The View From Above

Today we spent some time looking at the NASA website and the EVA that is taking place today. It can be seen here. Our composition this week will deal with the space shuttle and the International Space Station.

Science Quiz Flashcards

Here are some Quizlet flashcards the students can use courtesy of Miss Gentry :)

Billy is Having a Blast

As can be seen in the picture below, Billy is having a great time in his newest home. See if you can count all of the bears in the photo.

So Close!!!

The names are now on the pyramid. The boys and girls are finishing the items that will go inside. Tomorrow the pyramid will move to its new home.

The Pyramid is Nearly Complete!!

The construction of the pyramid is continuing at a brisk pace. With a bit less than 72 hours left it looks like it will be finished with seconds to spare. Today all of the Ninth Age boys and girls who were in school painted part of the pyramid. (The ones who were absent will get a chance tomorrow.) I also saw the ushabtis and other items that are going into the pyramid that Mrs. Bishop has been working on with the four homerooms. They look great!! I am very excited about the work the students have been doing. Since I took pictures of boys cutting wood (even though the girls got to cut wood as well) I am including pictures of some of the girls painting the pyramid.

Billy Enjoys the Long Weekend

Billy had an incredibly busy, fun-filled, long weekend. As you can see from the photos below he did a wide variety of activities. Some of his highlights were a trip to Port Discovery in which he visited The Mystery House. He also took a trip to his weekend friend's cousin's house where he got to ride a horse and visit a peacock. Unfortunately the peacock did not speak Flemish, so communication was difficult. He also played some Wii, and this morning was very happy to see that some snow had fallen overnight.

History Study Guide for Chapters 31 - 33

The history study guide for the test on February 24th may be seen here. A quizlet study guide can be seen here.

Cutting the Gordian Knot

When Alexander the Great attacked Persia he was told by an oracle that Persia would be conquered by the person who could untie the Gordia Knot. Similar to Alexander, the boy in the picture below found the knot impossible to untie, so he used a creative way to dispatch it.

The Super Bowl Spelling Test

The first of our Super Bowl winners collected his prize today. The boy in the picture did a fantastic job giving the Spelling Test. Wae tu goe :)

The Pyramid Continues to Grow

With a little over a week to go, the pyramid for the Corks for Calvert raffle continues to get bigger. How big will it get? Since this is the first year the class has done this project, only time will tell. Based on the wood that has been cut I am guessing that it will top out at level ten or eleven. That would give it a square base of about 33 inches. Here is a picture as it looks today.

Billy Lays an Egg???

Billy has been quite busy this weekend, and from the looks of things we should be expecting triplets. I wonder if they'll have stars on their bellies? Billy also got a chance to meet the chickens and some dogs. The chickens really wanted to know how he managed to lay three eggs.

The Pyramid is Getting Bigger

All four Ninth Age homerooms have now had students who have cut wood for the class project. The boys and girls are enjoying the project very much. Here is a picture of the progress to this point.

Billy Visits a New Friend

Last weekend Billy visited another 9-2 student, and from the pictures it looked like he had a great time.

Pandas in the News

Here is a great video that was on CNN today. It deals with some baby pandas learning to drink milk from a bottle and learning some other skills.

Rome Was Not Built in a Day

The Ninth Age boys and girls started their class project which will be raffled off at Corks for Calvert. We are making a pyramid with multiple secret compartments. With 18 days before the Corks for Calvert event, our time frame is tight but manageable. Six girls from 9-B sawed the wood that made the top tier of the pyramid, and four 9-2 boys sawed the wood for the top of the next level. The top of the pyramid has a secret compartment. When the pyramid is finished this compartment will hold some pieces of the Great Pyramid that can be removed for inspection. Here are some pictures of the pyramid so far and the boys who got a chance to saw some wood.

Panda-monium!!

Today we started our composition about panda bears which is an introduction into note-taking and research. I gave the boys two fact sheets along with a planner, and they are working in small groups sifting through the material looking for nuggets to include on their planners. Once the planners are complete the boys will work independently on their compositions. As part of our research we looked at some panda bears on the webcams that can be found here.

The Chinese Acrobats

Today we were treated to a special assembly performed by acrobats from China. It was amazing!!!!

Here is a video of a man balancing a glass on a sword.

Here is a video of the same man balancing lots of glasses on a ball on the edge of a sword.

Here is the same man doing an impossible trick. How does he do it?

Here is a man catching things on his head...while riding a unicycle

Here are three men juggling hats.

Here are three men jumping through hoops.

Here are the same three men jumping through more hoops.

The final video which was spectacular can be seen here.

Billy Travels to Philadelphia

The following is a message from the boy who took Billy home last week:

I really enjoyed having Billy around this past weekend. My mom and I took a trip to Philadelphia, and Billy went with us. In the first picture, Billy is in Chinatown having Dim Sum. Dim Sum is like a Chinese Brunch with carts rolling through the restaurant serving food. The carts come by your table and you get to point to what you would like to eat. I thought the shrimp shu mai was the best. The second picture shows Billy and me at the Philadelphia Art Museum in front of Billy's favorite painting by the artist Monet. My mom took the next picture while we were having room service dessert at our hotel, the Sofitel. We ate dessert in bed while watching the X Games. The last picture was taken at the Franklin Institute in front of a large statue of Ben Franklin.

A "Super" Game

In honor of the football game being played on Sunday, we are playing a game in 9-2. Each boy picked five spots at random on a 10 by 10 grid. After all of the spots were filled in (there were 10 extra spaces that I filled in with treats for the class), the numbers 0-9 were placed at random along the edges. At the end of each quarter of the game a winner is determined by looking at the "ones" place in the score. For example if the Packers were winning 24 - 0 at the end of the first quarter (I realize this score may be unrealistic....the Packers may have far more points) the winning player would be the one whose initials were in the square at the convergence of 4 on the Packers side and 0 on the Steelers side. There will be a winner for each of the four quarters (no overtime winner) with the prizes as follows:

1st Quarter: Eat Mr. Howe's cafeteria ice cream on the Friday after the game

2nd Quarter: Give the Spelling Test the following week

3rd Quarter: Trade desks with Mr. Howe for a day

4th Quarter: Take Billy home a second time

The boys are very excited about the game. I gave them copies of the grid, but in case it has been misplaced a copy can be seen here.