Barwick Playground

by Tom
Barwick Playground is the place
for 2nd and 3rd graders to play.
There are swings, tunnels, the
maze, the hill, two metal slides,
a soccer eld, and a basketball
court. One day last year, the
police come to Barwick to share
their police vehicles with us.
My favorite thing to do at
Barwick is play in the maze with
my friends.
This is what
we do in
school each
morning:
First, we
play at
recess on Barwick. As soon as
recess is over, we unpack our
folders from our backpacks and
wait for Mrs. Tibbetts to greet us
on the lanai.
Next we go inside to take down
our chairs. Then we put on our
name tags and go to the carpet for
our Welcome Meeting. During
our Welcome Meeting we listen
for directions
from Mrs.
Tibbetts
about the day,
and then we
stand to say
the pledge
and ACT Statements. Next, we
sing Hawaii Pono i while Erin
plays the song on the piano.
On D days we have chapel right
away. On the other days, we start
our math activities with our math
buddy. After recess we do the
Daily 5 Literacy Centers. Before
you know it, its lunchtime!
z
Quotable Quote
z
Life is never easy for those who dream.
--Ralph James Waller
OUR MORNING AS A GECKO
By Theo & Sierra
A N E WS L E T T E R C O N S T RU C T E D B Y T H E TA L E N T E D MI N D S O F C - 3
GECKO Gazette
F A L L I S S U E
the
Communication with Mrs. Tibbetts:
Email [email protected]
Class website: http://iws.punahou.edu/user/ktibbetts/Geckos/
Welcome.html
School Phone: 944-5826 ext 1313
Geckos
are helpful..we eat
the roaches for you!
Japanese Culture & Language
by Graham & Erin
In Japanese class we have lots of fun! We learn from
Omizu Sensei that ha-re means sun, a-me means
rain, and ku-mo-ri means cloud. We also learned our
numbers 1-10 in Japanese. Our whole class knows if
we are san or kun. For an example, Omizu says dolls
are mi chaian and U kun. We also made
teruterubozu which is a weather charm. It even has a
song that goes with it! She told us we need to sing the
song so the weather charm will work. Graham hopes
that we learn about samurai this year.
P.E.
In P.E. we have been
doing a lot on the
scooters. Mr. Sklov is
our new P.E. teacher,
and he is fun. Once
in P.E. we played
kickball as a class.
Our favorite game is
dodgeball.
ART
In art, we do weird
things that turn out
to be neat projects.
For example, we
played with tea bags,
played with tape,
and smashed
blueberries in Art.
We also ripped-up
paper for a picture
and draw.
MUSIC
In music, we are
learning about
Japanese music. We
sing Japanese songs
and play the
xylophone and
matalaphone. We
learned about the
three main Japanese
instruments: the
koto, the shamisen,
and the shakuhachi.
COMING
EVENTS
FRIDAY, OCT. 15
Book Talk
Information is
due
FRIDAY, OCT. 22
Pumpkin Carving
@ 10:15
MONDAY, OCT. 25
Visual due in
class for Book
Talk
TUESDAY, OCT. 25
Book Talk
Presentation
given in class!
Special Classes
by Zac & Maya
Reading...Gecko Style
By Liam & Katherine
Welcome to the Geckos
Reading Center! First of
all, we think you should
make great choices
because some books are
too easy and some are too
hard. You should use the
ve nger rule to pick an
independent book: ve
errors on a page is too
many, and always having
zero is too easy. One to
four errors is just right.
Books have different
subjects...different
subjects mean different
authors...and different
authors lead to different
books.
Parents also read to us,
but it isnt just one
parent....it can be any
students parent!
Reading to each other is
very important because
you learn which books
your friends love.
Always read books! If you
check your local library,
you can nd great books
all the time. So always
read books...Youll get
smarter!
Writing makes the whole
world go around. We have
lots of fun writing!
Six Traits
When we write stories, we
brainstorm ideas and
think of topics for our
stories. Right now were
studying how to come up
with
great
ideas.
Personal
Narratives &
Poetry
To be great writers, we
start with reading great
books. Last week, we read
a lot about bats, and then
we made a chart of
descriptive words. Next,
we used those words to
write our poem about
bats. We also nished our
rst book about ourselves.
Word Work
Our very rst root word
was photos. It was
Greek, not Latin. Now
weve also learned the
roots tropos, metron,
phobos, tele, graph, and
philia.
For our word study, we
practice spelling our
words and sort the words
using our own ideas.
Doing practice tests for
our spelling helps us to get
a 100% on our tests.
Reflections
We even write reading
reections about the
books were reading
alone, hearing from
others, or sharing with a
friend. We use descriptive
words in our writing
reections, too!
READERS
WORKSHOP
+ Guided
Reading
+ Shared
Reading
+ Listening to
Reading
+ Reading to
Someone Else
We Love To Write!
By RaeAnn & Ethan
Becoming Mathematicians...
By Jacie & J.D.
Working with Math
Buddies is the best thing
that happens to us for
each math unit. We have
a new partner for every
chapter.
