Augusta Slide Show

As promised, here is the slideshow from our Augusta trip. We had a great day day, thanks to all the wonderful parents who were able to help out! Enjoy!

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Testing the Waters

Since January, we have been raising brook trout. They arrived in the eyed egg stage, hatched into alevin with their yolk sacs, and are now turning into fry, which is when they must be released, because they need to find their own food.

We are excited because this year, we will be releasing our fry right in South Portland, in the aptly-named Trout Brook. Before we do that, however, we need to make sure that Trout Brook is a suitable environment for our trout.

Later this week, we will visit Trout Brook to do some water quality testing. We will test temperature, dissolved oxygen, ph level, and turbidity. We will also look to see what macroinvertebrates are living there, as they can tell us a lot about the quality of the water. Watch this video to learn more!




Visit this site to explore more  water topics! Project WET Activity Pages

Augusta

The Augusta Trip is this Friday,

April 27th.

Please be at school at 8:00.

The bus will leave at 8:15.

The whole Skillin 4th grade will be going to our state capital, Augusta, this coming Friday. We have a tight schedule and in order to fit everything in, we must leave at 8:15, so please be here at 8:00. If you normally ride the bus in the morning, you will need to get a ride to school. We will be back in time for regular dismissal.

This coming week we will be learning about government. Jane Eberle, one of South Portland's state representatives, is coming to Skillin on Wednesday afternoon to talk to the 4th grades about her job and how state government runs. On Friday, she will meet us in Augusta to give us a tour of the State House and take us through the process of how laws are made, including guiding us through a mock debate. We will have lunch at the museum, followed by a 30-minute guided museum program, and time to explore in small groups. Look for a slide show of our trip next week!

4th Grade Biography Wax Museum

Travel back in time with us... All sixty-two 4th graders at Skillin created a living timeline through their Biography Wax Museum project. For the past month or so, each student has been researching the life of a famous person who has made a positive contribution to the world. They each read a chapter book about their person, along with two other sources of information. Students wrote a five-paragraph essay, drew a portrait, created a timeline, and wrote a poem. For the actual wax museum, students took the main parts of their report and wrote a 1-2 minute speech that they delivered whenever someone pressed the button on their poster. We presented the wax museum in the afternoon for the whole school, and again at night for families. Check out our slideshow! Students lined up in the order of when their person was born, so you may see multiples of the same person because someone in one of the other classes may have studied that person too.

If you enjoy our slideshow, we'd love to hear comments from you!

Slideshow generated with Smilebox

Water Poster Contest

Many students in our class chose to enter a contest sponsored by The Maine Stormwater Association about why clean water is important. Check out the fabulous entries! Good luck everyone!

Maine Statehood Day!

March 15 was Maine Statehood Day. It has been 192 years since Maine became a state in 1820. To honor the day, we had a special snack of Maine foods. This plate shows just a sample. We had B&M Baked beans, brown bread, blueberry muffins, potato chips, pretzel  logs, Swedish Fish, and apple cider.

Dahliya shows us what may be the world's largest potato chip!

Of course, we had to try Maine's own soft drink...Moxie!

As you can see from the almost empty bottle, it was a hit!

For the non-fizz fans, we had a choice of apple juice or apple cider.

We played two games. In the first one, students took turns trying to guess what the picture on their back was by asking yes or no questions. In keeping with the Maine theme, the pictures were a variety of Maine people, places, animals, or plants. We were having so much fun playing that I forgot to take a picture!

The second game, Pin the Tail on the Moose, provided us with lots of laughs. 

Brenden shows us how it's done!

Looks like everyone was pretty close...

...until you look around at the big picture.

Thank-you families for sending in food, drinks, and paper goods! We had an awesome time!