We are still looking for AMAZING parent volunteers to help out with our Parent Green Team! The Green Team is dedicated to creating more sustainability in our cafeteria! email me for more info [email protected]
Important info! The Science Fair will be held on January 17th 6-8pm! ALL families are encouraged to attend! 2nd-5th graders can participate by creating a science fair project! More details can be found on the "Class Work" tab of this website!
We are still looking for AMAZING parent volunteers to help out with our Parent Green Team! The Green Team is dedicated to creating more sustainability in our cafeteria! email me for more info [email protected]
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It's the most wonderful time of the year! It's BACK TO SCHOOL TIME!! I can't wait to see all my scientists and engineers again in class! We will be rocking and rolling from the start! As always, we will be focussed on looking at science through an Environmental Lens, Green STEM! Our new school Eastern Box rehab turtle from NCSU Turtle Rescue Team has moved into his terrarium and is excited to meet all of our students! His name is Great Dane! Unfortunately, a dog thought he was a chew toy, and caused damage to his shell. He will be staying with us to recover for about 3 weeks. Some important notes: September STEM At Home Challenge: What can you do with a paper plate! Students are encouraged to create something/anything using at least 1 paper plate and any other materials they would like! They can bring their creation into science class and share their engineering design! This project helps them learn the Engineering Design Process and gets their engineering brains working!!!! 4th & 5th grade will be participating in the NC Soil & Water Conservation Poster Contest. This year's theme is "Living Soil". In the past, this has been an outside of school enrichment project. I am VERY excited to bring it into the classroom this year! HOWEVER, I NEED YOUR HELP! To have our students be able to produce the best posters possible, I am looking for donations of markers, colored pencils, sharpies, colored cardstock, wrapping paper (non holiday), and scrapbook supplies! The top posters will be sent out for Regional Judging! K-3rd- Please be on the lookout for wish list supply items! The supplies I will be looking for immediately are toilet paper rolls (clean, no paper, not flattened), and shoe boxes! If I receive enough shoe boxes, 1st grade students will be making their own special "Science Box" where they can keep their special science collections. Students are encouraged to bring back their science box to share their special finds with the class! SCIENCE FAIR!!!!! BIG CHANGE!!! Science Fair will be held on JANUARY 17th 6-8pm!!!! I have decided to move the fair to January to help ease the craziness of spring schedules!!! Be on the look out for more info!!!! 4th & 5th grade Envirothon Team! Starting this fall I will be accepting applications from 4th & 5th graders to be part of the ACES Envirothon Team! Our team will meet once a week 8:15-9:00am to learn our Envirothon Subjects and have some fun! Envirothon is similar to an Odyssey of the Mind or Science Olympiad. Last year we had 1 team place high enough in the regional competition to advance to state competition! It is a VERY exciting and wonderful enrichment opportunity! Have your students pick up an application ASAP if interested! 4th Graders will be our Junior Team, and will not be able to compete at the competition, but will be training for the 5th grade team! That's it for now! Please reach out to me with questions!!!! Thanks! Krista Brinchek [email protected] Hello!
