Mrs. Chappell's Newsletter
Spring Edition
Putting on a Play Is Both Fun and Stressful
by Sylvie and Keira
1...2...3 Action! We are putting on a play, but this time it’s different. In the past years Mrs. Bishop has been the one to direct and do the work for our plays. This time we needed to try out for parts and make our own set! This year’s play is “The Beauty of Sleeping,”and we are all working very hard to make this the best play it can be!
It’s not going to be easy. Mrs Ringo said,“I will turn into a mean wicked witch, I will have no mercy!” Mrs. Ringo is very nice, but won’t put up with much during the play and play-making process. Making a play is very stress provoking and hard, but also its own reward. We interviewed some students to see what they think about the play. Here are the questions and some of the answers:
Question #1:Do you find rehearsal stressful?: “Yes, because the teachers are strict. I am scared if I mess up they’ll be mad. I am so stressed!” Was a common reply.
Question #2: How do you feel about performing: “I love it! I love the lights! The Stage! Everything! Performing is my life♡!!!!,” one student said, confidentially smiling. But, other students said this: “I feel nervous! I might fumble over lines!” And “I feel comfortable because the character is half of what people are looking at. It’s kind of scary though. The teachers might get mad at me. When I go on stage I might forget my lines!”said another student, shivering.
“I feel nervous, like everybody’s eyes are seeing through me, to what I’m thinking,” another student said.
Question #3: Do You like your part? “No I hate mine!” said one friend, “Not really, I’m kind of disappointed,” said another. “Mine is OK, it’s a good part,” one student said. Only a few people are happy with their parts.
Question# 4: How do you feel about all the new responsibilities required for the play? “ I feel like its going to be a lot of work ,but we can handle it,”said one kid. Some other kids aren’t so sure: “I kind of like that we can take control of the play, but It’s a lot more nerve racking and awkward.”
Making our own play is hard and stressful☹, but also rewarding and fun. All in all we have very mixed feelings. Most of us are really enjoying it and just a little stressed.Some people are very stressed and nervous. Will the play be a success? We think so!!! ☺☻
Cars vs. Friction
by Jude, Marquis, Sasha, and Jack
This month, we learned about force and motion. To do this, we manufactured cars in order to test out different variables. Our cars were made out of Kinex, rubber bands, string, and our complex thinking minds. (We used no blueprints and worked in groups of four.)
The first hypothesis that we checked was how you can use gravity to help propel your cars. We did this by tying washers to a string connected to the cars.
We also used elastic energy to make a different type of car. We were supposed to all make the same car with rubber bands and Kinex, but we all made different cars. “It was a fun way to learn about motion,” Dr. Elliott S. Varnum stated.
Talent Show
by Theo, Elliott, and Brianna
The talent show was a lot of fun and a huge success and everyone did amazingly.
- Elliott remarked, “It was really fun and a good experience.”
- Brianna thought, “I did a great job at dancing and it was fun.”
- Luke declared, “I think it was fun to perform because we can do whatever we want and it’s fun.”
The talent show is a good way for people to show their creativity, and the whole school was there and anyone who wanted to do it could do it. On April 2nd, it was K-2 and one 3rd grade performed. On April 3rd, the rest of the school performed. The talent show was fun for everyone.
Safety Patrol
Safety Patrol is a hard but rewarding job. Their job is to help students and parents cross the street safely. They work at the intersections of Fourth, Fifth, and Jefferson Street. “I think its fun, but there is a lot of responsibility” said Eliott Varnum. Helping people cross the street might seem like a simple job but it can also be very challenging. “I hate when people don’t obey the stop sign, it make me so angry” said Eryn Comer. “It would be fun to cross kids, adults and make sure there safe coming and going from school,” said Luke Packard. “I learned a lot being a safety patrol member, i love it,” said Hayley Marchand
Safety patrol is going great this year but there has been a persistent problem from the adults. Some Parents/Guardians have been disregarding the stop sign from Safety Patrols Members. Safety patrol is a tough job and when people do not follow the stop sign order, it makes their job even tougher and more dangerous. These member insure the safety of your children while walking to school and not following their directions is putting them in danger!
