Dear Parents,

 

     Good afternoon!  We just needed to remind you of a few things before tomorrow's field trip.  First of all, please remember to bring a bagged lunch to school tomorrow.  We will be returning to school late in the day and we will have to eat our lunch in the room. 

     It has also come to our attention that the Marriott now charges $5.00 for parking near the riverboat for the first time.  Third grade will be working hard to fit all of the chaperones on the buses in order to spare this added expense. 

      The end of the year is fast approaching and we have many events planned between now and the end of the year.  Field Day will be one day next week.  We will be sending you additional information regarding this next week.  We will also be sending you information about our end of the year party on Friday, May 22. 

     We have also been asked about FCAT scores.  As soon as we have them, we will be contacting you with them.  As always, thank you for your continued support!

 

Thanks,

Mrs. Cowan and Mrs. McGeachy

Fwd: Secretary Clinton Launches the Virtual Student Foreign Service Initiative

     I recently signed up to receive e-mails from the White House Blog.  I really like the way President Obama is utilizing technology to keep people informed and to get people involved.  The program below sounds like a very interesting program.  Feel free to read more about it.  As a sidebar, I am posting this via email rather than actually going to the blog and posting.  Blogger now has a wonderful feature that allows you to post entries from email and from texts.  Check it out some time!
 

 

Secretary Clinton launched a new initiative today to allow for a rising generation of citizen diplomats to conduct digital diplomacy.

Virtual Student Foreign Service (VSFS) Internships, announced by Secretary Clinton at the 2009 New York University commencement speech, are part of a growing effort by the State Department to harness technology and a commitment to global service among young people to facilitate new forms of diplomatic engagement. The VSFS Internships will be developed over the next year and will seek to harness the energy of a rising generation of citizen diplomats.

Working from college and university campuses in the United States, American students will partner with our embassies abroad to conduct digital diplomacy that reflects the realities of our networked world. By combining the talents of young people across America and the right technology, we can forge the solutions that our century demands.

Sign up to receive more information and updates on Virtual Student Foreign Service Internships.

Join the Virtual Student Foreign Service Facebook community.
 

 

Read more…

Lunar and Solar Eclipse

Our class has been learning about lunar and solar eclipses. A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth is between the sun and the moon. The earth then casts a shadow on the moon. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon is between the earth and the sun causing the sun to appeared to be blocked out. These events occur only when the three are perfectly lined up. Below are some videos that demonstrate these events. You will also find some links below and even a few games. If you have a chance, please feel free to check it out.



Links:

NASA: Lunar Eclipse

Sky and Telescope

Mr. Eclipse

BBC Kids

Compare and Contrast Lunar and Solar Eclipse


Videos:








Games:

Here are Sheffield's newest additions!

The Lionfish Invasion

     Today we read about species invading areas that are not their usual habitat and causing problems.  Apparently the lionfish is one of those species.  The lionfish has begun invading the eastern Atlantic Ocean (near the eastern coast of the United States).  This is now causing problems because the lionfish is a predatory animal that has few enemies in our waters.   It is consuming near 80% of the younger fish in coral reefs in the Bahamas.  Someone might think this is not a big deal but the slightest change in the food web of a habitat can be devastating.   The lionfish consuming that large of a percentage of the juvenile fish depletes the food supply for other species as well.  This ca cause those species to reduce in number and so on and so forth.  Please check out the video above as well as the ones below for more information regarding the introduction of a new species into a habitat and the effects of that introduction.

The Phases of the Moon

The class learned today about the phases of the Moon. Below are several videos that illustrate these phases. Please take a moment to check them out.

Phases of the Moon @ Yahoo! Video