There are some VERY important Science Updates I needed to share with you! Please read ALL information, I don’t want anyone to miss out on the Science Fun!!! 5/3/18 6pm-8PM COME JOIN US!!! **MOVIE NIGHT** Mrs. Brinchek and the Parent Green Team invites your family to join us for a movie showing of STRAWS! STRAWS is an award winning documentary that illuminates the problems related with straws and other single use plastic pollution that inundate our waterways and oceans. The film inspires a new path forward. STRAWS will screen at Abbotts Creek ES on May 3rd 6pm! Post movie, we will have brief discussions led by Mrs. B and Wake County Recycling personnel. Bring an old t-shirt with you to make a craft to help reduce waste! PLEASE LET US KNOW YOU ARE COMING ASAP BY signing up at: www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0c4bafaf2aaafc1-aces 5/5/18- 9am-11:30am **BIG SWEEP CLEAN UP** Come join families and staff of Abbotts Creek ES on Saturday May 5th from 9am-11:30am to help protect our watershed by cleaning up litter along the Falls Lake Trail! Please dress for the weather, wear sturdy shoes, and bring a pair of gloves if you can! Trash bags, data cards, volunteer certificates, will be provided thanks to the Wake County Soil and Water Conservation. Please let us know you are coming! http://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080944abab22a20-abbotts2 5/15/18- 6-8pm **SCIENCE FAIR**!!!!! **Family Fun!!! Come support 2nd-5th graders who will be showcasing their projects! STEM professionals will be in the gymnasium with hands on activities for all!!! K & 1st graders can create a STEM project to be showcased that night! To participate in this STEM challenge, they will need to create something (anything) using a paper towel roll! You can use any additional materials in your creation! The only rule is to BE CREATIVE! *Bring your creation into school before Science Fair!!!! As summer comes to a close, I am looking forward to a new year and new opportunities at Abbotts Creek Elementary School. Some of you might be reading this as newcomers, and if that is the case, WELCOME! I can't wait to meet you and your children! Please take some time to click on the "About Me" tab, this will explain my philosophy, who I am, and how I have and continue to develop our science program at Abbotts Creek. We are ALL about the Environment and Green S.T.E.M. I also encourage you to browse past blog posts because they contain great links (live cams) and pictures of past science adventures.
With Sustainability as one of our Core beliefs (our closed landfill behind our school is our daily reminder), I have spent a lot of time thinking about our waste generation at Abbotts and how we can reduce the amount we generate. On an average year we create approximately 43,200 pounds of trash that go to the landfill! My goal is to reduce that number! We have started the process by having EREF come and analyze our waste stream, from that, it has helped me look at where we can change things to start bringing that trash number down. I have created a comprehensive Waste Reduction Plan that we will start rolling out this fall. This fall, I will be asking for parent/students to join our GREEN TEAM! It will focus on educating our students about ways to reduce our trash, as well as utilizing volunteers to help in our recycling efforts! More information to come, but if you are interested please contact me. A BIG thank you to all of the families who came out to water our Monarch Waystation this summer! Because of YOU our plants have flourished providing both food for our pollinators, and places for butterflies to lay their eggs. We will be looking forward to seeing our Monarchs as they pass through during their Migration! Third grade will be learning about their migration and joining a symbolic migration to Mexico through the Journey North program. CLASSROOM SUPPLIES- I will be posting a list of classroom supplies needed to make this year a success! Please stop by my room during meet the teacher to find out more on how you can support your student! Most of my supplies can be purchased at the supermarket and on Amazon. Explorer Backpacks! We will continue the program starting on the second letter day rotation! Kindergarten will have a later start date. Every Friday, (4) students from each grade will be able to sign out a backpack for the weekend. The backpacks are meant for you and your student to go explore the natural world around them. In each backpack are maps to local nature parks, binoculars, wildlife identification books, magnify glasses, bug boxes, and journal that your student will be able to keep! We LOVE to see our students exploring, please hashtag photo's on social media with #acesexplore and make public so we can all see the awesome outside adventures! We are still looking for donations to fill !12) additional backpacks we received. If you could help with one or two items, it will allow MORE backpacks to go home with students every Friday. Click on link to find out what is still needed! www.amazon.com/wedding/krista-brinchek-krista-brinchek-raleigh-september-2017/registry/1BZATKNXRPT0D I I have a few more things cooking up my sleeve.... so stay tuned! I can't wait to see everyone in a couple weeks! I can't believe we are wrapping up another AWESOME year at Abbotts Creek! I am soooo thankful to the PTA who generously donated funding to purchase a Solar powered camera bird house, (12) new Explorer Backpacks, and birdhouse poles & baffles, AND new plants for our Butterfly Garden! Because of ALL your donations this was possible, THANK YOU!!!!!!
