Positive Verb Poem

In Mr. Sharp's class, we wrote poems using positive verbs based on "And Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou. Here's our favorite:

And Still I Love

You may leave me without saying
Leave me hanging, waiting for the answer
With tears running down my face
But still, with hope, I love

Even though you are gone
I still have you in my heart and memory
You're my hero and savior
And still I'll love

-Sienna

NetSmartzKids

We had an assembly today with Kate Lowder from NetSmartzKids, a program that teaches kids how to be safe online. We've explored the site before in our lab, but it's always good to have a reminder of what you need to do to stay safe on the Internet. Ask your children about the assembly today, then go to this link and play some of the games together. It's important for adults to be aware of the dangers of the Internet so that we can protect our children. They are growing up in a world far different from the world we grew up in, and we need to protect them as much as we can! Explore this site for a while, but don't become a Numbut!

1/2 hour activity

One of my colleagues showed me a new site, and I think you'll love it! Check out Scholastic Computer Lab Favorites under March links! Any subject you can think of, and this site has a link to a half-hour activity. What a great site for busy teachers!

Enjoy!

Happy First Day of Spring!

Tomorrow is the vernal equinox, which means it's the first day of spring! From tomorrow until the summer solstice on June 21, the days will get longer and warmer. This is due to the way the sun hits the surface of the earth. Tomorrow, the sun will be shining directly onto the equator. Then, the sun will shine directly above latitudes farther to the north until the solstice. That is why the days will get longer and warmer.

So, happy spring!

St. Patrick's Day Limericks

I wrote a few limericks using Irish words. Enjoy!

There once was a man named Shylock
Who demanded his half of a shamrock.
He cursed and he swore.
We could stand him no more.
Now he's stranded alone on an isle rock.

Leprechaun Larry was weary,
Took a nap in the house of Mcleary.
They thought he was dead
So they threw out his bed,
Now he's making the family feel eerie.

Discovery Story- by Morganne

In Mrs. Raymond's class, we did a fiction unit in which we had our main character discover a magical object. Morganne's was my favorite! So, here it is. I love the idea of a magical globe, and Morganne does a fabulous job with her dialogue and internalization (character thought as a response to dialogue), and her wonderful description of what happens when Jeffery touches the magical object. She also does a fantastic job with point of view! Great job, Morganne!



