Ms. Hartshorn’s Classroom News

May 1^st, 2008

Happy May Day!

"Good Morning Earthling Students! We need your help. We are from the planet TRID (dirt spelled backwards). Our planet is in danger and we need you to help us find a way to save it. We heard you have an amazing substance called soil, and we would like you to investigate the ingredients so we can make some to save our own planet and grow our own food. " That was part of the message we heard this week at school, and got us moving to find out what soil really is. We used microscopes, magnifying glasses and other materials to study soil samples we found around school.

We finished our word duel for spring words with Mrs. Orr’s class. Collectively as two classes, we came up with well over 100 DIFFERENT words for spring or things that are connected to spring! The words are being typed and posted into categories for all to see. We have challenged Mrs. Orr’s class to a word duel for the word BLUE. Any words that are synonyms for blue, or things that are blue will work. You and your child might also notice that the word blue has multiple meanings as well. We will have our word duel next Friday, May 9^th. Please help your child make lists of words and send them to school any time between now and next Thursday. Thanks for your support in our vocabulary search!

This week I ‘d like to share with you a little about the writing we’ve been doing. Maybe you’ve heard your child use the phrase "explode the moment." If so, here’s a bit that might help you further understand what we’re attempting to learn as we develop our writing skills…

Yes, we’ve been working on "exploding the moment," by taking a problem in a story we’re writing and using all of the senses we possibly can to show, rather than tell what happened. We have brainstormed what you might hear, smell, touch, and feel with emotion in particular situations. We’ve practiced using similies and metaphors, such as ‘dry as a rock in the hot sun." We’ve read several stories and identified that the introductions and endings of stories are usually only a page or two long, BUT the problem of the story takes up lots of pages. We are learning how to "explode the moment" of the problem in our own stories. When Monday morning arrived, I knew I wanted to work on this writing skill, but I didn’t really know how to help kids just pick a problem to write about UNTIL morning share time…

…After the fifth child in a row shared about a scraped knee or leg, I had an "Ah-ha" moment. Once we finished sharing, we began our writing workshop with: Think of a time you were having a lot of fun—maybe riding your bike, going for a walk, running in a game, etc. AND then all of a sudden, something happened and you got hurt—maybe a skinned knee, a bumped head, etc. Describe what you were feeling, hearing, seeing, thinking during that time. For twenty minutes every child wrote with no help from others. Here are some snippets of what your children wrote and later read aloud to their classmates (I took only short excepts of some pieces):

My knee began burning like it had been set on fire.

My head smashed into the side of the trampoline.

I heard the smack and rolling of the skateboard. It sounded like a train coming straight at me.

The dog leash slipped out of my hands and I slid onto the pavement.

The blood was gushing.

My arm tingled.

When the doctor stuck the needle into my knee, it felt like a plane was smashing into my leg.

I didn’t land on the right side. Instead, my foot landed on the side of the bar and I fell into the post holding up the net at the same time the board bounced up and hit my head with a thump.

My little sister, Buggie kept on saying, "Sissy, owie!"

Once I was playing soccer and rushing toward the goal when all of a sudden a kid charged me…in the process we smashed heads. That blow knocked the wind out of me.

While I was falling from the tree, I scraped some prickers on the way down. I felt like ants were stabbing me with little spears.

My Mom was the one who spotted my terrible lip. It felt like a knife—the sharp part—dragged across my bottom lip.

It felt like a bumble bee was stinging both of my knees at the same time.

I was riding my scooter and I did a pop a wheely. My back wheel came off the ground, but my front wheel stayed on the ground…..I limped over to Mommy…..I got in the world record book for the most skinned knees that summer.

I got a little rock stuck in my knee when I was racing my friends across the pavement.

My knee started to bleed. It stung, too. THEN it really started to hurt!

I tripped on the very tippy top of the steps and banged my knee and elbow and stomach and foot. I heard the wind whiz past me as I fell.

Dates to Remember:

May 7^th: I will be giving all my second graders the Vermont Developmental Reading Assessment. You’ll receive more information about this assessment in the future.

May 8^th: Four Winds Lesson: Plant and Animal Defenses—We will probably be going outside, so please send your child to school with appropriate outdoor wear, INCLUDING comfortable shoes for walking in the woods and fields.

May 8^th: Last Day for Duel words to be added to our list for the word BLUE.

May 15^th: Spring concert with Mr. Close

June 12^th: SECOND graders to Ms. H.’s house—this is an annual event. FIRST graders will get to come next year. It’s a way of celebrating the end of two years together before the big move to THIRD grade.

June 13^th: FIELD DAYS at Moretown School!!!

I think that’s all for now~

Hope we have some more beautiful weather to enjoy this weekend!

Peace~

Brenda