The Adventures of the Islesford School

Be My Valentine!

2012-02-14T11:14:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Thank you, TLC friends, for our beautiful Valentines!!

Slowing Down: Weathering, Erosion and the Rock Cycle!

2012-02-13T07:27:00.000-08:00

This week our study of geology slowed down a bit. We studied weathering, erosion and the rock cycle!!

The week began with the usual TLC science meeting. This week it was Isle Au Haut's turn to host. Mrs. Greatorex on Isle Au Haut, along with the help her her four students, directed the group through two experiments that led to some great discussion about weathering and erosion.

First we learned about weathering. In this experiment each team was given two sugar cubes, a small amount of water and an eye dropper. The assignment was to see what would happen when water dropped onto the sugar cubes for one minute. The students found that the water changed the way the sugar cubes looked. In a couple of groups the sugar cubes dissolved completely.

Next, each team was given some potting soil and two straws. The teams made small mountains from their potting soil. Then they were instructed to lightly blow on their mountains for one minute and to observe what happened. The potting soil mountains eroded!

Later in the week we learned about the rock cycle. We learned that there are three classes of rocks: metamorphic, igneous and sedimentary. We learned all about the characteristics of the three classes of rocks. Then it was time to try to apply our new knowledge. Using a rock collection and what they knew about metamorphic, igneous and sedimentary rocks, the students tried to determine the class of each rock in the collection.

Even knowing the characteristics of the three classes of rocks, it was hard. There were many good discussions and hypotheses.

After learning all week about weathering, erosion and the rock cycle, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went for a geology walk. We found lots of good examples of weathering, erosion and cool rocks!

Compression, Tension and Shear

2012-02-10T07:52:00.000-08:00

A special guest came to visit our school this week, and man did we have some fun (and learning something, too).

Jeri Spurling is an architect and she also lives on Islesford. She came to our school for about 3 hours this week to teach us about structural engineering. She began her presentation by talking about the forces of compression, tension and shear.


Then the students had a chance to see the forces in action. First a student built this building and Jeri showed us how the forces of compression and shear will easily knock it down.

After learning about those forces and how engineers and architects make those forces work together for buildings and other structures to stand up, our students got to try their hands at some structural engineering.

The six middles and olders were split into three teams. Each team was given 30 index cards. Their challenge was to build a structure from those 30 index cards that would stand up and hold a one-gallon bucket.

To add to the challenge the students could not use any tape to hold their structures together.

The three teams all built structures that stood up. They were quite pleased with their accomplishments!

But only one team's structure managed to hold the bucket.

Next it was time to add weights to the bucket! This structure held the bucket plus two weights!

At the end of the first session, the students wanted another chance. Jeri agreed to come back the next day and we all tried again!

When Jeri returned she share some new ideas with us.

She showed us how a piece of paper folded in many different ways makes the paper much, much stronger!

And she showed us that when you use different shapes, different folds, different curves and make them work together, you get something really strong.

Now the kids were ready for their second try. Their ideas were really different! Check out these pillars.

This team went with sets of triangles working together.

Pretty interesting design, huh?

This team continued with their winning concept from yesterday--squares.

Now it's time to test the strength of the new structures.

This team's structure held the bucket. But how much weight will it handle?

The bucket is filling up.

Now it's overflowing! All together, this structure was 9 inches tall and it held 10 blocks!

But this structure was really the one to wow us. At 12 inches tall, it looked so fragile. We held our breath as the bucket went on top of the structure. It handled the bucket.

And then it began to fill up with blocks! We were so nervous as each additional block went into the bucket.

It was filling up with blocks!

In the end, the structure held 15 blocks!!

We had such fun making these index card structures. We can't wait for Jeri to come back to help us make structures from spaghetti!

A Super Smarty Pants Demonstrates Plate Tectonics

2012-02-03T09:48:00.000-08:00

Science Class on the Polycom!

2012-02-03T07:45:00.000-08:00

It's Monday, so that means another Science meeting on the Polycom. This week our new topic is Plate Tectonics! First we watched a movie and then we went to Brain Pop and watched a tutorial about plate tectonics.

After the tutorial, we did a little quiz together.

Our super smarty pants wanted to answer all of the questions, but they had to take turns. After this intro lesson on the Polycom, we will spend the rest of the week reading more, building models and making diagrams all about plate tectonics!

The Middles and Olders Contemplate the Earth

2012-02-03T07:40:00.000-08:00

After reading about the layers of the Earth, watching a movie about the layers of the Earth, and making diagrams representing the layers of the Earth, it was time to synthesize everything we learned about the layers of the Earth.


To synthesize, we did a Chalk Talk. A Chalk Talk is a silent discussion. The rules are 1. You have to respond to the discussion question or to the topic; 2. You have to be silent; 3. You can respond to another person's answer, but you have to do so silently; 4. Your response can be in the form of a drawing or it can be in writing.

The topic for our Chalk Talk was "Inside the Earth." The students worked in silence for about 10 minutes, writing and drawing everything they knew about inside the Earth.

After working in silence for 10 minutes, the students synthesized out loud. Standing in a circle, they took turns responding to the following questions: 1. What are some new things you learned about inside the Earth? 2. What was the most surprising thing you learned about inside the Earth? 3. What do you wonder now about inside the Earth?
Pretty interesting questions.

What is a "Polyberg" and why do we need one?"

2012-01-27T09:19:00.000-08:00

No, it is not a parrot named "Berg" asking for a cracker. Nor does it involve large blocks of ice. It's a device our island Teaching and Learning Collaborative schools can't live without, and it has catapulted us into a whole new way of collaborating with our island peers.

A Polycom is a video-conferencing system. A Tandberg is basically the same thing, with some slightly different features (analogous to PC and Mac). Most TLC schools (Cliff, Isle au Haut, Monhegan and Matinicus) have Tandbergs; the Islesford School has a Polycom. So we affectionately call them "Polybergs".

Have you ever seen the old "Hollywood Squares" program? Well, Polybergs look a bit like that show--a wide-screen with each site appearing in a square section of the screen all at once. Whoever is speaking moves to the top, with the rest of the participants arranged around the screen. We can talk, read aloud, show and tell about projects and even rock out together on our Polybergs.

