Tales Of A 4-5 Something

Every year in the Franklin Auditorium the 4-5 Program performs a play to family, friends and the school. This year, instead of picking a play, a student had a cool idea to adapt Secret Of Platform 13  by Eva Ibbotson, a literature book we read during the school year, into a play. Students who wanted to joined the playwright club and stayed in on Monday and Tuesday to work on the play. Everyone had a partner or partners who would get a section to write from the book. When they finished they would move onto another section. Just recently, we finished playwriting and got our characters. I'm the Butler and the Plodger (a whiskery creature who roams the sewers). We will practice in our homestations, get costumes, and make scenes. On June 9th we will have to shows. One will be at 10 and the other at 1. You can come to the play! - Jaden

The 4th graders did the annual Maypole dance. It was part of the Lower School's Earth Day Celebration. It was a very joyful dance that came after the Earth Day Parade. We skipped in a circle with our partners. Then we did one beautiful weave. Then we did two wraps, one with white and one with green. Then we finished it off with 2 weaves and a group bow. You can see the whole thing on the video here . It was challenging but it all paid off during the performance! We give a BIG thanks to our P.E. teacher and Maypole choreographer Elicia! Connor Here are some pictures of our Earth Day. We did a lot of building with nature materials and even had a parade!  

Every year we have Spirit Week. Some 4th and 5th graders came together with lists from their homestations. Together they made a list of what the days should be. When they made the list it goes back to the homestations. This year we have five themes. They are: PJ Day Character Day Wacky Day Animal Day Spirit Day Come back to this post to see the pictures. -Deon --- PJ Day    Character Day     Wacky Day    Animal Day          PS.  Here is last year's post .

Last Friday we had Grandparents' and Friends' Day! This day is when our Grandparents and Friends can come to school and see what we have been working on. Grandparents loved seeing our line designs, Independent Projects, an Genius Hour Projects. We also used a scavenger hunt to explore the iPads and show them whatever we wanted. Senor Dan also came in and helped us practice spanish songs for Pachanga. At Pachanga, we sang lots of songs and we even performed a song from our chorus concert. We were surprised to see how many grandparents knew the song, Happy Wanderer . When they left they still wanted to learn more. It was a great day at school!       Seth, Alex, Henry H., Charlie, Eli, Keegan, Tobias, Henry W., Iris.

In Writing Workshop we are learning about poetry. One of the activities was making a found poem. We all looked at some picture books for poetic phrases and wrote them down in our Lifebooks. Then we picked our favorite one and wrote it on a piece of paper. We sat in a circle with our phrases and read them. Then we had to move around to revise the poem. We wanted our phrases to sound good with the ones before it and after it. We reorganized our ideas into a poem-like piece of writing. We think it sounds good. Do you? by Cole Tasman From the surface comes a glowing light. Warm and soft like a sleepy cat resting. Where the trout flashed like jewels in the sunlight Gazing in silence. It freckles our feet, glazes our toes. The viking fire that made the forge glow Swaggered like pirates. Slick with sweat I run back home Clumsy, disjointed, and loose. Her baby wings were as useless and limp as wet paper. The sun sank lower into the long glowing clouds. Slowly dusk ours the syru...

After school some of us go home and some of us stay for After School and Enrichment. Last month some of us had a chance to work with Henry and write a poem called “Spring is Coming!” Henry really liked what we did so he shared it with some of his friends who are writers. Then he got a note from Eli Nadeau, who is the Editor-in-Chief at  LIT: The Journal of the New School Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing Program , saying she liked the poem. Henry asked Eli to write us a note and she did! She wrote a note to the Sandpipers and the Owls. It was awesome that some of our work was read by someone far away. It is like we are famous! Here is the poem: Spring is Coming! The buds are coming out. It gets warmer. You swim in your pools In the ocean. The leaves are coming. They fall over. The animals read books And have their babies. The sun comes out of the sky And dances in the air with the moon. They get married in a cloud city Inside an invi...

Yesterday the 6th graders from Lisa's class came to 4-5. They showed us the iBooks they made about their animal. The 6th graders picked an animal to study, took notes, and built a book to share what they learned. There were some cool animals like the Giant Pacific Octopus and the Ringed-Tailed Lemur. When the 6th graders were done sharing we shared our IPs with them. We liked the visit because we saw old friends. Here is their post about the visit.

On Wednesday, May6, we will have a chorus concert. We have been practicing our songs for a while. We meet with Nick once a week for chorus but we do not meet as a whole group. We have had two practices as a whole group and today we practiced with the middle school and upper school choruses. I like chorus because I like to to sing and to do it in an environment where I don't feel ashamed. Everyone around us likes to sing so that makes it easier.  I like how we sing. It sounds really nice especially when we go, then the middle school goes, and the then the upper school goes during the same song. It sounds perfect. You will have to come hear us do it for real.  Jacob and Nathan Here is our final performance.