The best math game that
we play is Dice War. It
is really fun! You get two
dice to start, and roll
them at the same time.
Then once the dice stop,
you add the numbers
silently in your head as
fast as you can. The rst
person to call out the sum
gets to roll the dice the
next time. Like if you had
5 and 6, youd try to say
11 rst. To make the
game harder, we add
more dice so that were
adding three or four dice
together! We can also
subtract dice to nd the
difference. Next well use
them to multiply!
For our Everyday Math,
we do Math Boxes for
practice and lesson pages
as a class. Its fun to work
with our math buddy
each day!
Ourselves &
Our Families
We are learning about
the meanings for our
names and our family
history. Were also
learning more about our
sisters and brothers,
where we were born, how
our parents were raised,
and what it was like when
we were young. We really
love learning about our
parents favorite toys and
treats, and who our
parents favorite teachers
were.
Our Ancestors&
Immigration
We are learning about
our rst family members
who came to Honolulu.
Some of us have family
members that came to
Hawaii very long ago,
and some immigrated
very soon.
School History
Were also learning about
Punahous legend, the
Hawaii State Song, and
learning lots of new
Chapel songs each week.
MATH
WORKSHOP
Everyday
Math
Read It! Solve
It! Draw It!
Groundworks
Algebraic
Thinking
+ Critical Thinking:
Problem of the Day
...And Historians.
By Gavin & Harlow
and the boys could pick up sticks. The boys piled the sticks to block the dirt from going into the stream and
pollute it. Makiki Stream was lots of fun!
Honolulu Theater for Youth
By Mari & Tori
The play we went to watch was about dinosaurs. The main actor told us he loved
dinosaurs, so he became a paleontologist to study them. He was so crazy about them,
that he asked the audience if anybody else was crazy about them, too! The show
began with the students helping the scientist learn about different kinds of dinosaurs.
The rst part of the show was when the dinosaur smelled something, and it was the
man! Then the dinosaur found him and started chasing him around the auditorium.
Then the man asked if they could become friends, and the dinosaur said yes, but
you need to be my soldier. The play was funny and we learned a lot about
dinosaurs.

Ualakaa Hike
By Joshua & Will
We went on a trip to Rolling Potato Hill. As soon as we got
there, we jumped off the bus and did a dance with the Outdoor
Education Teacher, Kumu Tai. Kumu Tai taught us to keep our
hands up for the hike because we passed near pokey branches
and California grass that would make us itchy if we touched it.
The hike was so fun and muddy. When we got back, Kumu told
us a Hawaiian legend about a boy who was sleeping and was awoken by his grandpa
to go shing. The boy went out on a boat made of wood, caught a giant sh, and
wouldnt let go of the pole even though the sh dragged him all the way to Diamond
Head! After the story, it was time to head back to school. It was a super fun day.
Makiki Stream
By Ava & Josh
We went on a fun eld trip to Makiki Stream. Six parents went with us as volunteers: Joshuas dad, Gavins
mom, RaeAnns dad, Grahams mom, Sierras mom, and Zacs mom.
At Makiki Stream, the girls picked out shrimp plants and made a burrito of the weeds to compost. The boys
caught shrimp, small sh, and prawns. After a half-hour, we switched groups so the girls could be in the stream
The Class Picnic
by Jackson & Torilyn
Our class picnic was September 21 at the Saunders
home. When we got to Jacksons house, a lady named
Wendy from the Audubon Society spoke with us
about the shearwater birds who nest in that area.
After her presentation, we painted T-shirts with any
design we wanted. Then it was time to go swimming
in the salt water pool! We had oats and boards to
swim with, and we saw crabs on the wall. Finally it
was time for our potluck lunch with our parents. It
was a super fun day for our class!
4TH GRADE
BUDDIES
by Marissa
Our buddies are from
Mrs. Furutas fourth
grade class.
The rst time we met
our buddy was super fun
because we had a
getting-to-know-you
snack. We lled a cup
with Cookie Crisp
cereal, and then for
every piece of cereal that
we took, we had to tell
one fact about ourselves.
It was fun choosing what
to say and talking to
each other.
Then we spent time
making haunted houses
with many colors of
paper. There was a lot of
snipping, gluing,
drawing, folding, and
working with our
buddies. Now our
haunted houses are
hanging in the room as
Halloween decorations.
Were going to write
Halloween stories to go
with our houses.
CLASS PETS
by Mila
The class pets we have in
our room are a Jackson
Chameleon, many sh,
and a bunny. Our
bunnys name is Barbie
right now, but were
going to change it next
week because some boys
dont like the name.
Its fun to take home the
pets for the weekend. I
know, because I was the
second one to take home
our new bunny!
COMING
EVENTS
THURSDAY,
OCT. 28
Mission Houses
Field Trip:
8:20-11:20
FRIDAY, OCT. 29
NO SCHOOL
WEDNESDAY,
NOV. 3
Japanese Shrine &
Team House Field
Trip: 10:30-12:30