This past week alone, our Polybergs were used for about 14 different inter-island meetings--some for students (TLC student council, book groups, class meetings), some for adults (teacher collaboration meetings, Parent Teacher Community), and some for both adults and children (inter-island science and social studies unit kick-offs).

Our Polycom is the same kind of machine that is used by the TeleMed program to show doctors at a distance site what's going on in people's ears and throats and enabling the patients to talk to doctors "face-to-face" on the mainland. We use ours to connect with many TLC schools at the same time--sometimes sharing the screen with as many as 6 sites at once.

Can we teach on the Polyberg? Yes, but not in the same way that we teach in the classroom and only for limited purposes. Kids still need to have their teachers in the room to monitor and coach them, and lessons need to be specifically designed for the Polyberg--a time consuming operation. The Polyberg is best suited for multi-site collaborative practices between teachers and students, such as presentations and facilitated discussions. When students need one-on-one coaching and instruction, the Polyberg is not a good choice, because students will always need individualized, hands-on support to best learn new skills and concepts.

We are having fun with different islands "hosting" Polyberg meetings to showcase their work. We've had a great time with inter-island quiz shows, and of course our not infrequent inter-island Polyberg celebration dances.

The Magic of GoogleDocs

2012-01-27T06:54:00.000-08:00

So. How is it possible for students separated by miles of water to work together on classwork, projects and homework? One answer is GoogleDocs.

GoogleDocs allows many people to work on a document, spreadsheet, form, or presentation together simultaneously or asynchronously. The cool thing is when you're working on a project with someone else at the same time, you can see what they add to the document, as they are adding it!

Here's what it looks like:

These students...


and this student are working together on a GoogleDoc with other students from Cliff Island, Monhegan Island, Matinicus Island and Isle Au Haut.

This is what the GoogleDoc document that they are working on together looks like. When you open the document, it looks just like every other word processing document you've ever seen. With one difference: other people can work on it with you in real time with no forwarding, copying, or other complications. When you look at the top right hand side of the document you can see the people who are viewing the document at the same time you are viewing the document.

Now if you scroll down the document, you can see what people are adding to the document. Do you see the blue and pink cursors on the document? Each of those colors represents a different person typing on the document. When those people begin to type, the cursors will even identify who the typists are! You will be able to see what they type while they are typing it.

GoogleDocs is just one pretty magical tool we use to collaborate with students from other islands.

The Youngers and Kinders Eat the Earth!!!

2012-01-26T13:14:00.000-08:00

"Make sure you eat the side we're not standing on!" one student remarked just before we all bit into our Earths!

The younger/kinder class made miniature Earth models using peanuts or almonds as the core, chunky peanut butter as the mantel and crushed chocolate chips as the crust. They were very kind to share them with the whole school!

The Modern Schoolhouse

2012-01-26T08:36:00.000-08:00

A couple of years ago, the teachers from the Islesford School, the Monhegan School, the Matinicus School and the Isle Au Haut School decided they wanted to build on the successes of their collaborative work as teachers by extending their experiences to their students.

Over the next several months we worked on the details for how students could collaborate across several islands with different schedules, different administrations, different school boards, different curriculum, different levels of comfort with technology, etc.

In the end, we created the Outer Islands Teaching and Learning Collaboration (TLC). As the TLC, we agreed to work together to develop a common curriculum so that all of the islands involved in the project would be teaching the same things at the same time, allowing opportunities for collaboration. We agreed to go on two curriculum-related field trips together each year, in addition to our annual Inter-Island Event. We agreed to continue to support each other through our own collaborative practices. And we agreed to teach in virtual settings using technology to allow our students to learn and work together. This element of the TLC has been both the most challenging and the most rewarding aspect of our project.

The details for making virtual classrooms work are many, and it wasn't (and still isn't) easy to make it all work all the time. But today, two years into our TLC we are making it happen--almost everyday!! Here are some examples of how our students are learning and working together via technology:


Inter-Island book Groups! Every Tuesday and Wednesday morning, the students from five island schools (Islesford, Matinicus, Monhegan, Isle Au Haut and Cliff) work together in five on-line book groups. Students in grades K-2 at the Islesford School, the Monhegan School and the Cliff Island School meet together on their video-conferencing systems to listen to the book My Father's Dragon. Third and fourth grade students from Cliff, Islesford and Isle Au Haut meet to discuss The Chalk Box Kid. Other third and fourth graders from Isle Au Haut and Islesford meet to discuss The Lost Trail. Another group of students in grades 4-8 from Islesford, Matinicus, and Monhegan meet to discuss City of Ember. A final group of eighth graders from Monhegan and Islesford work to discuss, make sense of and analyze The Scarlet Letter. Book group mornings are busy and productive!

Students and teachers house their work on "wikis." On these online platforms, teacher post assignments, discussion questions and materials for students to work on. Students post their work on the wikis so everyone can see each others work and make comments.

In addition to book groups, we also meet with the other four schools regularly for Social Studies and Science lessons. Today all of the students in grades K-8 from all five islands met for an introductory lesson on the layers of the Earth.

Here is what the video conferencing system looks like when we're all conferencing together.


This week, it was Cliff Island's turn to teach the intro lesson. They prepared a pretest, a presentation complete with student-made movies, teacher-made slide shows, and YouTube videos.

Individual schools within the TLC also work together for other classes. In this picture you see the 3rd-8th grade students on Islesford working with the 6th-8th grade students on Monhegan during a writing lesson. For several weeks these two groups met to learn about narrative writing. Each student worked on a personal narrative, and every week they revised their narratives based on new techniques they learned during these writing classes. Sometimes the students broke out into pairs using Skype. By sharing their writing pieces via GoogleDocs (a word processor through gmail that allows users to share and collaborate on work with their contacts) and communicating via Skype, the students were able to peer conference, giving each other helpful feedback. When the students completed their personal narratives, they shared with the whole group and received warm and cool feedback from everyone in the group.

Of course, not every TLC event is academic.

Students also participate in an inter-island TLC Student Council!

Here is the student council's first every meeting. Now all of their meetings are on the video conferencing system. Each student council meeting also ends in a dance party!

As you can see, we are very busy learning and having fun in this modern schoolhouse!

