TTE opens its doors to the community to showcase student talents
By Lynne Marsala Basche; photos courtesy of Anna Mallinson
On January 17, Timber Trail Elementary (TTE) opened its doors to family, friends and the community for a showcase to highlight what the students have been doing the first half of the year. The event was a school-wide opportunity for students to display and present their project based learning (PBL) creations.
Through PBL, students are taught to learn and recognize information that they can take from the classroom and use in real life, and all grades participated in the open house. Projects included kindergarten classes explaining how the sun influences the temperature on Earth due to the Earth’s rotation, first-graders chilling out with reading, second-graders inviting guests to participate in class “Minute to Win It” games and seeing force in motion in action, third-graders exploring their “Lean on Me” unit and fourth-graders investigating animal adaptations through an invented species.
The fifth-graders completed their PBL unit, We Can Change the World, and learned about the global impact of trash and making a difference. The students took recycled items and upcycled them into works of art, which were then auctioned off at the showcase. These pieces of trash-to-treasure art raised more than $1,040 for three charities, The Washed Ashore project, Stand for Trees and The Ocean Cleanup Project.
“We were happy to see so many people at our showcase evening,” said Principal Michele Radke. “We have this event so that students can share with their families what they have been learning about during the first semester. The open house format allows families to visit all the classrooms and also to visit with the Specials teachers, who they don’t normally visit with. Parents appreciated the hands-on and interactive activities.”
