Fourth-grade math students learned about lighthouses and how mariners use sextants to navigate by observing the sun or stars in relation to the horizon. In the spirit of using the horizon to navigate a ship, the students used string and a tape measure to calculate the distance of their "boat" from dangerous rocks near lighthouses by applying a specific formula. It was a lot of fun!
Fourth-grade math students learned about renewable energy in Maine. A tidal turbine farm was proposed in Eastport, Maine. Students created a model tidal turbine to simulate how moving water can turn blades to generate electricity.
Fourth-grade ELA students researched countries and created clues for "Passport to the World." Gorham Elementary schools displayed their work in different ways. Village School announces the clues over the daily announcements, and the classroom that guesses correctly will be placed in a drawing to display a levitating globe in their classroom for the week. Great Falls and Narragansett will have bulletin boards. These clues allowed other classes to participate in guessing which country was highlighted. It was fun to engage the whole school.
Fifth-grade ELA students learned Greek and Latin stems. They segmented dinosaur names to highlight the stems and their meanings, and then they created their own unique dinosaur names.
Fifth-grade math students participated in Gorham's Shark Tank, developing inventions to solve a problem or improve an existing product. They created illustrations and wrote summaries about their inventions. As they entered the Gorham Shark Tank, students were required to set a price for their products and calculate their costs and profits. They also needed to use a formula to determine their break-even point. Some of the innovative and creative inventions included basketball sneakers with springs to help young players jump higher, a stand with ballet shoe rests for ballerinas to practice en pointe, and a suitcase for dance class that featured a fold-down seat on one side and a privacy curtain for changing on the other.
