Winter Newsletter
Walnuts
By: BreeZ and Ariyana
In November we had our first field trip, it was a walnut picking service job for the nuns of Saint Gertrude. First, we had to drive on the school bus to Doug Baune’s house. (who was the guy who let us pick up walnuts in his yard) Then we started to pick up walnuts. We had these things called walnut picker uppers that helped us a lot. We all had a lot of fun but eventually we had to go back to school. But then when we got back, we got surprised with cocoa, hot apple cider, and muffins.
Hatchet
By: John Didelius
In December we were reading a book called Hatchet and answering questions about it. The book Hatchet, is about a thirteen year old kid named Brian whose parents had divorced recently and he knew the reason for it. He was on a visit to his dad who lived in Canada, when the pilot had a heart attack and died. I won’t tell you more about the book, because that would spoil it for you if you are planning to read it. Some of the questions we had to answer were regular ones, and the other ones were where we had to define certain words like carp or wallow.
The Epiphany Project
By: Ariyana
An Eastern tradition on Epiphany is to bless the doorway of one’s home. To do this, write the following inscription above your front door in chalk: 20+C+M+B+23
The number of the new year is split at the beginning and end. The initials C,M, and B represent Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, the three wise men. The crosses in between stand for “saint.” The letters also abbreviate the prayer “ Christus mansionem benedicat,” which means “May Christ bless this house.”
As you write the inscription, say the prayer, “May Christ bless this house,” asking for God’s blessing on all who enter your home throughout this year.
Jesse Tree
(Hadley)
We have a tree which represents a Jesse tree. A Jesse tree was created to help people link the custom of decorating Christmas trees to the events leading up to Jesus’ birth. The tradition of decorating Christmas trees actually predates the arrival of Christianity in western Europe and was adopted by early Christianity, people made Jesse trees. Many parishes and families make Jesse trees during advent to remind them of these events as they prepare for Christmas. So what we do is make ornaments and present them on the tree on the countdown to Jesus’ birth.
Paper quilling
By: Macee
For art class we did a project called paper quilling. Mrs. Green showed us how to take a metal thing and put the paper into it. After you put the paper in it, you curl it around until you get to your desired length. You then either glue it or shape it into a shape and glue it onto your paper. Some kids made things like reindeer, snowmen, and Christmas trees. (see image carousel above)
Hey Deer!
By: Grace Goeckner and Macee Wessles
We did a HEY DEER! Narrative writing, where we watched a silenced video that had no words then in part 2 we wrote a narrative writing and we had to use a different point of view. All of the 5th grade students worked really hard to make it the best narrative writing. We had 1 week to write one part-10 slides-most of the kids got all of them done, others did all they could. We had to, also, write a narrative of our choosing and also get about 13 slides done in one week. You parents will not be able to wait to read the storys, they turned out great! So put your nose in that book!
Veterans day
By: Maddy and Engel
Veterans day was fun! To start Veterans day, we all sang “The Star Spangled Banner”. Then, the 2nd sang, “There Are Many Flags'’. After that good song`8th sang “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”. Then the 3-7 sang “The Armed Forces Medley”. After that song we did the medley “Wild Blue Yonder(Air Force)”. Then the “Anchors Aweigh(Navy”). Then “Semper Paratus(Coast Guard)”. Then “Marines Hymn”. Then we all sang “The Army Goes Rolling Along(Army)”. To end Veterans day Ms. Holthouse gave here amazing speech than we went to go find our family members.
TINKER LABS
By: Emily and Abby
So far this year in Tinker Labs, we have figured out how to make a machine that can draw curvy lines. We also made a machine that would move without wheels. The one that did the best, used the vibration of the motor to move the robot, and we all were impressed. Also, we did a tinker challenge where we tried to make something that launches a wheel. People were very creative with their ideas. Some people tried a normal-ish slingshot, where they used an L bracket and screwed it into the chassis. Then, Some people did stuff more like 2 L shaped wooden connectors as supports and a chassis in the middle with a small motor and battery pack that we used rubber bands to hold them
IMG_0201.MOV
Explorer Speeches
By: Tori Krahn, Macee Wessels, and Reese Hoover
This winter, we started on world explorer research and spent about four weeks preparing for our speeches. We had about two to three days to make giant posters to stick our heads and arms through to present our speeches. On Wednesday and Thursday, we presented our speeches to the Pre-K through 2nd grade students. We made notecards to read off and we had to write our entire speeches on them. The explorers were Ferdinand Magellan, John Cabot, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, Francis Drake, and Vasco da Gama. We were in groups, the Ferdinand Magellan group was Reese, Tori, Engel, and Decker. Ari, Philip, Macee, and John were the Christopher Columbus group. The Francis Drake group was Grace, Garret, Andy, Henry, and Eli . Hadley, BreeZ, Molly, Emily,and Lane were in the Amerigo Vespucci group.
Vasco da Gama
Ferdinand Magellan
Sir Francis Drake
Amerigo Vespucci
Christopher Columbus
John Cabot
ALUMINUM ART
For an art project Mrs. Green gave us some aluminum sheets and stylists. She told us to poke the stylists onto the aluminum. We made some cool stuff like American flags, mountains, and floral designs. The class had a lot of fun doing this project and we hope we get to do it again.