December 20, 2013 Happy Holidays!

On the first day of Winter Break it's snowing! I'm sure all the Navigators are outside frolicking in the snow and are making their own Frostys! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

And their teacher is at home figuring out how to pluralize a name ending with a y.

According to grammarbook.com here's how:
http://data.grammarbook.com/blog/apostrophes/tips-on-apostrophes-with-names/

December 19, 2013 A Week of Holiday Cheer!

Winter concert rehearsal

The night of the concert and the finish of the Frosty the Snowman dance--a snowman made of various sized drums. Very improvisational and very Seabury. 

The all school Snowflake Breakfast

Moms flipping the pancakes

Sing-along with Ms Blackwood, our Performing Arts teacher

Squeezing in a one minute math timing

Stranger in the Woods, the video

Goodies for all! 

And ready for a long winter's break!

December 12 The Twenty-One Balloons Grand Finale

The Navigators just finished listening to the classic children's book, The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois. They are eager to write a sequel to the fun, adventuresome book and to go on a balloon trip themselves!

And so we've been writing down our ideas, we've made our own fantastic balloons and we've studied the science of hot air balloon travel. How exciting it was the day we launched our own sky lanterns. The decibel level was off the scale!

November 27, 2013 Thanksgiving week in the Navigators class

The timing is perfect this week for the Navigators to study the people who came to America to escape religious persecution--the Pilgrims. We're just finishing up our study of "The Age of Exploration" and are transitioning into the study of the people who came to settle this vast new land of opportunity.  As we study the Colonial Period we'll be looking at the "treasures" (concept of the year!) people came to America to seek which eventually led to the declaration of the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

This is what we know when the week starts. Then we begin to read!

We discover many facts in Ann McGovern's book ...If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620. 

We read diaries.

  

And non-fiction picture books. 

The Very First Thanksgiving Day

We read about the lives of Pilgrim and Native American children. 

Math time! We make Wampanoag trading beads called Wampum. 

Three purple beads equals 2 cents.
Three white beads equals 1 cent.

Math takes concentration.

Time to think mathematically

And time to document it on paper

We're doing multiplication without even knowing it!

Lots of wampum to trade. 

Some groups made purple, white and gold wampum. This required another level of math. Differentiation at its best.

And now we know:

• The Pilgrims came on the Mayflower. 
• The Wampanoags used wampum beads as money.
• Pilgrims harvest in the fall.
• The Pilgrims' children's names were like Hope, Love, Faith, Remember or Constanta.
• There was a man named Squanto. He was very nice.
• The Pilgrims built their houses. They also figured out how to plant crops. 
• They invited Squanto to their first Thanksgiving.
• They had to go to North America  because of their religion.
• Most Indians did not wear feathers.
• They went to worship God in their own way.
• They harvested before winter came.
• Squanto's village was near the Pilgrims' camp. 
• They wore bonnets.
• It was a hard life for the Pilgrims.
• Some Pilgrim kids wrote diaries.
• They planted corn and peas and beans and wheat.
• They  came to practice their own religion. 
• They had the first Thanksgiving. 
• Most people eat turkey on Thanksgiving.

  

November 25, 2013 aMAZing Writing Projects

Using the steps of Writer's Workshop, the Navigators have been going through the process of writing and have "published" several great projects. Here are a few of them:

Diary of a Map by C. (in the style of Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin) 

I am a map. I am a map of a country called Madagascar. I am a gray map and I am on a bulletin board in the basement of C.’s house.

The best time for me is when I get taken off the wall and get to go to Madagascar and go in these huge buildings.

I get lonely when Mom, Dad [and siblings] are away from me.

I am most afraid when someone stabs me with a push pin. They actually do hurt and I get holes in me!!

I can’t wait until the day I get to go Chicago. I’m going to go in a pool. I hope I don’t get all soggy and rip.

Three things I don’t like about me are I get ripped when I get wet, I can’t do flips because I don’t have legs or arms and sometimes I get stuck in an elevator.

Three great things about being me are I can travel to Madagascar for free because I can be in a suitcase, I live in C.’s house and I help Navigators and Explorers travel!

Diary of a  Table  by K.  (in the style of Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin) 

I am a table. I am not a regular table that you put lamp on but I am an eating table. I live in a neighborhood called Marine Hills. The Anderson family owns me.

The best time for me is when I get to go to Chicago. When the Anderson family goes on vacation they take everything with them including me.

I get lonely when people are asleep. They don’t sleep with me because they have their own bedrooms.

I am most afraid of the cat. It can scratch me and it bites my legs.

I can’t wait until the day my grandpa comes to see me. He stands right next to me and we talk to each other. It’s a holiday and everybody comes over and they all eat together.

The thing I don’t like about being a table is when people spill on me and when they stab me with a pencil or a butter knife. Also I can’t go to school and I can’t play video games.

I do like it when my family comes and sits around me and puts good food on me, on plates of course. 

Alexa’s Journeys by S. (A story about an explorer)

I, Alexa Clet, am ready for my journey, with my companions Piper and Malisa Neat. We entered our sky jet, Opal Jade. I sprinkled some pixie glitter on the wing tips, and our jet flew of like a shooting star. In two days flat, we arrived at The Lost Kingdom. We landed the jet in the Lost Kingdom. As Piper led us through the Achour Garden, avoiding the Serrpenttine Flowers, soon we found some Giant Tulips to sleep in. The next day we traveled some more. It was a long time till we even saw a centaur, because of their speed. Suddenly a hydra flew over the horizon, I was petrified, frozen. If the hydra saw us, we’re history! Finally, what seemed like hours, the hydra flew away.

