Survival

We are currently in the beginnings of our survival study. After completing the Marshmallow Challenge, we have begun to brainstorm what survival means and read stories of survival. Each person read a nonfiction picture book and wrote how the story was one of survival. Next, with a partner, students made a Venn diagram to look at similarities and differences contained in their stories. We are recording these and they will be posted in Moodle as podcasts in the near future. We are practicing podcasts as a result of an idea many students brought up in class -- to create a Wickliffe newspaper. After investigating we found two other classroom are possibly investigating writing newspapers, so we decided to create a "Wickliffe Weekly News" podcast. Look for more information in the near future.

In addition to comparing survival stories, we are also looking at survival events throughout history, how people survive, animal survival and qualities of survival. Eventually, each person will choose one event to study in depth about survival. We will be previewing these topics next week. Also next week, students will work in small groups to build bridges, perhaps a necessity to survival? We'll see! Stay tuned...

Poetry Workshop

The "Try It Out" for this week's poetry workshop was writing "How To Be" Poems. We shared a few and then tried out a group poem: "How To Be the First Snowflake" (appropriate for the day, we thought). This inspired many interesting, thoughtful and creative poems. Please see just a sample below.

How To Be Anything

Be
Live
Think
Hope
Dream
Thing Big
Reach for the Sky
Love What You Do
And make sure to
Believe



How To Be the First Snowflake

Descend on the first of December
Be in the clouds ready to drop
Get an early start and fall
Dive down and feel like a plane
Gliding through the air,
Crystal clear


How To Be a Light Bulb

Soak up electricity
Be bright
Be smart
Sometimes burn out
Symbolize ideas
Turn on and off
Flicker and spark and
Shine your soul


How To Be a Light Bulb

Soak up electricity
Get hotter and hotter
Start glowing
Reply to the call of the switch
Give lots of light
Symbolize ideas
Freak people out by flickering
Repel the monsters under the bed
End your life with a final flicker


How To Be a Doodler

Imagine your creatures
Use your surroundings
Give it your best try
Use your best skill to create it
Have fun with it
Take your time
Keep doing it
Draw what you can
Take it from someone who knows
Don’t care what other people think
It’s the best by how much love you put into it.

What Motivates Us?

What motivates you?
food/candy
learning something/gaining knowledge
friends and teachers
reading/books
someone telling you what to do
other people sharing
time
when you see someone else doing something cool
money
knowing you will get a good grade
knowing you will have a feeling of accomplishment
sports
seeing someone not as fortunate

We had an interesting discussion today about what is motivating to each of us. We asked the question, "what motivates you in school?" The list above is what we brainstormed. We also talked about extrinsic and intrinsic motivation - a very interesting and thoughtful discussion. If you get a chance, ask your child about our discussion.

Reading Grafitti Part 2 Set 1

Our Reading Grafitti board became so full, we had to type up all the descriptive, meaningful lines (thanks, Miss Petrolo!) and display them around the board to make new space. Well, the Graffitti Board is almost filled again! We will add those savory bits of language to the collection soon, but in the meantime, please enjoy our first set of words. We have been sharing them in class. Beautiful and fun to read again and again!

“Which brings me to your last question. And that question is: How do you know if you are a writer? For once, I am going to answer a question as directly as I am able. My answer goes like this: You know you are a writer if you are imaginative. You know that you are a writer if you are curious. You know you are a writer if you are interested in the things and people of the world. You know you are a writer if you like the sound of rain on the roof. And if you want to tell someone else about your heart and how waiting for the thunder sometimes makes you feel, if you work to find the words to do that, then you are a writer.”
p. 118 Funny Business by John Sciezka and Kate DiCamillo

“A wise man once remarked that we can count how many seeds are in an apple, but not how many apples are in the seed.”
p. 157 Jeremy Fink and The Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass

“Home is family and family is home.”
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Well did you know that dinosaurs really didn’t go extinct? Aliens were so fascinated by them that they decided to gather them all up and take them to their own planet.”
p. 129 I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

