Today in our math groups we were exploring area, perimeter, and circumference.  I had the students create their dream house.  We reviewed floor plans and why they are necessary and discussed how they were not drawn to scale.  Throughout those conversations we discussed what jobs would complete such tasks.  The dream house that they created had to have:

*9 rooms

*1 pool

*1 pond

*1 fence

*side walk

*1 garden

Plus students needed to figure:

How much land will be needed?

How much carpet/tiling will be needed?

How many walls will it have?

How much area will be needed to cover with grass seed?

How much wallpaper will be needed?

What will be planted in the garden?

What fraction of the total area does the house represent?

They used different objects around the room to trace to stand for various items in their yards, along with using rulers and others means of measuring.

In Birmingham at the Civil Rights Museum

Carriage ride in the French Quarter, New Orleans, LA

Walking ghost tour of the French Quarter at dusk

Destrehan Plantation

World War II Museum

Cemetery tour

Swamp tour by boat

Acadia Villiage in New Iberia, LA

Rice mill tour

French Quarter by night

New Orleans by day

The Wellness Team at The Learning Center! Charter School has been working hard on rewriting the Wellness Plan this past year.   Now is the time to make your voice heard.  Read the proposed plan and share your comments.  Once approved by the Board of Directors for TLC, the new plan will be in effect for three years.  While the team, and ultimately the Board, has the final say in the process, all comments will be given consideration.

Comments can be addressed to Ms. Debby Intemann at debby@naturallygrownkids.org

Access the Wellness Plan Draft at http://www.naturallygrownkids.org/2012Wellness_Plan.htm

In February, The Learning Center! fourth grade students welcomed VIP guest writer and best selling author, Dr. Gloria Houston. They got to spend several hours listening to her stories, asking questions, and being inspired by her books. After reading one of her books called, Littlejim, teacher Ashley Tate assigned a project to her fourth graders, incorporating creativity and writing skills. Students had several options to choose from, or they could come up with their own. Some students made models or dioramas of a scene from the book and had to write a description along with it. Tate said, “Students got really creative. One made a board game, another made a poster, there was a PowerPoint presentation, some wrote a sequel to Littlejim or a children’s version of the story; some wrote letters or poems to Littlejim or Gloria Houston, herself.” Ms. Tate reports that she even had a couple of students make food that was mentioned in the book.

Earlier this year, the school also invited Peter Jenkins, author of three New York Times best sellers including the classic, A Walk Across America. In addition, as part of a strong writing curriculum, The Learning Center! is organizing and supporting The Cherokee County Middle School Poetry and Essay Contest in May through the Jackie Ward Foundation.

Director of the school, Mary Jo Dyre pointed out that “As part of our mission to promote Academics and Arts at The Learning Center, we bring in ‘top shelf talent’ then maximize the experience by incorporating curriculum-linked projects into what they learned from the visit.”

For more information visit www.naturallygrownkids.org. Visit our blog: TLCGrowZone.org/blog/ or FaceBook: TLCGrowZonePage.

In a whirl-wind of activity, students at the local charter school created art, music, swung hammers, got dirty, experimented and stretched their minds, senses and creativity to its limits last week. For the past five years, The Learning Center! Charter School has held a week-long event celebrating Academics and Arts. During the week of April 30th students from pre-K to middle school participated in hands-on projects with a nature-related theme, covering a wide spectrum of academics and visual, written and musical arts.

The annual event is supported in part by The Jackie Ward Foundation to promote Academics and the Arts at the school and promote interaction with and opportunities for the community. A week-long arts fair and competition was held in the Dining Commons where the walls were covered with students work in a variety of medium and technique.

A highlight of the week included a spring concert by The Valley River Ringers who delighted the audience with a rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance.” Social media director for the school, Dana Bolyard posted to the school’s blog, “The kids haven’t stopped talking about it all week!” There is a video of the performance at tlcgrowzone.org/blog/.

Several artists and community members visited the school during the week. Award winning artist Jo Kilmer gave a workshop to 4th graders on “Natural Tree Forms.” They worked on building a rustic, artistic entrance for the school’s outdoor learning center garden area. The project was tied-in to the 4th grade trip to GMREC (Georgia Mountain Research and Education Center) earlier in the year for the program “All About Trees.”