 We tiptoed past some tricky satyrs, trying not to draw attention to ourselves. Finally, we made it to the Abandoned Castle. Malisa had set up camp, and it was late. We sat down around the camp fire and roasted marsh mellows. It was hard to fall asleep, because of the castle’s given urge to stay awake. It might have been a long night, but at last morning came

  The spiders scattered as I walked into the castle, it is the spiral stairs that will give you the fright. At the top turret, I saw something extraordinary, there right in front   of me was the great demon’s tomb and in it was the demon himself, Tyechrie. It was said that an eerie puzzle held his tomb shut, but the best riches lied with him. I raced down to Malisa and Piper, but something stopped me……

 A dark group of nipsies crowded around me, then they lifted me into a portal, and I landed in some sort of shrine. That might seem good, but it’s the worst. It had been enchanted with dark magic, and soon huma driads were playing tag with me. I raced down to the pond, slid down the rail and grabbed three pebbles, one for me, one for Malisa and one for Piper. I kept the stone handy, the dark creatures lunged out of the way for me, because the stone had good magic in it.  I ran out of the shrine and kept running north till I had to turn west because of a storm. I wished a napoliest would spot me, for they can fly. At last I saw a golum out of the corner of my eye, and I ran to it. Golums were friendly creatures, and he was willing to help. The golum took me to a different palace. It was dusk, though, and was getting dark. So the golum and I slept there. In the morning, he took me to Malisa and Piper, I thanked the golum and then Malisa Piper and I went inside the castle.

  The puzzle awaited us. The first part was simple, but the second, not so much. There was a shell-shaped table, and carved onto it were the words:

THIS QUIZ TAKES NO MISTAKES. YOU WILL CHOOSE ONE, AND ONLY ONE ITEM. IF YOU CHOOSE THE WRONG OBJECT, YOU WILL BE DESTROYED. GOOD LUCK.

 It was a threatening sign. I did not want to risk anyone’s life. I thought of the Butterfly Princess, Audry.

“ Always  pick the one that is different from the others.” She would say. As quick as a flash, my arm reached out and grabbed the one with no shape. The tomb responded by opening, and gold began spilling out.

It took us three days to load the silver into Opal Jade. When we returned home, there was a great celebration. Everybody now depended on us, and we couldn’t wait to go back to the Lost Kingdom. But I feel like there’s something I forgot, something important…..

NO DATE (part 1 of a story about an explorer)

Hi, my name is A. I have a bunch of swords. Sorry I forgot to tell you about myself, well as you know my name is A. I have a hundred swords. Each one is a different type of sword. I live in a land of mythical creatures (including griffins, unicorns, gargoyles, and pegasi.) My dream is to visit the Land of Swords. Oh I forgot to tell you that there is no such thing as time in the Land of Swords. In fact, I’m the only person that knows what time is. My mom said that I could go to the Land of Swords when I turn twenty. You become a grownup when you turn twenty. As a matter of fact I turn twenty in a few seconds. Yes! Now I’m twenty and can go to the Land of Swords! 

             “Oh, wait a minute young lady. You have to pack, train and find at least one companion”, mom said.  I said, “but Mom I have the companion part covered. I just finished working on a robot that can’t be killed and will listen to only voice commands and it will only take orders from me.” “I know”, said my mom, “but you know that the amazing swords in the Land of Swords are in the hands of the living dead.” “I know mom”, I said, “That was why I made this indestructible robot. But the packing and training part might take me another month. If you want I’ll start packing.” “Sure”, said my mom, “but let me help you pack because I have had more practice than you.” I pouted my face trying to make her change her mind but it didn’t help. She just said, “Don’t you try that on me.” “But mom”, I said, “I’m twenty now I can do things by myself and I don’t have to listen to you anymore. I’m going to go pack by myself.”           Now I am just going to pack and train myself. Then I went to my room and I started packing my stuff for my trip. I took one of my swords, the one that was made out of foam, some food that will last me thirty years, and I put it all into a single backpack and I eat a lot, so my backpack was packed. I went into the garage to train with my robot and then I pulled off the cloth and turned on my robot and told it to teach me all that I needed to know on my journey. Then my robot said, “You must do exercises before I teach you the hardest sword moves that you will ever do in your life and you must learn how to dodge the living dead. Let me see all of your skills then you can teach me something.” 

            After my training, I went off on foot and found a portal that was surrounded by nuclear bombs and I don’t want to tell you the whole story about that, but I got a pretty bad wound on my leg.  Luckily, my mom snuck a few big band aids into my backpack when I was practicing with my robot.

To be continued…

Cover letter for a job aboard the ship of Christopher Columbus:

Dear Christopher Columbus,

      I would like to be the artist, Captain, carpenter, cook, Doctor, First Mate, cleaning person, map maker, musician, officer, sail maker, writer, priest, ship’s girl and steward. I want to be all of them because I am very interested in all of them. I am very good at cooking.

Thanks,

S.

Dear Christopher Columbus,

I want to have a job on your ship I love to be the boss because I like to be in command of the crew.  I want to be the cook because I make dinner and lunch. I want to be the artist because I am amazing really good drawer.

Sincerely,

C.