A Journey to the Center of the Earth!

2012-01-24T11:35:00.000-08:00

Waiting patiently for our journey to begin!

Finally! Mr. Halloway is ready on Cliff Island! "What do you think the inside of the Earth is like?" he asks. "Draw your ideas!"

Everyone gets to work!

Maybe it's like this?

How about this?

It must be this!

Or this?

Hmmmm. This could be it?

Or this?

Mine?

Or mine?

After a presentation from Cliff, the olders and middles were ready to do some more investigating. Some students read about the history of geology. Some students read about the geology of New England. And some students read about the layers of the Earth. Now they are ready to show what they know!

We are making a model of how the tectonic plates collide to make mountains.

I am working on a diagram of the layers of the Earth.

We are taking notes about the history of geology!

Math in the Older/Middle Room

2012-01-24T11:17:00.000-08:00

With students in grades 3, 4 and 8 in the same room for all subjects, there is always something interesting going on at all different levels. On any given day in Math class there are four different math lessons going on! Here are a few....

If you are in third grade, you're learning about and working with fractions!

You are learning how to divide things into equal groups using fractions!

If you're in fourth grade, you might be learning about how to measure and draw angles using a protractor, how to identify and classify polygons and how to measure the area of figures. Or you might be working on long division with remainders!

If you're in eighth grade you're learning about the Pythagorean Theorem!

TLC Fall Field Trip!

2011-11-08T06:57:00.000-08:00

Pulling up to the Challenger Center after a day of travel, seeing all our friends. Rushing off the van, screaming our friends' names. Hugs, still screaming. Yup. It's another Inter Island Field Trip. This year we're in Bangor, doing lots of stuff about Space.

After piling off the vans, cars and more cars that we traveled in, we had a few minutes to catch up. So, in other words, a lot of screaming, hugging, jumping, trying to run up buildings, and all the other craziness we do. We are special that way. Then we had one of our famous circle-ups. (Surprise, right?) The best part is, they are never circles. Blobs, squares, ovals, stars, anything besides a circle. We went over the plans, then trooped inside the center for our first activity.

The K-3 graders were doing a program called Astronaut Life. It was a program where they learned what it would be like to be an astronaut. What they ate, how they slept, all that good stuff. The 5-8 graders did a Simulated Space Mission. The fourth graders could choose what they wanted to do. The Simulated Space Mission was a program where we had to be astronauts. We had two groups: people in Mission Control and people in the space shuttle. Halfway through we switched. A few hours later we went back to Camp Jordan for dinner.

Dinner was delicious. Who doesn't love spaghetti? Once everyone was eating and deep in conversation, music started. Kid after kid jumped up and started dancing. Soon almost everyone was dancing and having fun. It was a flash-mob, started by Islesford. After the music ended, everyone went back to dinner like nothing had happened.

The next morning, bright and early (well, actually it was still dark) we had breakfast then left (after we had a circle-up). A field trip isn't a field trip without a sufficient amount of circle-ups. Then we got onto the school bus and settled in for the long ride to the University of Maine. We waited next to the planetarium for a few minutes, waving to people to pass the time. The younger kids went inside a few minutes later for their program, Earth, Moon and Sun. The older kids headed off to the rock wall for a morning of climbing. We were there for about an hour, then left to meet up for a snack. Then the olders went inside for a show on black holes and the youngers went to the climbing wall. An hour later we met for lunch. After lunch we were off the rec center for the challenger course. After yet another circle-up, we split into two groups. This time it wasn't olders and youngers. It was one-twos. One group was on the high ropes course and the other was on the low course. Actually, the name ropes course is sort of misleading because it has nothing to do with ropes except that you are in a harness. The high ropes course had two options: The cat-walk and multi-vine. The cat-walk was a log between two trees about thirty feet in the air. There was a ladder that you climbed, climbed up some staples in the tree, onto the log and across. The multi-vine was like a tightrope with ropes hanging down to hold onto. You climbed the ladder on the staples, onto the wire and across. Scary but addicting. The low course was called Whale Watch. It was like a short, wide teeter-totter. The group split in half. Each person had a partner that was on the opposite side from you. The pairs switched, one at a time when the "boat" was balanced. It took a little while.

Back to camp for dinner and the Halloween Party!! Dinner was burritos. Yum! It was quick, because everyone was eager to get in their costumes and start the party. There was a runway where people could show off their costumes. Dessert followed, then the awards. Then the music started, and the dancing began. We're big on dance parties.

Friday morning arrived. The time had flown by. We couldn't believe it was already time to leave. Monhegan had to leave early, before everyone else. The rest of us ate breakfast and had... guess what? YES! ANOTHER circle-up! Are you noticing a theme here? Then we had a few minutes for good-byes. Reluctantly, we all got into our cars, vans, whatevers. Another field trip had come and gone.

IIE 2011: MATINICUS!!

2011-10-24T13:00:00.001-07:00

It was completely dark, broken only by the bright light from the co-op dock. We were standing on the dock at 5:00am, staring out at the water, expecting the boat the turn the corner at any second. Waiting, talking, still waiting. The youngers were talking about the lights from Northeast harbor. "Maybe they are alien ships," they said. The teacher was talking on the phone. Finally, the dads got their own boats, since our ride didn't show. Riding over to Northeast in the dark, arriving at the dock and climbing onto the Sunbeam. "Sorry we're late," the teacher said. Finally, we left the dock. We were heading for Matinicus for IIE 2011. We settled in for the long ride. We stopped at Frenchboro, said hello then went back to sleep. We picked up the kids on Isle au Haut and left again.

Six hours later we arrived at Matinicus, seasick and tired but super excited. We walked to the school and had time to set up our tents on their playground. When we were all set up and our stuff in our tents, we had a few minutes to just hang out, then we had a circle-up. Well, it was more like a square, but whatever. We did an activity where someone pulled a name-tag out of the bag, and gave the name-tag to its respective person. That person then said something that they would bring to space that began with the same letter as their name. Some people ended up with more than one name-tag.

Then we played a game that was sort of like Sardines, but in teams. One team hid, and the first team to find them was named a certain explorer. Then we were off to our first options. There was Capture the Flag, Baking and Landscape Painting. When we came back, we had a snack break. We all hung out with our friends and caught up with what we had done over the summer. Then we had second options. Those were Variety Show Preparations, Sandcastle Making or Mural Painting.

