Going Solar

This was an awesome week with some special visitors and events sprinkled into our regular schedule.

On Thursday we learned about how seeds travel from our Four Winds Volunteers. Students identified the different parts of seeds using a lima bean model, engaged in several hands on activities to understand how they travel and spread, and enjoyed fruits with different types of seeds. Thank you to all of our amazing parent volunteers!

On Friday, Gary Beckwith and his Solar Bus came to teach us more about the science and engineering involved with solar ovens. Students learned about the three different types of solar energy and how they can power everything from a calculator to a car (or bus!). Gary was really impressed with all of the understanding that Mosaic students already had from our unit and we even invited him to come back and see how our solar ovens stand up to the test of making nachos this week!

We ended our week in the garden celebrating all that it brings to our school and community. Kaleidoscope lead us in song and our wonderful staff and parent volunteers served us up some delicious hot cider. It was a beautiful day to celebrate!

Just a reminder that we will be having our Mosaic Crafter Morning on Tuesday, October 31st from 10:30-11:30. Thank you to those of you who are volunteering your time or sending in a snack for us to enjoy.

Happy Hikers

Thank you to all who donated canned good and pledges towards our annual Hike For Hunger event. All of the money will go towards Hunger Free Vermont and the food will be donated directly to our Williston Food Shelf. The students got a beautiful day and we enjoyed spending time together as a team doing something for our local community.

Mosaic Team Hike For Hunger

Our beautiful backdrop at Catamount Family Center 

This week we tested different materials to see how they worked as insulators. Students tested plastic, paper, felt, and cotton and recorded the difference in temperature after submerging cups full of the materials in ice water. Students now have lots of ideas on how they will use these tests to make decisions on how to build their own oven prototypes. Our goal is to have an oven that can successfully heat up and cook food while still having a low impact on the environment.

Testing thermal insulators

We started a new unit in mathematics this week. Students are learning about models and strategies for multi-digit multiplication and how to divide with and without remainders. See this link for more information on the content of this unit and how to support your child's math growth.

Next Tuesday is our Harvest Craft Morning. We are looking for parent volunteers to run a craft or activity for three groups of approximately 10 students in each group. A form has gone home and we would love it if you could join us for this fun team event. If you want to help,but need an idea we are happy to help. If you need certain materials for your craft idea just let us know beforehand and we will try and organize them for you.

Happy Harvest,
Jess and Liz

Solar Scientists

Scientists began learning about different types of energy this week. Some new vocabulary that came up in our scientist meetings were: fossil fuels, renewable/nonrenewable, and geothermal. Students then concentrated their focus on solar energy and designed an investigation around how the color of a material affects how it absorbs heat. They established the controls and variable and worked in groups to collect and analyze data. This information will help them as they design their own prototypes for mini-solar ovens in the coming weeks, but first we need to test for which materials insulate the most heat. Stay tuned!

Collecting Temperature Data

Setting up our colored materials for testing

This Wednesday we will be doing our annual Hike For Hunger at The Catamount Family Center. Our hike will begin at 10:00 and go until about 11:00. We would love for families to join us on this team event. Pledge forms were sent home via email and should be returned with any donation by Friday, October 27th. We will also love to collect non-perishable food items to donate to our Williston Food Shelf. Thank you for anything that you can contribute to this important tradition.

Mathematicians investigate mass 

Learning about liquid volume 

On Monday students in fourth grade will attend an assembly to learn about the WCS beginner band program. They will learn about the different instrument options and the responsibilities that come along with joining the band. We encourage them to discuss this new option with their families and teachers before making the year long commitment. More information will come home to you in the next few weeks, but we are happy to answer any questions.

Students of the Week reporting live from Midday With Mosaic!

Growing Writers

Writers have been working on writing opinion reviews and science conclusions in our integrated Gum Unit. We have been using microprogressions to help students learn how to elevate the quality of their writing. We look at other student writing and teacher models as mentor texts and then use the PQP (Praise, Question, Polish) strategy to help each other edit, revise, and aim for a 2-3 star piece.

Microprogressions for opinion writing

We look forward to sharing your student's writing and other information with you during our conferences. Please use the link on the sidebar (or teacher email) to sign up for a time that works for you.

Praise, Question, Polish
Peer Editing Tool 

Computational Fluency Work Place Game

We are nearing the end of our current math unit and students have been working on strategies for multiplication and division problem solving as well as building their computational fluency with multiplication facts through work place games. This week we will show our thinking in our post-assessment. Then we will reflect on how we have grown using our pre-assessment and reflection tools. These assessments will come home for you to celebrate how your student has grown as a mathematician.

Thank you for helping your students to use their yellow planners to organize their weekly responsibilities. This is just one of the ways that we can help our students to build executive functioning skills like time management and organization.

Lego Masters at Work
During Friday Workshops

If you have a special skill that you would like to share with students please remember that we would love to have family volunteers to run a Friday Workshop. These run almost every Friday from 2:05-2:40. You would have a group of about 10 students. Please contact your child's teacher if you are interested.