P.E

Physical Education
In Physical Education also know as PE to the kids in my school is very tiring yet one of the most loved specials in school. We have PE on Tuesday and Thursday. Our PE teacher Mrs. Amendalia says “Think of it as the two T’s.” One rule of hers is “if you don’t have sneakers then you don’t participate in Physical Education”. A few games we play in PE are The Legend of Joshua Eaton, coconut cove and more. Some thing I wouldn’t say is a game is passer which is when we run from one side of the gym to another and we see how many times we can do it for. One game every one loves doing is when we try and knock each other’s pins down there are no teams its every man or women for them self. This is what we do in gym class defiantly one of the school’s favorite subjects.

DL

ART

In art we create a lot of beautiful pieces. The project we are working on now is dot paintings. A dot painting is a painting modeled after an animal, you use dots to fill in the background or inside of the animal’s body. These animal’s come from the Aboriginal people. The Aboriginal people come from Australia. They design patterns to represent their people and beliefs. They also use bright colors to represent the earth and the sun. These are the steps you would need to follow:
Pick an animal, then sketch it on paper to plan out your drawing, next draw it again on a new piece of paper, lastly start painting(with bright colors) and when your background is fully painted, your finished and you can hang it up!

By: Meghan D. and Julia J.

Math
This week we worked on a project called “skittle project”. This is how it worked. We were pared up with a partner. Then each group got 10 skittles. Then we put all the oranges skittles in a group, all the greens skittles in a group, all the purples in a group, all the reds in a group, and all the yellows in a group. Then we put the numbers in a data table. We put them first in fractions then we put them in percents. Example: 40% of green skittles or 4/10. Then we put the data into a pie graph. Then we put the pie graph on the white board. Then it was the end of class. So we got to eat half of the skittles which was 5 each. Then on the way out the door Mr. Heath gave us a couple more skittles before we went to are homeroom.

Stas S.
&
Joey K.

Social Studies
By: Regan L

In Social Studies this month we’ve turned all of our focus to land wars, (particularly the King Phillip’s War.) The King Phillip’s war started over, you guessed it, land. Strange settlers started coming overseas and settling right on the Native American’s land. The Native Americans coped with this change for a while. They traded what they had for the rental of the land the Europeans had settled on. But, the only problem was that the Native Americans and the Europeans didn’t speak the same language. So, what the Natives thought was trading, to the Europeans was selling. These differences in prospective broke out into war. To be precise, one of the bloodiest war EVER fought in North America. So for our RAFT (Role-Audience-Format-Topic) projects we’re reenacting or providing information on land wars. Some things we could do for the RAFT project are power points about the King Phillip’s war, a letter from Chief Massasoit to King Phillip about a warning for the future, or a Eulogy about King Phillip’s death. These are all wonderful ways of providing knowledge to others and getting more knowledge ourselves about the past.

Art Class

Our art teachers name is Ms. Hurley. She teaches us new things every Monday. We recently finished a wire sculpting project. You have to use wire to make your face. You had to include every little detail on your face. It was a lot of fun, but it took some time to get it perfect.
After we finish we go over the new things that will be involved in our next project. Now, we are working on a new project that is called aboriginal dot paintings. Aboriginal dot painting is a painting of an animal that comes from an aboriginals tribe. You first paint the animal however you’d like it. Then you use your creative designs to fill the inside of the animal. We filled our animals with dots, lines, shapes, and stripes. This takes a whole lot of effort and patience to get the job done right. We have a lot of fun in art, thanks to Ms. Hurley!







Written by: Erika M

Reading

This month in reading we are on our 5th MCBA book, MCBA stands for Massachusetts Children Book Awards. After we read each MCBA book we do a project on it. For our first book we did a “world’s shortest book report”. Then we did a book review for our second book. For our third book we did an animoto video. For our fourth project we did a book bag where we put things in a brown bag that symbolized the book. Now we are doing a book cover where we design our own covers for the books that we read and write a summary about the book that we read. My favorites out of all the books that I have read are Paint the Wind, and The Lemonade War. The book that I am reading now is How to Steal a Dog. It is about a homeless girl and her plan to steal a dog and get five-hundred dollars to get her family an apartment. It’s not my favorite one, but I still really enjoy it.

by Hannah and Jessica

Reading

Right Now in Reading we are reading a book called Parvana’s Journey. It sets in Afghanistan while a war is going on. In the prequel The Breadwinner Taliban took over Kabul, Afghanistan where the main character Parvana lived. After Parvana’s sister Nooria went to get married in Mazar, Afghanistan the Taliban took over there too. In Parvana’s Journey, Parvana is trying to find her family. Find out if Parvana finds her family and becomes happy again. Also, this year we have to read five MCBA books. MCBA stands for Massachusetts Children’s book award. Some titles include Found, The Green Glass Sea, Swindle, My Haunted House and The Lemonade War. Also the kids of Massachusetts vote for the best MCBA book in February. The book that gets the most votes wins the Award. Lastly, in guided reading this session we are reading books that are about people who are different in some way and make a difference. The books are Schooled, The Liberation of Gabriel King and Loser. We finish up our books this week. That’s it for today!

