Mrs. Durkin - Estabrook School

November 2006 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:

Plaster Up!
By Noah
For several weeks the third grade at Joseph Estabrook Elementary School has been working on building sculptures out of foil and plaster. We started by making armatures, which is basically the skeleton of the sculpture. That was made out of foil. Next we plastered our armatures. Plaster is a cloth with holes and powder like stuff on it. Then you dip the plaster in water and put it on your armature. The plaster will stick and soon harden. Then you put a special protective layer of yellowish paint called gesso (jess-o) on. Next we paint with color. We just had to paint the skin and clothes, but soon we will paint the hair and use yarn for hair. Then we add details with a sharpie marker such as: eyes, nose, and the mouth. We may make stands, but I don't know. Many people liked making sculptures. I know because I took a survey. The results were 17 people liked it, 0 people didn't. That's all there is to it. Try it at home.

Learning Cursive
By Casi
Our class is learning cursive. Before third grade, some of us could only write in print. It is fun to learn cursive because the strokes are smooth and artistic. Some people just like cursive because it expresses their feelings in their handwriting.
In class, we have learned ways to write different letters. For example, we have learned the "Clock Climbers" letters a,d,c,q,and g. Another example is the "Kite Strings" letters i, u, w, t, j, p, r, and s. We also learned to have good posture when we are writing: feet flat on the floor, tilt your paper, and sit up straight with your chair tucked in. While writing cursive, Mrs. Durkin puts on soft music. Next, we circle the letters we like. When we are finished, Mrs. Durkin checks our writing. That is what we do in a cursive lesson.

Seven Inches Deep, Out Tulips Leap!
By Keiko
      Mrs. Durkin's third grade class has planted tulip bulbs! Classes all over the country have planted these bulbs so kids can compare how soon spring will arrive in their town. This is a program called Journey North.
     Mrs. Ludwig and Kyle's mother, Mrs. Schultz, helped us. This is what we did. On November 6, 2006 we went out to the front of the Estabrook School to the flagpole area. It was a sunny, chilly day. We divided into two groups and went out one group at a time.
     Mrs. Ludwig told us that each bulb had to be in a hole that was seven inches deep and the holes had to be four inches apart. We used our rulers to measure this. Mrs. Schultz had already loosened the dirt for us and Mrs. Ludwig gave us shovels and bulb digging tools to use. We each had two Red Emperor bulbs. Some kids made their holes only two inches apart because there wasn't enough room. We put one bulb into each hole with the pointed part up. Then we put one teaspoon of bonemeal on top of each bulb. Bonemeal is plant fertilizer to make the plant grow well. Then we covered the holes back up with dirt. We did not water them. Mrs. Ludwig said that we did not have to water them and that the rain would be good enough.
     When our tulips leap out of the ground, it will be spring. We will record this on the Internet and we can see the other classes in the country to see when their bulbs come up.
     Mrs. Durkin's class had a wonderful time planting the Red Emperor tulip bulbs. In the spring, the whole school will enjoy seeing our beautiful tulips!

Carnivorous Plants
By Anna
Here are some interesting facts about pitcher plants. Their name comes from their leaves which are shaped like pitchers. They catch their prey in pools of liquid at the bottom of the "pitcher". Some pitcher plants are big enough to catch small rats, frogs, and birds. Those are my facts about pitcher plants.
How do Venus flytraps catch their prey? Venus flytraps have two leaves which are attached by a hinge at the bottom. If a bug touches two hairs on these leaves, guess what? SNAP! The leaves clap shut and the bug gets dissolved in the leaves. That's how Venus flytraps catch their prey.

Mrs. Durkin's Awesome James and the Giant Peach Poems
By Ashley
     My class (Mrs. Durkin's class) read James and the Giant Peach. The story James and the Giant Peach is about a boy named James Henry Trotter having to live with his mean aunts. He meets an old man who gives him a bag of magic green crystals and if he swallows the magic green crystals, marvelous, splendid, spectacular things will happen to him. James runs home as fast as he can run and he trips over a peach tree's roots. The magic green crystals fall to the ground and meet seven insects who swallow the magic green crystals! Marvelous things happen to those seven insects. The magic green crystals also meet a peach tree and splendid things happen to it! The peach tree starts to grow a giant peach!
     One day James finds a tunnel in the peach that is big enough for him to climb through. So James Henry Trotter goes through the tunnel and meets these kind creatures: a Ladybug, an Old-Green-Grasshopper, a Spider, a Centipede, a Silkworm, a Glow-worm, and an Earthworm. Together they roll away and land in the Atlantic Ocean and meet lots of mean sharks who want to eat them up. Then they float into the sky by having five hundred two seagulls become attached to the peach. When they are floating in the sky they meet cloud-men. Then they bump into something and they fall and land on the Empire State Building! I hope you get to read James and the Giant Peach.
     After reading James and the Giant Peach, we made awesome James and the Giant Peach cinquain poems. A cinquain poem has five lines. You had to choose either Ladybug, Old-Green-Grasshopper, Earthworm, Centipede, Silkworm, Glow-worm, James, Miss Spider, Aunt Sponge, or Aunt Spiker. For example:

James
Kind, brave
Traveling, caring, floating
Saved a centipede's life
boy

That is what a cinquain poem looks like. I hope you like the sample I gave you and I hope you can someday make a cinquain poem.

Type to Learn in Third Grade
By Jasinda
At the computer lab in third grade we use a typing program called "Type to Learn". This program teaches students where to put their fingers on the keyboard. The place where you put your fingers first is called "homerow". If you put your fingers on "homerow" your left hand should be on A, S, D, F and your right hand should be on J, K, L, and semi-colon.
This program has helped us with our typing skills. It has helped us because it taught us what fingers go on what key. It also helped us by teaching us what finger stretched to another key. I know for a fact that this program really helps speed up your typing. I know it will speed up your typing because before this program I was slow but after we did some practice I was a lot faster.