With the excitement of Fun Fair behind us, and a three-day weekend to honor our beloved veterans, students and librarian return to school refreshed and ready to continue our adventure in learning.
The Kindergarteners and 1st graders learned how and why we celebrate Veterans Day, and began wondering why we celebrate the other holidays as well. We are very grateful for our veterans!
Mr. Tanaka found a global learning community in iEARN.org and joined several ongoing projects including a holiday card exchange, a native/indigenous animal research and art exchange called "Beauty of the Beasts," and several other environmental-focused projects. He hopes to regularly connect Kailua Elementary students to children from other countries. The students are excited about the possibilities!
2nd Graders made progress on their research on monk seals by learning and practicing basic drawing techniques before painting their masterpieces. These will be shared with the iEARN community later in the year as part of the "Beauty of the Beasts" project.
3rd - 6th graders continued to make progress toward their quarterly Accelerated Reader point goals, and learned about several new opportunities to participate and share what they have:
• 5th graders will be organizing a canned food drive during November and December to support the Hawaii Food Bank. Students refined their poster and flyer-making skills by (1) employing the Rule of Thirds, and (2) limiting their font choices to three: a big bold one, a casual script one, and a plain one for text.
• many students excitedly began work on a newly announced art and writing contests sponsored by Children's Literature Hawaii 2020 "A Netful of stories"
• The spring season Scholastic book fair theme was released, and our Student Crew eagerly got started drafting out ideas to decorate the library and transform it from iceberg to jungle.
- Growing readers means we continually encourage them to observe the world around them, question, and wonder about what they experience. One conversation about flowers and pollen lead to a 5th grader to share about the beehives and honey her family grows and collects! The conversation continued with questions like "Are all honey the same color?" "Why are the honey combs all hexagons?" "How do the bees turn the pollen and nectar into honey?" Looks like there will be a lot of reading to do to find answers to those great questions. What are you wondering today?
What's coming up next week? Monday 11/18
- Grade 4 will be introduced to some new project opportunities (art/writing contest, book fair, and Mr. Tanaka's Social Studies dry-land kalo garden project); Accelerated Reader and PBL work time
- Grade 6 will be introduced to the new project opportunities, and Mr. Tanaka's guppy breeding NGSS Science project; Accelerated Reader and PBL work time
Tuesday 11/19
- Kindergarten and Grade 1 will learn about the Native Americans farming method and legend known as "The 3 Sisters" (corn, beans, and squash); and being grateful for the farmers who work so hard to grow all of our food.
Wednesday 11/20
- Whole school assembly, fire inspection, library management, book fair student crew wrap-up and celebration
Thursday 11/21
- Mr. Tanaka assisting with ILT guided visit
- Grade 5 will be introduced to Mr. Tanaka's "3 Sisters" garden Social Studies project
- Grade 3 will continue Accelerated Reader and PBL work time
Friday 11/22 - Preschool storytime "One is a Feast for Mouse" a story about gratitude and greed - Grade 2 will create watercolor paintings of their monk seals