Reading



This year in reading we are going to read many Massachusetts children’s book awards. Also known as MCBA books!! We are currently reading our fifth MCBA book. Our fifth book is due January 22nd, 2010. We will be making a project for it that is due February 5th, 2010. We do not know many details about this project but I am sure we will learn more about it!!!!!!!! Most of the class has already started their fifth book. Our teacher, Ms. Stodden, has told us many times when the book is due and hopefully we all have it locked in our brains because January is flying by!!!!!!! Some of the books I have already read like Out Of Patience was definitely not my favorite MCBA book. I agree with some of their choices and others I completely disagree. Some of my class mates didn’t like books either like Green Glass Sea.


S.R

Art Class

Our art teachers name is Ms. Hurley. She teaches us new things every Monday. We recently finished a wire sculpting project. You have to use wire to make your face. You had to include every little detail on your face. It was a lot of fun, but it took some time to get it perfect.
After we finish we go over the new things that will be involved in our next project. Now, we are working on a new project that is called aboriginal dot paintings. Aboriginal dot painting, is a painting of an animal that comes from an aboriginals’ tribe. You first paint the animal however you’d like it. Then you use your creative designs to fill the inside of the animal. We filled our animals with dots, lines, shapes, and stripes. This takes a whole lot of effort and patience to get the job done right. We have a lot of fun in art, thanks to Ms. Hurley!







Written by: Erika M

Science

In science, we are now focusing on Biomes in North America. We got assigned groups, and focused on 1 of the 5 Biomes in North America. There was the Tundra, the Boreal Forest, the Deciduous Forest, the Prairie, the Dessert, and the Rainforest (the Rainforests in Central America because there are no Rainforests in North America). After we were assigned, we spent a lot of time researching our Biomes. I was assigned the prairie by Mr. Lewis. We were also assigned a job. I made a video on my Biome and in my group was me, Meghan D. Erika M., and Joey K., and they also made videos on their job about the prairie. There was the Botanist (plant person), 2 zoologists (animal people), and the Geologist/Meteorologist (weather and climate). I was the Geologist/Meteorologist, so I focused on the Prairie weather and climate. It was very fun, and then there was only one part that gets a little embarrassing, showing you and your partners videos in front of the whole class. I had a great time, I learned a lot, and I did a good job. So that is what we have been focusing on in Science right now in school.


By Troy T.

Reading

All of the fifth grade students are going to read many MCBA books. We have many choices like Horns and Wrinkles, Paint the Wind, Swindle, The London Eye Mystery, The Lemonade War, and Feathers, just to name a few. Our class is on our 5th MCBA book. MCBA stands for Massachusetts Children’s Book Award. We’ve just finished our 4th MCBA book project. We had the choice to make a book bag or do a book talk. Both were done in front of the class. Most kids were really nervous, but some where calm in front of the crowd.
This session, there are four guided reading groups, but only three guided reading books. The three books are Schooled, Loser, and The Liberation of Gabriel King. For each guided reading session, we have a theme. This session’s theme is about kids who don’t fit, trying to fit in. Remember to get your reading signature, to prove that you have been reading.

P.E.

This week in Physical Education, we are using pedometers. Pedometers are little things used to count how many steps you are taking. So to kick off using the pedometers Mrs. A made us play games, run around and even dance to the chicken dance! The point of pedometers is to get a high score while getting in good exercise. The highest points you can get is 2000+ which is pretty good for being there for only 30 minutes. Also this week in P.E., we had a sub. Her name was Ms. Bee and she had us play skunk tag. In skunk tag, there are 4 skunks that try to tag you but luckily there’s safety zones that you can only stay in for 5 seconds. There can only be 2 people in a zone (hula-hoop) at a time. That’s what we did in P.E. this week.

by Jamie C.

Science

Science is a very fun subject. It has always been my favorite. We just finished our biome project which was very fun. We were put into groups and assigned a biome and two people were zoologists, two people were botanists, and one person was a biologist/meteorologist. Everyone had to make an individual movie. Then our science teacher, Mr. Lewis, put them together. We did a ton of research and then pretended to send it to Bear Grills which is the man on MAN vs. WILD in case he ever got dropped in that biome. Science is a really fun subject. I can’t wait until next unit.
by Tyler P.

Science

In science we are learning about North American biomes. The biomes we are learning about are the desert, the tundra, the deciduous forest; the boreal forest, the prairie, and the rainforest. We are using a program called photostory to make videos about the biomes. We are pretending that we’re talking to Bear Grylls, from Man vs. Wild and telling him how to survive in our assigned biome. There are three different jobs that we can have: the zoologist, the botanist, and the meteorologist/geologist. The zoologist (which is me) tells about some of the animals in the biome and how they can be used. The botanist talks about some of the plants in the biome and their uses. The meteorologist/geologist tells about the weather and land in the biome, and what and what not to bring. Today we had a good time in science because we finally got to watch the videos that we were making and it was a lot of fun!

by Jessica S. and Hannah C

Physical Education

This week in P.E. we are using pedometers. Pedometers are little machines that count how many steps you take. If you get 2,000 steps in the half-hour block that we have, you get a 1(the best grade). If you get 1,999-1,500 steps you get a 2(the second best grade). If you get 1,499-1,000 steps you get a 3( the third best grade). If you get 999 steps or lower you get a 4(the worst grade). While we have the pedometers on, we do dances. Some dances include the chicken dance, the California raisin dance, the Cotton Eye Joe and the cha cha slide.

by Eric C.