If your family would like to water the butterfly garden this summer, please sign up for a day here! www.signupgenius.com/go/5080944abab22a20-2017 I know not every student was able to bring home an explorer backpack this year, this is why we are trying to keep growing this program. :-( Those who did NOT get a turn will be first on the list for next year. We are trying to get supplies to fill (12) more explorer backpacks items cost between $5-$16, could you donate an item or 2? Click on this Amazon registry to make a purchase, all items are shipped directly to the school! Thanks for helping make this program more accessible to ALL our students! www.amazon.com/wedding/organize-registry Can you help with some of our student projects next year? This summer, please save: Shoeboxes, toilet paper rolls, magazines with nature pictures, and pine cones. You can drop these items off at the school ANY TIME! Thank you! Finally, the students have been having a blast watching the Live Cam websites. Here are the websites: explore.org/live-cams/player/shark-cam cams.allaboutbirds.org/ AS always, thank you for sharing your children with me, it's been an amazing year!!!! Cheers, Krista Brinchek Wow this year has flown by! First let's start with some updates and reminders...... Science Fair is scheduled for 5/4/17 6-8pm. This is a GREAT opportunity for your 2nd-5th grader to put the scientific method to use! ALL grades are welcome to attend, we will have K & 1st display of the April
Hello Abbotts Creek Alligators! Lots of excitement in science class. I wanted to get the word out about the Water Tower Challenge that is open to 3rd, 4th and 5th graders! If you missed the information session held on 9/23 that is OK! Please go to the "Class Work" tab above for more details and the link to download the instruction packet and the link to register a team! This is an outside of school enrichment activity, but I will open my classroom up several mornings for teams to brainstorm and meet to discuss their projects. I will also provide teams with an engineers email so that they can send questions if they get stuck. Finally, please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions! Don't let the instruction packet scare you! I promise it is a FUN rewarding activity for the students!!!! [email protected]
Oh my goodness, where did summer go?
I can't believe we are almost headed back to school! Let's start with the summer updates: I hope you followed me on twitter and facebook this summer and saw all the great learning that took place in San Diego! I was fortunate enough to be chosen to head to San Diego this past summer for a week long Sustainability Workshop. It was awesome connecting with educators from all around the world! I learned some great new things that I can't wait to bring back to Abbotts Creek! Our Bluebird Nest Box near the track was hopping this summer! Another pair of Bluebirds moved in after we all left for the summer and three more little birds hatched and fledged! This has been a VERY successful Nest Box especially for it's first year! With all the successful broods, I have decided to look into and get pricing for a nest cam which would allow our students to get a more intimate look into the secret world of the Bluebirds! I plan on creating a Donors Choose project soon! Please keep checking my website for more details under "Volunteer" tab. A Big THANK YOU to all the families that helped water our Monarch Waystation (Butterfly Garden) this summer! The garden is looking great! We did have some plant loss as expected with the heat of the summer, and will be looking to replace/add more plants this fall and into the spring. We will also be looking at additional aphid control for the spring. The milkweed and butterfly plants were infested with the aphids and our newly established garden just didn't have enough beneficial bugs (ladybugs/praying mantids) to keep the aphids under control. One option we will be exploring will be to hatch and release praying mantids into our garden. Our School Yard has been Certified as a Wildlife Habitat Site by the National Wildlife Foundation! Our great work creating a Butterfly Garden, adding Nest Boxes & Toad Abodes, and the natural beauty of our school campus has allowed us to become certified! It is GREAT that we can take learning outside and utilize our entire campus as a classroom! Back to School News! I think the biggest news is that I will be teaching K-5th grade this year! Yay! I can't wait to meet all of my students! Whether you are new to Abbotts, just starting Kindergarten, or an old friend please stop by my room during Meet the Teacher to see some of the great stuff we will be doing in class and see how you can help grow our program! Do you like space? Our new Citizen Science Program that we are adding is growing tomatoes from seeds that were aboard the International Space Station! The data we collect will help scientists working on finding ways to allow humans to stay in space for a longer duration! I'm VERY excited to share this program with our students! Other Citizen Science programs that we will be continuing this year include our CoCoRaHS Program, Nest Monitoring Program, Shad in the Classroom partnership with the Natural Science Museum, and helping NCSU Turtle Rescue Team! Science is most meaningful when it is authentic. Worm Wednesday will be returning to ACE after Labor Day! I know the kids look forward to helping feed our vermicomposting worms lunch leftovers! I was able to harvest the compost this summer which we will be using to help grow our "Space Tomatoes"! We are SUSTAINABLE at Abbotts Creek!!!! Please don't forget to check out the "Volunteer" tab on my website to see opportunities to help grow our program! Also check out the "Class Work" tab to see upcoming science class projects and opportunities! Are you following us on twitter? Facebook? Stay up to date with what we are working on in class by "liking" us! Once again, thank you for giving me the opportunity to teach your kids. They are AMAZING future scientists & engineers! Cheers, Mrs. Brinchek The school year might be winding down, but we have been VERY busy in Science Class!
