Toilet Paper King Contest

For our Reading Rumpus Celebration, we had author Jeff Rivera read his book, Um. . . Mommy, I Think I Flushed My Brother Down the Toilet, to our 2nd graders.  After asking him questions about what it is like to be an author, Mr. Rivera challenged our class to design our own Toiler Paper King. We let our imaginations go wild and had fun creating this interesting character. Mr. Rivera also mentioned that he would select his favorite illustration and include it in his next sequel! To meet the actual Toilet Paper King, check out Jeff Rivera's sequel, Um. . . Mommy, I Think I Flushed My Brother Down the Toilet (Again): Return to Yuck Kingdom.

Day Out

Mrs. Deyamport's 5th Grade TEA Time is doing a cool field trip project! Our goal is to plan a spring field trip for the class. Here are some key points we need to keep in mind for the plan.

• Destinations
• Mileage, $0.50 per mile
• Admission price
• $200 from PTAGrant 
• Price per student

We learned lots about geography and finance. We also learned about how to find and present information.

Blog Post by Jacob
Pictures by Andrew

It's a Math Party!

Who knew math was so much fun! 

As part of a math enrichment project, our Rocketeers planned their own math party! Students were able to select a theme (that was not related to a holiday) and create an itemized list to cover food/snacks, plates, cups, other utensils as well as items for goody bags. Students were given a budget of $100 and carefully selected items that would be appropriate for their themed party. Some examples of themes that groups selected included: A Disco Party, a picnic, and a Paris Sweet Shoppe. Students found items for their goody bags from Oriental Trading Company, while food items were purchased at a local grocery store.  Since we did not have exact prices from our local grocery store, students had to provide their best estimation for the items that they needed. Overall, the group that collaborated as a team (i.e. distributed tasks evenly and were actively engaged throughout the planning) and that created the most detailed itemized list (with the closest estimations) was selected. Our winner for the party was the Paris Sweet Shoppe.

Our goody bags are ready to go. 

Thanks to the PTA, our project was funded, which put our plans into action! Our project was successful in that it challenged students to apply estimation and addition skills in a real world setting. It was even more authentic when they discovered that their efforts transformed into an actual party that they have planned for! One suggestion to improve this project was to assign homework that involved researching prices for items purchased from the grocery store. This would have given our students a more accurate look at the actual amounts that they had to spend versus an estimation. 

Look at all these goodies we bought with our PTA Grant!

Working Hard and Getting Smart!

  

The 5th Grade REACH Class has been working hard and getting smart! We have been drawing pictures on Ms.Carter and Ms. Deyamport's windows to boost school spirit! Personally I have been drawing on Ms. Carter's windows because I think since they are closer to the other classrooms, people will see them more.

 Our motto is "Work Hard, Get Smart!" and sometimes Ms.Hornsby, our principal, is encouraging us with the phrase, "Catch the eye of the tiger!" (Our school mascot is a tiger.)  In all, our total number of windows done is 7! Hip Hip Hooray for Thames Elementary School!

                                                                                                                                      By: Kameron

Poet's Corner

Last semester our REACH Rocketeers were hard at work composing different types of poems. Have a look at our Poetry Showcase below.

1. Animal and Name Acrostics 

To get to know each other, students created name acrostic poems to describe themselves, their interests, and talents. Students also added illustrations to their poems. Next, students chose an animal that they wanted to learn more about. They were encouraged to choose uncommon animals and construct an acrostic poem to show what they learned. Here are some samples from 3-6 grades.


2. Self-Portrait Poems
Students also explored similes and metaphors to improve their poetry by creating self-potrait poems to describe themselves. To accompany their poems, students also made self portraits out of torn paper. The biggest challenge was to design these portraits without using rulers, scissors, or pencils! Have a look at these masterpieces made by our 4th graders.


3. Sharing Our Work 
As a culminating activity, our 3rd graders shared their animal acrostic poems with Mrs. Musone's class on Skype.