Summer School - Week 3

We celebrated our third week of summer session with a morning assembly in the dining room featuring several classes. Mrs. Roth’s class is learning that although money doesn’t grow on trees, entrepreneurship is certainly a viable option for earning an income. Her class of entering first, second, and third graders displayed items that they are making for the big end-of-summer-session sale in three weeks. During the past three weeks, they learned about banks, visited a gelataria (Italian sorbet shop), and tested their skills at making their own gelato.

Both Math Workshop classes (Ms. Lorenzana’s and Mr. Williamson’s) shared some of the activities in which learning about math is all about collaboration, creativity, and fun! They’re sharpening math facts skills, learning about time and measurement, and using tangrams to create stories.

We listened to Ms. Doherty’s students in Reading and Writing Workshop talk about the amazing authors who’ve written amazing books. Just hearing about the work of Patricia Polacco, Jerry Spinelli, David Wiesner, and Jon Sciecszka, I’m sure several students in the audience were eager to find their books in their neighborhood library.

And check out our first summer school newspaper written by the students in Ms. Sawyer’s Reading and Writing Workshop as part of their learning. They’ve been reading the daily newspaper, learning about a variety of articles, topics, and kinds of information available, and trying their hand at some journalism. Curtis Murayama, sports editor for the Honolulu Advertiser, was invited to speak to Ms. Sawyer’s students about writing for a newspaper.

We ended the assembly with the premiere showing of four clever still-frame videos produced by students in the Lights! Camera! Action! class taught by Ms. Correia. Using iMovie technology, the students have been working in collaborative groups discussing and organizing their ideas via storyboard format while learning how to use the equipment and software.

It was an impressive morning of learning! At our last assembly on July 20, we’ll spotlight other summer session classes. One last reminder: Please return the “Friday packet” of information, including your child’s weekly feedback form. Afternoon Camp teachers have also included a weekly summary of their curriculum.

We have been enjoying the slower pace of activities, compared with the regular school year, and the mostly beautiful summer weather. The tradewinds, blue skies, and majestic, large-limbed trees, framed by Manoa Valley, set a stunning backdrop each day for our students. It’s great to see so many summer school students here from many of our island schools, public and private, including a number of friends from Korea and Japan.

Thanks for dropping off your children beginning at 7:30am. We look forward to seeing your children next week.

For our children,

Edna L. Hussey
Principal

Posted on June 30, 2007 12:51 PM | Permalink