This is Why Halloween is so Scary!

These are the students that dressed for Halloween in my class. As you can see, there is some improvement in looks. Too bad we don't have them do this more often!

Noel School Hallowen Parade

Our school has a tradition of parading the kids around with their Halloween costumes. Here are a couple clips of this years parade.

Too Cool to Miss!

Follow this link to The History Channel's Hidden Spirits Site. Follow the instructions to play the game. Since this is science class, make sure to read the directions carefully so that you can use the instruments to record and collect data. If it is fun, keep it to yourself, 'cause school isn't supposed to be fun!

Can You Sasa?

We have been asked to create a Sasa, Samoan slap dance, and video it for our friends at Tamaki Today. They would like us to give it a little of our "flavor". Get ready and we will video it on Friday! (Halloween just got a little scarier!)

AR Day

AR day was last Wednesday. We planned to spend all day reading books. The students were allowed to bring snacks, wear pajamas, and bring pillows and blankets to get comfortable with. We had a great morning with students reading like crazy. It was awesome to see them reading so intently. Unfortunately, the afternoon was interrupted by an anti-drug assembly. We didn't get to read all day long like we planned.

Blogging Tiger Award for Writing:The House on Maple Street

Congratulations Emily on winning the Blogging Tiger Award for Writing! Here is the story Emily wrote. You can also find it on the Creative Writing Blog.
The House on Maple Street

"Oh no!" Bell says, "Stay away!" she was very scared as a robber is in Bell's house. The robber grabbed Bell and ran to the creepiest house on Maple Street.

"Ms. Bell? Ms. Bell?"

"Huh?" Bell says yawning, waking up in math class.

"What does h equal in 4 times h equals 16?" she looked at Bell doubtfully

"4 times h equals 16 oh, um h equals 3?" she said trying to remember. She heard giggling from the class mates behind her.

"Incorrect. To be correct h=4. Were you sleeping again? If you weren't you would know that I just told you what h equals." Mrs. Patron asked already knowing the answer. Bell heard some whispers across the room. Great Isabella she thought

"Yes, Mrs. Patron…….."

They heard the bell ring that cut off Bell.

She walked down the hallway; Bell heard some snoring, then giggling. She felt miserable. She got out the door realizing there was some snow on the ground. She passed the house she was dreaming about, which were 2 houses away from hers. When she got home she heard some screaming upstairs. She threw my bag on the couch and ran upstairs to find her little brother Simon's hand stuck in a mouse trap.

"What are you doing?" Bell said yelling. Simon's face was wet from tears. He was still whimpering. She carefully took the mouse trap, untangling his fingers.

"Don't ever touch this again ok? I thought you broke a leg or something!" she exclaimed.

6 hours later it was time to go to bed. she have to share a bunk bed with Simon. Luckily she gets top bunk.

"No put me down!" she screamed the bandit got to the house and the house shot from the ground like a rocket ship. It was a perfect lift-off. "I'm in space oh, no." The robber put some rope around her face so she could not talk. She hummed something trying to get something out. He just pulled more tightly. A tear fell from my eye. I cannot believe I am crying. She thought to herself. I need to get home before mom thinks I'm off wondering somewhere.

She saw all the planets. But she did not even try to look at the sun, although it might hurt her eyes anyway. How am I breathing? She thought again.

"Just another dream phew." She said under her breath.

In the morning she woke up and ran downstairs. She turned on the TV, It said there was no school due to snow.

"Yes!" I yelled so loudly that I woke up my brother and he came downstairs. He went over to the window, looked out and gave me a smile.

"Sissy, can we go play in the snow?" Simon asked

"Sure go get your winter clothes on and I will too." As soon as they got downstairs they went outside and had lots of fun.

Blogging Tiger Award for Social Studies

Congratulations, Vanessa on your Blog Action Day post on poverty. You receive the coveted, and rarely awarded Blogging Tiger Award for Social Studies. Here is the link to her post. Go there and congratulate Vanessa on her award.

Blog Action Day: Why We Participate

Today thousands of bloggers are writing about poverty. Why are we participating? With this year's emphasis on the global community, it is important for us to look outside ourselves and our immediate community to see what is going on in the world. You will be having a lesson today on poverty in social studies. What does poverty mean? The United States has a scale that determines the poverty level. According to Wikipedia last year, for example, the poverty line for a family of four was $21,200. Does that reflect poverty in the rest of the world? What differences do you see between poverty in the United States and other countries?



