CCSD news: Light up the Night, lifecycles, and lab work

CHURCHILL COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL

School to Careers Coordinator Sue Segura recently took a group of freshmen students to participate in Nevada Bound at the University of Nevada, Reno. Students visited and explored many career and college pathways as well as got a little taste of college life.

“The excitement from the students was truly amazing. Before we got off the bus, I told them they represent their school and our district and elected them to act like adults,” Segura said.

In addition to touring different pathways available at the college, students got to eat free in the student cafeteria and tour the dorm rooms. They were all very impressed and did not realize what UNR had to offer.

“The university was informative. It was very interesting to see what it is like on campus, and the food was great,” student Hadley Frey said.

Segura believes strongly in getting students involved in trips like these as soon as they enter high school.

“They need to have something to work for and look forward to,” she said. “Many of them do not even know what opportunities are available to them right here in Northern Nevada. Trips like these give students, especially freshmen, that extra push to help them realize the importance of high school.”

CHURCHILL COUNTY MIDDLE SCHOOL

Rebecca Hatch set up a makeshift camping lab to teach her sixth grade class about physical and chemical changes. Students are currently learning about the different changes in matter.

To visually understand physical change, the students cut pieces of celery to change a whole celery stick to a smaller bite-size piece. To visually understand chemical change, students mixed sugar, water, and lemonade to watch the sugar dissolve into the water.

“This lab was not only a great hands-on learning activity that really helped students further their understanding of the changes in matter, but it was also complete with snacks which students are always excited about,” Hatch said.

NUMA

Students in Vanessa Burch-Urquhart’s class raised rainbow trout from an egg to fry with the Trout in the Classroom program organized through the Nevada Department of Wildlife. Students learned about their life cycle, habitat, adaptations, and conservation, which tied perfectly into their Unit 4 science standards.

One of the class targets is knowing how internal and external structures help plants and animals survive, grow, behave, and reproduce.

“Raising trout in the classroom allows students to learn about all of these aspects, from fertilizing the eggs to the ideal habitat. Learning about a local species at the heart of their rearing in the fish hatchery is the perfect way for them to gain knowledge about science in their own state of Nevada,” Burch-Urquhart said.

Student Miya Richardson enjoyed watching the fish grow and seeing what they looked like.

“It was fun to observe each individual fish. I liked the tiger trout the best,” she said.

Releasing them into the wild is always bittersweet, but the students enjoyed learning about the whole process in person at the Mason Valley Fish Hatchery.

"It was super cool seeing the fish in the water flopping around and that we got to feed them," student Abbie Mathews said.

E.C. BEST

Students in Stacy Stults' third-grade class chose an influential person to learn about. They researched, took notes, and then wrote a report on their chosen person. Each student then taught their classmates about their person by presenting their report to the class.

The second semester of third grade focuses on reading and understanding non-fiction text features and structure. This project covers standards in ELA Unit 6 and Writing Unit three.

With only three months left of school, Stults’ third graders are working hard to make that transition from learning to read to reading to learn.

“It is important that they can read a non-fiction text and understand what they read and be able to locate the key details and information that they are looking for,” Stults said.

She believes students learn from the experiences of influential figures, especially when they face adversity or overcome hardships.

“Perseverance is an important word in my class, and biographies are ways to learn about people who have used it in their lifetimes,” Stults said.

Henry Ford, Cady Stanton, Jackie Robinson, Amelia Earhart, Neild Armstrong, Rosa Parks, the Wright brothers, and Harriet Tubman were among a few of the influential people students chose to highlight for this class project.

LAHONTAN

Lahontan Elementary School held a Light up the Night Family Event featuring literacy and math activities that glowed throughout the school. The event was in conjunction with the spring book fair.

Teachers partnered together and provided glow-in-dark activities for families to enjoy. Games included glow subtraction bowling, glow read and write the room, glow race to fill the cup, glow counting with pipe cleaners and beads, glow sensory writing in rice, glow Tic-Tac-Toe, glow hopscotch, glow-write to 100 and glow-write through the alphabet.

Families had passports stamped when they attended each activity. Once they completed five, students earned a finger flashlight they could use at home to read their newly purchased books from the book fair.

At the beginning of each school year, librarian Megan Smith, reading specialist Katy Loop, and principal Kimi Melendy brainstorm different family night themes and activities.

“Our goal each year is to strategize and think of different ways we can engage families with activities that can easily be implemented at home to support learning,” Melendy said.

NORTHSIDE EARLY LEARNING CENTER

Octavia Merritt’s class tasted the rainbow last week to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and allow students to taste different fruits.

“This allowed my students to explore their taste buds and understand that not everyone has the same taste buds. Someone may really enjoy something while another person is not crazy about it,” Merritt said.

The class also talked about how healthy fruit is for their bodies and took note of the different colors.

“It was a great way to learn and have a tasty treat from Mr. Leprechaun, who we almost trapped, but he got away. It was definitely a fun morning in Pre-K,” Merritt said.