Time for dinner, followed by the variety show. For me, the preparations for the show were more fun than the show itself. There were just a few of us, and we were all ridiculously hyper. We couldn't stop laughing at nothing in particular. It was just one of those days when everything strikes you as hilarious. We set up a computer, then we were like, "Okay. It's set up. Now what?" So we listened to music, blasting it super loud. The people setting up downstairs probably thought we had finally lost our minds. We sort of had. We were jumping around, dancing, laughing, and just being crazy middle-schoolers having fun. The time flew by. The variety show itself was a big hit. There were tons of great acts, some funny, some serious. There was dancing, singing and skits. All the schools were well-represented.

Then we went to bed. We all crawled into our tents and talked. And talked. And talked some more. Technically we were supposed to go to bed, but no one did. We were whispering, so was everyone around us. We were catching up on what had happened that summer, stuff that didn't really matter but seemed so important right then.

The next morning we woke up and were off to breakfast, then options. It was our last day. Options were Hiking, Kickball and Drumming. Only a few of us did hiking, and in a way I'm glad there weren't many people. It was just four students and a few adults. We walked through the woods and over the rocks and back through the woods. We stopped at the rocks and just watched the water. It was a misty morning, and the gray water with clouds hanging over it and land in the background was breathtaking. We didn't mind that our feet got soaked and we were muddy all over. When we were in the truck driving back to the school, we passed the kickball people. They were sliding around on the grass and yelling and having fun. When they saw us in the truck, a few of them ran after us, trying to jump in. We couldn't stop laughing.

When everyone was back from their options, we brought out the yearbooks and started the signing. It was our first year with yearbooks, and it was a big success. We crowded around each other, trying to make sure everyone signed. It was all over too soon. The youngers had to leave. We all walked down the boat to see them off. Us old peoples had to stay an extra day to plan science and social studies for this year. More on that later.

Catching Up!

2011-06-14T12:13:00.000-07:00

It has been ages since I last posted, and my goodness have done we a lot since February. Here is a little zoom through the last couple of months....

Separating the thin layer of skin from the onion to make a wet-mount slide!

The wet-mount onion skin slide.

Using our new digital microscope to see the cells from the onion skin.

Learning about measuring and graphing by collecting data about how far we can jump.

The recycling bins are finally done, but we seem to have discarded some very important things!

Finishing up our inter-island book groups with a video conference with Isle Au Haut, Monhegan, Cliff and Matinicus islands!

A special visit from our fire chief, Richard Howland and the Islesford Fire Department Organizer, Katelyn Damon! Thanks for the great hats and the lessons about how to stay safe in a fire!

The year has flown right by, and we've had so much fun!

Plant Experiment Update 2

2011-02-08T12:39:00.000-08:00

The plants are growing like crazy! Over the weekend the nasturtium plant grew 14cm!

And that's not the only plant that grew! Everyone took turns measuring the plants, and the second and third graders recorded the data on their graphs. Check it out!

Look at how much the pea grew over the weekend!

A new way to collect data!

2011-02-08T12:34:00.000-08:00

Today the younger kids began to collect data a bit differently--they began to measure! The first graders used measuring strips that were four different lengths and the second grader used a meter stick, a ruler, and a five foot measuring tape to hunt for objects in the room of varying lengths. They also came up with a great list of measuring words that will be very handy....

Is this the same length?

Yup! Now it's time to record the data!

How about this?

Here's different thing to measure!

How about this pea?

Enjoying the Snow

2011-02-04T08:02:00.000-08:00

The Islesford School is covered in snow! The snow is so deep, it's hard to walk across the playground!

It is perfect conditions for great recess work--digging tunnels! The commander begins his instructions....

Dig! Dig! Dig!

Keeping working, friends!

All of that digging is just right for studying Math. These older kids are working on writing equivalent expressions for models of area and perimeter. Pretty impressive.

And this middle student is using the formula for area to figure out the area of different objects around the room like the marker board, the door, the little kids' desks, etc.

Thank goodness it's time for Physical Education class! It's time to get into that glorious snow again!

Oops! Can someone help me up?

We love snowshoeing!

A Link...

2011-02-03T06:41:00.000-08:00

I was looking at the Monhegan School blog this morning and discovered their blog entry about the last time they visited us for a week. Here is a link to their post:

http://monheganmadness.blogspot.com/2010/11/our-week-at-islesford-school.html

It brought back great memories of their past visit, and it's making me eager to share school with them again soon. We are so lucky they landed on our island this week!

Enjoy!

Look What the Blizzard Blew In!

2011-02-02T11:16:00.000-08:00

This morning when we arrived at school, we had a special surprise: Jessie and the boys from Monhegan were here for a two day visit! They came on a great day. Because of the historical blizzard, we saved the afternoon for a "Snow Day." The kids had an extended recess to play in the snow. Then we all came in a sang songs together with the guitar. After that the students enjoyed partner reading with each other, followed by games like "You've Been Sentenced" and "Multifactor." It was a great way to celebrate all of the glorious snow!!

Enjoying our guests at Morning Meeting!

It's dancing time! We always start the day with a song or dance, but today was extra special!

Partner Read!

Another extra special guest joined us after lunch: Ben! A former student!

Playing "Bananagrams."

Reading, reading, reading!

"You've Been Sentenced"

Reading, reading, reading!

Survey Questions

2011-02-02T10:58:00.000-08:00

As part of their math class, the younger students have been busily surveying the Islesford School population to discover more information about our students and teachers. Tomorrow they will make graphs of their data--stay tuned!

Plant Experiment Update

2011-01-27T09:16:00.000-08:00

The plants have begun to sprout! Well, they actually began to sprout a week ago, but we have been very bad scientists! Today we decided to get back on track and we began to collect data. We brought out the plants from each station and went from plant group to plant group to make observations. The students drew pictures of what they saw and then they shared their observations as a group.

Here are the observations so far! The students also began to think about why some plants have come up while others haven't and why the plants that have come up look different (shorter, taller, sturdier, darker green, lighter green, etc.) depending on where they're growing.

Lobsters!

