Grade Five Alive!

Have you ever worn your pajamas to school?

We filled our homework jar to the top, so we voted and guess what, a pajama party won!

When we first got to school we had to wait a while, but then we got changed. We ate giant, crunchy oreos with ice cream inside of them. Our class wore our pajamas to the laptop computer lab, too. We also wore them to lunch.

But then the person who was taking our class picture came, and we wore our pajamas in the picture for the yearbook. Then we had to get changed and it was time to go home.

Well, that was our pajama party, a perfect reward for doing our homework each night.

~Sarah

Seven kids, including me, in my Gateway Storytelling class performed folktales from places around the world. We had to practice saying our stories with facial expressions, hand movements, and voice projection. The students had to read it twice a day for one month, using the paper. Then we had to practice twice a day each day without the paper for a month.

My story was Maui and the Great Eel. It told about why vines twist and twirl around trees. This is the summary of the story:

Once there was a big eel that lived in the sky. Then it fell into a lake, and ate some children that were getting water.  When their dad heard what happened he ran to the lake with his spear. He threw it and missed. So then he used his magic to catch the eel. He chopped the eel’s head off and threw it into the ocean, then he threw its tail in the river, and then he took the middle part and threw it into the forest where it wrapped around a tree and became a vine.

~Shawn

Would you like to go to school in the Colonial Times?

I wouldn’t. Let me tell you why. The first reason is because if you didn’t behave in school the teacher would pull out the birch stick and hit you with it. If you would bite your fingernails, you would have to wear a nametag that said “bitefinger baby.” If you didn’t know your lessons you were called a dunce. You had to sit on a stool wearing a dunce hat. The worst part was if you were caught whispering you had to put wooden sticks in your mouth which were called whispering sticks.

Schools didn’t have to be comfortable and most of them were not. The one room was always freezing cold in the winter. All students had to bring in wood or else they would have to sit far away from the fireplace. There was no paper so students wrote on a paddle-shaped piece of wood covered with  a thin layer of clear animal horn called a hornbook. No blackboards, computers, maps, or even desks The students all sat on hard wooden benches.

So think about that again. Would you like to live in the colonial times?

~Diazsha

Illustration from If You Lived in Colonial Times by Ann McGovern, illustrated by June Otani.

We have been learning about using “golden bricks” to make our writing more powerful. These are the five necessary building blocks to give an “expository pillar” strength: quote, statistic, amazing fact, descriptive segment, and anecdote. We hope you enjoy the following superior examples of descriptive segments.

“Can you imagine colorful fireworks bursting in the sky and Disney characters greeting you at a big beautiful castle? Rides, food, and wind blowing in your hair on a fast roller coaster and having dinner with Cinderella. You would wish you never went home.” ~Tayleece

“Picture a hot summer day, with the cool breeze blowing on you, and the towering waves as you jump into the salty ocean. Or even tasting that scrumptious ice cream from the ice cream truck. It all happens at the beach.” ~Kaitlin

“There’s nothing like a death-defying roller coaster ride at Six Flags. You can hear kids and teenagers screaming at the top of their lungs as they feel the blood going to their heads while doing loop-de-loops on the Mind Eraser. There’s water in your eyes from the wind blowing against you.” ~Tori

“I love the way you hear Happy Birthday in your ear at parties. You taste wonderful sugary goodness in your mouth. The feel of the wrapping paper crinkles on your hands. I enjoy the sight of games and guests enjoying themselves. I love birthday parties.” ~Cassie

“Lights flash, bells jingle, and their owners ask for money. Hundreds of Americans seem to flash all around. You can feel them bump and smash into you as Christmas songs blare on the mall speakers. Wreaths hang above every store. Can you imagine that?” ~Koby

Photo courtesy of Pics4Learning.com

Picture this…..

The skaters rush past, sticks clashing. The air is filled with the smell of excitement. He gets the puck, sailing down the ice handling the puck with pure ease. He dodges the defense men. It’s just him and the goalie. The crowd holds its breath just waiting for something to happen. SLAP! The puck lifts off the ice and soars through the air toward the inside of the net. The goalie tries to save it but it’s too late. The puck flies over his glove and hits the back of the net. The buzzer sounds loudly, and the crowd cheers and screams at the top of their lungs. The game is over. 0 to 1.

~Kelly

My favorite subject is math.

A function chart, also known as an input-output chart or a T-chart is useful in math. Yesterday we learned how to find the rule for a function chart. Here’s an example:

 Rule = n x 3

~Benjamin