Lotspeich
September 11, 2020
Lotspeich Library to Safely Circulate Books
Lotspeich librarian Lori Suffield has created a safe way for students in first grade through fifth grade to check out books during the 2020-21 school year. Although younger students in first and second grade can’t visit the library for Suffield’s class, Suffield brings the library to them, wheeling a cart of grade-level books to classrooms. “Students are able to browse from the cart and select their books,” Suffield said. “All students use hand sanitizer before and after book selection.” Students have two bags to keep their books in—one for home and one for school to hold quarantined books. “When a student is finished with their books, they return the books in the bag to the quarantine crate in the Lotspeich Library,” Suffield said. “At the end of each day, I place a lid on the crate and that day’s returned books and bags are quarantined for at least 96 hours. After the quarantine period, I check in and re-shelve the books.” Third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders have designated times for browsing and checking out library books on an as-needed basis. “Students enter the library in very small groups to browse the library collection,” Suffield said. Older students follow the same hand sanitizing and book protocol as the younger students. Suffield said she developed these protocols with the help of Hillsdale Campus nurse Joy Copfer and data from the American Library Association.
Fifth-graders Start Chemistry Unit with Accuracy Challenge
Much of the Seven Hills science program is based on curiosity, creativity, and innovation, but the foundation of chemistry experiments is precise and accurate measurements and the commitment to following a procedure carefully. To help shift into this mindset, science teacher Kate LaBare introduced the fifth-grade chemistry unit with baking chemistry and cooking shows, sharing in a concrete way what can happen if measurements are off. LaBare then challenged her fifth-grade students to work in pairs and practice measuring liquids and solids as precisely as possible. Students were given baking soda and water to measure at various volumes. “The sense of competition and the ability to make a bit of a mess in the outside classroom made for a fun skills lab,” LaBare said.
Pre-kindergarteners Learn “All About Me”
Tyler McIlwraith’s pre-kindergarten students spent the first few weeks of the 2020-21 school year sharing about themselves and learning about their classmates as part of their All About Me unit. “This unit helps build a sense of community as the children learn about each other,” McIlwraith said. Students discussed how they spell their names, measured their heights, and created a graph of their number of family members. Pre-kindergarteners also drew self-portraits and family portraits. Students drew their family portraits inside a cutout of a house, giving them the opportunity to decorate the outside of their houses!
Exploding Dots in Project Math
Math is explosive! Lotspeich Project Math teacher Laura OGrady recently taught fifth-graders about Exploding Dots, a visual math lesson looking at our number system in new and inventive ways. “Math should be fun and creative and playful,” OGrady told her students. Fifth-graders watched a video about “Exploding Dots Machine” and solved math puzzles related to this “new invention.” Students have been playing with Exploding Dots each week, and along the way have been discovering important concepts related to numbers in base ten and other base systems, algebraic thinking, and exponents.
“Amelia Bedelia” Teaches Second-graders Idioms
Lotspeich second-graders have been studying idioms and figurative language. Recently, they had a little help from classic children’s book character Amelia Bedelia, a protagonist who frequently takes idioms, such as “draw the drapes,” a bit too literally. Teacher Cicely Knecht recently read one of the many “Amelia Bedelia” books to students as a class. She then asked second-graders to read one of the books individually and choose an idiom found in the story to illustrate. Second-graders are also learning about story setting. In addition to the idioms, they mapped and illustrated the setting of their “Amelia Bedelia” story.
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