Our vocabulary-word parade and upcoming field trips

Wow!  I wish everyone could have seen our class today as we presented our vocabulary parade to the entire elementary school during our all-school assembly.  Our class did a wonderful job of creating original costumes based on some of the favorite vocabulary words that they learned this year.  The costumes and ideas that they came up with are truly inspiring.  Here's what we featured in our parade today:  extraterrestrials flying in their spaceship; a three-headed mutant complete with feathers; a superstitious girl who broke a mirror with a baseball and feared seven years of bad luck; a controversial discussion about whether or not school uniforms should be required; an astronomer who showed her love of the stars and the planets; a cathedral with stained glass windows;  a collection of miscellaneous objects; a citadel that featured two strong soldiers; and a tree so hollow a person could fit inside it.  We are certain that these students will remember these words for years to come!  Please check out the gallery for pictures from our vocabulary parade.

As November quickly approaches, we find ourselves extremely busy.  Here is a list of our upcoming field trips and events:

• Saturday, 10/27/07. Admissions Open House! 4th graders sign permission slip if they want to be tour guides. 

 

• Wednesday, 10/31/07. Halloween!  Spooktivity!

• Friday, 11/2/07. Foster Garden! 9:00-11:15 a.m.  We are going to visit the Talipot tree, which is very rare and only flowers once in its lifetime (now).  Ms. Brooks will be joining us to work with the children on their paintings.

• Tuesday, 11/6/07. Manoa Stream Tour! 10:00-11:30 a.m.  As further study of our Ahupua`a, we will be following Manoa Stream from the uka (mountains) to the kai (sea).  We will be making four stops along the way to sketch and record our observations.

• Wednesday, 11/7/07. Manoa Heritage Center! 8:45 -10:15 a.m. We are going to visit the Heritage Center as an introduction to our study of the Ahupua`a of Manoa.

• Monday, 11/12/07. Veterans Day!  No School.

• Wednesday, 11/14/07. Graham Salisbury Visit!  Graham Salisbury is the author of Under the Blood Red Sun, our current mo`olelo book.

• Friday, 11/16/07.  Honolulu Theatre for Youth's Obake at Tenney Theatre! 9:15 - 11:00 a.m.
  

As you can tell, we have a busy couple of weeks ahead.  We will be needing some chaperones for some of the field trips.  If you are interested, please contact me at 441-3817, or via e-mail at llorenzana@midpac.edu.

Posted at 10:04 AM| Permalink

Special storytellers and a vocabulary parade

I can't believe that the week is almost over!  Time really does fly when we are busy and having a good time.  This past Tuesday, we had a special guest speaker, Mrs. Lyn Ford.  Mrs. Ford comes from a long line of storytellers, and we were fortunate enough to have her share a few stories with us.  She started off by telling us a story about one of the first stories she ever told.  She was three years old, and she really wanted to play outside.  Since her mother wouldn't let her, she decided to play inside instead.  When her mother heard a crash, she found the young Lyn Ford and a broken lamp in their living room.  Mrs. Ford went on to tell us how at age 3 she created a story that both included characters (herself and a cat, even though they didn't own a cat) and had a distinct beginning, middle, and end. She told us that even though she did not recall that story on her own, she was able to tell the story because her mother had told it to her.  She just filled in the blanks to make it whole.  Mrs. Ford provided us with inspiration for learning stories about our own past.  This is the reason your children have been asking you to tell them stories about when they were young.  We will be taking these memories and creating our own fictional stories. 

This week we finished our recycling presentations.  Each group presented to either kindergartners or first graders.  This is also the week that our class is responsible for organizing the recycling bins.  Each Wednesday and Friday, a 3/4 class is responsible for collecting the recyclable items from the bins found across the elementary school campus and making sure that they are ready to be picked up to be recycled.  This includes rinsing out the bottles and/or cans and sorting them into the proper containers.  This is a great responsibility for our students, but one that they know will benefit everyone.

This year, to celebrate Halloween and our love of new vocabulary words, we will be holding a vocabulary parade.  Each student will choose a vocabulary word, either one from their notebook or a new word, and create a costume to illustrate the word.  Some examples that we talked about in class were dressing up in sunglasses, a hat, and a trench coat to illustrate the word "inconspicuous."  We will be parading in our costumes during the next elementary school assembly on Thursday, October 25.  We will be working on our costumes in class, but students may be asking to bring in items from home.  I am encouraging students to use items that they already have and to make items instead of buying them.  This is their chance to show off their creativity and imagination! 

Here is this week's newsletter from the class reporters:
3_4 News MH & SR 10_18.pdf

Posted at 10:13 AM| Permalink

Literature circles

Do you know what a "frindle" is?  Don't be surprised if your child soon asks you that question.  This week we started literature circles.  Literature circles provide students with the opportunity to discuss books. Literature circles are similar to the popular book clubs that many adults enjoy.  Our first book, Frindle, by Andrew Clements, focuses on the life of Nick Allen, a fifth grade student whom some consider a troublemaker.  Nick often comes up with ingenious schemes to make things more interesting at school, like turn a classroom into a tropical beach or make bird sounds in class.  Then Nick gets an idea for a new plan.  He wonders, "Why does a pen need to be called a pen?  Why can't he call it a frindle?"  We're not very far in our book yet, but we are excited to see what happens.  Every night we read assigned pages from the book.  That way we are all at the same part of the book and can have discussions about what we have read so far.  We will also be completing various projects during literature circles.

We also just started a new mo`olelo book, Under the Blood Red Sun, by Graham Salisbury.  This book is set in World War II Hawai`i, around the time of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  It focuses on the life of Tomikazu, a Japanese boy born in Hawaii whose parents were born in Japan.  This book is a wonderful choice for students to read because the story is set in the place where we live.  It's quite fascinating to read a book and have the characters reference familiar places like Kaka`ako and Queen Street.  The book is a little mature for the students; we are reading it together so that we can discuss the content.. 

Posted at 10:16 AM| Permalink