked to complete an independent webquest on a topic of interest.  Students became Internet Sleuths as they uncovered the facts and fiction about a variety of unsolved mysteries or topics of interest.  Using the Internet, student groups researched an unsolved mystery, extinct animals, or other topic of interest.  During the research, the groups evaluate the reliability of the sources of information found on the Internet. The culmination of the research is a PowerPoint slide show that highlights various theories, facts, and pictures. The slide show is presented to the class using the classroom smart board and the students in the audience use active listening as they view the presentations.

"Andrew’s work was chosen because of his stellar ability to research and apply what he learned to develop his own theory.  Andrew’s power point was well-planned and he used a great deal of creativity in creating his powerpoint."

As a fourth grade objective, students are expected to master the concept of answering an open-ended response for certain areas of reading comprehension.  Starting in the beginning of the year students have been working on responding to literature in an open-ended format.  For this particular piece of writing, students were told to write a diary entry for one of the characters in their book.

"This student’s work was selected because she was able to write a journal entry that related to her particular text.  She also went above and beyond the given assignment by using creativity, which had relevance to the novel she read.  Her work showed careful thought, answered the response thoroughly and was presented in a unique question/answer format to the class."

During the month of February, the students were creating a complete process piece with a beginning, middle, and end.   As a second grade, we discussed what makes a good story, showed the students the writing prompt scoring rubric, and read examples of a zero prompt through a score of six. 

"Ethan Florian’s writing piece was selected because of the effort and enthusiasm he had for this assignment.  He even wanted to add to his writing during indoor recess!  Ethan took great care to create a piece that was interesting, used a variety of sentence starters, as well as descriptive language.  However, after reading his writing over, he felt that his ending would not warrant a six score, so he proceeded to edit his work to make it better.  Ethan was very proud of the final story."

With all the rain that we have had in March, it felt as if we were living in a fish bowl!  So we thought it would be appropriate for the students in our class to create their own word problem story about fish.  Once the students were finished creating and writing their word problem, they used Goldfish crackers and fish bowls to show the two groups of numbers that were used in their word problem.   A number sentence was added to the bottom of the paper that corresponded with their word problem. 

"We decided to select Kristen’s work because she really enjoyed doing this project and she put a lot of effort into her work.  Her handwriting is beautiful and she clearly showed, through the use of the Goldfish crackers and her writing, that she understands word problems and all of their components.  Kristen is a role model student.  She always puts 100% into every activity that she does.  She is helpful to her peers and respectful to adults.  We are proud to have Kristen as part of our wonderful class! "

March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb!
Kindergarten students have been learning about the weather. During their independent writing center students were encouraged to be weather forecasters and to write a “forecast”.

"Andrew’s writing was chosen because he made good use of the lines and spaces while forming his letters correctly. He used our classroom word wall to write his sight words and he “stretched” out his sounds to write the other words in his sentences. He compared the rainy weather to that of a lion. Way to go Andrew! "

Students read the book “Color Zoo” by Lois Ehlert and identified the shapes in the book which were used to create different animals.  The students then became illustrators by creating their own shape animal.

"Isaac was extremely creative making a geometric walrus.  He was neat and tidy with the glueing and did a good job following directions."

We viewed and discussed cave art.  What did they think it was painted on?  What did they use to make it?  Why did they make pictures of animals?  Then they painted their favorite animal and showed us if the animal was inside or outside by what they added to the picture.

"Catherine painted her animal with terrific skill, clearly showing the details of the animal.  By adding the sun, she let us know the animal was outside."