Fossil Fun for the First Floor

Did you know that the students in grades Kindergarten through fifth participate in a Science Enrichment program taught by Mrs. Mary Clare Levins, our middle school Science teacher?  One such enrichment session occurred during Catholic Schools Week for the children in Kindergarten through 2nd grade. 

During this session, and with the support of several 8th graders, the children visited three classroom science stations.  In the first station, the students reviewed the rock cycle and learned how fossils are formed.  Mrs. Levins provided many types of fossils for the children to touch.  Here they learned that fossils only form in one type of rock - sedimentary.  In the second station, the computer lab, the children learned from two interactive websites about the steps of fossil formation, and what would happen if a fossil tried forming in another type of substance, like at at the base of volcano.  They learned that the fossil wouldn’t be able to form because the rock was too hot.  Finally, in the last station they learned about other substances in which fossils can be found - amber, ice, and tar pits.   In the last station, Mrs. Levins showed the students how an animal would get stuck in a tar pit, die and then sink, turning into a fossil.  At each station, the children recorded all of their observations in their lab notebooks.  They took home a maze of a dinosaur escaping from a volcano as a preview of what they will be studying next - dinosaurs!

We also would like to congratulate 7th grader, John Owen Monsanto, winner of our Catholic Schools Week school-wide Spelling Bee!  See the Academy’s website for the winners of the Math and Geography Bees.

Registration is open for the SBA 5K Run/Walk on Saturday, March 22.  For all info and to register, please visit www.stbacademy.org or email Blanche Ryder, blancheryder@comcast.net.