Focus on Instruction

At Fort Lewis Elementary, 4th and 1st grade students traveled back in time for Colonial Day!. Students wore colonial period clothing, danced the Virginia Reel, prepared food from scratch, and played colonial games. Students were fully engaged in this immersive learning experience. With the help of the Frontier Culture Museum, our teachers, volunteers, and our students developed a deeper understanding of colonial life.

At Masons Cove Elementary, first graders learned about fractions—halves, fourths, and wholes—and their real-life uses, like cooking and sharing. We explored splitting our class (e.g., ½ boys, ½ girls; ¼ wear glasses). To conclude, students opened a "pizza shop," ordering pizzas with fractional toppings (e.g., whole cheese, ¼ sausage, ½ pepperoni, ¼ peppers). They used fractions to plan and build their pizzas, applying their knowledge in a fun, hands-on way.

At Burlington Elementary, the Windsock Project offers students a hands-on way to study wind's role in weather. By building colorful windsocks, they explore how wind direction and speed affect daily patterns. Testing with a fan shows wind behavior as the streamers move and orient away from airflow. This engaging activity connects meteorology to real-world applications in aviation, outdoor activities, and beyond.

At Masons Cove Elementary, students were able to play on the playground equipment to show examples of force, motion, gravity, and friction. Students also observed their peers on the equipment and drew pictures that illustrated where forces were applied. Students then looked at the cause and effect scenarios of all parts of the playground noticing that the equipment moved because of their force, gravity pulled students down, and for every action, there was an opposite reaction.

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At Northside Middle, 8th grade English students in Mrs. Waldron's English classes pitched their creative new innovations "Shark Tank" style in front of a panel of judges on September 27th in the NMS auditorium. Inspired by the science fiction readings of Ray Bradbury, students chose to work independently or in groups to create a new technology. Using craft materials, the 3D printer, 3D pens, and other MakerSpace materials, students constructed their own prototype of the product that would solve a modern-day problem. Students studied public speaking and persuasive techniques to prepare for their own stage presentations. Lastly, students also studied the fundamentals of a logo to create their own. We are "all in" after seeing these future entrepreneurs' great ideas and skills!.  

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At Clearbrook Elementary, following the reading of the book "The Shape of Things", the students partnered up and designed a shape creation of their choice meeting certain parameters preset.  They identified how many and what size shapes they would need from the precut selection of squares, triangles, circles and rectangles.  The students collaborated and problem solved with their partner to identify flaws with their design and original selection, they then had to go back to Mrs. Harrison to change out their shapes and justify orally why they needed to swap out pieces.  

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At Glenvar Elementary, In their Library classes, the students were asked to brainstorm some of their favorite story book characters.  They then wrote why they chose the character, and then decorated a pumpkin like their favorite character.

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At Glen Cove Elementary, each child was assigned a letter as the anchor point for their alphabet vest.  Students collaborated with the teacher and their families to design their vest.  All GCE students cheered on our kindergarten students during the alphabet parade

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At Cave Spring Elementary, in Mrs. Mowles’ fourth-grade math class, students were engaged in a collaborative and creative project called, “Design a Restaurant”.  Students worked in small groups, where they utilized previously learned math skills to design their own restaurant. The project involved planning various spaces within the restaurant (such as the kitchen, dining room, storage). Students worked together on several tasks.  They created the name and type of restaurant, developed their own menu, and designed the physical areas along with furniture arrangement of their restaurant.  Students used their restaurant’s specific details to solve multi-step word problems that required them to multiply two-digit numbers, determine the area of certain rooms in the restaurant, and to determine how much their furniture and materials would cost.   Mrs. Mowles’ students were excited, they remained focused on the tasks, listened to each other’s ideas, and managed their time during the process.  The final step involved students creating their own posters to display information about their restaurants.  Once their posters were complete, each group presented their project to the class.

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At Mountain View Elementary, as part of the unit on force and motion (SOL 5.3), students engaged in an interactive project to design ramps for toy cars using available materials. Their goal was to maximize the distance each car could travel. Through experimentation, they tested various ramp angles to observe the effect on speed and experimented with different ramp surfaces to find materials that either minimized or increased friction as needed. As the students grew more comfortable with the experiment, they introduced new variables by switching cars to see how changes impacted the results. One of the more unexpected challenges was managing collisions at the bottom of the ramp, which led to additional learning and creative problem-solving. This hands-on activity not only reinforced key concepts of force and motion but also fostered collaboration, critical thinking, and a genuine enthusiasm for scientific exploration.

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At Hidden Valley High School, Music Theory students explored rhythm by using Linx Music Making Software (LMMS) to create a basic “four on the floor” drum set beat with additional sounds and rhythms chosen by the student.

At Green Valley Elementary, first graders 3D printed Virginia symbols while fifth graders coded DASH robots to pull parade floats, aligned with HHS 1.12 and 5.AP.1 standards. The first graders identified 3D artifacts, added their initials as text features, and created project folders. Meanwhile, the fifth graders designed sturdy yet lightweight floats to support the artifacts as the robots navigated down the first-grade hallway. Students could choose to load their artifacts onto the floats before or during the robot's journey. This collaborative activity sparked excitement about coding among the first graders and fostered teamwork between the grades.

At Fort Lewis Elementary, third grade students engaged in a collaborative project with their kindergarten partners to design and construct a bat, as well as a device to transport the bat from the top of a zip line to the bottom. The students were encouraged to exercise creativity in designing and testing their inventions with the provided materials. Throughout the process, the third graders mentored their kindergarten buddies, reflecting on their designs and making necessary adjustments to ensure that their creations moved smoothly along the zip line and traveled the required distance. Students explored and applied concepts related to force, motion, gravity, and balance while learning how to communicate, collaborate, and think critically.

At Mount Pleasant Elementary, first graders in Mrs. Broughman’s class observed the life cycle of butterflies from egg to butterfly and described the physical properties during each stage. During this deeper learning experience, students communicated with their peers and teachers about their observations, read a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts on the topic, and applied problem-solving skills to maximize the number of successful butterfly hatchings when the location of the chrysalis was not ideal.  This was an experience that vertically aligned with kindergarten and 2nd grade standards and has enriched student learning with memories that will last a lifetime.

At Herman L. Horn Elementary students read the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind  (true story) by  William Kamkwamba. Students were given the task of creating a working model of a wind turbine.  The students had to use the energy of the wind (hair dryer) to rotate the blades.  In addition, the turbine had to lift a load of water (we used pennies) as it rotated.   Students had to determine:
-What was the best way to get their turbine to spin and which materials to use?
-What was the best axle to use?
-How they were going to get the load to lift as the blades spun?