February 2006                                                                    Second Issue



Enjoy this second edition of the Durkin Digest! 

Room 25 has been doing many wonderful things! We have been keeping busy learning and having fun. Here's an update on some of our recent classroom happenings... 

The Whipping Boy
By Mitali
      The Whipping Boy is about Prince Horace and Jemmy from the streets. Prince Horace is so naughty that everyone calls him Prince Brat. In case you are wondering who Jemmy is, he is a plain old boy who is taken from the streets to be the prince's whipping boy. A whipping boy is a person who gets spanked for something the prince does wrong.
      One night the prince decides to run away from the palace and takes Jemmy with him. Along the way they meet two thieving cutthroats called Hold-Your-Nose-Billy and Cutwater. The two thieves have a plan to get rich by writing a ransom note. Prince Brat and Jemmy escape before the two thieves can get the note to the king. But Hold-Your-Nose-Billy and Cutwater find them. Are Jemmy and Prince Brat able to escape? Read the book to find out what happens next...
      I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did! 
 

Learning Recorders
By Eric
      Our class started learning recorders in January. First we learned from our music teacher, Ms. Matthews, how to hold the recorder. She made us do torture which is holding the recorder and then putting it on the ground and then holding it again. When we finally memorized how to hold the recorder we learned our first note, the letter "G". Then we put stickers on all the holes! Now we can only play letter "C". Now every time we have music we take off a sticker so we can play a different note. 
 

Figures in Art
By Claire
      We are making paper mache figures in art class. You need these materials: newspaper, flour paste, cardboard, tape, and paint. This is how we use the materials. First, roll the newspaper into long sticks. Next use the sticks to shape the body by using one stick for the torso, one stick to form the legs, and one stick for the arms. After forming the body, crunch up a piece of newspaper into a ball to form the head. Attach the head to the body with tape. Now it's time to make the feet which is one of the hardest parts in making the figure. Make the feet by cutting two pieces of cardboard in the shape of a shoe. Tape the cardboard to the figure.
      After shaping the figure, it's time for paper mache! Dip strips of paper towel into the flour paste. Wrap the strips on the figure beginning with the feet. Continue using the strips to wrap the figure from bottom to top. After the paper mache figure dries, it is time to paint. Painting is a lot of fun. Begin by painting the skin color followed by painting on the clothes. Use yarn to add hair. Finish your figure by painting on a happy face. Paper mache is a lot of fun. 
 

Personal Narratives
By Madison
      Hey! Well do you want to know what a personal narrative is? A personal narrative is a story about something that has happened to you in your life before. Boys and girls in my classroom have written about different topics. For example, I wrote about my experience being in "The Nutcracker". Lenka Serdar wrote about the first time she met a dog named Rusty. When I interviewed her, she said that she met Rusty at her sister's house when she was three or four years old. Madison Keohane chose to write about her sleepover with a cat. The cat was named Finn and was ten months old. She said the sleepover happened last year at her house and it was tremendous!
      There are four simple steps to write a personal narrative. Step 1 is to make a graphic organizer, step 2 is to write it on a first draft, step 3 is to edit it on your first draft, and last but not least is step 4 to write it out on a second piece of paper. And that, my friend, is how you make a personal narrative! Oh no, the line leader is lining us up for recess, I've got to do the Estabrook Listening Look! See you later! 

How We Write Descriptive Paragraphs
By Peter C.
     The purpose of this article is to explain how we write descriptive paragraphs. Descriptive paragraphs are meant to describe or explain a topic. One reason we write descriptive paragraphs is to explain a special place in our life. We write descriptive paragraphs using a topic sentence, four sense words, and a concluding sentence.
Our whole class learns to write descriptive paragraphs in Mrs. Durkin's classroom, room #25. We write these paragraphs during language arts, Tuesday mornings, and Wednesday and Friday afternoons. I really enjoy writing descriptive paragraphs because it helps me explain my thoughts better. 

Evaporation Experiment
By Peter K.
      Our class had an evaporation experiment to study the water cycle. This is what we did to find out how water evaporates faster. We put one cup of water in the sun and another exact same cup in the shade, and we put a narrow and wide cup both in the sun. We made sure to put equal amounts of water in both sets of cups.
      On the first day the cup in the sun had a water level of 115 ml. The one in the shade had 125 ml. (They had both started out with 150 ml) The narrow one had 45 ml and the wide cup had only 4 ml. (They had both started out with 50 ml!) The next day the one in the sun had 105 ml and the one in the shade had 125 ml, just the same as earlier. The water continued to evaporate in the same way over the next couple days. 
      We learned that water evaporates faster if it's in the sun (heat) and if it is in a wide area (more surface area for water to escape). It was fun!