Tales Of A 4-5 Something

We studied the Westward Movement of people. We learned about emigrants moving west and we learned about the people who were already living there who lost their land and homes. Linda asked us to write about what we learned and these are some of the pieces that some kids wanted to share. Native Poem by Lily J. A Haiku Story  by Yasmine Sad by Grace Native American Letter by Molly Poems by Abie Nora and Issa story for themes

Since the end of Thanksgiving break we have been reading mentor texts and writing our own myths and folktales. After reading mentor texts, brainstorming ideas, and filling out charts for about a week we started crafting our own folktales. We wanted to explain the unexplainable. To prepare first we got a mountain map (plot outline) and the map had little boxes so you can write in them. In the peak of the mountain is the big problem and we worked our way down to solving the problem. We also looked at a lot of books to see the intros. We talked about what we liked about them and then wrote our own intro in our writers notebooks. After that we started to type our own stories. When we are done with our peer and teacher edits we were going to do the artistic part and then practice storytelling using our own myth or folktale. By Abie and Henry One of our mentor texts

In writing class we did food memoirs. A memoir is like a memory. We wrote about a food memory that we had because we were learning about local foods. Mine was about Thanksgiving and going over to my cousins house and eating pumpkin pie. Some other people did ice cream, apple picking, pizza making, and cake explosions. I really enjoyed writing about pumpkin pie and hearing other people'e memories. Maybe you will see them when you come for the Barn Dance? Yacob Tumeric and Cardamom: Fenugreek: Ginger:

In Tim’s class we have DIRT, Daily Independent Reading Time, at the end of the day. We get to read, talk about books, and share what we think with presentations. Right now some people are doing their presentations on a platform called Minecraft. There are three projects going on and they are all based on books that we read. The first one is Wings Of Fire, which is a book by Tui T. Sutherland. There are four main kids working on the project and then the whole class will help at some point during the year. Diego, Yasmine, Jenny, and Kirby are the ones who are mainly building. The next project is for Malcolm at Midnight by WH Beck. The person who is working on it is Jackson. He is building the classroom and the attic. The third project is for Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier being built by Mercy. You may think these are just a bunch of kids playing a game but is really a bunch of learners creating models to share what they like about their books. Minecraft is like a 3D world where everything i...

On Wednesday October 25, We went to Pachanga Tortilleria. The former spanish teacher, Lynn, opened a tortilleria. It is in a business park near Get Air. At the beginning she showed us a slideshow about making tortillas and how it was done in the old days. Then we got gloves and we soaked the corn because it sticks better together. After, we ground some corn into flour using a grinder and felt it but we did not use that flour. Lynne used some other mash to make balls and we put it into a presser which made a small tortilla. Then we put it on the griddle and flipped it a few times and ate them with some cheese. They were delicious because the cheese melted and the tortilla was awesome. It was right off the griddle and fresh. We can get these tortillas at Rosemont. It is good because it is a local food and a local business. Abie and Jenny  

Food Mapping For a few weeks we have been studying local foods. We went to the Common Ground Country Fair, Zu Bakery, a wild edible food walk and lots more. But in Kai’s class we focused on food mapping, mapping the journey our food takes to get to your plate. We had three weeks to finish the project. The first week we talked and thought about what food or drink we would do. The second week we planned on a sheet of paper and week three we embarked on our poster. For example I did earl grey tea. I mapped my food’s journey on a poster and started with the leaves being planted, harvested and so on. But you were also allowed to use other tools like Duncan did. He decided to use puppet pals to show his food’s journey: a cherry. He drew some pictures like a cherry tree then combined them with some digital backgrounds and characters, boom! He made a little video. These are just a few of the things people did. One thing I liked about this class was that there was a lot of freedom and choi...

Worms We are studying worms in Nancy’s theme class. First we studied the different parts of a worm.   Did you know a worm has 5 hearts?    Did you know a worm has little tiny hairs called bristles that help them climb on things? Did you know that if you cut a worm in half both sides will die? It happens! Did you know that on the bottom half of a worm there is a hole called an anus that poops out castings that make soil. Did you know a worm has to eat sand to digest soil?All of this stuff is true.              Did you know that a sucks nutrition from the soil. By Lily and Lola

Did you know:          One  Barak can make about 100 to 200 loaves of bread in a week. That you can make an  all organic loaf of bread and a non organic loaf of bread. Wheat is a protein, and wheat is in bread, so bread has protein. Barak does not cook on fire, but waits and cooks on coals. Zu Bakery is  next to cows in a barn. When Barak mixes the dough he uses wood instead of glass or steel, because it improves the flavor. by Talia and Maddie

Making acorn flower is a tedious job. Its so easy but hard at the same time. It takes steps. This is what I did: 1.peel acorns 2.soak acorns (3 days) 3.dry acorns 4.grind acorns Then you have acorn flower. You can make pancakes bread and more with acorn flower. So enjoy. I got the idea from a lit book, My Side of the Mountain. Sam Gribley gave me the idea and it sounded good.So enjoy. Rafe