“Now what in the hokie smokies could that mean?”
p. 58 Emily’s Fortune by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

“And three sets of soft snores rose to the shining ceiling.”
p. 13 Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

“The butler knocked on one of the black doors, and a voice boomed, ‘Bring her in.’ an involuntary shiver ran through Charlotte. The voice seemed to penetrate her body.”
p. 341 The Shadow Thieves by Anne Ursu


“Sometimes you never feel meaner then the moment you stop being mean. It’s like how turning on a light makes you realize how dark the room had gotten.”
p. 144 When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

“All the kids are in a costume. We have bought a leash for Bernie Kosar who is wearing a Superman cape draped over his back, a large ‘S’ on his chest. He seemed unimpressed with it. He’s not the only dog dressed as a superhero.”
p. 125 I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

“We are inside the universe, and the universe is inside us.”
p. 218 Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass

“Supper in the cloth sack and a lot on his mind.”
p. 75 Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

“Don’t give up hope just yet. It’s the last thing to go. When you have lost hope you have lost everything.”
p. 124 I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

“Imperious little son of the gun acting like some big cheese in a small pond.”
p. 15 Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

“Don’t sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me anyone else but me anyone else but me No! No! No! don’t sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me till I come marching home.”
p. 50 The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins by Walter Dean Myers

“Good people I will sing you a little ditty and hope that it doesn’t annoy I make an appeal to your pity for I’m and unfortunate boy. Twas under an unlucky planet that I was born one night my life since first I began it has been cursed in dark and light o do not make sport of my troubles but pity one who feels no joy for I’m an uncomfortable horrible, terrible inconsolable Jonah boy.”
p. 23-25 Journal of James Pease by Jim Murphy

“A closed mind gathers no moss.”
p. 104 Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

“The towering trees swayed and whispered in the breeze.”
p. 92 Week in the Woods by Andrew Clements

“We all have disabilities. What’s yours?”
Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper

“His howdy doody cue seemed to dance in the air.”
p. 59 Crime Scene Whodunit’s by Jim Sukach

“I have never spoken one single word. I am almost eleven years old.”
p. 2 Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper

“Sleeping in there was like sleeping up in the night sky with the glitter of stardust all around you.”
p. 11 Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

“Scratching his head as if he might dig up an idea.”
p. 77 Crime Scene Whodunit’s by Jim Sukach

Survival By Design

We began one part of our "Survival" Study last week by completing "the Marshmallow Challenge". The challenge was to create a structure that could support one large marshmallow using only one yard of masking tape, one yard of string, 20 sticks of raw spaghetti, one marshmallow and 18 minutes. We found this challenge from a website called "TED".  Click below to get to the link.

Marshmallow Challenge

What did we learn from this experience?
•Having only 18 minutes to create the structure is hard!
•It is a challenge to work together, hear everyone's ideas and get the structure built.
•It's important to work together and listen to one another. 

Scientific Timeline

Each person contributed an event for our class timeline. Please go to www.timetoast.com. Scroll down to categories and click on science and technology. Our timeline is titled Major Accomplishments in Science by Mrs. McEvoy/Slater's Class. We hope you learn something! Enjoy!

Guest Poet for Poetry Workshop

We had the pleasure this week of having, Mr. Frank Hatcher, one of our retired teachers lead our poetry workshop on Friday, November 5th. We explored the concept of metaphor in poetry.  Mr. Hatcher shared the poetry of Barbara Esbensen and then we tried writing some metaphors together. He listed two sets or paired words that were seemingly unrelated: pencil/hotel and dandelion/king. We listed words to describe each without looking for relationships between the two. Then, we looked how how we could connect and compare them. We also started to brainstorm two other words : spelling and war. We will continue with that comparison next poetry workshop.  See charts below for an idea of what we did. It was so fun to listen to Mr. Hatcher read us poetry and share his expertise. He will visit again!