December Wrap Up

Our K-8 students visited BTE today to watch their Christmas variety show "A Very Special Christmas Special". BTE did an amazing job of bringing us back in time to the 1960s. A charming showcase of local talent, songs, and comedy. The students truly enjoyed themselves at this event.

Afterwards we had a good time at our Christmas luncheon together. I want to give a huge thank you to all the parents and students who helped make today such a special day. Thank you for the volunteers, food donations, and great behavior.  We so many tasty treats and dishes to share amongst friends. We are truly a lucky school and fantastic community.

When we return from our holiday break, students will be starting a unit of building and robotics. This spring our 4th-8th graders will be sending teams of students to participate in a STEM challenge and the Middle School Computer Fair in March. This gives us the winter months to engineer projects, and focus on using legos in education. Look for more on this in the next few weeks.

Students, continue working hard in all your classes and enjoy your break at home!

Our High School students have been busy with classes, and many are participating in academic clubs such as forensics and FBLA. Next Friday, the Forensics team is hosting a chess tornament on December 20th to sponsor their club. Please listen to annoucments for more details on this event.

Our independent study group spent a day with Mrs. Burrell at the Bloomsburg University Library researching their topics. It's hard to believe how quickly the first half of the year has gone by.

Happy Holidays Everyone! I can't wait to start a new year of happy memories and exciting events at SCA together with you in 2014,

Mrs. Kozlek

AMC 8 Challenge

For more than 60 years, students across the country have taken up the challenge of America’s longest-running and most prestigious math contests, The American Mathematics Competitions (AMC). Every year, at thousands of schools in every state, more than 350,000 students are presented with a set of questions rich in content, designed to make them think and sure to leave them talking. This year Southern Columbia sent six students to compete at Bucknell University. Hundreds of students from area schools came to compete. Students arrived early, took their test and participated in some math challenges before returning back to school. Scores will return to us this spring, after the rest of the nation has completed the AMC challenge.

Good job kids! 

K-8: Holiday Christmas Play and Party

Students will be bringing home a permission slip next week for a field trip to see BTE's A Very Special Christmas Special in December. This play takes place in 1967.  This heartwarming musical variety show is full of comedy sketches, original songs, dance numbers, and one-of-a kind local commercials that takes a nostalgic look at television culture in a simpler time.

After returning from the play students will be invited to a holiday luncheon hosted in the LGA area of the school. This will be a pot-luck style lunch. Students who wish to bring something to the event/party may sign up here.

As always, thank you and hope to see you at the Theatre!

Family Game Night

First through seventh grade students are busy creating their own board games in time for the upcoming holidays. Student spent some time discussing what makes good design and game play. Developing a functional game, takes time and good planning. 


 The kids are coming up with some pretty unique game concepts. Students are working on developing clear directions, trivia cards, and game tokens.

 Graphic art skills are being developed as the kids carefully layout their boards in publishing software. 

 We hope family and friends will enjoy playing the games, as much as we enjoyed making them.

United Nations Ambassador of Art Teaches Students World Peace through Understanding

Yesterday students were given a special opportunity to come see United Nations Ambassador Ibikanka Alao.

Mr. Alao is an artist who recently represented his country — Nigeria — and became the first place winner of the prestigious United Nations International Art Competition amongst 61 countries. His entry "Girls and a Greener Environment" chronicles the life of a girl-child from infancy to adulthood and the values she acquires along the paths of life. Mr. Alao shared with us his culture, music, artwork, and overall understanding of how to see good in others. We are truly appreciative of his time here in our school and hope we will be able to invite him back again for a future workshop and presentation.

More Student Animation/Rube Goldberg Projects

Here are a few more submissions to our Rube Goldberg/Animation project. 

Sixth Grade's Movie

   

4th Grade's Movie

 K-3 Group's Movie

 

Reminder: PSAT testing date Oct. 16th

What is the PSAT and why is it important?

The PSAT is a nationwide, multiple-choice test taken by about 3.4 million high school students every year–mostly sophomores and juniors. A great primer for the SAT^® and even the ACT^®, the PSAT includes math, critical reading and writing questions. However, with no algebra II or essay section, it is shorter than the SAT and ACT.  PSAT scores are not sent to colleges.

The Rube Goldberg Project...

