Manoa Mountains News for April 17, 2008
The Manoa Mountains would like to thank Mr. John Clark for taking them on an exciting and interesting tour of the Manoa ahupua'a, with stops at the Manoa Chinese Cemetery, Koganji Temple, the lo'i at the UH Hawaiian Studies site, Waikiki Beach, and the catamaran ride. We had a fun-filled day and learned a lot! Mr. Clark's expertise is appreciated by the Manoa Mountains because he taught them so many facts about Manoa Valley. They will be working on their slide shows about what they learned.
The Polynesian Cultural Center was a fascinating place to visit. The Manoa Mountains learned a lot about Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, Fiji, and Aotearoa. They played games and musical instruments, got tattoos, and watched the Pageant of Canoes. It was a culturally enriching experience.
The class would like to thank Mr. Peter Kaneshige for donating 15 pounds of ahi poke for our luau last Friday evening. It made the dinner complete! Mahalo, Mr, Kaneshige, for your thoughtfulness and generosity!
Our next project is due on Monday. It is a book report with a two-minute speech and a visual aid about the book. We are looking forward to some very creative presentations! Parents are invited to join us, and grandparents may also come for the project presentations! Everyone may park in Wilcox Circle for the 10:00 AM presentations.
We will be doing SAT testing all next week, so it is extremely important for the Manoa Mountains to be adequately prepared every day. The fourth graders will be taking the abbreviated-battery multiple-choice tests in reading comprehension, spelling, language usage, vocabulary, and mathematics problem-solving and procedures. They will also be taking the open-ended tests in reading, writing, and mathematics. The open-ended tests focus on the processes for reading, writing, and problem-solving. Students will be evaluated on a standard set of performance criteria. For example, students will have 50 minutes to write on a given topic. In mathematics,students will have 50 minutes to work on ten word problems which incorporate the national mathematics standards. For reading, students read a text and respond in writing to several questions of increasing complexity, from stating the main idea to making inferences. The tests are norm-referenced standardized tests, which means that your child's score is compared with the scores of thousands of other students in the same grade who took the SAT at the same time of the year across the nation. We usually receive the results in the summer. We will send home the test results, along with information on how to interpret the scores.
You can help your child be ready for test-taking in the following ways:
* Make sure your child gets to bed at a reasonable time.
* Provide a good healthy breakfast and snack.
* Get your child to school by 7:30 AM so he/she has time to settle in.
* AVOID asking every day, "So, how'd you do? " "Was it hard?" "Did you finish everything?" Your child will not really know. When you ask these questions, you want some reassurances. Instead, your questioning will cause unnecessary stress on you AND your child.
* Your child has already been working on test-prep materials in school and is well prepared to take this test. Making your child do more test-prep booklets and worksheets at this point will only stress them out,
* Remember that this is supposed to be fun.
* Assure your child that you love them and are proud of them regardless of the results.
The Manoa Mountains third graders will work on test-prep materials with me while the fourth graders take the test with Mrs. Holzman.
Yesterday we celebrated SC's birthday with a lunch of pizza, fruits, and drinks. Many thanks to Mrs. Chung and SC for this special treat!
Posted on April 17, 2008 6:19 AM | Permalink
