Studying Heroes by Benji B

We are studying heroes this year. Each person in our class chose one attribute of a hero. Here are a couple of the attributes that some of the people in our class studied: BRAVE, OPTIMISTIC and COURAGEOUS.

Also we explored heroes on myhero.com

We read stories about amazing people.  I watched a film about Nelson Mandela. He is amazing.  He fought for the rights of others, even after being in jail for 27 years.  He has attributes like patience, strength and determination.  He was a great leader and example for his country and our class.

Thank- you By Caroline S.

Caroline S.

This year our class worked on thank you notes to objects. Here is an example:

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear people that sing in the hallways in front of our classroom,

Thank you for letting me realize how annoying it is, so I don’t do it to other people. Now I know what distraction is…

Yours truly,

Caroline

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Our inspiration was Leah Dieterich who made a book filled with all her thank you’s called “thx thx thx thank goodness for everything”. It helped us practice gratitude and consider things about our school we appreciate.

We thought of things like the glue guns of the bay art, the library, baby chicks, geese that poop on the lower field, silver shiny laptops, gardens, the fruit stand by MP1, the mile run on a hot day, art, the upper field and blacktop, our beautiful campus, and Ring Mountain. Come by and see them posted in our classroom. THX!

Peter Menzel by Tess

In our Global Studies unit, we (room 20) have been talking and doing a lot of things around the subject of poverty.  We began the unit looking at Peter Menzel’s pictures. We saw images of what the world eats in a week and also what people around the world use in their homes (materials). We got to see data like obesity rates and poverty lines in places other than the US. It was cool to see that some family’s most valued thing was a beat up old TV, when we have modern flat screen TVs that we think are cool but are not our favorite things. We watched a film about Peter Menzel’s travels and how he works. It was interesting to see how poverty rates, obesity, and age varied from country to country.

We wonder if some of the families that don’t have a lot of stuff are happier then families with a lot of stuff? We were able to have a good conversation about want vs. need. Some of the Qualities of life we think are most important are health care, clean water, clean air, family and friends, an out door place to run around, and food.  Every human being deserves to have their needs met and to have clean water, healthy food, school, healthcare and someone to love them.

by Tess

by Tess

Stolen Laptops by Lily T.

The weekend of October 15, thieves squeezed their car through the gate in the carpool circle. Somehow they got their car up to the Upper School. For some reason the thieves picked our classroom to break into. They used some sort of ax to get in. They managed to pull the laptop cart all the way into their car. Do you know how heavy the cart was with 20 laptops inside? 468 pounds! Can you believe it? The police investigated and found out they broke in between 12:30 am to 6:00 am. The police still are on the case but have been noticing patterns from other schools who have also been robbed. We all hope the police catch the thieves so we can get our computers back but we are glad nobody got hurt.    Here are some pictures of the evidence. 

Chuck fixing the door.

1st grade buddies by Alec

A couple weeks ago we got our first grade buddies! This was new to us because it was finally the first year we were the older buddies. We started off with an activity where a first grader chose a book and the fifth grader read it to them. Most of us read one or two books or one and a chapter of something that was around 100 pages. After that we got some time to do free choice! It’s a period where you can play anything in the classroom.

Our next visit involved naming our school chicks. Everybody thought of a name and we did a vote (I think the winner was Oreo because it was black and white). After that we got some time to go outside to play around. Some of us played soccer, some played tag and others played in the sandbox. Our third visit we paired up and thought of some super hero’s. We made up our own and gave them powers that could save people. Some of us got carried away and made fighting powers but some stayed on track to make stuff like strength to pick up trees. The next visit (our fourth) we found board games to play. I played Guess Who™ and Candyland™. We have not gone back but I can’t wait to and the next time and this time we get our own buddies! 

Concrete Poems by Sophie N.

At the very beginning of the year we made something called a concrete poem. A concrete poem is a poem, which is conveyed partly or wholly by a picture with words surrounding it. Here are some examples that some people in our class made. It was neat to see what others created.

Photos taken by Sophie

Photosynthesis By Owen

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Photosynthesis

In Science for our first mini-unit in ecosystems we studied Photosynthesis.

Parts of plants used to photosynthesize are

• Chloroplast 

(See photo)

• Chlorophyll ( Also shown in photo, the little green things inside)

• Stomata

• Xylem

The actual scientific equation is 6Co2+12H2O=C6H12O6+6o2+6H2o=1 molecule of glucose, which is a sweet sugary substance. The stomata is in charge of taking in Co2 from the atmosphere. The xylem is a tube at the base of the leaf that makes water flow to the chloropyll in the chloroplast. The chlorophyll is the part of the leaf that mixes all the ingredients. It also absorbs sunlight energy to break appart elements and reconfigure them. As a result you get glucose which is the building block for plant growth.