Instruments/Field Trips
The fifth graders have made so much progress on their instruments this year. “ it was hard at first but then it got easier and more fun“ Says Hayley Marchand. For some kids instruments have been hard. Luke Packard said“ it was fun to play instruments, but not anymore”. “I really like it” Says Elliott Varnum. “I think playing instruments is good and active”. Zubaidah Al-Maawi says” playing instruments can help you express you feelings”.
Now we are going to hear some thoughts about our fifth grade instrument field trip. Bob Harper said” I think it could of been better I wish all the instruments played but other then that, it was really fun”. Kaia Wolfkostin said “ It was okay except I wish I could have played my instrument like when the strings got to”. “I thought it was fun but I kind of wished that I got to play my instrument”. Sylvie Swerdlow said” I think that it was sort of Chatty and it should of been more formal I did not like it much”. If your child does not have his or her opinion written please ask them.
Thank you for reading!
The Grammar Handbook
In writing our class completed a grammar hand book to use throughout the years. This project is called how to write like a middle school. This hand book will be very useful for all essays in and out of school. It contains information on grammar and other great tips for writing.
This handbook has many punctuation tips. 3 things we worked on were commas, apostrophes, and quotation marks. These were very important and filled most of the handbook. To make the handbook we filled out pages and took notes on the things we learned that day. "This handbook will defiantly be helpful in the future,” says Elliott in a interview with Leela.
Many of the kids think it will be a good source to look at if they forget the rules. Also they think it was a fun, interesting topic for writing. All of the students learned a great amount of tips and rules for writing essays and papers in the future. Senna said, “I liked the grammar handbook because you get to put whatever you feel you need to in to it.”
Mrs. Chappell’s class finished their writing topic, how to write like a middle schooler. It is a very successful project and it is a huge help in writing. Many to all kids thought it was a very fun topic to learn more about.
March Math Fact Madness
12 x 6! 5 x 5! 9 x w!! Wait a second...that isn't a number! Anyways...those are just a few of the facts Mrs. Chappell's fifth grade class has learned. (Except for w of course.) We just finished March Math Fact Madness (ALLITERATION!!!!! By the way we just finished our poetry unit!) March Math fact Madness was a month where we focused really hard on our math facts. At first it was a little rocky, but we finally reached our goal and even past it! Our class goal was to reach a class average of 50 but we past it and got a class average of 54. At first it was a little rocky, but we finally reached our goal and past it by 4 facts! We interviewed students about how they felt about it and if they thought it was stressful. Hayley Marchand (interviewed by Senna Neubauer) She said " Stressful in the beginning but it got easier as we went along." We also asked Hayley if she thought it was stressful " I thought it was stressful int he beginning but as we got along it got less stressful because we got to known them better" Hayley exclaimed . We also interviewed Brianna Murphy ( She was interviewed by Ava Walker) She said, after hearing the question "How did you feel about it?" She responded with" I felt persuaded about doing the math and working to get my facts better" When the question was did you feel pressured" She answered with " A little, the grades were stressful." IN conclusion, we did well in our unit and we all learned about our math facts.
Open Mic
Linden, Evan, Eryn are doing a newsletter on open mic. We interviewed fellow friends from the class that did a poem. We asked about how they felt before and after they performed. We will be interviewing: Ava, Luke, Hayley, and Bob.
I asked Ava "What did you perform and how did you feel when you got up there?" I felt nervous but I had already performed infront of the class." And then I asked her, "How did she feel after she preformed. She said "I felt relieved that it was over and that I didn't mess up."
Then asked Luke, "How did her feel before he performed". He said, "I felt nervous because hadn't memorized my poem and there were parents watching." I asked how he felt after he performed he said, "I felt relieved that it was over."
After that I asked Hayley how she felt before she preformed, she said "I felt nervous because I was afraid that I would mess up and let my performance partner down. But I knew that I would do a good job." Then I asked her how she felt afterwords, she said, "I felt excited and relieved that it was over."
Finally I asked Bob how he felt before and after he preformed, he said, "I felt good and happy because I wasn't nervous. And after I had the same emotion."
All the class had a great experience learning about poetry. A lot of kids in the class enjoyed performing their poetry.