Fabulous Fiction

First Term Book Projects exceeded my expectations! Listening to students' oral presentations reinforced learning about important story elements such as setting, conflict and resolution. And students recommended many enjoyable fiction books to read.

Here are just a few examples of the top-notch work being done in Grade 5:

                      by Hayley

Walk Two Moons Plot Summary
This story took place in many parts of the United States. The main character, Salamanca Tree Hiddle, wanted to find her mom and have her come back home. So she went with her Gram and Gramps to Idaho to find her mom. But on the way to Idaho, they found out something horrible had happened to her mom. Then Salamanca, Gram, and Gramps went back home to share the bad news with her dad. In the end Salamanca missed her mom, but she tries to put that behind her and move on with her life.  She had learned a lot about herself on her trip to try to find her mother. 

by Kalie

The Fate of Gray Wolves

Did you know that gray wolves almost became extinct in the United States? We learned about this issue in Time For Kids, and then we had to decide how we felt about taking wolves off the federal endangered species list. Here are some of our opinions:

I think that wolves should continue to be protected because we don’t have many wolves left. Hunters might kill them because they were afraid that the wolves would hurt them. The wolves also keep our ecosystem going. If the ecosystem stops then the elks will overpopulate and eat the plants that other species depend on.  People won’t get much food and smaller animals won’t have places to live.

by Dakota 

My opinion is that wolves should be protected until they reach 50 percent of their available habitat. (Conservationists say the wolves occupy only about 30 percent at this time.) If wolf numbers start dwindling again it won't happen as quickly. Another reason is that if wolves are not alive the elks will get overpopulated. That is why we should still keep wolves protected.

by Ryan 

Wolves should still be protected.  Wolves are living creatures.  If humans are protected by the government, animals should also be protected.  Another reason wolves should get protected is because they only occupy 30% of their available habitat.  That is why I think  wolves should stay on the endangered species list.  Wolves do not harm humans.  So, humans should not harm them.

by Mia 

Gray wolves should be protected. Wolves only have about 6,000 of their kind left in the United States. Which means there are not a lot of them roaming around the U.S.A. If hunters start killing them, their population will start going down. If there were only 6,000 dogs left in the country, we would bring them all in our houses for protection. But the wilderness is the wolves home, and so hunters are basically kicking them out of their houses!

by Vanessa   

New Faces

Funny Faces 2013-2014

Back-To-School

Welcoming a new group of fifth graders to Room 244 on Tuesday, September 3!

And, also our pod class from Room 118 with Ms. Nunes!

Save the Penny

Recently we read an article in Time For Kids about plans to stop producing the U.S. penny. Many students in our class have strong opinions about that. Here are some of their comments.

My opinion on this issue is they should not get rid of the penny because what if the store clerk needs 3 cents? Or what about the penny candy store? That's why my opinion is "no" they should not get rid of the penny. Oh yes, how are we supposed to honor Abraham Lincoln? I say keep the pennies!!! by Samantha

Another opinion is that America should keep the penny because it is part of the American culture. Even though it costs more to make a penny than it is worth, it would cost more to make a nickel. Many charities that depend on pennies will not be able to collect as much money. Prices of certain products and taxes may rise too.  by: Rachael

     

I think we should continue using the penny. We can just use cheaper metal.The penny is part of our culture. We would have to change too many things if we stop using pennies, and there are a lot of people that collect pennies. by Otavio

I feel that America needs to keep the penny. I feel that way because 67 percent of the people in America want the penny to stay and it's good luck to find a penny on the ground. But it does cost 2 times as much money to make one penny. by Bennett

The U.S. should keep PENNIES! Without the penny, more people would use the nickel and the nickel costs more than it is worth. Since most countries got rid of their lowest amount of money (coins), it would be unique for us to have the 1 cent penny. There are too many reasons to keep the penny and that is just a few of the reasons. by Blake

Blizzard Survival Gold Star Winner

And, finally, the gold star award for the Blizzard Survival writing assignment goes to . . .

