Art Club 2/27

My art club students really impressed me today with their cat drawings! We also worked on one-point perspective drawings today, which are still in progress.

Sophia Trejo

Joey Rucker

A'Nya Hargrave

 Kaitlyn Whisner

Serenity Flagg

Briana Jones

Brent Murphy

Mrs. Orellana

Culturing Bacteria

We just finished a chapter about viruses, bacteria, protists, and fungi.  Yesterday we swabbed areas around the school and cultured bacteria using agar (a nutrient-rich gel) in petri dishes.  Below you see Briana and Nathan's plate that was swabbed from Mrs. Gomulka's turtle tank. They multiplied overnight.  Each little beige bump is a whole colony! These are most likely salmonella since reptiles carry those. Don't worry; we didn't touch them. :)  Some of the other students' dishes also have a few colonies, but not as many as this.

Important Dates & Fundraisers

Important Dates

• Mandatory parent meeting Monday - February 24th at 7:00pm.
• USC Field Trip Friday, February 28th.  Permission slips were sent out.
• Speech Meet - March 5th. 
• School Spirit Day - March 7th
• Progress Reports - March 12th
• Open House - March 13th

Fundraisers

• See's Candy Easter Sale - March 10th - 28th. Students will receive the information on March 10th.

• Yard Sale & Electronic Waste Recycling Drive - Saturday March 15th 7am - 4pm. Yard sale benefits 6th, 7th, & 8th grade. Each class will have its own section at the yard sale.  At the same time, 8th grade will be having their electronic waste drive in the back lot of the church.  Please donate any old electronics to help them out.

• 8th Grade Fundraiser - Two Guys Restaurant $10 Certificates worth $20 of food of your choice.  Buy them in the front office through March 10th.  The certificates are valid through Sept. 30th.

• Talent Show & Spaghetti Feed - April 4th. Tickets are $10.

• Peel Off Card Fundraiser Information - Form is in the front office.  These include buy one get one free offers, etc.  

• Other fundraisers are still in the mix, such as the Spring Car Wash and 66ers Baseball Game -TBA.

Mushroom Growth Progress

There is a fungus among us... Yes we are growing fungus in our classroom :)

Day 4 - Monday - the mushroom primordia have appeared! The primordia cells are the first stage of mushroom growth.

Day 5 - Tuesday morning


Day 5 - Tuesday afternoon! Quite a change since the morning. You can see the mushroom stalks and caps forming.


Day 6 - Wednesday afternoon. Height 6.5cm.


Day 7 - Thursday afternoon. Height 10cm.

USC Field Trip

Mark your calendars! Our USC Field trip will be Friday, Feb. 28th.  Parents, we would love for you to come and, as always, we will need drivers. More information to come. :)

Bacteriophage Models

Yesterday we made these models of bacteriophages, viruses that invade bacteria. The head of our virus models are icosahedrons, which are 20 faced polyhedrons. :)

End of 2nd Quarter

The end of the quarter is tomorrow, Friday 1/24, which means it is the last day to turn in any classwork, homework, or missing assignments. Tomorrow is also a minimum day, so school will be dismissed at 11:30am. :) 

Also, please sign up to help at the book fair this Monday/Tuesday afternoon! Call/text me or sign up outside the classroom if you would like to help. Thanks!

UCLA Trip