Reuben Garrett Lucius "Rube" Goldberg was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer and inventor. A Rube Goldberg machine, contraption, invention, device, or apparatus is a deliberately over-engineered or overdone machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction.  Last year under the direction of Mrs. Meyers students studied some famous contraptions inspired by of Rube Goldberg, most importantly Ok Go’s famous music video; This too shall pass.. Did you know it took over sixth months to create the contraptions for this?

In our classroom, the first through sixth grade students were challenged to come up with their own simple Rube Goldberg machines and music video. In their notebooks, our young inventors dreamed big creating their own blue prints for a design.  Using objects found in the classroom (and some brought from home), students got busy building. Other students recorded their project and pieced it together in iMovie. Some students thought outside of the box and pondered cause and effect.

Here is a sample of our fourth grade’s group video:

 

Check back here in a few weeks to see what other awesome apparatuses our other kiddos came up with.

At Home Extensions:

Though we were briefly touched upon Rube Goldberg and simple machines these past few classes, We will be revisiting this idea later this year when we start work on our lego robotics. Pulleys, levers, gears, wheels, and axles will play a big part in understanding how simple machines work.

If you would like to explore this idea at home check out the following web resources:

1. Crazy about Rube Goldberg machines? Check out videos of MIT’s Friday after Thanksgiving Chain Reaction event.   Over 1,500 participants link their chain reaction devices together forming one mega chain reaction – set off at the end as the event's thrilling culmination. No matter how unique the devices, inevitably, with a little string and duct tape, they all work together beautifully.


2.  Online Rube Goldberger Game:  http://pbskids.org/zoom/games/goldburgertogo/rubegame.html

3. How to build a Rube Goldberg machine at home.

Happy October

We begin this month with a welcome back breakfast for our HS gifted students.  Enrichment students in 9-12 can feel free to stop by the HS Library on the 2nd for a continental breakfast.  Information and sign up sheets for the 2013-2014 independent study will be available. 

October is Shakespeare Month! In a few weeks our high school juniors and enrichment students will have the opportunity to see  the Merchant of Venice at BTE. At the end of the month, the  8-12 Enrichment and Honors English students will have a rare opportunity to see a live performance of Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth.  The Linny Fowler WillPower Tour is performing this production.  Now in its 14th year, WillPower has served more than 110,000 students and has a well-established reputation for excellence.  This will be a professionally directed 80-minute production of Macbeth with sets and costumes and include a post-show discussion with the cast after the performance.   (Permission slips will be available outside of HS Gifted room 108).

The next few weeks....

Our K-6th grade students will be partaking in a Rube Goldberg project. Students are busy building and recording their structures. Look for more information on this in a future post.

Our 7th through 8th grade students are finishing a creative writing piece for me. Their next project will be a folklore unit, researching tales and myths of Pennsylvania for an October Journal they will be producing.  

Students will also be dabbling 
in graphic arts for this upcoming project. 

We have a lot of fun and enriching activities to look forward to this upcoming Fall! Please feel free to email me any questions.

Remember to work hard, do your best, and think big...

Take Care,
Mrs. Kozlek

Barton House 2013

We had a wonderful time at the Barton house this past week. Students not only had a chance to do a living history project as the children of the Barton House, but learned more about one room school houses, early printing presses, and life on the Barton Family farm. A video of our experience can be found on the CCN newsite located here.

Family Extension:Students who love reenacting history, might consider a family trip to Turbotville the first weekend in October for Heritage Days. Students can stroll among hundreds of Period Costumes, crafters, and demonstrations of family live in the late 1700s to the Civil War Era.

Corn Husk Dolls

In preparation of going to the Barton House, students have been learning about games children played in the 1800s. One such activity was making a corn husk doll. A corn husk doll is a Native American toy, a doll made out of the dried leaves or "husk" of a corn cob. Making corn husk dolls was adopted by early European settlers in the United States of America. Why do you think they were appropriate toys for children in the mid 1800s? 

 

Classroom News

Upcoming Events
Students will be starting pull out enrichment classes after September 1st.

I am happy to announce that we will be continuing the annual trip to the Barton House in Bloomsburg, PA during fair week. Students will be participating in a living history reenactment, representing the Barton House children. Look for a letter home in the next few weeks.