I survived the blizzard of 2013 by layering my clothes and wrapping myself with many blankets. The worst part about the blizzard of 2013 for me was that at night I had to use about a few dozen flashlights. I also hated it because it was so cold outside that it was the same temperature in your house. I remember sleeping with five blankets on me. The thing I hated the most though was having no TV at all! I was so used to turning the TV on that even though we had no power I still tried to turn it on, but of course that didn't work. My only favorite part of the blizzard was that when this whole storm was over and I had power I could go sledding and play in the snow. The thing I will never forget about the blizzard is that if you don't have a generator you are out of luck! by Alexandra

More Survival Stories

My family stayed inside my home and slept on the floor with a mattress. Later, we went to a motel for the night. We stayed at the motel until Monday, but back at the house, the power was on! When we got back to the house, the blizzard was over. That's how I escaped the blizzard of 2013. by Jonathan

My family escaped the blizzard of 2013.(NEMO) We escaped the blizzard at 4 in the morning to go to Maine. We got to our ski house at 9:00 am, got on our ski clothes, and went to the mountain. We still got first tracks because we left so early. The ride up was pretty bad even though I slept the whole way. I thought skiing was fun because there were little snow piles everywhere. It was all powdahhh so when a skier or snowboarder stopped it made a little snow pile. My sister hated that. When we got home, my sister and I started a fire even though we had power and were in a warm room. We watched a movie and then went to bed. The next day Nemo hit us. We stayed at the ski house all day and played games and watched movies. by Blake

On Saturday February 9, 2013, I woke up in the morning and was shocked because I looked outside and saw snow up to my window! Then I got really happy, so I went outside. "OMG," I said, "I am so going sledding!" I woke my brother up and told him we were going sledding. We asked my dad to bring us to the courthouse, the best sledding place in Barnstable, and he brought us! In the end, let's just say, my brother broke his thumb and his knee. It was so funny! Well, not for him anyway. by Nick

The blizzard of 2013 started sometime on Friday so we turned on the news channel and they said that the blizzard's name was Nemo. My dad and brother got the electrical cords ready for when the power goes out and our neighbor has a generator that he has to go get fuel for so that the generator can run and give us electricity. We also have three fish tanks that we had to hook a cord up to so that our fish wouldn't die. It was cold without heat, and we went through one whole day without heat. Luckily, we also had the Xbox hooked up to a cord so we could watch some movies. by Tristin

How We Survived the Blizzard of 2013

A winter storm called Nemo hit the Northeast in February 2013 dumping several inches of snow on Cape Cod. Here is how some of our families survived the Blizzard of 2013. 

The most horrible thing that happened in the blizzard was when there were no channels on the t.v. Also, the lights were flickering during the night. I was taking pictures with my family in the big snow hills. Also I was watching the snowflakes as they fell down. I was playing with my cousins on the snow when the blizzard stopped. We were playing snow ball fights and making little snowmen in the snow. The horrible thing that I forgot to say was when I was cold upstairs I also drank Hot Chocolate. That's how I survived in the blizzard of 2013. by Andreina

I feel quite lucky about the blizzard because I didn't lose any power, well almost didn't lose any power. The thing I hated most of all about the blizzard was the annoying power thing because my sister and I were watching the interesting part of the movie when the power was flickering on and off again. Then everything was back to normal. After everything was back to normal we needed to wait for like 5 minutes until the computer will finally finish loading again. Finally my favorite part of the day came - the Chinese New Year! We needed to have the feast in the afternoon instead the night because my mom thought if we lost power at night then we couldn't have the feast at all. Then after the party (feast), we needed to watch the huge T.V downstairs because we had no wifi in our house that day. Anyway, the T.V was great to watch too, and that is how I feel about the blizzard!!!! by Annie

The things that I HATED about the blizzard were ........ No power. No heat. No electrical devices. Playing board games and having to play with my sister. No music, No life, No tv for Mickey Mouse or Sophia the First, No painting nails, No salon, No spa, No straightening my hair, No music videos, No DocMcStuffens. The things I LIKED about the blizzard were....No school, getting my power back, and it was named after my dog Nemo. That is how I kind of, yes, but no, but really no, survived the blizzard! by ILLYANA

I absolutely hated the blizzard when I lost power. I was on Facebook and all of a sudden the computer turned off! I got very mad and even with the generator it still would not work because there were power lines down on my street. The thing I liked was that my dad got two movies from the Red Box and we watched them till 1:00 or 2:00. I had to shovel, and trust me, that was not fun. We still have no internet because we have to get a new box. So I am really mad that I can't go on Facebook or play video games. I wanted to go with my dad to get something from the store but my mom said I couldn't go with him.  :( That's how I survived the blizzard!!            by Connor

Night of the TOMATOES

Have you ever been in a tornado? It couldn't have been worse than the one in Grand Island Nebraska in the 1980s. We here in room 244 have been reading the book "Night of the Twisters". A book about a boy Dan Hatch, his best friend, his little brother and a lot of people from the Nebraska area living in the tornado devastation. In our class while reading the book we thought that the best part was the climax (when the tornado was a mile away the lights go out so Dan went to get his baby brother Ryan but Dan couldn't see and Ryan got stuck in the mobile on his crib). During when Mrs. Schulman was reading instead of saying tornadoes she said TOMATOES!!!!!!