First Grade
Special Areas
The students at Carl Sandburg had fun as
they wrapped up activities for the 2015-2016
school year. On April 28, the children showed
off their musical talents at their music program. The students performed twice that day,
once in the morning and once in the afternoon. After their performances, the students
had the opportunity to listen to themselves
sing on the recording of the performance in
Miss Harris’ music class. The students wrote
down what they thought they did well and also
things that they thought they could improve on
for future performances. In Ms. Bryan’s art
class, the second graders made paintings of
chameleons and toucans. The third graders
made chalk drawings of chameleons. One
day, the students were also able to draw while
a story about the rainforest was read to them.
In the library, students were eager to learn
how to use an art program on the computer.
Mrs. McDaniel, the librarian, showed the stu-
dents how to add a textbox with their name
typed in it to their picture. She also showed
them how to properly save their picture to the
computer. In PE, the students improved their
athletic ability by practicing the proper form for
throwing baseballs, throwing Frisbees, dancing, and participating in fitness stations. One
event that the students were particularly excited about was a special book fair. The book
fair was at Carl Sandburg on May 3 and May
4. The book fair was so special because every student had the opportunity to choose a
book that they liked and take it home to keep
for free. The students will now have a great
book to read over the summer while they look
forward to the
next
school
year.
Third Grade
By Anna Sipes
In science/writing class the kids are working
on animal research papers and some classes
are writing non-fiction books. The kids look up
the characteristics of an animal and write a
paper on it. In science the kids are also working with insects, amphibians and classification.
In reading class the kids are working on homophones and performing plays. The kids are
having fun with the plays. They just want to
do new things. Kids are curious.
In math class the kids are working with clocks,
telling time, graphs, fractions and geometry.
The kids are doing a variety of things in math
and are picking up techniques to help them do
problems easier and faster.
The kids are also preparing for 2nd grade and
are doing it in style. They are taking a field trip
to Fox Ridge to learn about science and to
have a little welcome to 2nd grade party.
By: Austin Sims
The third grade teachers at Carl Sandburg finished up the year teaching lessons that were both educational and hands-on. The students simultaneously learned a lot and had fun! In Mrs. Davis and Mrs.
Coffee’s classes, the students took part in solving the “mystery of the missing dry erase markers”. This
was an engaging, hands-on puzzle activity created by the teachers designed to teach the third graders
about reading mysteries. They learned vocabulary words such as “alibi”, “red herring”, and “suspect”.
The students also developed critical thinking and questioning skills. Mrs. Davis said that the main lesson of the unit was that “good readers read mysteries suspiciously”. In Mrs. Foster’s math class, the
kids finished up the year learning perimeter and area of quadrilaterals. They also learned their basic
multiplication facts. The third graders were rewarded with ice cream based on whether they met a class
goal, as well as their individual goals. In Mrs. Foster’s social studies class, the students got to participate in an interactive project. They were assigned into groups and got to make a “human monument” to
honor famous Americans. This involved creating a statue using only their bodies to commemorate people such as Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges, and
Clara Barton. Overall, the third graders have had a very educational, yet engaging final year at Carl Sandburg School.
By Rachel Thomas
Second Grade
Mrs. Coffin’s second grade class has been doing many fun and interesting activities. In reading they
were learning about non-fiction and fiction. They wrote “cereal box book reports” which are used to
persuade people to read their fiction books. Kate Rardin says that she likes to learn about facts, and
her favorite nonfiction book that they read was "Butterflies". They also have a spelling test every
Friday of every week. In math they were working on geometry. They cut shapes in half to see what
they looked like afterwards. Recently the second grade went on a field trip to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum. All the students had a chaperone and a partner. Many students loved going on this
field trip. One thing they saw was a "chocolate slide". They said that it was supposed to resemble “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". They also
got to ride a carousel. Miranda McBride said she was partners with Kate Rardin and that they both loved the museum and would love to go again.
In Mr. Taylor's second grade class, Logan McPeak said that they were working on 3-digit-addition and subtraction for. The kids in Mr. Taylor's
class loved the Indianapolis field trip as well. In Ms. Kennedy's second grade class they were working on regrouping in math. The second grade
students have learned a lot this year and cannot wait to become third graders next year.
By Kendall Davis
Carl Sandburg
Classroom Courier, page 5