Amanda Kanack, administrative and outreach coordinator for the Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition worked with 7th graders on an aquatic animals and creek ecology component that included an art project.

Artist in Residence, Jeff Menzer spent the week at the school, working with 3rd graders on “Sensational Snakes.” Menzer, a self proclaimed “Re-Artist” with a passion for finding and re-using the durable discards of our society enjoys the process of making things, engaging his hands and heart in art everyday.

A spring chorus, directed by teacher Judy Coleman provided wonderful music and was held at The Henn Theater who graciously provided a venue for the concert.

On Friday, the activities wrapped up with a recognition ceremony that honored the school’s Poetry and Essay contest and hosted the winners of the Cherokee County Middle School

Writing Competition. This was the school’s fourth year hosting a county-wide writing contest and the special quest speaker was poet, Mary Ricketson. Ricketson and Bob Grove were judges in the competition.

“It’s important that we celebrate these different forms of art.” said school director, Mary Jo Dyre. “Visual, music, and written arts show students how closely art is tied in to every subject they learn as well as life, in general.”

The effort continues as the school strives to promote Academics and Arts with an upcoming production of “Princess and the Pea” by the schools drama department. Proceeds benefit The Jackie Ward Foundation for Academics and Arts. Tickets are available at the school or at the door of the Henn Theater the night of the event: Tuesday May 29 at 6:30pm. Tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for students. Call 828.835.7240 or visit:www.naturallygrownkids.org. Visit our blog: TLCGrowZone.org/blog/ or FaceBook: TLCGrowZonePage. Email us at tlccs@naturallygrownkids.org

4th grade working with artist Jo Kilmer on an arbor for The Outdoor Learning Center.

Clay turtles as part of Academics & the Arts Week!

Creative writing around the fire pit during Academics & the Arts Week.

Writing contest winners!

Writing contest winners!

Writing contest winners!

Writing contest winners!

Writing contest winners!

Kindergarten and First Grade perform "Squirm" for the choral spring concert.

Second through Fourth grades perform "River Child" as part of the spring concert.

Ms. Jamie’s sixth grade class recently learned about Confucianism in Ancient China.  During the Warring States period, there were three major philosophies that emerged: Confucianism, Legalism, and Daoism.  In order to experience life under Confucianism, there were four students chosen to be the “Elder” or respected “models of virtue”.  These elders were asked to sit in a seat while the followers sat on the floor.  The Elders carefully taught their followers to stand, bow, and say the following greeting in unison: “We are honored to learn from such a wise and noble teacher.”  After demonstrating that they could complete such a task, the Elders then chose students to read Section 3 aloud, until the entire section was read.

There is no better way to learn a concept than practicing it first hand!

Way to go sixth graders!

We’ve been working on statistics in math and reviewed the following definitions: mean, median, mode, and range.  I decided to take this project to the garden and use plant growth to apply statistics to the real world.  We used the mimio board to create a chart for each student where they will keep information about their plant growth.  After that, we discussed which steps we need to take to grow a plant.

Once we got outside we had to clear out a little plot.  Many of them were hesitant at first but student participation slowly increased.  Then after we put down some mulch each of the students planted their own seeds to (hopefully) grow Zinnias.

Once these plants start to pop up from the ground, we are going to chart out the plant growth and eventually use the data to create a  graph of the growth along with the mean, median, mode, and range of the data set.  If all goes well we will be able to talk about what variables play a part in the plant growth.

Recently first graders learned about thunderstorms.  First, they did an experiment on convection to learn how thunderstorms form.  For this experiment, the kids placed a blue ice cube in a container of warm water.  Then they dropped a few drops of red food coloring on the other side of the container.  The blue ice cube began to melt and released its color downward.  This represents the cold air mass.  The red coloring rose to the top representing the warm air mass.  Then, they lit a florescent bulb by rubbing a balloon on our heads and holding it up to the lamp.  This showed them how electricity can jump from one thing to another like lightning jumping from cloud to cloud.  It was super cool!

{Please pardon my slight giggle in the middle of the video.  I was getting such a kick out the Valley River Ringers (!!!) performing a Lady Gaga song for our students that I couldn’t wipe the silly grin off my face. . . and it kept welling up into a giddy little giggle in my throat.  I loved it! Thank you Valley River Ringers!  The kids haven’t stopped talking about it since you were here yesterday!}