ACCEL Rube Goldberg Machines/Máquinas Rube Goldberg del grupo ACCEL

Our ACCEL students are involved in a multi-week, multi-grade project to build Rube Goldberg machines. Each team has five or six members, and their goal is to put a ball in a cup. They drew plans first, and now they have begun to build the machines. We can't wait to see what the finished products look like, but in the meantime we got some inspiration from the video below. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! If you want to try your hand at fixing a Rube Goldberg machine online, PBS Kids has one here.

Nuestros alumnos del programa ACCEL están trabajando en grupos para crear máquinas Rube Goldberg. Cada grupo tiene cinco o seis miembros de varias edades, y su meta es poner una pelota en un vaso. Hicieron sus planes primero, y ahora han empezado a fabricar sus máquinas. Estamos ansiosos por ver los productos finales, pero por ahora recibimos inspiración y buenas ideas del video de abajo. ¡OJO! ¡NO INTENTEN ESTO EN CASA! Si quieren reparar una máquina Rube Goldberg en línea, el sitio de PBS Kids tiene una aquí.

The Big Snow/La gran nevada

Well, I hope all of you are enjoying your day off from school and have had a chance to get out in the snow and play a little. As soon as I got home yesterday, we built a snowman in our front yard. Let me know about the fun things that you have done over these past two days of winter weather.

Bueno, espero que todos ustedes estén disfrutando de su día de vacaciones y que hayan tenido la oportunidad de salir a jugar en la nieve un rato. Tan pronto que llegué a casa ayer, construimos un muñeco de nieve en el patio. Escríbanme un poco sobre las cosas divertidas que han hecho durante estos dos días de nieve.

MISD Turns 100!/¡MISD cumple 100 años!

Did you know that this year Mansfield Independent School District (MISD) turns 100? On February 4, we're going to celebrate the big occasion with a giant timeline that takes a look at how things have changed over the last century and how they might look in the future. We're going to research areas such as fashion, food, books, technology, and history to include in our timeline. Below are some links to give you some more information.

¿Sabías que este año el Distrito Independiente Escolar de Mansfield (MISD) cumple 100 años? El 4 de febrero, vamos a celebrar el evento con una línea cronológica enorme que muestra cómo ha cambiado la vida durante el siglo pasado y cómo podría ser en el futuro. Investigaremos temas como la moda, la comida, la literatura, la tecnología y la historia para incluir en nuestra línea cronológica. Abajo hay unos enlaces donde puedes buscar más información.

Fashion/Moda
http://drake.marin.k12.ca.us/students/gallaghj/fashion/fash_thru_decade.html

Food/Comida
http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecades.html

Thanksgiving/Día de Acción de Gracias

As Thanksgiving approaches next week, I just want to let all of my students, past and present, know how thankful I am for each of you. There are so many things I have to be thankful for: my job, my wife and children, my family, our country, and much more. I hope that each of you enjoys the week off. If you have a minute, I'd like to know what you are thankful for this year.

Ya que el Día de Acción de Gracias se aproxima, aprovecho de esta oportunidad para decirles a todos mis alumnos, tanto los de años pasados como los actuales, que doy gracias por cada uno de ustedes. Tengo tanto de qué dar gracias: mi trabajo, mi esposa y mis hijos, mi familia, nuestro país y mucho más. Espero que todos disfruten de la semana libre. Si tienen un minuto libre, me gustaría saber de qué dan gracias este año.

Create Your Own Cartoon! / ¡Crea tu propio dibujo animado!

I just learned about a really cool website that allows you to make your own cartoon. You will DEFINITELY want your parents to help you out, because there are also cartoons made by other people that your parents might not want you to see. It is a lot of fun, though, and who knows? Your mom or dad just might have an idea that makes your cartoon even better! Enjoy this little joke of mine as we start the school year, and have fun!

Acabo de enterarme de un sitio super chévere que te permite crear tu propio dibujo animado. Tus padres DEFINITIVAMENTE tendrán que ayudarte, porque en el sitio hay ejemplos hechos por otras personas que a lo mejor tus padres no querrán que veas. Sin embargo, es muy divertido, y ¿quién sabe? ¡Tu mamá o papá podría tener justo la idea que hace que tu dibujo animado sea aun más genial! ¡Ahora disfruta de este pequeño chiste mío para comenzar el año lectivo!

GoAnimate.com: Adventures in Fourth Grade by MrButler


Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Welcome to the New School Year! / ¡Bienvenidos al nuevo año lectivo!

Welcome to the beginning of another school year, one that I hope will be very successful for all of my students. I hope that you are all ready to work hard, learn a lot, and perhaps even have a little fun as well. This has been a busy summer for my family. In June, my wife, my two children, my brother, and my mother-in-law all had birthdays. It was certainly a month full of parties. In July, I spent nearly the entire month in Spain taking a class at the University of Alcalá, near Madrid. My classmates and I learned a lot and visited some fascinating places, such as Segovia, Toledo, and El Escorial. Check out the slideshow below if you want to see some of my pictures from the trip. It was a delightful experience, but I really missed my family, and I was glad to get back to Texas after spending three weeks in another country. It's August now, and I have been thinking a lot about what needs to get done to prepare for the new school year. I am sure that all of you had an interesting vacation as well. I would love to read about your summer adventures to get to know you better.

Bienvenidos al comienzo de otro año lectivo, un año que espero que será de mucho éxito para todos mis alumnos. Ojalá que todos estén listos para trabajar duro, aprender mucho y tal vez hasta divertirse un poco también. Este verano ha sido muy ocupado para mi familia. En junio, cumplieron años mi esposa, mis dos hijos, mi hermano y mi suegra. Definitivamente fue un mes de muchas fiestas. En julio, pasé casi todo el mes en España asistiendo a un curso en la Universidad de Alcalá, cerca de Madrid. Mis compañeros y yo aprendimos mucho y visitamos algunos sitios fascinantes, como Segovia, Toledo y El Escorial. Pueden ver la presentación abajo si quieren ver algunas fotos de mi viaje. Fue una experiencia muy agradable, pero extrañé mucho a mi familia, y me hizo muy contento regresar a Texas después de tres semanas en otro país. Ahora ya es agosto, y he estado pensando mucho en los preparativos para el nuevo año escolar. Seguramente ustedes pasaron unas vacaciones muy interesantes también. Me encantaría leer de sus aventuras de este verano para conocerles mejor.

GoAnimate.com: Spain 2009 by MrButler


Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Battle of the Books

Well, Mansfield Battle of the Books was today, and we took five teams to do their best at the competition. I'm glad we were able to have it at all, considering that it was canceled because of swine, er, I mean H1N1, flu concerns. This was only the second year that our school has participated in "BoB". Two of our teams made it into the second round, and one team, the Speed Readers, made it to the final round of five. They ended up finishing fourth out of 104 teams from throughout the district. Both years now we have sent at least one team to the final round. I am so proud of all of our students, and I'm sure we'll do even better next year! The book that seemed to give all of the teams difficulties was Shiloh. I don't know if it was the most difficult book, the least interesting one, or both, but nearly all of the questions that were missed came from that one. At least that gives us something to think about in terms of strategy for next year. Way to go, Erma Nash!