January 2007                                                                    Second Issue


Enjoy this second edition of the Durkin Digest!

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

Fractions and Decimals 
By Abe
      Fractions and decimals are very important. You use them in cooking, when spending money, and of course, math. The world would be a crazy place without decimals and fractions. For example, if somebody tried to make chocolate chip cookies, nobody would know how much ingredients to put in. They might put a pound of each ingredient in, who knows? Decimals also have a good job. They keep cents in money. For instance, if somebody wanted $2.35 they might have got $235 without the decimal point. Fractions and decimals are used in many ways. Without them, the world would be a crazy place (which I said on line 4). 
 

Straw Weavings 
By Hannah K.
      Mrs. Durkin's class has started straw weavings in art. To make a straw weaving you will need three straws (not bendy), scissors, tape, and yarn. First, cut the yarn into three pieces. Make each piece your arm span long. Get the three straws, yarn, and tape. Put one end of each piece of yarn into each straw. Bend the string over a little bit of the top of the straw and tape it down to the straw. Get a new ball of yarn. Cut it your armspan again except only once. Tie one end of the yarn to one of the straws (not the middle one). Start weaving by taking the other end of the yarn and weave it in and out through the straws. After a while you will realize that you have no more room to weave. To fix the problem, slide down some of your weaves and you will have more room to keep weaving. When you have finished all the way down (about 3 inches away from the bottom) slide off the knots on the straws onto the string. Once you have done that, tie a knot at each end of the yarn. Then you have a straw weaving. Try it. 
 

Wilbur, We Broke a World Record! 
By Bernard
      Wilbur, you know what? We broke a world record by reading your story!
     On December 13, 2006, we joined many students from other schools across the U.S. to break the "Guinness World Record for the Most People Reading Aloud Simultaneously in Multiple Locations". Students and staff in grades 2-5 at Estabrook, including every student in Mrs. Durkin's class, all participated in this event. We read a passage about one page long from Charlotte's Web, written by E.B. White. This is one of my favorite stories.
     The previous record was held by 155,528 students from 737 schools in the United Kingdom. They read William Wordsworth's poem, "Daffodils," on March 19, 2004. But this time we have many more people than them. Last week, my dad helped me log onto the internet and find the exact number of participants on that day. Believe it or not! There were 547,826 readers in 2,451 locations, from 50 states and 28 countries, gathering together to break this world record. And we are part of them!
When I was reading the passage, I was very nervous and made some mistakes. Everybody in Mrs. Durkin's class looked a little bit nervous, too. Our sound was not very loud. But we all paid attention to the story reading. After we finished, we all felt very happy.
     I think it is cool. I never imagined before that I could have the opportunity to break a world record. After reading Wilbur's story, I asked my dad to buy a book of Charlotte's Web for me, and he agreed. Wilbur, I like to read your story again and again. 
 

Personal Narratives (Please Read) 
By Kristin
      Our class has been writing short stories about special events. Some topics that we have chosen include getting a pet, going on a trip, having a swim meet, and more! The assignment was hard but fun. First we had to brainstorm ideas for a topic. Next we had to write our first drafts. Then we had to edit our work. Finally we wrote and illustrated our final draft.
     This was a wonderful experiences because we were able to choose a topic that was important to each of us! We also enjoyed drawing borders to go along with our stories. Writing personal narratives was fun because we all were able to share our special adventures and experiences with everyone in class. 

SOME PIG 
By Peter
     Last December Mrs. Durkin started reading Charlotte's Web to us. We are still reading it. Mrs. Durkin usually reads it to us before lunch. Charlotte's Web is about a pig named Wilbur who is raised by a girl named Fern. Soon Wilbur gets too big and has to live at the Zuckerman's farm. At the farm Wilbur meets a spider named Charlotte. Then Wilbur becomes famous because Charlotte wrote "some pig" in her web.
Right now we are at the part when Mr. Zuckerman takes Wilbur to the fair. It is a really good book. I can't wait until we finish it. 

Amazing Recorders! 
By Katie
      In January 2007, Mrs. Durkin's third grade class did something very exciting! We started playing recorders. The day that we got our recorders was really exciting. That day, when we went to music, Ms. Matthews told us that the recorders that she had ordered for us had come. Then she told us that some of us were going to watch a movie, while others helped her put nametags on the recorders and their cases. That day was really fun!
The next time that we had music we did something somewhat odd. We put colored smiley-face stickers on all of the holes on the recorders. Dark green for the very bottom hole, purple for the hole above that, violet for the hole above that one, light pink for the next hole, then orange, then yellow, then light blue, and dark blue for the thumb hole. These stickers are for helping us cover the holes on the recorder. We have a partner and when Ms. Matthews says, "Partner-check," we turn to the person next to us and say if we see any colors on the stickers. Then, our partner does the same thing to us. Working with recorders is really fun!