Kindness Retreat by Sadiq

The kindness retreat was fun. It started with us going into an empty room. Then our teachers told us to go to the other room. Right when we entered the room, we saw high schoolers. Then we had to find our small group. My small group leaders name was Chris. We talked about what to do when your getting bullied. 

After that we made rainstorm sounds. Then we played a game called soul train and played a charades game with our small group. We sang songs like In the Jungle and Lean On Me. It was a competition of who was a better singer, boy vs girls the boys sang louder but the girls sang better. 

Then we ate lunch after that we had a dance party. At the end we talked about how were going to listen to the teacher and help friend. We shared who we are going to say thank you to and who were going to say sorry to. Then we got our kindness button.

The Kindness Retreat By Makayla

First we went to school. At 9:40 we went to our bus, which took us on a ten minute
drive to our field trip at The Kindness Retreat. Once we got there, we had to put our lunches
on a table and drop our coats on the floor. Then we went to line up on a red line in single file
order to go to the other side of the gym,where our field trip would be. Once our class got to go
in, there was a surprise waiting for us. There was a ton of high-schoolers that stood in a tunnel
waiting with their hands sticking out so they could give us high-fives when we walked through!
It was going to be a fun day.
         
Once we were in the right side of the gym, the leaders (Todd, Rita, and Maddie,) said we 
were going to play some games. First, we played a Pirate game. My favorite saying in the Pirate
game was 'Seagulls in the Sky!', and we had to duck. Next we played Soul Train. That was fun.
Everybody got involved, even the teachers! More leaders came in and were the Soul Trains. The
Soul Trains made us form into one big circle. Then they went around the gym picking us kids up
and adding us on the train. That was my favorite game. Then they put us into some small groups.
We did an activity with our groups and then it was time for lunch.

After lunch, the leaders showed us some dance moves. Then we got to dance with them! It 
was really fun. After dancing, we went into some groups with one leader. I don't remember my group
leaders name, but she was a fun leader. When it was time to leave, I was sad. We had such a fun time!
So we went and got our coats and lunch boxes. We even got a card and pin! That had been a very fun 
day.

Fun Facts about Ancient Egypt!!!

         In Mr. Phelp's fifth grade class we have been studying ancient Egypt.  Dessert are natural barriers against invaders. One of the pharaohs in Egypt is Senusret and he ruled from 1971 to 1927 BCE.  In Egypt there is something called a social pyramid.  The social pyramid shows the low class, middle class and high class.

         One of the things we have been learning about are the pyramids.  Khufu began construction on the great pyramid as soon as he became pharaoh. The slaves used more than 1,000 huge bricks and over a million people built the pyramids.  Pyramids are the oldest standing structures in Egypt.

        The first female pharaoh was named Hatshepshut. Egyptians believed there was life after death. Shabti were buried with people so they would have servants in the afterlife. Egyptians had to start burying pharaohs in different places so people wouldn't rob their tombs. 

Some questions we have about ancient Egypt are:
1.  Why did they stop building pyramids?
2.  How do you think mummies were made?
3.  How old are the pyramids?
4.  Why do they wrap people in cloth?
5.  How long did it take to build the pyramid?

We hope you will answer our questions!

All About Penguins!

In our first grade class we have been studying penguins.  We have watched a video about penguins, we have seen them sliding on their belly.  This is called tobogganing.  Some penguins live in Antarctica and some live in Africa.  Female penguins lay eggs. Sometimes they go look for fish and the male/daddy penguin keeps the penguin egg warm.  He does this by putting the egg in his brood patches. Sometimes mother penguins can travel miles to find fish for their family. We learned the mother chews up the food and then gives it to their baby penguins.  Penguins also eat squid.  Penguins eggs are different shapes and colors. Baby penguins are all different colors.  Penguins use their wings to swim and their feet to steer, they can not fly. If baby penguins stay on the ice to long they might freeze.  A predator of penguins are Leopard Seals and Killer Whales.  The African penguins make pebble nests.

We have some questions about penguins:
1.  How do they keep warm in Antarctica?
2.  How they travel through water?
3.  Where do they get all the food?
4.  How do they stay cool in Africa?

We hope you will comment with some answers to our blog.

Mrs. Velasquez's First Class "Penguinquez"

GeomaTEJERA!!!

In math class we are studying Geometry.  We did an activity where we sorted shapes.  We sorted the shapes into categories like 3D shapes,  2D shapes and by their sizes.  We learned some shapes are called perpendicular shapes.  We know there are 3 types of angels.  A right angle is exactly 90 degrees, an acute angle is below 90 degrees, and an obtuse angle is greater than 90 degrees.  We were learning about tangrams.  We watched a short video to learn how to cut out and make tangram shapes.  We discovered we could make animals and boats.  Similar shapes are ones that look the same but one is smaller than the other.  Congruent shapes are exactly the same size and shape.  Some lines are parallel because they keep on going and never stop and do not cross.  We are starting to make shapes into snowflakes.  We are going to look at symmetry. 

Our class is wondering about somethings:

Is there something called 100D?
Are there any more shapes or angles?
What is a 30 degree, 14 degree, 10 degree angle?
Is there such things as a 1 degree angle?
Is there such thing as a negative dimension (-D) shape?

Please comment on our blog with your answers!

Thank you,
Mrs. Tejera's 3rd Grade Class

Peeters Perfect POETRY SLAM!!!

Mrs. Peeters' class has been working on writing a poetry book.  We have been practicing and creating different types of poems.  One of our favorite types of poems is an Exaggeration Poem.  We have had different assignments, including creating a poetry book.  We have been learning a poet's tool box of figurative language such as similes, metaphors, hyperbole, personification, and idioms. 

For our poetry slam we are memorizing poems we either wrote, found online or got from a book to recite for our peers.  We will be graded on what words we emphasized, the expression in our voice and the rate we are speaking.  We've been working very hard by studying our poems and working on our fluency. 

One of the things we enjoyed in this unit was we get to write poems that are fun and silly and we got to write about whatever we wanted to.  We also liked not having to write in complete sentences.  We also got to draw pictures to go along with our poems. 

Written by:  Mrs. Peeters' 5th Grade Class