Tales Of A 4-5 Something

The 4-5 program has been thinking about their bathrooms and and the symbols on the doors. We used to have boy and girl bathrooms with a boy and a girl symbol on the doors. The girl was wearing a dress. The boy was wearing a pants. We thought we should change the symbol so girls and boys won't be judged by what they wear. We came up ideas like people holding hands around the world with different the clothes on or a big G and a big B.  Recently, the bathrooms were totally changed instead of changing the the signs. The stalls were taken out and instead of two bathrooms with stalls we have four individual bathrooms. The sinks aren't inside the bathrooms. Instead they are outside.  "I think there great," said Tim. Here are some other thoughts: " I like them." -Raines "They're ok." - Henry "They're new but my brain is still set to go in the right side." -Alex "I understand why they changed it and I respect the resason...

Irene came in to talk to us about Russia on Thursday during global focus week. She told us a story about her grandparents. It was connected to Russian history and the Russian Revolution. It started out when the rich people would own big farms and villages. Some of the farms were bigger than Maine! The poor people would live in those villages and had no rights to go out of that village unless the owner said so. They were pretty much like slaves but better conditions than the slaves that were in this country. This is when the Russian Revolution started. The poor people got mad because nothing was theirs. Everything belonged to the richer people and the group. So the poor people complained to the csar. The rich people were mad but so were the poor people. So the Revolution started. The prince and the princess were killed and the laws were changed. Everything belonged to everyone and the rich people lost their jobs and their family artifacts that were very important. Irene’s grandfather wa...

During Global Focus we had different classes. When we were with Ben and Tim we talked about community, the olympic rings, and people who were famous from Russia. We need different people doing what they are good at for a community to work right. Russia is the same as anywhere else. They have teachers, musicians, doctors, leaders, business people, inventors, dancers, and people who protect. Ben and Tim asked us to research a famous Russian person and we wrote a short biography. We put the final on Thinglink so we could see everyone together. Some of us were able to take our writing and make a special presentation using our ipads. You can click around to find those kinds of presentations. Have fun learning like we did.

When we have Global Focus all our classes change. We don't even follow a regular schedule. We listen to speakers, try some art, we cook and eat food, and we dance. In PE we tried two different dances that some people dance in parts of Russia. Click the links to see us do the Korobushka and Troika . We also have visitors. Peter came in with Olga and her mother and told us a Russian story. When they were telling us the story they acted it out with wooden pieces made in Russia.  At the end we sang one of our songs from chorus and Olga's mother joined in! We also learned a style of decorating eggs. They are called pysanky and the designs have meanings. Dorene lit a candle to melt the wax and put the wax on the parts of the egg that she wanted to keep white. Then she dropped it into the yellow dye. Then she put the wax on what she wanted to keep yellow. It seems like you have to have a good plan. We also learned about Russia from Nastya who is a teenager fr...

For global focus week we had a speaker named Page. Page talked to us about the Russian language and culture. She shared the alphabet with us and talked about our names.  She also introduced us to the cartoon, Masha and the Bear. Masha is very mischievous and gets Into trouble. In this episode she makes lollipops and gets a toothache and the bear tries to pull her tooth. She finally gets it out when she tumbles down a hill. Page also showed us a video of a real bear doing tricks. He turned a chair over and sat on it. You can call that waltzing with chairs! Overall, I think Page did a great job on her presentation. Thank you for coming in! Here are the videos: Маша и Медведь  - A video of a little girl and a toothache.  Поём алфавит - The alphabet A clever  Russian bear Crocodile Gena's Song / Песенка крокодила Гены - A happy birthday song                                ...

The teachers came into school over the weekend and changed parts of the school. They made it look like parts of Russia. Global Focus is very exciting! Can you find these spots in school?