Mazal Tov to seventh grader Ethan Cohen for winning the school spelling  bee and to seventh grader Ethan Rosenfeld, who was the runner up! Ethan Cohen will compete with students from Scottsdale and Paradise Valley public schools, as well as private, parochial, charter and home-school students. The Maricopa County Regional II Spelling Bee will be held Thursday, February 19 at the Saguaro High School Auditorium at 9 a.m.

Last week, Dr. Ross Salawitch visited Ms. Rosky's third grade class. A professor at the University of Maryland, Dr. Salawitch talked about a variety of topics, including sharing career fields related to math and science. His presentation provided students an opportunity to see the relationship between math and science, and he hoped to inspire students to see that science is for both men and women. He spotlighted Sally Ride, the first woman in space and Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman to go to space.

Additionally, he discussed air pollution and how it affects the ozone layer. He clarified that our ozone level is a concern to everyone. Dr. Salawitch shared his experiences traveling to Northern Sweden and the Arctic Circle to make observations on what is occurring in our atmosphere. He shared that our society is more aware of how to improve the ozone by battery operated vehicles and solar panels. We are moving in the right direction!

Second graders are learning to log in and out of the computer using student access. They are practicing operating the trackpad by clicking, dragging, swiping and pinching as well a recognizing and using desktop/toolbar icons and menus. Second grade technology also focuses on keyboard awareness. The introduction to keyboarding used Dance Mat Typing and now students are using typingweb.com, which is a self-paced keyboarding tutorial. Lastly, second graders have been introduced to Glogster, which is an electronic poster (glog) that allows students to create projects and presentations. Students learn how to create a glog, insert graphics and text, import videos, photos, graphics and sound.

Third graders continue to practice keyboarding skills in technology class. Additionally, students receive a Pardes email account and learn how to use their email as well as Google Drive. Students also discuss email etiquette as part of receiving their school email account. Third grade students learn how to use Schoology to access their grades, assignments and courses. Lastly, students continue to work on Mac Basics, dock preferences and general preferences.

Fourth grade students have been further developing their skills and competency using Pardes Google email, Google Documents, Presentation and Draw. Additionally, students review Mac Basics and Schoology. Fourth graders are introduced to Google Sites, which enables students to create a website, name the site, create a URL, and choose a theme.

Mrs. Strolle is also helping fifth graders as they continue to work on their electronic portfolios using Google Sites. Electronic portfolios are showcase portfolios that seek to highlight the students' best work. Students are publishing the work of which they are most proud and/or work that has become important to them. Showcased work will allow students to populate their digital footprint, create a longitudinal learning inventory, and show growth over time.

Morah Ronit introduces a new letter almost every week. The students are always very excited to learn the newest letter. The letters are not taught in alphabetical order but instead by similarity to the previous letter or a connection to a Jewish holiday or secular studies. For example, the students learn the letter Pey at the same time that they are studying butterflies in science class, as Papar is the Hebrew word for butterfly. Another example is learning the letter Mem at Purim, as mem is connected to Purim with words like Megillah. Students practice each letter using a multi-sensory approach. They learn songs, read books, and complete written activities. There is extensive repetition of old letters as each new letter is introduced. What a wonderful sight it is to see our youngest learners enjoying learning Hebrew!

Second graders in Mrs. Garber's, Mrs. Verne's and Mrs. Traulsen's classes recently finished a unit about the 13 colonies. Students were introduced to basic early American history as they learned that the colonists gained their independence from England. They talked about colonial life and compared and contrasted it to present day. Students also examined different Native American groups, their cultures and where they were located in the country. Finally, they talked about pioneers and explorers and how Americans began moving west to find more land. They discussed how Lewis and Clark helped blaze a trail across the United States to get to the Pacific Ocean.

Students strengthened expository reading comprehension skills, such as comparing/contrasting, inferencing, analyzing and making connections, by reading and discussing sections of the social studies textbook. While individual activities may have differed between classes, they included reading the book The Indian Paintbrush and then creating a watercolor painting of a sunset as well as a Native American name such as He Who Plays Basketball and creating a Native American pattern for a blanket.

Sixth graders at Pardes study all about their home planet in Mrs.  Burckhardt's science class. This study takes the students on a journey from the inside out, starting with the internal composition of the Earth, moving to the crust, and ending with air, atmosphere, and space. Each unit includes labs, projects, and other hands-on activities to help the students really understand these complex topics.

So far this year, the students have created topographic maps of man-made landforms, conducted experiments on sugar-cube pyramids to simulate which agents of weathering and erosion cause the most damage to the real pyramids, and produced iMovies to show what they learned about plate tectonics and continental drift. Their most recent unit, earthquakes, had the students make their own seismometers to measure movements in the earth. They also researched ways to make buildings more earthquake-proof before designing their own model, which were then tested on a shake table to see which designs sustained the least damage. Things were rocking and rolling in science class!

Along with Earth science topics, sixth graders learn study skills and apply these important techniques to their current assignments. They even participated in the "Studying Study," in which they chose four different methods of studying and tried them out on groups of science vocabulary terms. After taking the tests, they determined which methods were most successful and wrote their findings in a lab report. Sixth grade is a great year to learn how students learn best!