2011-01-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

A special guest visited our school today--Bob Bayer from the Lobster Institute and the University of Maine! He came to our school to teach us about lobster anatomy and behavior and to dissect a lobster.

Here is Mr. Bayer with the female lobster.

Here's the male lobster.

Here's the female lobster. She is going to sleep in fresh water.

What color is lobster blood? Clear? White? Blue?

It's clear! Mr. Bayer used a syringe to draw blood from a vein in the lobster's tail.

Wanna feel the blood? It's kind of watery feeling. But when it clots it turns into this slimy, stretchy stuff. It was all over the table before we were done with the dissection.

Now Mr. Bayer began the dissection. He cut away part of the female's shell to reveal the heart. It was still beating, so we could watch the motion the heart made while beating. It continued to beat for about 10 minutes.

Now it's time to see the gills.

There they are! Under the microscope they looked kind of feathery.

In this picture you can see the ovaries and the stomach. The ovaries are the dark green tubes and the stomach is the white blob by the scissors.

Inside the stomach there are teeth! The lobster's mouth connects directly to the stomach.

Here is a better view of those green ovaries. Inside the ovaries are thousands of undeveloped eggs.

Here is what the ovaries look like under the microscope. You can see the thousands of individual eggs inside the membrane of the ovary.

Now it's time to take a look at the intestine.

Here's the intestine. It runs right down the top of the tail.

After dissecting the lobsters, we decided to cook them up and have a feast. We just couldn't let that good food go to waste!

They like it! They like it!

But it is kind of stinky!

Thank you so much for coming to our school and dissecting lobsters with us, Mr. Bayer!

I Hear Music!

2011-01-06T11:36:00.000-08:00

After a couple of months without a music teacher, we were all very excited when Mr. Beau Lisy, our new music teacher, began class yesterday. The younger kids stretched, clapped, stomped, sang and danced to new and old songs and the older kids enjoyed sharing some of their favorite songs with each other. We are so happy to have a wonderful new teacher join our school!

Experiments! Part I

2011-01-05T10:14:00.000-08:00

The youngers' mad Science experiments have begun! They asked two questions about plants:

Next each student filled four peat pots with potting soil and planted two seeds of their selected plant into each pot. Then they decided on four very different places to grow the plants. They choose on top of the filing cabinet, behind the paper tray....

Under the grow light (our special Math helper, Ginno, is taking care of these little plants babies)....

In the back room on the shelf with the microwave and toaster oven, and....

On the windowsill in Ms. Donna's room.

Finally we began a bean sprouting investigation. We took a bean sprout mix and covered 1/2 Tablespoon of the mix with water. We soaked them over night and then shook the water out. Finally we rinsed the beans. We are looking forward to observing the sprouts with magnifying glasses and microscopes (and then eating what is left over)!

Bouncing Beans and Natural Selection

2011-01-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

The older students have been learning about Natural Selection. To help them understand Natural Selection, they worked on a lab involving beans, a paper bag punched with holes, shaking, counting and recording data.

They asked the question, "Which populations will increase and which populations will decrease?" They decided to control the experiment by choosing to place in their paper bags six populations of beans, starting with the same number of beans of each population; punching exactly six same size holes in the bottom of the bags; and shaking the bag the same number of times with the same amount of force during each round. The variable was the beans. They choose six different types of beans of varying shapes and sizes.

They predicted that the larger beans would have the best chance of "survival"(not falling out of the holes in the bag) and the smallest beans would have the worst chance of "survival." They collected their data in a table and made graphs of their data.

Now they olders are working on analyzing their data and drawing conclusions about their experiments. Their results will be posted soon!

Plants, Plants, Plants

2011-01-03T11:18:00.000-08:00

After finishing their terrific intertidal zone creatures......

the youngers and middles moved onto learning about plants! They began by making models of flowers and learning about the life cycle of plants.

Next they learned how bees help flowers make seeds. Now they are designing experiments with plants. Here are their questions:

We'll keep you posted about the experiment!

Creating Intertidal Zone Creatures

2010-11-29T09:10:00.000-08:00

The youngers and middles have been busy working on their imaginary intertidal zone creatures. They look terrific! We can't wait to see them hanging in the room. Stay tuned!

The Intertidal Zone

2010-11-23T05:36:00.000-08:00

The younger and middle students have been very busy learning about the intertidal zone. First we took a "field trip" to Coast Guard Beach to observe the different environments of the intertidal zone. We collected specimens from the different parts of the beach and took lots of pictures.

After exploring the intertidal zone, the students created a beautiful model of the five different "layers" of the intertidal zone. They also practiced their observation skills, using magnifying glasses to make detailed observations of objects. They recorded their observations by drawing very detailed pictures.

Now they are all creating creatures that could live in the intertidal zone. While designing their creatures, the students had to consider the environment where the animal would live, what it would eat, where it would find shelter and protection and what kinds of body parts it would need for it to survive.

Sea Creatures in Progress.....

The History of Life on Earth....In Our Classroom!

2010-11-23T05:29:00.000-08:00

The older students have been studying the history of life on Earth. To help them understand such a huge span of time, they created a proportional timeline. They measured the perimeter of the room and figured out a ratio of inches to years that they could use to plot different eras of history around the room. Additionally, they each studied different eras in the history of life, drew pictures to represent the era and wrote summaries describing the climate and the typical life during the era. For added fun (and rigor) they compared their research to the research the kids did on Monhegan Island. The kids from both islands met a few times over Skype to compare notes, make plans for improvement and share their work. The finished product is fabulous and very informative. Now they are using the timeline to help them understand extinction and how fossils help scientists to understand the past.

Bits and Pieces of the Timeline

This section of the timeline represents 505-409 million years ago!

This section of the timeline represents 248-145 million years ago!

This section of the timeline represents the present-141 million years ago! Modern humans are represented by a fraction of the tiny sliver of yellow on the far left of the timeline!

Chorus!

2010-11-23T04:30:00.000-08:00

Students in grades 3-8 have been invited to participate in the Mount Desert Elementary School Chorus! We began joining the MDES chorus for rehearsal on Tuesday, November 16 and we will continue to rehearse with them every Tuesday afternoon until the concert on December 14. We hope to have a special boat returning to the island after the 6pm concert on the 14th (weather permitting). Families and community members are very welcome to join us for the concert!

