JU-B Red, with Jane and Diane, is currently working on their persuasive writing. They are writing reviews on their individual blogs about different restaurants they went to. In Spanish, they made dreamhouses (which apprently aren’t very “dreamy”) and they have to label at least fifteen objects. In Language Arts, they are reading biographies of different American leaders like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Helen Keller, and many others. They made a timeline for various leaders’ birthdays and important dates in American history. In science, they are learning about crayfish - very aggresive, lobster-like fish - and the way they work and behave. One student even got pinched by one! They’re working on multiplication and division in math class.  


JU-B White:
In science, the White Team third graders are studying the water cycle and evaporation. They have been learning many vocabulary words too. Many of the students enjoy LA, when they have reading and writing workshop. They are reading biographies on historic characters right now, and reviewing restaurants, toys, and books that they have been to or tried. They were very excited to show us their Writer's Notebooks and their reviews. They are also working on cursive and touch-typing, which they seem to enjoy very much. 

In theme, they are studying The Declaration of Independence, and they even made their own, called the Declaration of Recess. They want to have more freedom in the park during recess and want their recesses to be longer, so they made their own Declaration, which was really great to see.

 

In art class, the third graders are currently making clay busts of an ancestor of their choice. In class they did a project including these ancestors, and they are now sculpting them. Nina, a current third grader, is making a bust of her great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather, Anthony Dilworth. Sydney, who was making a lovely crocheted heart, had already finished her bust, which was of her great-great-great grandmother, Martha Banister. All of this, the art and the history, learning about your family ancestors, is part of life at TPS.

The Declaration of Recess:
"We declare that recess is not fair. Firstly, the playground. The primary unit gets to use it whenever they want, the older kids (third and fourth grade and middle school) can only have it when the primary unit is not there. The third is only one year older than most of the second graders. 
Secondly, the tennis courts. We want the tennis courts too!  
Lastly, the basketball courts. People want to play on those too. Older kids also play on those, but like the tennis courts we are willing to play with the older kids."


JU-A Red:
In the fourth grade Spanish class they are learning about different verbs such as “Ser” and “Estar.” To make learning these verbs easier, the kids learned a song called “Yo Soy, Tu Eres.” This happened to be one of our interviewee’s favorite things that she learned so far in Spanish class. Another thing that she loved learning was about body parts and animals. The Spanish classes are focusing right now on a book called Pobre Ana. This fourth grader explained that Pobre Ana is about a poor girl who has very rich friends and feels she is all alone. When her school offers a trip to Mexico for three months she excitedly takes up the offer. When she is in Mexico, she realizes she isn’t alone, and everyone can get upset sometimes. This fourth grader seemed to be very excited about her Spanish class and the things she is learning. 

JU-A Red:

I walked into the classroom and saw the fifth graders or JU-A Red doing math. When I asked one of the students what they were doing in math he said multiplying fractions. In LA they just finished a book about Monkey King, which is about a Monkey who was born and is the leader of the clan, and does a lot of mischievous things. All the students have to do a project on the book. They could either do a play, an essay, a board game or the key moments in the book. In theme they are learning about important landmarks in China, and putting them on their map of China painted on the wall.

When I interviewed another student about specials she said in art they were making tiles.  In music they were learning and singing Chinese operas, and in PE they were learning how to square dance and jump rope. Seems like the fifth grade is have lots of fun!

JU-A White:

When we came to JU-A White, the fifth graders were having math class with Hilary. They tell us that they are working on decimals. Although Hilary is a very good teacher, math is math and it can be hard to draw base ten boxes over and over again. Hilary is a good teacher indeed! Arthur says, “The teacher is very nice, patient, and helpful!” It’s good to know. Their regular math teacher, Jill, is on maternity leave at the moment (congratulations), and Hilary is a long-term substitute.