November 2005                                                                    First Issue


Enjoy this first edition of the Durkin Digest!

 This newsletter will help families and friends better understand all of the activities and events in which their third graders have been involved. The newsletter will be published every couple of months to provide the opportunity for students to share in their own words the school and class activities they have found most interesting. Topics will be chosen together as a class and then several students will write the articles for each addition. By the end of the school year, every student will have contributed at least once.

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

James and the Giant Peach
By Lenka
      This story is about James Henry Trotter and a GIANT PEACH. James is the main character in the story who escapes from his two EVIL aunts and spills green magic beans (which were given to him by an old man). He encounters trouble with the magic that goes to a peach tree instead of to him. The peach has a hole that leads to the big pit. He goes in the hole and finds lots of bugs. They become his new, funny friends. 
      They roll down a hill in the peach and squish his EVIL aunts and keep rolling until they hear a big SPLASH.
They end up in the ocean. You'll have to read the book to find out what happens next! You are sure to enjoy the story....
 

Spanish in Room 25
By Matt
      In Mrs. Durkin's class we learn Spanish. We sing songs, learn the vowels, and learn the alphabet. Some songs we have learned are "The Buenos Dias Song," which means good morning, and the "Buenos Tardes Song," which means good afternoon. In the morning we sing the Buenos Dias Song and in the afternoon we sing the Buenos Tardes Song. I think they are very fun to sing.
      The Spanish alphabet is similar to the English alphabet, but there are some differences. One thing that is different is that the Spanish alphabet doesn't have letters such as w and k. Another thing that is different is that, in the Spanish alphabet, every letter only has one sound. One thing that is similar is the vowels. Both alphabets have a, e, i, o, and u.
      Our Spanish teacher's name is Senora Reyes. The other students and I think she is very nice.
SPANISH IS FUN!
 

James and the Giant Peach Poems
By Samantha
      This year in third grade we learned how to make James and the Giant Peach cinquain poems. In the book, James is a little boy who's lost his mother and father. He had to live with his mean aunts. They were both rude. They made him chop up wood for the fireplace. Aunt Spiker saw a peach growing on the tree and Aunt Sponge did not believe her. Aunt Spiker told Aunt Sponge to look in the tree so that she could see the peach for herself. They did not know that the peach was still growing. The book was great!
      In class, we made poems about lots of characters like James, Aunt Sponge, and Aunt Spiker. We had a lot of fun making these poems. I chose to write about the ladybug. Here is a copy of my poem:

Ladybug
Sweet, kind
Smiling, loving, worrying
She enjoyed getting married
Ladybug
 

Terrific Time for Kids
By Riana
      "Time for Kids" (TFK) is a newsletter. The company that makes the "Time" magazines is the same company that makes "Time for Kids". It tells about the important events in the WORLD. It tells how we can help people, and what we do. It is fun to read it and it's great. On the back it has a word puzzle. In the last Time for Kids, they said that kids should have a better school lunch. My favorite article was about a school that used fresh vegetables and made pizza for school lunch. It was my favorite because it said it was good for your health and it tasted good.

What Is Cursive???
By Vincent
     Cursive is handwriting where the letters are joined together. You learn it so you can write faster. Some of the letters we have learned are a, u, t, i, g, and q. The hard part is when you have to separate the i from the u because you dot (.) the i at the end. The posture to write cursive is to sit up straight and slant your paper. Here is an example for writing cursive: go to 1 o'clock, go back to 6 o'clock, go straight up to 1 o'clock, go back down to 6 o'clock and do the tail (this is the cursive letter a).
       Cursive is fun and when we work we listen to soft music. When we can't hear the music we need to quiet down. It takes a lot of practice to write fast.

Third Graders Meet Wolves
By Samantha
      On September 30th, 2005, all the third grade classes went with their classroom teachers to Wolf Hollow. Wolf Hollow is a place where a family keeps wolves in captivity because a lot of wolves are endangered. The family that runs Wolf Hollow lives in a house right next to the wolves. We went because we were learning about wolves.
       When we got to school, we got on the bus and went to Wolf Hollow. It took about 45 minutes to get there. When we got there, we sat on benches. We could see wolves next to us and in front of us. The first thing we did was watch the wolves and hear a woman talk about them. The woman who led the talk worked at Wolf Hollow. During the talk, she got the wolves to come up close to the fence by shaking a bag with wolf treats in it.
        There were two small wolves, named Nina and Osa, who were fighting over which would be the female alpha wolf. There are two alpha wolves who are the leaders of the pack. The female alpha is the only one who has babies. A pack is a group of wolves. Wolves try to keep the pack small. One reason is to make sure there is enough food to go around. We learned two ways that the pack stays small. One way is that wolves who don't do their chores get kicked out of the pack. The other way is when some wolves leave the pack and start their own. In the pack, there are certain ranks. The make alpha has the highest rank and then the female alpha. After the alphas are the other adult wolves and then the children. The highest ranking wolves get to eat first. The only exception is when the wolf babies, called pups, are very young. Those pups get to eat first. During the talk, we got to ask questions and make comments. The talk was about an hour long.
       After the talk, two classes ate their snacks while the other class was in the gift shop for ten minutes. Each class took turns going into the gift shop. Some of the things in the gift shop were rocks with wolf footprints, pens, and pictures of the wolves. The pictures seemed very popular. After the gift shop and snack, we got back on the bus and went back to school. We had missed school lunch, so we all had to bring our lunches. We ate in the cafeteria. This field trip was very fun and exciting.