Hawaiian Stars News: April 12, 2007
The Hawaiian Stars are working very hard on their Keynote slide shows about the Big Island trip. They are helping each other to learn the features of the program, and many have imported photos into the body of their presentations already. We should be ready to share them in a few weeks.
Today we are off to the Bishop Museum to learn aboiut the Polynesians and how they populated the Hawaiian Islands. We will learn about the resources they introduced to the islands and how their lives developed in a new location. We will learn about the natural and introduced resources they used on a daily basis.
Our daily writing involves working with the vocabulary words from Wordly Wise and writing sentences which are meaningful and reflect our understanding of the meanings of the words. Most have completed seven or eight lessons already.
Our regular Writer's Workshop stories are being written every day and we have many interesting new ones to share. Personal experiences are always meaningful topics, and these children have many rich adventures to write about. Their attention to details has improved greatly; the stories have better clarity and meaning.
Our reading is progressing nicely, and most did an outstanding job on their last book report presentations. We had a majority of five-star presentations on Monday. Everyone has grown as a presenter, and their confidence level has improved with each project.
We are currently working on the Math Adventure planning sheets for the final project. They are due on Friday. Our daily math continues to challenge us with an emphasis on story problems which apply the math skills needed for test-taking. The fourth graders will be taking the SAT at the end of the month, so we're gearing up for that. The third graders have completed their handwriting books, and almost everyone has completely corrected their Test Achiever books. We will continue to work on practice test exercises.
May Day is coming soon, and the Hawaiian Stars are very busy learning the music for their performances. Each child is being asked to bring in plumerias, which will be strung into leis. The students already know what they're supposed to wear for the program. Please read the notice about the plumerias that went home today.
We will begin our final fundraiser for this school year on Monday. It is a collection of cash and checks for the "Pennies for Patients" program. Each class will decorate their collection box. The class with the most creative box will win a pizza party. The class that brings in the highest dollar amount in contributions to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society will also win a pizza party. Please read the flyer about this very important fundraiser.
Posted on April 12, 2007 7:03 AM | Permalink