Today we all had a chance to cook. We were celebrating the end of our Local Food Study. Kai's group made pumpkin seeds and cooked the pumpkin. Nancy made pickles and Linda made fruit salsa. We made a cucumber salsa. The salsa was pretty chunky. We cut cucumbers, onions, mint, cilantro, jalapeño, peppers and added salt, lime and pepper. First we mixed up cucumber onions and oil mix then we added cilantro and mint mix. Furthermore we put in salt, pepper and lime mix and served them with chips made in Westbrook. Some food we ate today and some we will save for our Barn Dance dinner in December. Mercy and Kirby

By Ian and Duncan This year in K-1 there are only three habitats, marsh, forest and meadow. So 4-5 is mixed with K-1ers from different habitats. Every wednesday 4-5 meets with K-1 and we do an activity and then we have pachanga together. Pachanga is where we sing and sit with our buddies. 2-3 also has EC buddies. For example Ian’s buddy is Thomas and Duncan’s buddy is Dylan. Most of the time we read. But sometimes we draw. We went to the Maine Audubon in Falmouth and we played in the woods for half of the time and then we took a monarch butterfly story walk.

SEEDS (TIM'S CLASS) BY PORTER AND WILLIAM In Tim’s class we are learning about seeds. Not about how they grow, but what they were before they became a seed. First it started out as pollen in a flower. Then it got taken out of the flower by bees or other animals. From a bee’s view he would have been like “ooh nectar” when he first looked into a flower. Then the bee would start to do it’s happy dance and when it’s doing it’s happy dance, it gathers nectar AND pollen. Then when the bees are done collecting the nectar from the flower, they go back to the hive. BUT on the way there, some pollen falls out of their pollen basket. Then the pollen turns into a seed and the seed turns into a flower. There are 5 ways to spread pollen, animal carry, animal eat, wind, water, and explosions. Once the pollen is in a whole different area, it grows into a flower and bees go collect nectar from the flower and then the whole chain happens again.

At the Common Ground Fair they have a whole tent for lavender scented stuff. You can make Wabanaki wood carvings at the fair. They also have the most delicious maple candy in the world, and they have a really fun hill that you can slide down on cardboard. They have really fun masks to play with. They have really good looking food. They have a lot of animals at the fair. We each got five dollars to spend. By Lucas and Noah

Did you know : Bees don't purposefully collect pollen so when they do get pollen they put it in their pollen sacks. The worker bees are only females and the boys are almost useless. The queen bee is bigger than the worker bees and not fuzzy like the others. Only the queen can lay eggs. There is no king bee that is only a myth. By Cecily, Luke, Elliott

I wrote some poems because I got inspiration from places I went. -Leah Leaves When leaves drift down With the wind They remind me of balloons. They carpet the ground As I walk. They crunch and Crinkle under My feet like tin foil. Deep Dark Hole Shadows flitting here and there. Black nooks, Haunted corners, Empty hallways, Curtains drawn. Clouds of dust choke spindly legged spiders.

Red Crayon Oh red crayon You help me so much. You help me Color in Fire trucks And a really Embarrassed Duck and Strawberry pie And a Dead fly. Oh red crayon You help me much. Leah  

In writing workshop, Tim and Nancy gave us Dove chocolates to eat and write about. We did two drafts about the chocolate. Our first draft was "shallow digging". We ate the chocolate and then we wrote about it but we didn't notice much because we didn't practice. Then our second draft we used more detail and descriptive words. Tim and Nancy had us stop for each step so we couldn't eat it right away. We had to look, listen, watch, feel, and then eat. It was really fun eating and writing about the chocolate. Diego and Yacob

On Friday we went to the Common Ground and it was great. It had lots of things for all ages, even grown ups. Since we are studying Local Foods in science we went to the fair because there are many local farmers and animals there. There were horse shows, dog demonstrations, and a whole section just for kids. There was also a tent for kids who made things to sell. The fair also had lots of food. There were cakes, honey, maple stands, and we even tried syrup made from birch sap. Artists were there too. We saw a penguin made from a gourd. Each person got $5 to spend on something. Some of us bought honey, bracelets, crafts, and drinks. It really is a one of a kind fair. It was a great trip and you should all go next year. Rafe, Jackson, Elefe, Abie, Diego, Yacob, Yasmine            

On Friday, September 15 we had a community building trip to Ft. Williams. First we played two games. One was called Triangualtion and the other was Sharks and Minnows. After we were done with that we got to choose to play on the swings, the field, the rocky beach, or paint and draw. We also went on walking trips to parts of the fort. Everyone was screaming in the dark tunnels. Lastly, we went to the Children's Garden. We liked the little pond that we could skip rocks in and the flowers and shady spots. It was a good trip! Rodas and Yasmine