Another year is over!

The 2008-09 school year went by in a flash. We had so many new things to do, learn and adjust to.

Our 4th-6th graders learned many new digital media skills this year. Congratulations to the kids who participated in Keynote Movies and made some awesome presentations such as How To Check Out Library Books, Taking an AR Quiz, Using an AM Scanner, Bullying and more.

A 6th grade project by Devon S. and Courtney F. was chosen as one of the top 5 in the district!

Next year we'll be using more photography and video to stimulate the impact of our research.

This is probably the last post on this blog. Hoping everyone has a wonderful summer vacation and uses the computer to REACH out to others.

Mediafest Movies!

4th through 6th graders are making Keynote Movies! They have come up with the storyboard, written the slides, imported photographs and short videos as well as Garage Band vocals!

They are learning to organize and present their thoughts and information in a digital format. Some of the ideas are wild, most all of them are interesting! The picture above was taken for a presentation about how to ride your bike safely to school.

Four movies from our school will be entered in a district wide competition for the "Mediafest" on April 28, 2009.

December in Phoenix

December is finally here and it's one of the nicest seasons in Phoenix. The weather is just starting to get cold, students are wearing sweaters and sweat shirts to school! The days are still sunny and pleasant.

For Thanksgiving we had a 4 day weekend and many families got together to eat a traditional dinner of roasted turkey and many different kinds of side dishes.

On December 12 we will have our annual Spelling Bee. 2 students from each 4th through 6th grade class will compete to see who the champion speller at our school will be! The winner will compete with students from all of the other schools in our district and that winner will go to the State Spelling Bee. Look for pictures of the Spelling Bee to come!

On December 19th the school year will be half over and we will have a 2 week vacation from school. The second semester of the school year will begin on January 5, 2009.

Around School!

Here's Lily looking at the PVUSD Across India blog in Tech class!

4th graders wanted to say "hi" too!

Students in 4th grade are 9 and 10 years old.
One of their special units of study in Social Studies is Arizona.
They are currently learning about places of interest and history around our state!
They love to read books by Roald Dahl
as well as some of the classics for children like Charlotte's Web!

It's raining today in Phoenix. It's the first time we've had a rainy day since the school year began. That's one of the special things about living in a desert!

School Lunch

Each day in our school cafeteria, students can buy a lunch or bring one from home.
Today the hot food is small corn dogs or pizza and you also get a choice of bananas, pudding cookies and rolls.

Students can get a green salad instead of the hot item.

Lunch costs $1.50 to buy.
Breakfast is also served in the morning before school. There is usually cereal and milk, fruit and a warm cinnamon bun or pancake!

The cafeteria is also used for school assemblies and programs.
All 680 students can fit in here for an assembly.

From kids to kids!

This is a picture of some 3rd graders, 9 year olds, in the library checking out fiction books.
Students at Mercury Mine love to read. Each day students go to one "special subject class," either Library/Media, Art, Music or Physical Education.

The 5th grade students were eager to share with you. Here are Haley and Ben with a few thoughts about what's going on in their lives and current events here in America.

from Darwin and friends!

Hello from Mercury Mine...here are some of our students. They've been happy to see you online, see the classrooms and hear the students speaking.