Monthly Archives: May 2020

Two More School Projects: Africa and Newton’s Laws

Here are two nice videos Sydney submitted for homework. They are vertical because of the Flipgrid format the school is asking for submissions and were both done with Devon.

In the first, Sydney had to choose one aspect of Africa and present a report with five facts. In the second, the fourth in a series of marble experiments, Sydney had to do an experiment that showed Newton’s Second Law of Motion (F=MA), which means Force = Mass times Acceleration. The point of this project was a steeper slope would produce more force, knocking over the box. You will note the first marble run also leaps off into the air and hits the box higher, making the two marble runs not comparable. I talked to Sydney about this afterward to make sure the experiment was not just about marbles.

Reciting a Poem: I Tried to Ride a Skateboard

Last week Sydney was given an assignment to learn a poem she would recite to her class. She was given 10 days to do it and even told she could combine with other students.

Sydney and I discussed her assignment and I pulled up a list of poems her teacher, Ms. Murray, had suggested. Sydney read half a dozen, picked one, and memorized it within five minutes. Amazingly, the next morning I asked her if she still knew it and she recited it again. I think it is a testament to how good our memories were as kids and could be now if we applied a little effort!

Ms. Murray then asked Sydney if she wanted to recite her poem virtually to the entire lower school. She readily agreed. When Devon dropped her off this morning, I reminded her she was to do this. “In front of the whole school?” she asked. Yes. “Yeah!”

I got online too so I could follow along. I was even cautious enough to pull up the poem in case Sydney got stage fright and forgot a line. She did ask me ten seconds in advance what the author’s name was – so I think she might have been a little nervous – but then proceeded to recite the poem perfectly.

Afterwards, Sydney told me she was, indeed, nervous. In fact, she said she was nervous until the entire school sang the goodbye song at the end of morning assembly. It was great practice for public speaking, even if on video at home!