Monhegan Invasion!

2010-11-22T12:01:00.000-08:00

The students and teacher from the Monhegan School plus our fabulous island fellow visited our school for the whole week, from November 15-19! Their visit was part of our Teaching and Learning Collaboration project. One of the project's goals is to increase the number of times outer island kids get to socialize and work together academically face-to-face. The visit was a huge success, and will be the first of many! We had a wonderful time (and we learned a little, too). We were so sorry to see them go home. We hope they will visit again soon!

Welcoming the Monhegan crew at our school pot luck supper.

Two Thumbs Up for a great week!

Couldn't they be sisters?

Everyone was happy to make new friends.

We're so sad to say goodbye.....

Finn really didn't want to go home.....

Thank goodness Courtney was there to carry him onto the boat!

Bye, Monhegan! We hope to see you really soon!

First Day of School!

2010-07-20T05:17:00.001-07:00

The first day of the 2010-2011 school year is Tuesday, September 7. We can't wait to see you on the playground at 8:30 in the morning! Enjoy the rest of your summer.

Marsh Walk

2010-05-11T08:10:00.000-07:00

The Islesford school went on an ecosystem walk to the Marsh! They looked for all the forms of life and the ecosystems there. They found interesting habitats, and much more!

When we where looking for plant pots for Eliza, Joe came out with what look like a part a bomb. Once we checked it out, we looked over the rest of the marsh, the beaches, and walked back to the school. The next monday the E.P.A came and picked it up. They used a geiger meter to see if it was radioactive or not--it wasn't.

Trash! Trash! Barbeque?

2010-05-11T08:08:00.001-07:00

We, the Islesford students, went for a trash walk to celebrate Earth Day. As we walked, we collected a cart-full of trash. Then we weaved a weaving with the trash we had collected. The “olders” decided we want to design a project to make people aware of the trash problem and to get people to stop littering. But how?

We thought it over, considering possibilities. We could ask people to take their trash off-island with them when they left, but would people actually do that? We then decided to buy trash cans to put on the islands. Then arose the money issue.

How would we raise enough money for trash cans? A social event. What social event? A barbeque. We then thought we should do a beach clean-up to clean the beaches. One phone-call later we were in the Town Office talking to Eric Dyer about our idea. He thought it was good and said he would talk to us in more detail about getting trash cans. The following Wednesday he came to the school. We discussed when the barbeque should take place and other things. He then gave us some catalogues to look through.

The beach clean-up will take place Saturday of May 29th. We will be cleaning many beaches from 9:00 am to 11:00 am. The barbeque will take place at 12:00pm at the Neighborhood House. Hot dogs and hamburgers will be sold for $5.00 each. People who participate in the beach cleanup will receive a free hot dog or hamburger. All money raised from the barbeque will go towards purchasing the trash receptacles. If you are unable to attend the barbeque and beach clean-up but would like to make a donation towards the trash receptacles please write a check and send it to the Islesford School.

We hope to see you at the barbeque and beach clean-up!

School on Skype

2010-02-25T08:07:00.000-08:00

The sound of a dialing phone echoes throughout the classroom. Jessie answers, “Hi guys!” Behind her we can see Gabe and Dalton walking in and sitting down with their computers. We all say hi, and Isaac shouts, “Dalton!!” We are calling Monhegan on Skype. It is around 2:00pm. We are calling them to do a writing lesson with them.

We start out by answering a question like, “What is the global problem you care most about?” We all think and ponder, then we answer. A lot of us say global warming, Ms. Eysnogle says agriculture. I think these are all good answers, because they are all major problems.

Then Ms. Eysnogle asks Jessie if she wants to explain what we’re doing today. “Sure. Today we’ll be with a partner and reading each other’s work, and having conversations about it. Then we’ll switch partners. Does that make sense?” Jessie responds.

Nervousness and excitement flood my body. She tells us who will be our partners. We partner up and read each others stories. We just got Skype on our computers for this purpose, so we can have individual conversations with each other via skype on our own computers.

The stories were all amazing, I was wowed just by how different they were. Then we talk about each other’s writing. We Islesford students ask the Monhegan kids to ask us questions about our writing, because we just started and we need a lot of feedback.

Sadly, we only have about forty-five minutes to talk with them, so Ms. Eysnogle says, “Time to do our debrief.” I’m always so disappointed when she says time is up. Writing and reading with them is so fun. I sigh. At least we see them again on Friday.

Thanks to the Monhegan School for the pictures! Visit their blog at www.monheganmadness.blogspot.com!

Harry Potter: A View of the Islesford School Version

2010-02-25T08:04:00.000-08:00

We sit on the swings, moving in all sorts of ways, as we see our teacher step out onto the playground we yell out: “ Ms.Eyesnogle! What houses would we be in!?!?” So she stepped near us and said, “ Well, based off of the aspects from the book, Isaac would be in Gryffindor, Meg would be in Ravenclaw, and Joe would be in Hufflepuff.” We got excited and we talked about Harry Potter all day, and every day from then on.

Hogwarts is the school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Each house is like a dormitory. Each student, or first year goes up and sits in a chair, and a hat is put on them. The hat takes the best things about the person and puts them in a house based off there great aspects. If you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogwarts you can find the aspects of each house.

According to the Harry Potter wikipedia site found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogwarts the houses have the following characteristics:

“Gryffindor values courage, bravery, loyalty, nerve and chivalry. Its mascot is the lion, and its colours are scarlet and gold. The Head of this house is the Transfiguration teacher, Minerva McGonagall and the house ghost is Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, more commonly known as Nearly Headless Nick. The founder of the house is Godric Gryffindor.”

“Hufflepuff values hard work, tolerance, loyalty, and fair play. The house mascot is the badger, and canary yellow and midnight black are its colours. The Head of this house is the Herbology teacher Pomona Sprout, and the house ghost is The Fat Friar. According to Rowling, Hufflepuff corresponds roughly to the element of earth. The founder of this house is Helga Hufflepuff.”