JEFFERY’S ADVENTURE



Jeffery lived alone with his mom. When he had his fifth birthday, his father left him and his mother all alone on the farm. When he turned eight he started to miss his father dearly. Three years ago, when he was twelve, he got over it and tried to forget all about him, but how can you forget someone who’s been so close to you for so long? Now that he’s fifteen, he despises his father for leaving him all alone with his mother. Although he despises his father, he doesn’t hate him. Jeff never hates anything.
“Hate is a powerful word” his mother always said. “Only use it when you mean it.” And she was right. He grew up strong and healthy doing all the work that his father had. Each day he got faster at doing all his chores so he would get more free time. Because he kept getting more free time, he would always explore farther every day. One day, he explored so far he found the ruins of a few old buildings. A few seconds after he arrived, he heard his mom calling.
“Jeffery! It’s getting dark! And there’s something I need to tell you!” His mother
called out.
Jeffery started running to his mom’s voice because it was too dark to see.
“There you are, Jeffery! Some construction workers are here to build some homes, a school, and a few stores!” His mother squealed excitedly.
Jeffery did not go to school. The farm was too far away to go to any school. And because there was no school, he had no neighbors or friends. And he liked it that way.
Jeff looked around at the strange people.
“Oh... And Jeffery?”
“Yes?” Jeff answered.
“I had to sell the farm.”
There was a long, awkward silence as Jeff stared at his mom in horror.
And then there was the running. All the running. He didn’t stop until he got back to the ruins. Jeffery ran into the first building he saw which wasn’t too ruined actually. He stayed there until the sun went over the horizon. Then he saw the slate... it was bent out of the ground as if some one or something had tried to hide something in it. He pushed it aside, and found a small globe.
What’s that right there? He thought to himself as he pointed to a miniature country that didn’t belong to this world.
Suddenly, he felt like he was being crushed inside himself, and spun so fast he could hardly breathe.
As soon as everything stopped, he crouched into a ball as if thinking it would all start again. But then he heard the cheering and looked around. There were people all around him cheering as he stood up. He was in a ring.
“ Looks like we have our volunteer!” Jeff looked over to the voice which happened to be a short chubby man dressed in strange clothes.
The man floated over on something like a hover board, and said,
‘Hey kid, I can see you’re not from around here so here’s the rules, 1. Stay calm. 2. Be nice to the monster, okay?”
“What...” Jeff started to say.
“3. Try to stay alive, please? (I get paid more if you do)”
Monster? This is not going to go well at all. Jeff thought, but he did not say it out loud.
As the man floated away, Jeff looked at all the people. He felt as if he was going to faint. He had never seen so many people in his life.
“LET OUT THE MONSTER!” The man screamed at the top of his voice. And that was when Jeff snapped out of his queasiness. He looked at a huge door that was slowly opening. He put his arms in front of his face and tried to brace himself as much as possible. Five seconds later the monster hopped out. Jeff peeked through his hands and saw...
A LITTLE BUNNY RABBIT!
Wait a second... Jeff thought That’s not right! But all the same he walked over to the small animal and picked it up. Then he started petting it, and heard a gasp from the crowd.
“He sure tamed that beast! But we want you to fight the beast not tame it! Sorry son.” The man exclaimed.
Suddenly Jeff was flung into the air and watched as the ring backed away into the distance. He landed on a bouncy thing of the sort and looked around. There were different buildings all around him. Some said on them, “FOOD. EAT HERE” and “GOOD CLOTHES, BUY!” and other cheesy things like that. Jeff looked over at the people and saw what they were wearing. It was the same some sort of blue and green jumpsuit that the little man was wearing and everyone,but Jeff, was wearing one. He just barely noticed that. Before he could do anything else he felt a jolt and a hand over his mouth. Something was pulling him to as dark alley and he heard,
“I am Detective Albert Walter Gardener. Code-name D-A-W-G. Pronounced ‘dooog’. You are under arrest by order of The King for not wearing the outfit you are supposed to wear. That is a felony. What region are you from?”
“U-u-mm... I don’t know, sir...”Jeff mumbled under his hand.
“Well then, lets give The King a visit, shall we?” He laughed at his own joke. “Hey DOLPHIN! Throw this one in the back with the other villains!” Soon a giant man that looked very strong came over and tied him up. He was thrown into the back of a truck with a bunch of rough looking people. Some were wearing different tidy outfits that looked like the same sort of jumpsuit in different colors.
As the wheels screeched and the bus lurched forward, Jeff finally realized how much trouble he was in.
About an hour later the bus slowed to a stop and everyone rolled to the other side because they had no control over the their tied up bodies. As DOLPHIN and DAWG unloaded everyone, they untied their legs so they could walk. While Jeff was having his legs untied, he saw some ladies and children that were walking up the hill to the castle. They were crying. * * *
Amy was crying. Jeffery wasn’t home yet. It had been over three hours since he had run away and as his mother, she was terrified. This is almost exactly how her husband had disappeared. If he didn’t come home in 30 minutes, she would call the police. She was not going to lose her husband and her son!
* * *
It had been 30 minutes since they all started up the large hill. The group, lead by DAWG, (DOLPHIN had stayed behind) had just entered the castle. DAWG opened a gigantic door and inside on a tall throne sat a short chubby man that showed the slightest resemblance to Jeff.
“H-h-here are the criminals of the day s-s-sire.” DAWG stuttered. “You! To the front of the line.” he shouted as he pointed to Jeff. Jeff walked to the front of the line.
“This criminal wasn’t wearing his uniform in the streets. He probably had a very bad influence on the kids.”
“ I’m sorry s-sir. I came from another world and got lost and...” Just about then, DAWG slapped Jeff across the across the face. He winced at the pain but tried not to show it.
“ Thats enough! So, Jeff. See that door over there?” He said as he pointed to a small door. ” Go in there and use the small sphere.”
Jeff slid under the tiny door and saw the small sphere right in the middle of the room. He picked it up and realized something. There must be one sphere in each world and The King had found this one. He found the small ruins and pointed to them. He started to feel the pressure inside of him. He crumpled into a ball and fell to the floor of the ruins. He saw the globe on the floor as he stood up. He picked it up and smiled. The King had been Jeff’s father that just disappeared when he was 5 years old.



PROLOGUE
All the police and the workers had finally left. It has been about 6 months since the incident and Jeff had lots of new friends and was very happy. Amy (his mom) was happy too and had gotten remarried to a nice man named Rodrick. Jeff even went to school and learned to read and write.


Everything was perfect.






THE END

1/2 hour activity--Seeds and Plants

Here's a fun project that shows the life of a plant from seed to flower to seed again. This project was done in comic life, and the pictures were all found on the internet. Teachers at Bella Vista--find the file in school folder-mrs. wadsworth-march-comic life plant project. Click and drag the folder directly into iphoto. Then, open comic life. Under album, select last import, and the photos are ready to go. Let the students be creative with the layout so they can become more familiar with this versatile program!

1/2 hour activity--heritage activity in graph club

Kiss me, I'm Irish! (bring a bag of Hershey's kisses for this one... Better for upper grades.)

Help your students understand the importance of keeping family records. Have the students bring the names of their great-grandparents, and let them type the names in the records search engine at familysearch.org. (This site doesn't require registration to search ancestors.) After you select the ancestor, click the link for "pedigree chart." When the pedigree chart is shown, count the number of ancestors listed and the country they are from. For example, on one of my pedigree charts, I had five ancestors from Scotland, ten from the US, and one from England.

Open Inspiration and go to "diagram". Using the symbol search, have the students type in the name of each country their ancestors are from. Have them select a picture from each country. While that picture is selected, copy it onto the clipboard. Go into graph maker and select "create." Click on the plus sign next to the icons on top of the graph, and select "add new symbols". Then, paste from the clipboard. This will allow the student to use the symbol from their ancestor's country in a graph. Repeat this process for each country listed on the pedigree chart. If the students don't have many records, have them put the country their parents and grandparents were from, based on their memory. Emphasize the importance of keeping records of their own.

Make a graph of which countries your students hail from, based on their great-grandparent's pedigree charts. On the graph, indicate where most of their ancestors come from by titling the graph, "Kiss me, I'm Irish", or, "Kiss me, I'm English", or "Kiss me, I'm Japanese", or "Kiss me, I'm American." When the students complete the exercise, print out their graphs and give them a Hershey's kiss.