January 2008                                                                    Second Issue


Enjoy this second edition of the Durkin Digest!

In their own words, here is what our class has been up to: 

The Weighty Word Book 
By Leah
      Hi, my name is Leah Strohmeyer and I will be reporting a story about The Weighty Word Book. My class and I have learned a lot of words like abasement, bifurcate, coruscate, dogmatic, expedient, felicity, geriatrics, heresy, ingratiate, juxtapose, kleptomaniac, laxity, and misdemeanor. We learn a new word almost every day and the class loves the stories that help us remember a word. 
My favorite story is about "ingratiate". Henrietta invited Horatio over for dinner. She wanted to wear her nice new red dress, but he did not like it. She wore her nice blue dress and he didn't like that either. She kept trying on dresses but they didn't work for him. Finally her last dress in the closet was a gray, raggedy dress. She tried the gray dress and he liked it. So, in gray she ate dinner. "In gray she ate", sounds like "ingratiate", which means to try to please someone. 
 

Tornadoes 
By Trevor
      In class we have learned about tornadoes. A tornado is a dark column of wind which destroys everything in its narrow path. In the US there is a place called "Tornado Alley". Tornado Alley is a place where a LOT of tornadoes happen. The states are Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri.
A tornado is formed by wind from Canada and dry air from Mexico. So it gets mixed with the air in the US. They commonly meet in Tornado Alley. And since the hot air weighs less, it rises. Next the hot air goes into the atmosphere where it cools. So the hot air starts to spin. It can reach speeds up to 300 mph. Now you know about tornadoes! 
 

Multiplication and Division 
By Jonathan
      This year we are learning about multiplication and division. We started with multiplication and then we did division. Did you know that multiplication and division are opposites? Multiplication and division is hard at first and then it becomes easier. Here are some tips: Multiplying numbers by zero, one, or two is simple. Anything times zero is zero. Anything times one is the number times it. Multiplication and division is fun. 
 

What Did They Learn in Colonial Times? 
By Shanna
      What kinds of books did the colonial children use in school? Most children in colonial times used battledores in school. Battledores were paper schoolbooks that had fables, the alphabet, and sayings. The battledore would teach colonial children how to read. A battledore was used for learning. 

Third Grade Receives Recorders 
By Will
     On January 7, the third grade started to receive their recorders in music class which made everyone so happy. A recorder is a musical instrument that you blow into and cover and release holes to make sound. A recorder sounds somewhat like a flute.
Our music teacher, Mr. Abrams, put tape on the holes so we could only play one note. Once we learn a note, he will take the tape off of the note that we learned. We will then be able to learn other notes. Eventually, we hope to be able to play a song.
On our first lesson, Mr. Abrams tried to teach us how to make smooth sounds with the recorder. We learned that in order to create the best sounds, it is important to blow evenly with just the right amount of air. It was trickier than it seemed. We are all looking forward to learning more about how to play recorders, and Mr. Abrams is excited to teach us. 

Student of the Week
By Shannon
      I bet you're thinking, "What is student of the week?"
Well, student of the week is when a student gets to share first every day of the week. They can share about a vacation they went on, a medal or trophy they won, a party they attended, pictures of themselves or their family, or something special someone gave them. They can also share something special they did by telling a story to the class.
There is a poster that the student gets to fill out at school. It tells the class what the student's name is, where they were born, the year they were born, their favorite food, favorite book, a person they adore, and what they want to be when they grow up. At the end of the week the student gets to pick a name out of a silver, metal apple. Whoever's name is picked will be the next student of the week! 

Get Ready, Get Set.. DANCE!
By Sarah G.
      In school we got to see a performance with dancers. These dancers were from Brazil. It was really cool! We got to see them dance, sing, use instruments, and some people even got up to do the dances too! The first dance they did was with sticks. Two of the men from Brazil did it. Another man got to do the drums and sing. We got to sing too! After they performed that dance, they called students from the third, fourth, and fifth grades to come up on stage and dance. It was funny. Then they showed us how to use some Brazilian instruments. That was cool too. The last thing they showed us was a different kind of dance. One of the men was a monkey, the other was a tiger. It was great. Then, again, they called students up. One student was the best dancer (the other student dancers had to copy her), one student was the singer (she sang), and the rest of the students just danced. The rest of us in the audience clapped. It was really funny. At the way end the three men did solo dances while the others clapped or played drums. The Brazilian dancers were sooo cool!