Innovation Day- a huge, creative success and Spring Break is here....

I first met the current Fourthies when they were in Kindergarten the year we initiated Innovation Days.  Anna Safran was in my group that year.  I can remember that day as if it were yesterday...the girls in my class looked over at Anna and said, "Wow, Mrs. Roberts, look at what that Kindergartener is drawing for her model."  What a wow it was!  These remarkable Innovation Days have produced girls who can make something, utilizing simple materials. After five years and ten innovation projects, the impact of these Innovations Days is clear.  The girls can think, design and produce in a way that is definitely innovative. They thrive on these occasions, and they love every minute of it!  They were inspired by a wonderful innovator, Angela Luna, who spoke to the Lower School, as well as the entire school, in the fall.

The challenge to the girls was to design something that could be useful or helpful to other people.
Last fall they met as a team to decide what they wanted to design. Then on Tuesday, they met again to figure out their materials, and today they made their designs.  This was accomplished today without me! I was sick at home.  It killed me to miss it, but I will see their final projects after Spring Break.  I thought that you might like to see the results today! These are the projects that have been shared with me.

See this link to read about Angela Luna.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2017/10/12/angela-luna-23-is-building-a-business-with-clothes-that-save-lives/#547cdfb71b1a

Flipping Bike Pack

We made a flipping Bike pack. We made it out of fabric, duck tape, plastic cup, ribbon, buttons , rubber bands,and some teamwork along the way! This will help people that are traveling and don’t have a car or can’t afford one.

         Not only does the flipping bike pack carry  your things,but it also has water cup holders ,and a mat that you can sit on. The water holders will either hold your water bottle or you can just put water right in the cup! Although the basket is cardboard, it is covered in fabric, so if your item is fragile it will be in good shape when you take it out. The awesome blanket that folds out can buckle up tight when you are on the go. You may also have a nice little picnic too!   

Education Bags

By Natalie,Clare,Darcy,Laudie,and Becca

These are our Education Bags.Inside of the Education Bags are materials for parents who can’t send their kids to school. Inside the bags are pencils,paper,a book,crayons,a calculator,a coloring book,and glue stick. Parents can take one bag or as many as they want.We want the Education Bags to go to Child Fund. We all made the flashcards in class,and Natalie made the bags at her house from cloth and string. Everyone helped load the bags.    

Let’s help!

Sleeping bag design

Idea: make a sleeping bag that can turn into a purse, it can turn into a solar panel

Step one: make the sleeping bag

Step two: turn into a purse

Step three: color

Step four: take pictures

Step five: show teachers

Pictures go here:

sleeping bag                                                      flat`

purse

This design is a sleeping bag that turns into a purse! If you tie the rubber bands it turns into a purse to carry things in. Who likes to be cold at night? Well, it has a solar panel to keep you warm at night. It gets very small so it is easy to carry around. We made it by tissue paper, cardboard, a lot of tape, a few rubber bands, and paper.The sleeping bag will be made out of waterproof material so if it is raining you will not get wet. If we think about other people’s needs then we can change the world.

Paxton Raymond

Madelyn Smullen

Betsy Spalding

Kensie Toepp

Learner Buddy!

By Lillie, Laila, Violet, and Isabella

Our project is called The Learner Buddy. The way it works is you put a piece of paper into

the slot. Each piece of paper has educational things on it. Then you type the things or answers to the questions that are on the slide. It helps little kids learn their ABC’s and 123’s.We used cardboard, fabric, construction paper, and rainbow duck tape.   

This is our Arrow Filter. We built it to help hunger and thirst. It is an arrow and a water filter all in one. We built it from a pipe, rope, rocks, hook, and a filter. We made it so that you can sling it onto your back. You use it by throwing it into the water. There is a filter at the bottom that cleans the water that comes through the pipe, and when it is in the filter you open the cap on the bottom of it.

                              The End

The Sleeping Coat Team Asra, Emma,Tayloe and Madison

Our idea was to make a coat that turns into a sleeping bag. We think that people who are in a rush won’t have the time to pitch a tent and take it down every day, so we decided to make this a sleeping bag. We hope it will help people who don’t have the money to buy one of Angela Luna’s tents. Our creation was inspired by Angela Luna’s tents but we had different ideas. We think that just flipping it inside out will be easier than pitching a tent. It would work for people who travel and those that don’t have enough money to buy a bed.

