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