Shad In The Classroom Fifth grade did an amazing job with the Shad in the Classroom program! Students learned about the American Shad, brainstormed why their population declined, and thought about ways we could help. They practiced using pipettes and taking water quality measurements before our eggs arrived. Our eggs were delivered on April 25th and the excitement was uncontrollable! Students did a fantastic job removing dead eggs with their pipettes and determining if our water quality tests fell within the correct range to keep our eggs and Fry (baby fish) healthy! The first time we saw an egg hatch brought a flurry of OO's and Ahh's! We wrapped up the week with a field trip to the Neuse River to release the Fry. We wished our little Shad the best, some even named their Fry as they sent them on their way, hoping that one day they would return to the Neuse River to lay eggs. As part of the Shad in the Classroom Program, one fifth grade class had the opportunity to dissect a fish with an NCSU graduate student! Students jumped right in with their tools! We are extremely thankful to the Natural Science Museum for including us in this amazing program, and we look forward to many more years of helping the American Shad Restoration Program. Sea Turtle Skype 3rd and 4th grade have been researching in Media & Science all about Sea Turtles and why their populations have declined over the years. What have we concluded? Human Impact plays a large role in the decline. What is the positive? Helpful Humans like the Turtle Hospital in the FL Keys and other conservationists are doing everything they can to help Sea Turtle populations. We have been fortunate that The Turtle Hospital as part of their educational outreach has been able to Skype with us, creating an authentic learning experience for our students! They have been able to see different species of Sea Turtles at the Hospital, learn about different injuries they are facing due to human impact and ways they are being rehabilitated. Students have also had opportunities to ask the Marine Biologist conducting the skype sessions thoughtful questions. Rehab Turtles Hot Sauce & Scarlet O'Hara A little bit sad, but a little bit glad. That's how we are all feeling about Hot Sauce our very special rehab Box Turtle. Hot Sauce went for his final check up at NCSU Turtle Rescue Team on 5/15. He will be staying at NCSU until he gets one final check up by an eye specialist and then hopefully he will be released on 5/19 back into the wild. If all goes well he will be included in an NCSU turtle tracking program once released and we will be receiving updates on his well being and whereabouts! Scarlet O'Hara our new painted turtle also went in for a check up where the veterinarian removed some dead skin and flushed out her wounds. She will be back at ACE this week and hopefully moving into Hot Sauce's old aquarium (of course the habitat will change from land to aquatic). Having two different turtles to learn about has given us a wonderful opportunity to include many science concepts connecting to our turtles. We have looked at similarities and differences between the species, food webs, habitats and many other concepts! Monarch Waystation Monarch Waystations! We are very fortunate that Monarch Watch has donated to us a flat of Milkweed plants to start our own Monarch Waystation at ACE! Milkweed plants are the only plants that Monarchs can lay their eggs on making them critical for increasing Monarch populations. Our Monarch Waystation will include Milkweed plants an various nectar plants (donated by AWESOME ACE families) providing food for Monarchs as well as many other pollinators! We are also including host plants for our native Black Swallowtail Butterfly. Our new garden will not only help our pollinators, but offer our students an authentic learning experience for many concepts taught as part of the NC Essential Science and Next Generation Science Standards. Green Boot Camp Finally, I wanted to share with everyone that I have been selected to participate in a week long program through Honeywell Educator's for Excellence Green Boot Camp! I will be spending the week in San Diego CA learning all about incorporating sustainability concepts in the classroom. I can't wait to bring back new ideas to our school! Please check out my Facebook Page (Mrs. Brinchek Science) and my twitter account (@Brinchekscience) for updates while I'm out there! As always, please don't hesitate to email me with questions or ideas! Sincerely- Mrs. Brinchek _WOW what a busy month it has been! There has been A LOT of science going on! A big thank you to everyone who helped make the Science Fair a BIG SUCCESS! Our future ACE Scientists and Engineers did a fantastic job presenting their projects to our expert judges! Other exciting moments of the Science Fair included the Kindergarten & 1st grade Challenge Table, South East HS Robotics Team with their robot throwing Frisbees, the awesome green screen Photo Booth where students could pick their special background to remember this awesome night, Raleigh Astronomy Club with their telescope, Wake County Recycling, NCSU Turtle Rescue Team with their special turtle guests, and Durant Nature Preserve with tadpoles, and frogs! It was a night to remember! If you missed it, no worries we are already thinking about NEXT YEARS event and how to make it even better!