In our innovation project, we created an umbrella that turns into a tent. The umbrella can also be attached to a backpack using the velcro strap most umbrellas have to keep them together. The tent can be put together by putting a blanket on top. Just close the umbrella and take the blanket off to make it back to normal.You could also open the umbrella while it's on the backpack. In the classroom, it was kind of hard to make the backpack attach to the umbrella because we had to make a way to open it while not blocking the path of the umbrella as it closes. Using the velcro strap solved this problem. It was also kind of difficult to keep the umbrella from falling, but we supported it with the backpack and some tape and it stayed up. We also put  the umbrella on it’s side and it stayed up that way too.

By Maddie Bridges, Mary Mac Starke, Courtney Carter, Amelia Ellis   

Starting our day the right way....lots of love..........and candy!

There is just one thing missing from our Valentine Extravaganza, and that is our Becca!  We miss you, Becca!  It is just not the same thing today without you!  Here is how we feel!

Becca, what vocabulary word is the class feeling without you?   ________________________

Let's Support the USA!

Let's have some fun during the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics!  What a perfect time to learn about the culture of South Korea, as well as about the Winter Olympics.  The girls are going to watch a little of the Olympics every night at home and keep track of which countries receive medals.  They are also going to get to know some of the athletes from the United States, as well as other countries, so let's get ready for some great fun during the next two weeks.  So much learning can take place during this wonderful global event! We are going to incorporate math with history, geography, writing, and sports!


Speaking of math, these girls are getting ready to round up a highly compelling unit of fractions. Honestly, they are doing fifth and sixth grade work, and they are doing it well.  Along with the computation, they are doing a lot of problem solving using the bar model method, and they are getting so much better. They still need to read carefully and figure out what the actual question is.  Don't worry!  They are getting lots of practice.  You have seen their work, so you know what I am talking about.


Valentine's Day 

is here!  Too much fun in one week!  The girls are making Valentine's boxes at home and we are making Valentines tomorrow with a party on Wednesday...such good old fun passing Valentines out to all of our classmates in the class!  We'll write some clever rhymes, and the girls will also interview you on your own love stories!  Come on!  Spill the beans! 

Reminder - Terracotta Army Field Trip - February 8

January 23, 2018

Dear Parents of St. Catherine’s Grade 4 Students,

I am so excited to announce that students in the fourth grade will have a special opportunity to visit Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in early February. They will join a guided tour to explore the special exhibition: Terracotta Army- Legacy of First Emperor of China. 

The Terracotta Army is one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. This special exhibition in VMFA assembles 10 Terracotta Army figures and an array of other artifacts from around 210 BC. Our fourth graders are currently studying the history of the First Emperor of China, as well as the universal Chinese writing system, which was first adopted by his empire. This field trip will offer a wonderful opportunity for students to witness the art and archaeology of ancient China.

The guided tour starts at 10 a.m. on Thursday, February 8^th. We will use school transportation to get to VMFA and will be off campus from approximately 9:30-11:30 a.m. Please send your daughter to school on February 8^th dressed in her field trip attire, with a bag lunch to be eaten in the classroom when we return to school. (If your daughter buys lunch from school, we will have a bag lunch ready for her.)

Thank you for your support. I hope the visit to the Terracotta Army exhibition will be a truly memorable experience for your daughter!

Sincerely,

Kefu Dorion

LS Chinese Teacher

St. Catherine’s School

Gold/White Dominates the Week!

Gold/ White Week

What a week of spirit leading up to the celebration of Miss Jennie's birthday on January 30!  Do the girls in this school have fun or what?  I wasn't here for Disney Day, but Mrs. Seabolt took pictures and I heard all about it! (I had Jury Duty, and I actually served on a jury, so it was kind of a productive day.) Today was the Gold/ White competition, and it was spectacular.  The teams rocked the gym, and the girls looked resplendent in their gold sequins and white feather boas.

Since we have done so much celebrating this week, I had to find a way to weave history into Spirit Week, so Decades Day was the perfect vehicle.  Hello 60s! Did these girls ever get into it! They've  learned about the Viet Nam War and the civil rights movement, and how college students all over the country protested, so they staged their very own sit-in, and Dr. Kapetanis and Mrs. Friend went right along with it.  The "protestors" presented their list of demands...more cookies in the cafeteria, flag football at recess, more jeans days, compliment circles....all very interesting!

Famous author coming in February

Award Winning Author Coming Here

Award winning author, Carmen Agra Deedy, is coming to St. Catherine's on February 21, 2018 to speak to our lower school students.  Born in Havana, Cuba, Carmen came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1964. Her children's books have won numerous awards and reflect her unique life experiences.

We are offering the opportunity to purchase an autographed book for your child through our local children’s bookshop, bbgb books. You may go to bbgb's website, http://bbgbbooks.com/book-buzz/?book_list=st-catherines, and add your book(s) to the cart.  At check-out choose school delivery, select St. Catherine's, then indicate your child's name, teacher and to whom the book(s) should be signed.  Please place your order by Monday, February 5th. The books will be delivered to school for Carmen's visit. You may call bbgb with any questions at 804.353.5675. 15% of the proceeds will come back to St.

