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. 

We love our National Parks!

"We have been studying National Parks.  Some of the parks were Yosemite, Dinosaur, Yellowstone, Mt. St. Helens, Great Smoky Mountains, Grand Canyon, Glacier, and Death Valley.  We had a great big party, which included delicious trail mix.  Everyone got to read ABC books that we made.  During lunch time, some of the kids got to help set up tents.  All the girls made a campfire (but it was not real).  Ms. Emily read a true story to us.  My favorite part of our National Park study was making our ABC books.  Liza and I studied Mt. St. Helens.  My favorite fact was: the ash from Mt. St. Helens went around the WORLD.  Another favorite was hearing everyone’s favorite pages from their ABC books.  I think that was the best fun ever!!!  And I will remember it very well!!!!!”

--Anya

“We’ve been studying National Parks.  We just finished it!  On the last day of National Parks, we had a party (celebration) for our National Parks.  We go to make our own trail mix!  It was really, really, really, really, really, really, really fffffuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnn!!! (and a lot more explanation marks)

We got to share our projects with partners.  Mine was a booklet about Death Valley.  I just have to tell you that one time the temperature there was 134 degrees Fahrenheit!”

--Orion

“On our National Park party we ate trail mix and shared research about the National Parks we studied about.  We got a choice to do a report or an ABC book or a tour guide.  We got to have trail mix and we got to see an eagle’s nest!  After the party we went home and that was the end.”

--Diego

“At our National Park celebration we had lots of fun!  We set up tents in our classroom and we set up a campfire.  Then we used one of the tables to arrange some snacks that we brought in.  We made our own trail mix with the snacks!  There were marshmallows, M&Ms, sunflower seeds, cereal, raisins, banana chips, and almonds!”

--Pema

“On Monday the 7^th in March, right before lunch recess, most of Room 5 kids stayed in for recess to set up for our National Park celebration.  There were three tents and two of them probably had more than five people working on each one.  The third was mine, the largest one, but it only took three people to put it up.  The tent with the most people working on it never got put up.”

--Kaden

“On Monday, March 7^th, 2011, Room 5 had a National Park Day.  We made trail mix.  There was cereal, M&Ms, chocolate raspberry chips, strawberry chips, peanuts, and then we ate it.”

--Jeremy



Happy Valentine’s Day!

I hope you all enjoy celebrating the special people in your life this Valentine’s Day.  We certainly did here in Room 5. 

Conversation Hearts were the math manipulative of the day.  The kids had a ball estimating, grouping, graphing, and finally, eating their candy hearts. 

The kids showed their appreciation of each other by exchanging one very special, homemade Valentine with one other classmate.  Once again, the creativity and effort the kids poured into their Valentines was absolutely touching. 

 

And, of course, Valentine’s Day wouldn’t be complete without some sweet treats to enjoy.  Thanks a bunch to Amy for providing a yummy ending to our day. 
Happy Valentine’s Day!

Thank YOU for being a part of Room 5

 Parents, have I told you lately how much I appreciate you?  In particular, your countless volunteer hours have been on my mind.  I don’t know how I ended up with such an enthusiastic, committed bunch of parents, but without a doubt, I have.  I would wager a bet that I have more volunteer hours clocked in Room 5 on a weekly basis than any other classroom at Manor. 
Here is what I love about my volunteers.  First, there is a contingent of classroom helpers that have steady jobs in Room 5 each week.  Carolyn teaches science on Thursdays; Krista and Kathryn lead math games on Fridays; Alice taught mindfulness techniques ever other week in the fall; and Deb plans amazing garden lessons or leads a center each Wednesday.  I have come to count on these ladies to come prepared to do their thing—and they always do.
My math volunteers Paul, Katherine, Gina, and Jo show up each week and provide the invaluable extra support that has enabled my second graders to soar in math.
There are folks like Lisa, Peter H., Peter B., Lisa, Tayu, Kim, Melissa, Abby, and Amy who come in for their scheduled shift never knowing what to expect…  They sign in, look around, find out what needs to be done, and make it happen.  Sometimes they become instant leaders of center games or activities, without missing a beat.  They’ll pull up next to young readers and provide an ear for oral reading.  They’ll clean up messes and maintain the Creation Station.  Nothing seems to be out of the question.
Grace comes in after school for an afternoon each week and maintains the fish tank—a thankless but necessary job, since it would be a cesspool if it were left up to me.  She also waters the plants, which again, would be seriously neglected without her. 
Jennifer comes in most Thursday afternoons to assist in art class with Ms. D.  Just the thought of being around that much creative chaos makes me queasy.  I know Ms. D. appreciates the extra hands. 
And don’t let me forget the parents who drive, again and again, on our fieldtrips.  We literally could not do it without them. 
Of course, I have a couple of fantastic room parents—Amy and Katherine.  As a former middle school teacher, they help me to remember that there are celebrations to be had.  They plan memorable parties and events for the class.  They also communicate the things that get lost in the shuffle of my mind. 
I know there are many of you who serve the MAP community in other ways, like Rick, Grace, Katherine and Amy who serve on the MAP board.  I know some of you are involved with the larger Manor community, participating in the PTA and Winter Faire, like Lisa; and running the Peace Mentor program, like Kim. 
Parents, thank you.  I am so impressed with how you have stepped up to the challenge of working in a classroom with a teacher who is often times figuring things out as she goes.  There is a special measure of peace in knowing that I could call on any one of you to help me out with a special project at a moment’s notice.  You all are absolutely vital to the functioning of this fantastic place we have come to know and love, OUR Room 5.