By:  Fiza Ahmadi, Megan Bell and Hana Kim

Whew! We finally finished our state tests! After months, and months of test preparation,  thats a relief.  Now we can all chill and wait for school to end and summer to begin. We are currently in a unit about the Holocaust, where we are reading historical fiction in book clubs and the famous diary of Anne Frank. We are having plenty of assemblies, including open houses and instrumental concerts and most importantly to start preparing for our GRADUATION! WOO-HOO!!!!!

After weeks, and weeks of drafting, revising, editing, we finally finished our... original fantasy books!!!! A couple of weeks ago we were told by Mrs. Clyne- Davis to publish books with all the elements of fantasy. Oh , You should have seen our faces. We were so excited. We finally get to show our creativity. We made outlines, and wrote about conflicts, characters, etc.  It was very exciting because we could be authors of books. There were many books, for example one book about a girl who goes to a whole new world, another was about a quest to save another world and yet another about two twin sisters from the land of Gantza who save their king’s son. So we had many exciting adventures packed in these including our own rendition  of Walter the Farting Dog. HA-HA! 

After we published our books we had a celebration where we read each others book and commented on it. And our wonderful teacher Mrs. Clyne brought in EPIC ice-cream.  We had a great time writing these books. Guess what? Soon our books will be outside on the bulletin board, feel free to stop by and read them!

Yay, June is coming. Let me define June for you. Last month of school, graduating from 5th grade, senior trip (the cruise), senior picnic, hot summer days. Now, correct me if i am wrong but June is AWESOME!!!! Who can’t wait? Everybody is so excited!!!!

Uh-Oh! Elementary school is almost over!!! AHHHH! More teachers, more homework, more projects, more everything!!!!!! We are going to middle school, already. It feels like just yesterday it was the first day of 5th grade. Time passes by so fast. Ah well, we’ll see which friends we’re going to middle school with, if any are going to the same school as us.

Lets give a round of applause to ourselves for giving a great concert for the G&T open house this week!  We performed Ahrirang, Ludwig’s Tango, Eleanor Rigby and Chiapanecas.  But thats not all, we still have to perform one more concert for the whole school recently! And we had our Instrumental Concert. Lets give a round of applause to the Edith K. Bergtraum Band along with our fantastic orchestra.  

We are now studying the Holocaust, and we’re reading historical fiction books about it including Daniel’s Story, the Upstairs Room, the Devil’s Arithmetic and Journey to America. We are also reading Anne Frank’s Diary, which holds many links to what happened in her time period. As we read on in our stories, we can only think of how the horrors must have affected them. We feel horrible for the kids and families that had to go into hiding for years, like Anne Frank who was living behind a bookcase with 8 people in a really small place.  Imagine you doing that. Would you have been able to take it? Just imagine hiding for your life just because of your ethnicity.

Not only that, but we’re also studying the survivors and rescuers ( Miep Gies, Hanneli Goslar, and many more) of the Holocaust, among reading books that remember the Holocaust. We are really going in depth as we uncover more about the Holocaust, and the dark days everyone had to go through.. We have almost finished reading our Holocaust books and the Anne Frank Wrap it Up Packet is on. We will have yet another Socrso get going and finish!. 1 2 3 GO!

After a brief winter break, it’s back to work time! Put on your thinking caps because we’re going to be doing lot’s of work! We have more fun projects, more humane ed classes and of course MORE HOMEWORK! As you may know, 100 days of school has past! Now only…… a lot more to go!

There are horrifying things happening in the world to animals and people. Some of those people are kids like you. That’s why we have humane ed classes every Thursday to learn about things that are inhumane that are happening in other countries, or maybe even right around the corner. As you know, our play was a fundraiser for special animal adoption groups because we learned that millions of animals are euthanized every year. And is it the poor animal’s fault that their life may end because they are euthanized? And that’s not all. Kids our age are forced to work in dangerous conditions for many hours but earn little pay. Can you imagine working in a factory with huge machines and unclean air that can make you sick?

YAY! Let’s give a round of applause for Yae-Eun Kim! Our class’s story telling finalist and the first place winner in the school story telling contest!! Congratulations Yae-Eun on your excellent performance! We know how hard you worked to memorize your story and you deserved to win first place.

Reduce, reuse and recycle. We got a visit from John and Robbie from Grow NYC.  Some things we learned at the assembly were that:  “If you can rip it, you can recycle it.”  Also, you can recycle bottles that have necks that are smaller than their bodies.  You can not recycle things that have food stains on them like paper plates that have oil from pizza or any other foods.  Just remember, “If you can rip it, you can recycle it!”

We’re preparing for the state tests, which will be harder than ever this year. Put your studying hats on because we’re going to be practicing for the state tests for 2 months in our test prep books.  We have to work our hardest to get good marks on these tests, because as we said it is harder than ever. So, stop fooling around and start studying!