Catherine's!

Snow, School, Snow, School....

Girls, remember to give the Foreign Language letter to your parents!  This is an exciting and important decision that you are making--the choice of whether to take Spanish or Chinese next year!
The paper has to be returned by January 25, 2018.

What a crazy whirlwind of school, snow, school, snow...we have had, but in spite of this, we have taken advantage of every minute of academic time we could.  In math, we are adding and subtracting mixed fractions with unlike denominators.  You may notice that Singapore suggests that computation be horizontal as opposed to vertical...probably different from what you learned!  In their written reflections the girls expressed a lot of curiosity about decimals, plus we are on the second unit of fractions, and they are a little tired of just fractions, so we deviated from the course this week.  Last night they looked for examples of uses for decimals.  You may have helped them do this, but I bet you would not have expected how truly excited they were in class today.  They LOVED it and asked for more homework like that. As I have said before...this is quite the unusual class!!!  Enthusiasm for everything!

Health and Wellness Month

Because this week the focus has been on the MIND, and the ways we can keep our minds healthy,
the Wellness Committee made a special labyrinth for the girls to experience. It is located in on the terrace on the Green.  They were invited to move along the path and meditate or think creatively or spiritually...pretty cool for the girls. This morning we had a total school Shouting Prayer on the Green. Girls who have gone to Shrine Mont have experienced this, but others have not.  Ask your daughters about it!

Your girls are bringing home letters today from the PE Department with wellness tips for the girls to try at home.  Great ideas!

Lots of action in M06....

I think that you know what this is!  Look familiar!  Say hello to your younger self and welcome back to the 80s!

Gold/White Cheer Rally Practice Tomorrow

Girls, remember how much fun you had last year practicing for the Gold/White Cheer Rally last year? Well, it's that time of year again, specifically tomorrow morning!

The LS girls will have Gold/White cheer practices tomorrow morning (1/19) and next Tuesday morning (1/23) from 7:30-7:55 AM.  Gold Team will be in the LSAR and White Team will be in the LSMPR.


When you come to school tomorrow, please go directly to one of these rooms and have some fun learning the cheers!

Another snow day.....maybe

What a wild and funny way to start 2018...lots of snow days and frigid weather!  Girls, you have your "marching orders" for work!  Remember to do your Wordly Wise and Spelling.  You have the assignments written down.  Also, don't forget to finish your math classwork from today, and you have some work for tonight.  Make sure to check the blog for more math work.  If we are out more than one day, I may have to add a little more!  Sorry!

You are doing a great job learning about fractions...so great that we are starting work with unlike denominators.  Soon we will be heading into decimals, a topic that you have been begging to learn.
I love your enthusiasm!

Stay in touch with your fellow readers over the next couple of days, and be prepared for a corresponding assignment when you return!

I hope that we get enough snow that you can sled and have fun, and we can write some "snow stories"!

It's Christmas Time........

What a whirlwind week of yes, some academics........some vocabulary, some fractions, some holiday writing and some character studies, and the list goes on.  About those fractions.......this is such an interesting program...the way they put numbers together is so cool, and the girls are beginning to catch on, but enough about that!  Let's look at the fun stuff!

We made stockings for the fireplace with glitter galore.  Christmas music and creativity...great combination! We've written Christmas stories and Storybirds, read Christmas stories with our Big Sisters, and we drew one more Christmas Star of David. In fact, the girls taught the eighth graders how to do it, and they loved it.  Geometry and religion...great combination. Before we were in full throttle Christmas many of the girls wrote Advent Haiku and published it in a special jeweled notebook. A few days ago ,they also made a beautiful Nativity.  Each figure was hand sculpted by each girl.  The result was just fabulous...the attention to each detail of a king or a donkey or a camel or Mary or the Baby Jesus...beautiful.

Roberts' girls from the eighth grade AND their teacher, Mrs. Crook...also a Roberts' girl!

...and the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

              Laila Patel Supports the Troops and Their Families

Laila and her family are dedicated to a wonderful charity call Fort Lee Holiday Helper.  Laila decided to help three years ago by making beautiful jewelry and keychains to sell.  "This year my goal is to make $125 to donate," she says.  Each object, lovingly made by Laila, sells for $5. Last Friday morning Laila brought her wares to school, and our class had so much fun trying to decide what to buy. You could hear gales of laughter and joy down the hall!  By the way, Laila doubled her goal!

We are so proud of our classmate, Laila!