“Ravenclaw values intelligence, creativity, learning, and wit. The house mascot is an eagle and the house colors are blue and bronze (blue and grey in the films). The head of this house is the Charms professor, Filius Flitwick. and the house ghost is The Grey Lady. According to Rowling, Ravenclaw corresponds roughly to the element of air. The founder of this house is Rowena Ravenclaw.”

“Slytherin house values ambition, cunning, leadership and resourcefulness and most of all pure wizard blood. Slytherins tend to be pure-bloods or half-bloods who believe in the supremacy of pure wizard blood; Muggle-borns, vulgarly known as "Mudbloods," are less commonly found in Slytherin than in other houses. The house mascot of Slytherin is the serpent, and the house colours are green and silver. Salazar Slytherin founded the house. The Head of House is Severus Snape in the first five books and most of the sixth book. At the end of the sixth book and in the seventh book, the old Potions master and previous Head of House who has come out of retirement, Horace Slughorn, reassumes authority of the house. The ghost of Slytherin house is The Bloody Baron. The Slytherin dormitories and common room are reached through a bare stone wall in the dungeons. The Slytherin common room is a long, low, dungeon-style room, located under the Hogwarts Lake, furnished with green lamps and carved armchairs. The room is described in the 2nd book as having a greenish glow.”

So you see that each student was put in there own house because of those aspects. We had so much fun with Harry Potter.

The Seasons

2010-02-11T06:46:00.000-08:00

Winter is the icicle time of Earth causing it to be colder and less

enjoyable. Like the feeling of getting a brain freeze or swallowing an ice cube whole. Summer is the warm time of Earth making it feel like you’re bathing in a hot tub.

Why do we have the seasons? Well, it because of the Earth's tilt. Since it is tilted on a 23.5 degree angle we have seasons. During winter the northern hemisphere is facing away from the sun, making it colder and having less light and contact from the sun's rays. The Earth does not flip over and over during the seasons, it just rotates around the sun. Summer is when the northern hemisphere is facing the sun and is getting more light and heat from the sun's rays.

The brisk cold and the sweltering hot, we experience this because of our tilt. A Mars sized object hit the Earth at the beginning of Earth’s formation causing the tilt, and creating the moon.

Lights, Camera, ACTION!

2010-02-11T06:20:00.000-08:00

The olders of the Islesford School will be performing a play in February! The play will be about the Wabanaki, the Aztecs, and the Incas, as well as the explorers who conquered or “discovered” these tribes: Champlain, Cortez and Pizzaro. We have been studying these Native Americans for the better part of the year.

When we were first discussing how we wanted to go about showing what we had learned, we decided we wanted to perform a play for the community. We sat together at the table as if we were ready to do our monotonous homework. We each took a few minutes to write down our ideas of what we wanted the play to look like: how we wanted the stage to be set up, if we wanted props and scenery, and if we wanted dialogue or a narrator, similar to making a to-do list. We then made a world map to use a background, and painted it. Then we started to write the play. Starting with an introduction to the play, we each wrote a paragraph about what the daily life of the people we studied would be like, including where they lived. Editing and revising came next. When this was done, we began actually putting the play together, and deciding how we wanted the youngers to participate. Reading through the whole thing and we assigned parts to who we thought would sound best reading the part, and what should be going on in the background.

One day when we were catching up on Simon Isaac’s climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro, we heard the door open. A rush of cold air swept into the room, then it was over and Henry Isaacs and Ashley Bryan walked into the room carrying big rolls of brown paper. I was so surprised to see them there because I had had no idea they were coming. Then I felt just plain excited and happy that we would have them helping out with the artwork. A few days later the sound of the door opening tells me that they are here to help out. Henry carries big snowy white rolls of canvas in plastic wrappers. We cut them open and roll out the canvas, which makes a sort of hissing sound as it rolls. We draw in outlines, scribbling and erasing, turning our fingers black as ebony and smudged. I can’t wait to paint, mixing a glorious rainbow of colors that seem to glow with their radiance.

grab the reader. The youngers helped with the painting because the backdrops were so big and we wouldn’t be able to do it alone.

We performed the play on February 5th, on Great Cranberry at 9:30am and on Islesford at 1:30pm. Cameras clicked, flashes flashed, the audience applauded at the end. It all went very well. At the end, people asked questions about the research, "How did you do the research?" "What tools did you use to do the research?" After the performance on Islesford we had the rest of the day off.

Math Class

2010-01-21T09:01:00.000-08:00

As I walk to school in the cold winter, a chill goes down my back. I shiver. As I shiver I say to myself are we going to have math class or are we not? I just love math class. It’s so fun. I wait in the cold winter air. The teacher comes out and says time to come in. I rush to the door and like a cheetah I’m at the door. Then I try to get off all my stuff as fast as I can, so I can get to the calendar. It says that we are going to have math class. I’m so happy. I fall to the floor with glee and say yippee.

I run to Math class all excited. Then I get my book that has all of my lessons. First I do my practice set which is just a few questions to get my mind into the math. Then Ms. Lindsay calls me and Meg up so she can teach us the lessons about math. Then we start to do the lesson. We have one every day.

My Math book is so cool. It has a soccer ball on it and it’s green, white and blue. The title says Saxon Math. It’s like 700 pages long and full of lessons. If I had to choose any math book in the world it would have to be that one. It has taught me so much. I wish I could have Math class every second of the day. I love Math even more because of my math book.

Phys. Ed.... At A Glance!

2009-12-17T08:58:00.001-08:00

When I arrived at school my heart rose to realize it was a Tuesday. My favorite day of the week. Gym class was going to be soon. I became really eager to start because we were playing soccer at this point in the curriculum. I have always loved soccer. We had morning meeting and then we ran outside and entered gym class.

We started by choosing goalies and outfielders. It ended up being that there was no goal guard or offense. Joe and I were on one team and Meg and Mr. Pat were on the other team. It was pure battle. We tried our hardest to keep scoring balls as much as we could. Most of the time the team I was on ended up getting hurt or falling over. Then my phys. ed. teacher scored, so we went into another battle.

Finally I freed the ball from Mr. Pat’s grip and ran with it. Then I tripped and he scored. Then I got the ball again and scored! I cheered and moved on to the next round. I felt great to score but again Mr. Pat went on to score. So we took a five minute break and went on with the game.

