James and the Giant Peach

 

Raise your hand if you were blown away by the raw, comedic talent demonstrated by the Players of Room 5!  Watching the kids perform “James and the Giant Peach” on April 28th and 29th was one of the highlights of my teaching career.  Yes, it took us months to prepare for our class play, but in my professional opinion, it was well worth it! 

Here are some thoughts from the kids on the play and the process leading up to it.
A few days before the play, Anya said, “Our class is doing a play, ‘James and the Giant Peach’.  We have been practicing for a long time.  When Ms. Emily gave us parts everyone cheered for each other.  I felt so good inside.  Now the play is in 3 days.  I cannot wait ‘til the play.  Almost everybody knows their lines.  I am a narrator—Narrator One to be exact.  It is fun because you get to watch the play and the audience.”

 

Nancy (Aunt Spiker) says, “It was SO fun.  Nobody whispered on stage.  I thought, personally, it was incredible!  The only bad thing about plays is they pass by SO fast.  ‘James and the Giant Peach’ was one of the funnest plays I’ve ever done.”

Sacha (Spider) says, “Did you see ‘James and the Giant Peach’?  It was great!  Everyone had fantastic, creative costumes, loud voices and great moves.  I was the elegant lady spider.  It is definitely something I would want to do again.  A couple of my lines were: ‘And suddenly there were little green things everywhere.  The soil was full of them.’  ‘If you haven’t noticed, we are about to depart from this ghastly hilltop that we have been living on for so long…’”

Miles (Officer 2) says, “I felt shy in a way.  It was tough to memorize my lines.  It was perfect.  I liked when people laughed.  I would definitely do it again!”

Brad (Lead Cloud Man) says, “It was very fun and exciting and awesome.  It was super funny and super cool.  It was a great time.  All of the main characters were bugs.  Except for one who was a boy.  I was a lead cloud man (there’s only one lead cloud man).  Everybody always laughed, that’s another reason why I liked it.  I liked it because it was short and fun.  I’m kind of sad it’s over and a little happy that it is over.  I’ll never forget this funnest thing in my life.”

Anya (Narrator 1) says, “Did you go to our play ‘James and the Giant Peach’?  Well… if you did not, read this.  I, Anya, was a narrator!  I got a big part!  I loved that everyone worked together to make a great play.  My favorite part was when Mrs. Trotter and Mr. Trotter were running away from the rhinoceros.  Everybody did great and Ms. Emily was a wonderful director.  I can’t wait for next year’s play.”

Orion (Mr. Trotter) says, “Our class just put on our play!  I was the father of James.  The name of our play was ‘James and the Giant Peach’.  I also was the curtain patrol.  This means I closed and opened the curtains at the end of every scene.  There was a lot of funny parts in our class play too.  The most funny parting our play was when the aunts of James were talking about how beautiful they were.”

Ruby (Aunt Sponge) says, “Our class play ‘James and the Giant Peach’ zipped past in the blink of an eye!  First thing I know, we’re building sets, next thing, we’re all done!  For me, the play was last minute, but fun.  Being Aunt Sponge, I had no costume until dress rehearsal.  I had no make up until the first show! 
The fun thing for me about being Aunt Sponge was how Nancy (Spiker) and I were in character, even when we weren’t practicing.  We would have conversations like: “Oh, Sponge, you eat too much.  You need to lose weight, like I did.”
“Well, you need to gain weight, Spiker!”
Overall, it was very fun.  If you didn’t see it, you really missed out!”

Alexander (Earthworm) says, “Our class did the play ‘James and the Giant Peach’.  I was the Earthworm.  Being the Earthworm was really fun because I got to lie down the whole time!  One of the other fun parts about the play was when the Cloud Men were throwing hailstones at James, me, and the other insects.  It was really fun acting up on the stage with all the other actors!  I also really liked everyone laughing at a lot of everyone’s lines.  I liked reading backstage and waiting for my part to come.”

Pema (Narrator 4) says, “It was so fun to do the play ‘James and the Giant Peach’.  I think the play at night was better.  I had a great time and it went smoothly.  How did you like it?  I hope you did because we worked hard on it.  I was Narrator 4 and I loved being that.  Anyway, the play was really funny.  I think we all did a great job.”

