Weather Station

Now that fall has begun, we have begun our year-long weather study project. Each day, a pair of students go to the media center to check the current temperature, yesterday's high, and this morning's low along with any precipitation that may have fallen the previous day. We discuss the numbers, what they mean, and do some graphing with the data.

Each week I assign a different pair to complete this task. They also step outside the Media Center and take a picture of the East Hill. During the school year the pictures change little-by-little each day, showing the subtle change of the seasons.

We are also on the look out for signs of fall. Our first sign is the date when all (or the vast majority) of the sugar maple leaves have turned. Last year's date was September 30th.

First Snow

Nobody showed up today so I had to trudge out to the Peace Garden and snap this picture. Our first snow that stuck. Pretty- but not ready for sledding, yet!

Icy Notes

This morning marked the lowest temperature at Shirley Hills this school year. Our weather team of Michael, Abby, and Megan found the overnight low temperature this morning to be 22 degrees. This was cold enough to freeze the water in our test bucket in the Peace Garden for the first time this year. We also marked last Wednesday (10/22) as the first day that jackets were needed for recess. The next markers of the changing seasons we will be checking for are the absence of ants on the blacktop during recess and the loss of all the leaves from the sugar maples.

Tomorrow we will wrap up our short unit on time in math. We will began studying data, tables, and graphs. Be checking here for some excellent website in the next few weeks.

Homework tonight:
Reading- spelling, Think About It?s (due Fri), story pyramid on The Garden of Happiness (due Fri).
Math- finish the back page of 5.3 and the back page of 5.4

Tomorrow we have roller skating in Phy. Ed. The office is calling for students to bring helmets for this activity. Have a great night! Good luck with the rhubarb, Max!

Weather Station

This summer I went to a conference at Wolf Ridge. One of the classes I had was on how to set up a school weather station. Wolf Ridge even gave us a Wireless Weather Forecaster (seen in picture) and rain gauge.

In addition, they also taught us how to measure snowfall and snow depth using a snow board (below). Starting Monday, we will begin measuring high and low temperatures, precipitation, and humidity at Shirley Hills.



Homework:
•Reading- Pages 3 and 4 in reading workbook, spelling word find and practice
•Math- chapter 1 review

Tomorrow we have music and NWEA Reading tests in the morning.