When we re-entered the game Mr.Pat and I were in a race for the ball. I forced my foot to retrieve the ball although I saw his foot reaching for the ball as well. I saw that the impact would be great. When he missed the ball I heard a slam and I heard cracking on my left foot. I fell to the ground holding back tears as my toes didn’t fully come back out. So we went to the table. When I took off my shoe and sock I saw a nightmare. My toes had become black and blue all over and I saw the pulsing and surging that came from my foot. When I saw it I Wanted to cry! I felt so much worse after seeing what had happened. I felt as though I was looking into a vision as I thought about my career as a sports player. I thought I would never be able to run or walk right again.

After a while of watching and staring at my foot we decided to play dodgeball. But we played hand ball first. After that we played some dodgeball. As the balls were flying from one side of the court to the other Joe got hit and was down. Now I was supposed to tag him up. I stood behind the tree and made sure I couldn’t get hit. So my gym teacher called me “Limpy” and “Hoppy” and “Hopscotch” just to make me mad. So I freed Joe at the point that he hit my foot with the dodgeball again. Then our time was up and we finished gym.

Creative Block Prints

2009-12-17T08:40:00.000-08:00

I groan as my dad shakes me, saying, “It’s seven thirty, time to get up!” I reluctantly slide out of my cozy bed, and get dressed. Then I look at the calendar and see that it is Wednesday. I suddenly rush downstairs to the kitchen to see what we have to eat. It seems like ages before I finally head out the door and walk to school. Morning meeting seems like forever. When it is over I run to our classroom. There is our art teacher, Ms. Shira, spreading newspaper and inks on the table. I flop into a seat, relieved that she could come today.

We have been making block prints with inks and cloth, mixing the colors into beautiful shades of blue, purple, green and red, and transferring them to paper and cloth. We first had to make the prints, taking tabs of boring, plain gray linoleum and carving lovely pictures and designs on them and using them to print. When they are printed on rainbow paper the colors of the print and of the paper blend and mix to make colors that make your mouth water.

We are now making pillows, choosing what inks go well with what cloths, pricking our fingers with needles and pins. We eagerly jam our stuffing into the pillows, making them plump and huggable. When we have stuffed them to our satisfaction, we have to sew up the seam. Tricky job. Involving many “Ow!”s and “Ouch!”s, the seams are complete and, ta-da, we have pillows. Fluffy, soft, pretty, and plump, these pillows are fun to make!

We have also used cardboard to make block prints. We first drew our outlines of whatever picture we were making, animals, people, or just designs. We cut them out, choosing parts to be separated from the rest. We then glued them to a background and spread a glue over it to protect it when we printed. There are so many things you can make block prints with, and many of them are so different!

Chocolate cake description.

2009-12-08T08:05:00.000-08:00

This is what the students of Islesford did to get ready to write description. We turned the sentence "I love chocolate cake" into this page-long description. Enjoy the chocolate cake ;).

I was lying down when a warm breeze blew in the smell of something delicious. I sat up and tried to let my nose guide me to it. The scent guided me to the kitchen and there on the counter was a strawberry smothered chocolate cake with melted fudge oozing down the sides. When I saw the cake my taste buds burst, making my mouth a waterfall. I dove for the cake but my mother slapped my hand away, and with a shrill voice she said, “Go to your room, that's my cake!” As I trudged to my room my body flopped around as my feet were dragging. The scent of the cake seemed to be following me just to tease my nostrils. Suddenly, the door of the house slammed shut and I stopped dead in my tracks to listen for movement inside. But all I heard were the sounds of my mother walking away from the house. Excitement flooded my body. I turned and dashed toward the kitchen tripping over myself as I tumbled down the staircase. I stared at the counter to see no cake there. My mother had taken it with her. Suddenly, a tear trickled down my face as I ran to my room. Suddenly, I started sobbing “But I love chocolate cake”

Our Native American Project

2009-12-03T08:52:00.000-08:00

This trimester we have been studying the Age of Exploration and Discovery. We started by researching major tribes in the Age of Exploration and Discovery, specifically the Incas, Aztecs and Wabanakis. We used books, Internet, background information, our teachers, and our parents for our research. We studied the Incas and Aztecs because they were huge empires. We studied the Wabanaki because they were in our area. We wanted to find out about their lifestyle and culture and the geography of where they lived. Each person in the class made a poster of their tribe, including a picture of the tribe, a paragraph explaining the basic outline of their lifestyle, and a how-to-be a Native American poem. A How To poem is a poem that tells you how to be the culture or person in the poem. This is an example of a How To poem:

How To Be A Wabanaki

Be Resourceful

Live on the water

Eat seafood

Use canoes for fishing

Go hunting

Move from place to place

Build houses out of birch bark and animal hides

Have large families

Believe in guardian spirits

We are currently working on a poster all together of the European cultures. We have learned a lot and had fun in the process!

Space In One Room

2009-12-03T06:42:00.000-08:00

The Islesford School students tried to figure out a lot about the planets by making scale models of what the planets look like and their characteristics. We decided that for our model Earth would be 5 cm in Diameter. That meant that Jupiter would be 55 cm in diameter and Pluto would be 1 cm in diameter.

How Our Garden Grows!

2009-12-02T13:56:00.000-08:00

Last spring, the students of the Islesford School
began working on a school garden. After a very difficult growing season, we realized the garden needed help. With the help of Eliza Greenman, Becka Gange, many community members we enriched the soil by sheet mulching the beds.
Sheet mulching is also known as composting in place and lasagna gardening. It involves layering different forms of carbon and nitrogen on top of the garden beds. After adding many layers of manure, seaweed, food scraps, leaves, and grass clippings to each of the beds, we covered each pile with cardboard and newspaper. Finally we added another layer of seaweed and grass clippings to suppress weeds. We're hopeful that our soil will be in much better shape and full of worms in the spring! We'll be studying Colonial America in the spring. Should we try to plant a colonial garden? What would we plant in a colonial garden? What should we plant?

Welcome to the Islesford School!

2009-12-02T07:27:00.000-08:00

Come on in and visit our very small island school! The Islesford School serves children in grades K-8 from Islesford and Great Cranberry Island. This blog follows the activities of our school. We hope you enjoy your visit!