Big Sweep Clean Up 4/23 9-11:30! Come join families and staff of Abbotts Creek ES on Saturday April 23rd 9am-11:30am (Day after Earth Day!) to help protect our watershed by cleaning up litter along the Falls Lake Trail! Please dress for the weather, wear sturdy shoes, and bring a pair of gloves if you can! Trash bags, data cards, volunteer certificates, and a few thank you PRIZES will be provided thanks to the Wake County Soil and Water Conservation. We will tally what type of trash and recyclables we collect to submit to the National Big Sweep organization and will also try to use that data in our OWN watershed studies! *** Please meet at the Falls Lake Trail on Raven Ridge Rd at 9am for safety meeting and instructions. **** Volunteers also needed to help bring trash & recycle bags to the convenience center on Durant Rd. (Trucks preferred). Let us know you are coming!! http://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080944abab22a20-abbotts Hot Sauce Update! As many of you may have heard, our special rehab turtle Hot Sauce went for his check up over spring break. The NCSU Turtle Rescue Team was very pleased with how well he has healed and how healthy he is! They have decided to place Hot Sauce in a special tracking program that will start in early May. We will be getting updates with electronic maps showing where Hot Sauce is traveling to within his habitat! The kids are excited! Since we have done such a great job helping Hot Sauce, they have decided to give us another injured turtle to help rehab until the end of the school year! ACE Science welcomes Scarlet O'Hara to our classroom! Scarlet O'Hara is an aquatic Painted Turtle. She was hit by a car early spring and her shell needs time to heal. Thanks to all the families who made and donated Bluebird boxes, and help fund the mounting poles! Our boxes were only up for a week and we already had a pair of Bluebirds move in! Real Estate moves quickly on the ACE Campus! K-3rd grade were able to be part of Cornell Lab of Ornithology Nest Watch Program and see up close the Life Cycle of our Bluebirds! I don't think there was one child who did NOT smile when they saw the baby Bluebirds up close. These were very special moments for all of us! How much trash do we make at Abbotts Creek in 1 yr? Approximately 1,260 bags worth! K-3rd are learning about our waste stream, and brainstorming ways we can reduce the amount of trash sent to the landfill. They have been coming up with some amazing ideas! Don't be surprised if they start asking you to pack their lunches in containers instead of ziplock bags! We are also learning how we are helping keep food waste out of the waste stream by feeding our vermicomposting worms every Wednesday left over fruits & veggies from our lunches. Students have been able to look at our worms up close under our special computer microscope, and learn how healthy our worm bin is! We even got to see worm cocoons! 2nd grade learned all about the worm life cycle and how different it is from other organisms. Thankfully we have been able to find every stage in our worm bin! 5th grade has begun our Shad in the Classroom Program! They have been learning about this special restoration program that we are part of and practicing counting/moving fish eggs (pearled couscous) in petri dishes. We are learning about water quality, how important it is for sustaining life and taking our own water quality readings of our recirculating tank. Students are measuring pH, Alkalinity, Ammonia levels and Water Hardness levels on a daily basis! Our eggs are coming 4/25 and we will be releasing the Frye into the Neuse River on 4/29! WE are all VERY EXCITED!!!! |
AuthorMrs. Brinchek is the Science Specialist Teacher at Abbotts Creek Elementary School in Wake County NC Archives
November 2018
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