April 3

Spring Fling Writing Contest

“Spring in Japan”

Mayumi’s favorite time of year was March when her family traveled to Japan to visit family and the cherry blossoms. Five years ago, the trip became a tradition after Mayumi’s dad passed away. Blossoms were his favorite while growing up. Mayumi remembered his story of getting in trouble for climbing a cherry blossom tree during a school trip. “I couldn’t resist bringing a branch home for my Okasan,” Dad said. His mom told him cherry blossoms symbolized life and death, and she found them to be the most majestic creations. He was being thoughtful but the groundskeepers did not enjoy fetching him down. “Mayumi, one guy kept trying to climb up while the other tried to lasso me down!” Dad said. Luckily, Okasan wasn’t too upset about the incident. The family felt it was only appropriate to honor Mayumi’s father by walking in his footsteps each Spring.

*I’ve entered my short story inspired by the GIPHY below on  Ciara’s blog for this year’s Spring Fling Writing Contest. j

via GIPHY

Category: Mrs.Darden Thinking | Comments Off on Spring Fling Writing Contest
March 22

World Write Your Story Day!

On March 14th, we celebrated World Write Your Story Day with Book Creator. After reading short stories from The Chronicles of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg, students embarked on a creative writing journey. We wrote a variety of children’s stories for pre-K to middle-grade ages. After almost two weeks of writing and rewriting, we have published our stories and are ready to share a few of them with you. We hope you enjoy them!

Uncovering the Secrets of Valencia Prep

Swans Don't Fit In This Pond

Robert the Monkey

Shepard- A Story of Self-Control

Under the Sea

Bouncing to Victory

Jimmy's Dreadful Homework

The Cat Who Sought Magic

Whiskers the Cat

Category: Authors Spotlight | Comments Off on World Write Your Story Day!
February 24

Holocaust Survivor Newspaper Project

Recently, we read the captivating narrative of White Bird by R.J. Palacio as part of a unit study focusing on the following essential question, To what extent do tragedy, trauma, and adversity build resilience? After reading the graphic novel, my students embarked on a research project to connect with a Holocaust survivor. With the help of our amazing librarians, we learned how to use Noodle Tools and our school databases. Empowered by newfound knowledge, students designed a newspaper to showcase the Holocaust survivors using Canva. Last week, we showcased all the newspapers during an interactive Gallery Walk in our classroom where students gave each other feedback in the form of “Grows” and “Glows”. We hope you enjoy reading and learning about some of the survivors.

Kate friedman by Dalal

 

gisella pearl newspaper!! by FaithM

 

 

Copy of Sample designs of Newspaper templates by Parker H.

 

Holocaust Survivor Project by Sophie

 

Holocaust Newspaper English 7 by Leon

 

Copy of Sample designs of Newspaper templates by Lexi

 

Copy of Sample designs of Newspaper templates by Alex

 

 

 

Category: Project Based Learning and Agile, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Holocaust Survivor Newspaper Project
December 8

Character Mind Maps

During our novel-in-verse unit, students explored the use of figurative language, characterization, conflict, and other elements of literature. Our culminating mini-project consisted of creating an open-mind map using Canva for a character in the story. We hope you enjoy a glimpse of various characters’ minds.

Betita’s open mind

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kenneth

Character- Madrigal
Mind Map by Nirav

Nick Hall

Mind Map by Sophie

Jacqueline Woodson

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October 13

Sneaker Fashion

Parker’s Review of Sneaker Fashion
Fashion has changed so much over the years. From dress shoes to sneakers or even slides everything nowadays is considered fashion. Let’s use an example, the Yeezy foam runners. These things are super ugly to me but some people think they are cool. I don’t know if it is the brand that’s making them popular or they just like the shoe. These are literally tennisshoes with holes in them. I think they look like an alien would wear them. Rappers have also had a big effect on the fashion industry. Travis Scott’s designs for his shoes look amazing. They come in so many models. Whether it’s the fragments, phantoms, or olives there is one for everyone. Just one big problem, on average all these shoes go for 800-1,000 dollars.

Nike is one of the biggest sports companies in the world and known for their super stylish shoes. My favorite is the Nike dunks. There are over 3,000 different Nike Dunks, so surely you can find one you like. These shoes come in high-top and low-top versions. They are also way more affordable. They range from around 100-400 dollars. If you are looking for something moreexpensive they have that too. Those prices are anywhere from 500-2,000,000 dollars. Yeah, you heard me right, two million. My oh my, would you be surprised? These shoes are a collab with PlayStation, Nike, and Travis Scott. They are called the PlayStation dunks. Personally, I would recommend getting the Nike Dunk Pandas. They are great shoes and they go with any outfit.They are black and white, and very comfortable. Clearly, sneakers have changed the fashion industry over the years. 

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October 13

Booktober Fest at LHPS

Recently, our school hosted a book festival at our middle school campus. We had thirteen authors attend our event to talk with over one hundred students. It was a success and we can not wait to try this again next year! Read a special review by one of my 7th-grade students.

Booktober Review by Dalal
Booktober was a very fun event. We met some authors and I learned about their books and how they made them. The first session was “Words and Pictures“ where Michael Regina talked about his horror book, The Sleepover, based on when one of his familymembers died. Peter Raymond’s book Lucky Scramble is about a competition between cubers. Fred Kohler wrote about animals surviving on a giant island made of garbage and titled it Garbage Island.
Session 2 was titled, “At The Heart Of It“ Jan Eldredge talked about her book Nimbus which is about a magical cat with powers. Shara Micgurie’s book Flight of The Swans where a girl saves her brothers. Christina Farley wrote the Glided series. The book I was interested in the most was Nimbus because I like books with an animal as the main character. I can see what life mightlook like as an animal. One thing I learned was that when you make up characters a little bit of you is in them. Overall, Booktober was amazing and really fun!

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September 16

Drake’s Take on NBA 2K

My Player

Have you ever played a 2K basketball video game? If you haven’t, you need to! Whenever Iplay the game it makes me feel like I’m actually an NBA player. One feature in the game called“My Player” is the chance to create your own player from scratch and make him good atanything through attributes like shooting, finishing, and defensive skills. Once that’s done thenyou can play against other NBA teams. It is so realistic and it looks just like the courts in theNBA.The most realistic part is when you walk into the stadium for the pre-game warm-up and thefans are cheering and some of them are even booing just like you are at an NBA game. That ismy favorite part. If you get the new NBA 2K it has all the new players too, including all theplayers from the Orlando Magic like Mac McClung who won the NBA dunk contest last year. Ilove the new NBA 2K and wish I could dunk, shoot, and be as amazing as my virtual NBAplayer.

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