Night Wax Museum

Tuesday, January 10^th, the multi-purpose room at Altamont Elementary was transformed into a Wax Museum filled with historical figures.  

The event was well attended.  Some of the comments heard as parents exited the room were:

“I love how each student became a star.  How fun to see them shine.” and  “I learned things that I didn’t know tonight. The students did an amazing job!”

Biography Wax Museum

Each student began this project by choosing a historical figure to learn about.  A biography was read and other research completed about the chosen figure. Each student then drew a picture of their historical figure, wrote a poem, developed a timeline of their life, wrote notes, and then became that person during the afternoon for other  students  and for the night of the wax museum.  They each were frozen until someone pushed a button on their hand.  At that time, each came to life with their speech educating the listener of aspects of their life.

 Jackie Robinson

 Benjamin Franklin

 Neil Armstrong

 Amelia Earhart

 Abraham Lincoln

 A young John F Kennedy

 Harry Houdini

 Christopher Columbus

Harry Houdini

 Helen Keller

 Isadora Duncan

 Harriet Tubman

 Rosa Parks

 Abigail Adams

 Betsy Ross

Helen Keller

 Helen Keller

 Pocahontas

 Daniel Boone

 Jackie Robinson

 Squanto

Davy Crockett

Abigail Adams

The Houdini Box

This week we are reading “The Houdini Box” by Brian Selznick.  We will focus on the following vocabulary words in this story.  It would be helpful if you will reinforce the meaning of these words at home with your child.

Vocabulary Word	Meaning
appeared	was seen; came in sight
bustling	being noisily busy and in a hurry
crumbled	fell to pieces; decayed
escape	to get out and away; to get free
magician	person who entertains by art or skill of creating illusions, especially a sleight of hand
monument	something set up to honor a person or an event.  A monument may be a building, pillar, arch, statue, tomb, or stone
vanished	disappeared, especially suddenly

Here are our spelling words for the week.  Please practice these words at home as well.  The words in italics are our challenge spelling words.

Spelling Words: don’t, won’t, wouldn’t, there’s, we’re, you’re, doesn’t, I’ve, here’s, wasn’t, shouldn’t, couldn’t, where’s, hadn’t, aren’t, they’re, it’s, we’ve, when’s, haven’t, it’ll, who’ll, might’ve, mustn’t, we’d

Biography pictures and poems

End of term

The end of the term is right around the corner.  It ends in a week on January 13^th!  Please make sure that all missing work is handed in as soon as possible.  I will NOT accept any after the 13^th.

The Great Kapok Tree

This week we are reading “The Great Kapok Tree” by Lynne Cherry.  We will focus on some vocabulary words in this story.  It would be helpful if you will reinforce the meaning of these words at home with your child.

Vocabulary Word	Meaning
canopy	the uppermost layer of branches in forest trees
dangle	to hang and swing loosely
dappled	marked with spots; spotted
fragrant	having or giving off a pleasing odor; sweet-smelling
pollen	a fine, yellowish powder released from the anthers of flowers. Grains of pollen carried by insects, wind, etc., to the pistils of flowers to fertilize the flowers
slithered	moved with a sliding motion
wondrous	wonderful; marvelous; remarkable

Here are our spelling words for the week.  Please practice these words at home as well.  The words in italics are our challenge spelling words for those who are interested.

Spelling Words: its, ours, mine, yours, family’s, families’, man’s, men’s, girl’s, girls’, hers, theirs, brother’s, brothers’, teacher’s, teachers’, aunt’s, aunts’, boy’s, boys’, country’s, countries’, witness’s, witnesses’, laboratory’s, laboratories’