Monday, October 20, 2008

Internet Safety Assembly


East Forest Elementary hosted an educational concert performed by Glenn Colton on October 16. Glenn Colton is a musician from Orchard Park, NY who specializes in educational concerts for elementary students. The theme for Mr. Colton's performance was Using Technology Wisely. Glenn Colton does a high energy musical show that is packed with positive messages for the students. Through songs, Mr. Colton was able to teach students ways to enjoy the internet in a safe and responsible way. The East Forest students and faculty were entertained by the variety of guitars and songs that Mr. Colton used to get his message across. In between songs Glenn talked with the students about using technology wisely. He used humor and audience interaction during his show. Students loved singing along with his songs participating with the interactive performance. As a special treat, Mr. Colton visited each classroom individually to talk with the students and play acoustic versions of his cyber safety songs. This personal performance was like our own backstage pass to the show! This was the second trip to East Forest Elementary for Mr. Colton. He came in the Spring to do a show about being kind and getting along with each other. Both performances were sponsored by the East Forest PTO. PTO members attended both shows and enjoyed the messages and songs along with the students and faculty. Thank you Glenn Colton and East Forest PTO!

To learn more about Glenn, click here.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Practical Math Applications

The students of East Forest Integrated Math class have recently demonstrated how to determine the height of an object while only using measurements that can be taken on the ground. The students discovered that if they related the length of their own shadow to the length of the shadow of the desired object in the form of a ratio, then the height of the student to the height of the object would be proportional to the lengths of the shadows.

The East Forest Students discovered it would look something like this:

Length of Students Shadow
Height of Student

=
Length of Flagpole’s Shadow
Height of Flagpole


During this experiment, a 5 ft. Student cast a 17 ft long, while the flagpole cast a shadow of 87 ft. Using the proportion from above the students work looked like this:

17
5

=
87
Height of Flagpole


The students then cross multiplied; (17) x (Height of Flagpole) = (87)x(5), and then divided both sides by 17 to get the height of the flagpole. 435 Ö17 = 25.58 ft or roughly 25 and a half feet high

2nd Grade Communities Project



The second graders at East Forest Elementary created replicas of buildings from the town of Marienville. These buildings were on display at the East Forest Open House on October 8. Mrs. Gawelski has been teaching the second graders about communities. The small scale community of Marienville that was on display was a culmination of all the hard work the students did to learn about how communities work. There were many recognizable buildings that could be seen such as the MACA building, the fire hall, Baughman's Market, and the new Kwik Fill. Congratulations to all of the second graders and Mrs. Gawelski for a wonderful display!

Woodmobile

Students from East Forest Elementary recently took part in the Pennsylvania Woodmobile at West Forest School on October 8. Grades 3,4, and 5 took part in this event. Students from West Forest and Tidioute also participated in the activities at the Woodmobile. Students learned about the forest resources in Pennsylvania and how they are used. The presenters taught the students about the thousands of uses for the wood products that are harvested in Pennsylvania. They also learned about sustaining the forest and protecting this resource for future uses. The wide variety of career options related to the forest industry were discussed also. The students were excited to learn all of the interesting facts about our forests. There was a representative from the Louisville Slugger company there to talk to the students about how the famous bats are made. The students learned that most of the wood that makes these famous bats comes from the woods of Pennsylvania! Students were engaged in many activities ranging from paper making to learning how trees are aged. This was a wonderful event that was very educational and fun!