Update: Check out the students' posts on poverty at Compendium.

Blog Action Day 08- Raising Poverty Awareness

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

We are preparing for this day in both Math and Social Sciences. Will you join us?

Would You Like to Write With Us?

Chris Van Allsburg's excellent children's book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick has been a source of writing inspiration for my students for years. I honestly have never had more success getting my students to write than using this book as a story starter.

So, my question to you is, "Will you join us?" I want you to write a story based on one of Van Allsburg's pictures from The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. There are two rules to this assignment:

1. You must use the line that goes with the picture somewhere in your story.
2. The story must have something to do with the picture.

If you don't have a copy this link will take you to Google Book Search of the story.

Write your story on your blog, or use Google docs, or some other on-line publishing and send me the link so my class can read it and so I can link to it. If you can't publish it on-line, email it to me at wmchamberlain@gmail.com and I will post it here on the blog. You can even record audio or video of you reading your story!

There is no reward except for the joy of writing and sharing with others and perhaps the coveted Blogging Tiger Award for Writing to place on your blog or website.

30,000 Hits and Counting

Today my website collected its 30,000 hit. We had a small celebration and I bought a cake for the fifth grade to eat at lunch. I am really pleased with the response this blog has had.

Weather Unit Topic 1

Here is a link to the vocabulary page that I made on the Smart Board. It shows both informal definitions and my graphic representations. Remember, your graphic representations are due after we finish reading the topic.

Passage to Freedom A Study of Character

Passage to Freedom is a biography of Chiune Sugihara. In the story Mr. Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat to Lithuania, signs thousands of travel visas for refugees escaping from the German army in 1940. The picture above is an actual visa signed by Mr. Sugihara.

Mr. Sugihara's efforts reveal to us three of his character traits: compassion, courage, and integrity. Give an example from the story to show one of these traits.





The Commenting Tiger Award goes to Michael for his excellent comment using details from the story. Congratulations

Scientific Inquiry Unit Final

Time to tell me the answer to the essential question for the Scientific Inquiry Unit on buoyancy, "Why do some things float while others sink?

Salt Water Golf Ball Float

A great experiment coupled with a catchy song. Thanks class and thanks Animoto.

This is the last experiment of the unit on Scientific Inquiry. We covered every objective and now all that is left is the Boat Regatta.

Boat Regatta

It is time for the annual Boat Regatta. Here is your opportunity to use all you know about floating and sinking to create your own boat. Here are the rules:
1. You may only use glue and craft sticks.
2. Decorating the boat is okay, but not necessary.
3. Boats must be no larger than 10 inches in any direction.
4. When the boat sinks or breaks apart, it is out of the contest.
5. Everyone is required to make a boat.

Good luck!

Ivory Boat Sink

After the students demonstrated their skill at creating soap boats that floated, I challenged them to create a soap boat that would sink. With this experiment the students had to carve a boat shape they thought would sink. Many thought that it would be no problem to sink a bar of ivory, all they needed was to put a hole in the bottom.







The experiment surprised most of the students, they discovered that Ivory soap would not sink in the water. Here is why.

Soap Boat Float

Every year we do a project where students bring a bar of non-Ivory soap. They carve the soap to resemble a boat. The object is for them to make a boat that will float.

Here are some of the students carving their boats.




After they carve their boats, I ask them why they chose to carve them the way they did. Here are some of the responses.







Most of the boats did float. Boats that had holes in the bottom, or that had low walls on the side did tend to sink. It was demonstrated that the soap would all sink if pushed under water. Afterwards, we discussed why some of the boats floated while others didn't.

Making Aluminum Foil Boats Float

Did you know that a 4x4 inch foil boat can carry 1/3 of the amount of marbles a 6x6 in foil boat can carry? When you find the amount of cubic inches for each, the 6x6 boat has almost 3 times as much volume! This means that big boats can hold much more than smaller boats.

Karana's House from Island of the Blue Dolphin

Here is the winner of Extreme Home Makeover: Karana's House. The white paper rolls represent whale ribs. Notice there is no door, Karana dug out a hole to crawl in and out of. The theme of the story was Don't Panic. Karana was an excellent role model for not panicking when things go wrong.

For this excellent physical representation of Karana's house, Slendy earns the Blogging Tiger Award for Reading. Congratulations, Slendy!