Ms. Stern read us the Touching the Past book that we made after our trip to Philipsburg Manor. We all worked together to write the captions that explain what we saw and did on our trip. Click on the book cover below to read a copy of our book. Click and drag to turn pages or zoom in for a closer look.
During Reader’s Workshop, Ms. Stern told us which groups we will be in for our non-fiction research. We’ve been learning about features of non-fiction. This week we will begin studying a topic of our choosing. Today we practiced reading text and putting the information that we learned into our own words. That’s important because it’s not right to copy information that other people wrote. The other reason we don’t copy is because we have to understand in order to put ideas into our own words. It’s the evidence that we understood what we read.
After lunch we worked on math. Ms. Stern asked us to complete math problems to show our learning. There were addition and subtraction problems and word problems. It was easy solving the problems. It was trickier to explain our thinking and tell how we use strategies.
In P.E. we played a game about recycling. There were a bunch of bean bags in the middle of the gym. 1 person at a time would grab a bean bag and put it in our hula hoops. There were three or four people in a team. After that, we played a game with a gigantic red inflatable ball that is bigger than either of the coaches. The game was kind of like soccer. Two people from each side worked together to try to move the ball into their goal at the end of the gym. It was hard to push because the people on the other team were pushing against us. The team that got the ball to their goal earned a point. After each round we had to shake hands with our opponents.
At the end of the day we went to our second Earth Day performance. It was put on by Ms. Berube, Ms. Ferzola, and Mrs. Goldstein’s classes. They sang songs like This Pretty Planet, Stop Polluting, and The 3Rs. The kids also recited poems. One of them was called Earth Day. We put the same poem in our poetry journals yesterday! Everyone did a great job. We decided to email the classes when we came back to the classroom to say thank you for inviting us rather than write on the chart paper to try to make less waste by saving resources.
Don’t forget: tomorrow is Earth Day! 40 beautifully decorated bags from our class (along with hundreds more from all of the other classes) are being brought to Shoprite in Northvale to give to customers for their groceries tomorrow.
It was a true story about a man from the United States who traveled to Pakistan to climb mountains. He got sick and lost and ended up in a town where people made clothes, food, and even toys for themselves. The kids could only go to school three days a week. Their lessons took place outside. The man, named Dr. Greg, made a promise that he would come back with supplies to build a school for the children to go to every day. He thought it was important that children be able to learn more and kept his promise by returning to the village one year later. After lots of hard work, time, and materials, the town had a brand new school for the children to learn. We realized that our lives in New York are very different from the children in but then we did more thinking and feeling (and reread Mem Fox’s book Whoever You Are) before we realized that we are also a lot like the children in Korphe and that education is very important to us all. Ms. Stern told us that Mrs. McBride, a teacher at Cottage Lane and SOMS, started a book club for kids and grown ups based on Dr. Greg’s story. She has a wiki for people to discuss the book and for other resources. This week’s blog challenge is to answer Mrs. McBride’s questions (on the blog…Ms. Stern will take care of putting them on the wiki) and to think about why building schools and providing an education will help people the most.
One of her dolls was blind and used a walking stick. 
Another was deaf and used hearing aides. 
The last one didn’t have strong legs and used a wheelchair to move around. 
We looked at photos of people who are disabled and also learned some sign language. Ms. Stern had to put a piece of wax paper over her eyes to find out what it is like to be blind. She thought everything looked very foggy and couldn’t see things clearly. Touching and hearing their voices helped Ms. Stern to identify Anthony and Dylan. When we came back to the classroom we talked more about people with disabilities. We will remember to smile, say hello, or invite people to play with us…with or without disabilities.
We are charting our data by checking each container and recording our findings. 
We discussed the message of the story: no matter what your religion or your beliefs, everyone is correct. There is no right or wrong way to think. Stephen thought she was very good at reading. Sasha thought she sounded like a real storyteller.
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