Hawaiian Stars News 9-11-06

At our first class meeting of the year, the class voted to call themselves the Hawaiian Stars. They felt that it was an appropriate name because they are all “stars” and studying about Hawaii this year. For the rest of the year they will be called the Hawaiian Stars.

Our intake meetings went very well, and I was so pleased to hear all the helpful information that you shared about your children. I am sure we will have a very nice year together because they are all so eager to learn and are enthusiastic participants in every day’s learning activities.

Our work in class continues, and most of the students are on Lesson 5 or higher in their Wordly Wise books. They have been working hard to get their corrections up to date, and most have done a wonderful job. A few are still correcting Lessons 1 and 2.

Our math has been fun as we worked with groups to find as many combinations of two-digit numbers to produce the sum of 100. The children really worked hard together and came up with up to 89 different combinations. They also looked for patterns in the number combinations and made some interesting discoveries. They will continue to work with patterns this week. Computation practice has been outstanding!

Our first book report projects are due for presentation on Monday, September 18, so the Hawaiian Stars have begun working on their speeches and visual aids. All speeches need to be two minutes or less, and the visual aids must be very colorful and thorough. We have discussed the requirements and evaluation criteria so that everyone knows exactly what is expected.

Our Hawaiian Studies unit has focused on the creation of the Hawaiian Islands, and the students have learned a lot about hot spots and underwater volcanoes. They have also read and discussed some Hawaiian legends which explain the creation of the islands, and they enjoyed these interesting stories.

The Reading Log entries are getting better and better. Each student has tried to include more specific details in their summaries and responses so that they are done thoroughly. Bravo to everyone for doing so well!