Manoa Mountains News for November 1, 2007

The Manoa Mountains did a wonderful job on their book report presentations on Monday. Everyone spoke clearly, memorized their speeches, and had creative visual aids. The dioramas, mobiles, posters, games, and puppet theater with puppets were very effective in communicating the visual messages of the students. The majority received 5 stars from the class, and the rest have set the goal to create a five-star project for next time. Many thanks to all the parents and grandparents who joined us for the presentations.

Halloween "Spooktivity" was exciting and fun for the Manoa Mountains. Everyone had creative costumes, and many students shared treats with their classmates.  Many thanks to the Chungs, Yamashiros, Kaichis, Shidelers, Kaitas, and Kaneshiges for the delicious goodies. The entertainment by the high school orchestra and the Holomua Club students added to the fun. Of course, the highlights were the parade and trick-or-treating in Spooktivity Town. The students decorated their trick-or-treat bags on Monday, so they were prepared for all the goodies that they collected.

Our field trip to Foster Garden this Friday will provide an opportunity for the class to sketch the special plant, which we are all excited to see. Miss Brooks will guide them through this activity so that they can do their best drawings. We leave school at 9:00 AM and return around 10:30 AM. It should be an interesting excursion for all the 3/4 multiage classes!

On Monday, our class will visit the Manoa Heritage Center from 8:45 - 9:45 AM to learn about the history of Manoa and gather information about Manoa Valley. Two of the classes have gone already, and their teachers said that it was an informative and enjoyable field trip.

On Tuesday, we embark on our tour of Manoa Stream at 8:00 AM. We will begin at Lyon Arboretum and proceed to Manoa School, Kaimuki High School, McCully Bridge, and Magic Island.  We will be looking for changes to the natural stream environment that have been caused by human impact. We hope to learn more about Manoa Stream as we follow its path from the source to the mouth of the stream. We should return to school around 9:45 AM.

Our next project will be a Math Adventure.  It will be due on November 19th, so we will all need to get approval for our Math Adventure planning sheets by next Friday. Then we can work on our speeches and posters.

We shared our Halloween stories and poems yesterday. It was fun to hear so many entertaining stories and poems. We will continue to write more creative pieces during Writer's Workshop.

Our math is moving along, and the third graders brought Unit 2 home this past week. We are actively working on Unit 3 and enjoying the challenge of the numerous story problems to test our skills. Working with partners makes the work more enjoyable and easier to understand.

Reading Log entries continue to be well done. Most of the students have completed all the response choices and are making new choices each week. The summaries are getting better with more specific details and descriptions.

Posted on November 1, 2007 6:12 AM | Permalink