Thanks for a GREAT YEAR

It's amazing how fast 180 days can fly by! I hope you all had as much fun as I did this year and I hope that while having some fun you also learned something along the way. I know I did. Thanks for being such a great class. I know I am a better person having had the opportunity to get to know you all and have you become a part of my life. Thank you!

The Life Span of a Bubble!

How long can a bubble survive on a windy spring day in Topsfield, Massachusetts? Well, we found out this week as we headed outside with our bubble bottles,wands, and stopwatches, and timed just how long bubbles will last. We used two different brands of bubble mixture, one that costs $0.50/bottle and one that costs $3.00/bottle. One would expect the $3.00 mixture to be superior to the $0.50 mixture but we found that to be the case. In fact, the $0.50 mixture outperformed the more expensive brand. Go figure! As for the life span, we had bubbles survive up to just over 2 minutes but most were in the 20-45 second range.

WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM

We learned the science of Ice Cream today as we went up to the Science Lab and made ice cream in a bag. We learned that salt actually lowers the freezing point of water. When we took the temperature of the ice before adding salt we saw that the temperature was 32 degrees but after we added the salt we observed the temperature as it dropped to as low as -10 degrees. We had lots of cold hands as we made the ice cream but in the end it appeared to be enjoyed by all!

Presentation of Greek Myths

Last week saw the culmination of two weeks of hard work as the class presented the three Ancient Greek Myths to Miss Scott's 4th grade class. All involved put forth an outstanding effort and the plays were presented in an outstanding fashion. Thanks Miss Scott for finding the time in your busy schedule to come and watch our presentation. Your class makes an outstanding audience.

Dome Sweet Dome

Friday saw 5W complete the geodesic dome project that we started at the beginning of the week. Students (and teacher) have been bringing in old newspapers for several weeks and we started rolling them and measuring them as the week progressed. On Friday afternoon we split the class by gender and built the domes. It was great seeing the teamwork as everyone found a job and kept busy during the building. Following directions was a key component of the project and it took awhile for the direction-followers to take the lead. By the end of the day we had two geodesic domes that were surprising long. See below!

Spring Concert

What a wonderful concert the Proctor School bands put on this evening. The Beginning Band, the Jazz Band, and the Advanced Band all put forth a great effort and regaled the audience with some outstanding music. Year after year, Mr. Zajas does an outstanding job preparing these young musicians for these year end performances.

 The students work incredibly hard as they are at school 2-3 times per week at 8AM for full band practice, then small group lessons once a week, plus practice at home (we hope). They can be heard rehearsing in the morning and, for people there at that time, it is easy to hear the steady improvement of all of the bands as the year progresses. Great job Anna, Lily, Brianna, Chloe, Tommy, Kenny, Evan and Blayke.