Grandfriends Day! Journey to Topaz Math Update End of the Year Activities It was so wonderful to meet so many Grandfriends on Friday. We started off our time with them by having a morning meeting-albeit a rather cramped morning meeting. Students and grandfriends greeted each other with a "multilingual" greeting. Then to get to know each other a bit better, we shared a happy memory from 5th grade (or if we couldn't remember anything from 5th grade, another happy elementary school memory would suffice). We had such a blast hearing about Calvin's grandmother's secret language she and her classmates made up, and how joyful Mirna's grandfriend was to be back in the school where she taught 5th grade many years ago! When the grandfriends headed off to PE class, they first watched their little friends warm up, and then they all were invited to participate in some badminton. Afterwards, they returned to the classroom to participate in a Found Poetry activity. This is when pages from books are photocopied and students work to find a poem within an existing text. Students and grandfriends got their creative juices flowing, and they created some truly beautiful, and some silly, poems. We had just enough time at the end for students to share their work aloud with the group. Check out the photos below of our day with the wonderful visitors. In Language Arts we are reading our final classroom novel of the year. We started Journey to Topaz. In this book, readers follow Yuki and her family during the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor bombing. Yuki and her brother Ken are American citizens, so they are surprised and saddened when they hear they are going to be moved to an internment camp as many Americans begin to distrust Japanese Americans. Their father was imprisoned because he is a leader in the Japanese community. Their mother tries to stay positive, but this story and others just like it are heartbreaking and true. The class was quick to make connections to other times in American history when a group of people are feared or blamed when someone of the same nationality, ethnicity, or religion does something that causes harm to the United States. As they read the book, I expect them to become frustrated with this piece of history. One of the main reasons I appreciate studying history is to look for patterns, but I also believe that we can learn from and improve upon mistakes we have made. For example, we read an article about the Executive Order that President Trump passed in early 2017 banning immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. The class started to see that sometimes we do not learn from our mistakes, but at least we can aim to be responsible citizens who promotes honesty, commitment, and respect for others, like in our school mission statement. On Thursday the class read an article about Fred Korematsu, a Japanese American man who went into hiding instead of being detained and sent to an internment camp. The article does a good job of connecting recent political events (Arab American immigration in 2017) to Japanese internment. Several students were surprised that history had repeated itself so closely. They were also surprised the government would treat its American citizens this way (about two-thirds of the Japanese people put into internment camps were born in the U.S.) In math we jumped ahead to unit 11, which focuses on graphs and probability. Students started this unit off by investigating some graphs related to gender inequality and careers, as well as educational background. Once we got the hang of basic graph and table characteristics, we were able to discuss more detailed and significant graphs like the ones below. Last but not least I have listed our upcoming events. May is a busy time!
-May 10: Spring Concert. Students should arrive 20 minutes or so before the concert begins. -May 11: 5th Grade Overnight. Packing list here. -May 12: 8 am pickup from the overnight. -May 16: Student Work Showcase after All School Meeting -May 18: Blue and Gray day Happy Sunday, and see you soon! Sarah
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