Sophia (Narrator 2) says, “Last week on April 28th and 29th we did a performance of ‘James and the Giant Peach’.  I was one of the four different Narrators.  It was so much different than being an actor and memorizing your lines!  I very much prefer being an actor.  I love being in plays.  The nice thing about being a narrator is you can watch the play too.  My favorite line in the play was when Earthworm said, ‘And they will take me first because I am fat and juicy and I have no bones.’  Unfortunately, we cut that line out.  I had two favorite parts that made it into the play.  My line, ‘licked clean and shiny by ten thousand eager little tongues’, and Centipede’s song.  I really liked Narrator 3’s costume too.”

Finally, Nico, our third grade friend from Ms. Erika’s room, says, “I really liked Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker.  The Centipede was really good.  And I really liked the Earthworm and James.  I really like the part when they were in the sea.  The Cloud Men and the Ship Crew really stood out.  Brad, the Lead Cloud Man did a great job.  The Spider, the Grasshopper, and the Lightening Bug did a really good job.  But everybody did a great job!”

 

Life in the Fast Lane

I suppose there will always be seasons in life when it feels as if everything is happening at warp-speed.  That is how the past two months have felt for me as Captain of Room 5.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining.  It has been a fun, wild ride lately.  But, boy, as soon as we get one project wrapped up around here, we are off to the next thing without a moment to spare.  I am missing the slower pace of the fall and winter months, when it seemed we were able to sit and process our experiences in a more leisurely fashion. 
Today I find myself with a spare half-hour while the kids are at art, and I am using it to sit down and write a long-overdue blog post. 
Now, where to begin? 

The Science Fair
I hope you all had the chance to come to the Manor School Science Fair back on April 20th.  I will tell you I was not too excited about participating in the Science Fair.  It just seemed like too much was going on.  Alas, the science educator in me realized that this was a valuable opportunity for the kids to practice scientific inquiry using the scientific method. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect the day the projects were due.   Did I give the kids enough support to set them up for success?  I don’t think so, but somewhere along the line, the kids seemed to get what they needed.  They proved to me that they understood the PROCESS of investigation.  Most even showed evidence of controlling variables in their experiments.  And all proved that THEY were the masters of their projects.  They knew their stuff and they displayed their findings in the way second and third graders should. 

One of the greatest moments was when we set up all the projects in the classroom for our Room 5 Science Fair.  The kids spent time presenting their projects to their curious classmates, each one of them beaming with pride at their big accomplishments. 

Thank you all for helping to make the Science Fair a big success for the kids of Room 5, and the teacher of Room 5.

Room 5 Service Project and the Care Fair
Over the past month or so, we have been working on a service project to raise money to support Smile Train and Red Cross Earthquake Relief.  The kids have been creating products out of sustainable materials.  In conjunction with a study of producers and consumers, we decided to create real goods to sell (for real money) to support those in need.  The kids have been making reusable shopping totes out of old t-shirts, beautiful beads out of old magazines, and other fun products.

We will be selling the goods at the Fairfax Farmers’ Market on an upcoming Wednesday afternoon.  We hope to see you there!

Star Testing
We have recently finished our California state-mandated assessments, the STAR Test.  I’ll let Nancy explain this one. 

“The STAR Test is this week.  For Manor School it’s when all the 3rd graders get together.  At the same time the 2nd graders get together.  They answer questions, hard and easy.  At the stop sign we stop.  3rd graders and 2nd graders, 4th and 5th graders do the STAR Test once a year in the first week of May.
Rules (Kids and Grown-ups):
1. Be silent.
2. Don’t help the kids.
3. Don’t look at other people’s work.
4. Sign contract (so you don’t get fired!!)”

I think she’s summed it up pretty well, although I’m not sure where she got rule number four.  I will add that the novelty of the testing is quite a thrill for many of the kids.  I’ve heard many of them say, “I love STAR Testing!”   I think it might have something to do with the fact that they get a Dixie cup of snacks to munch on during testing sessions. 

Science with Carolyn
As most of you know, Kaden’s mom, Carolyn, has served as Room 5’s science teacher this year.  She is a certified, talented science teacher, and the kids have thoroughly enjoyed the lessons she prepares for us on a weekly basis. 

Lately, the kids have been learning about soil, rocks, and fossils.  Take a look at some of the awesome investigations Carolyn has prepared for the class.  One lesson involved excavating a real, fossilized shark tooth from a rock.  Another lesson had the kids digging through strata, or layers of earth, to uncover fossils.   At this moment, the kids are outside with Carolyn collecting soil samples for today’s investigation.