            Fantastic beasts, unimaginable happenings, magic all in a book. What kind of book is this? It’s A FANTASTIC FANTASY! It could be magical happenings in this everyday world, a trip to a magical world or living in a magical world. We are  having book clubs and discussing our characters, their powers, new creatures introduced and the awesomeness of reading these books. So, start reading and start thinking! REMEMBER: DO NOT READ AHEAD OR YOUR CHARACTER WILL COME AFTER YOU. (Just kidding, but don’t read ahead)

            A B C D E F G- Stop singing and start writing the Pictionary! What Pictionary? The Pictionary for the INCA WEBQUEST OF COURSE! We’re studying the Incan culture and everything about it. Government, Food, Arts and Crafts, Religion, Legends and Transportation. After you gather all your information, it’s time to make a legend, a Pictionary and answer some basic questions!

GET READY FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR! More homework, more humane ed classes, more fun projects, and tons of more school fun!

It’s been an exciting month! Last week, we went to the Paley Center for Media! We saw cool advertisements and the types of techniques they use. These advertisements were the mentor advertisements for our own commercials! In our commercial we had to make a slogan, jingle, logo, target audience, and persuasive techniques! (We shall be presenting our commercial on Monday, December 10th.) Who knew there was so much to advertising? (I certainly didn't!)

 Hurricane Sandy is long gone, but the damage she created still remains at large. That’s why our school community will be helping! We should continue donating our change for Penny Harvest. Instead of buying a bag of chips, let’s use that money to buy some food for a more unfortunate person than us. That isn’t the only way we’ll be helping our community. We are also participating in the program Adopt A School. The school that we will be “adopting” is P.S.42. We will be donating school supplies to the students of P.S.42. so that they have the utensils they need to learn. 

 That was an awesome show! We watched Annie on Broadway! The show was funny, exciting, had many good actors and was just plain fantastic! The show was costly but it was worth every penny. We had so much fun! We will be having a Play Bill assignment for Annie. The show will lead into our Great Depression unit of study. We will be reading books about the Great Depression in our book partnerships. We will also have a web quest about the Great Depression, as a result of our book partnerships.

 That's not all! We will be putting our own musical Charlie Brown. (Based on the Charlie Brown TV series.) The students have been enjoying the videos of Charlie Brown and their fabulous teacher decided to base the musical on it! We will be performing it in February with a Valentine theme. Doesn't it sound awesome? It's sure to be a hit! (At least with us!) Lights, Camera, Action!

 This has been a pretty exciting first half of the year! Homework, projects, trips, more homework and fun! A pretty good combination! (Mostly) What lies in store for us after the  New Year? More trips? More tests? More homework? (Gasps in terror.) Nah. I think its going to be................ MORE FUN!!!!!!! This year is going to be challenging but awesome! Thanks to our awesome teacher: Mrs.Clyne (Canned Applause)

It has been quite a week! Hope you and your loved ones are well, weathered the storm and did not lose power or sustain damage to where you live. I don't think anyone expected Sandy to cause as much destruction and devastation as she did. The images from television have been heartbreaking. While we may have received a break from school, I am sure we all wish it was under much better circumstances. I know all of you join me in wishing that all of the people who were impacted by Sandy, can soon have their lives get back to normal as soon as possible. Surely, their lives will never be the same. It has also been a challenge for many of us (and your families, too) to get gasoline. Hope that situation gets better ASAP, too. I was fortunate to not lose power where I live but unfortunately, many PS 165 staff members have gone without electricity and heat for the past several days. But hopefully, if power & heat haven't already been restored to their homes, they will be shortly.

We will have a lot of catching up to do this week. Hope you have been doing some writing in your notebooks, especially documenting the events of the past several days. Please carefully review the homework section and make sure you are up to date. If you haven't done so already, please email me your Mango Street essays and your memoir first drafts. We will revise this week. Don't forget to finish up your character activities. They are past due but I will accept them through this Wednesday, November 7th. There's a lot happening, so please keep checking announcements, homework and other sections of this website.

As far as our character celebration goes, it has been re-scheduled for Wednesday, November 7th. My costume arrived a couple of days ago. I will let you know if I need to change the date but that should work out.

Election Day will be here shortly. I wonder what the results of this close race will be. Who do you think will win? Look forward to sharing our election scrapbooks (which are due on November 13) and wrapping up the "Kid Who Ran for President."

We will begin a non-fiction reading and writing unit shortly and will begin working on a class magazine in which we will publish feature articles about topics we are passionate about There are more math projects (including a fun-enriching partner project entitled, "California, Here We Come" )which you will start working on very soon along with a social studies partner explorer webquest.

Report cards will be distributed shortly. Parent-Teacher conferences and open school week is next week. Notices will go home on Monday. Don't forget to give them to your parents!

I know you are enjoying keeping in touch on Edmodo--which is sort of like an educational Facebook. Please invite your parents to check it out and join our class page. I encourage you to post & share any thoughtful comments, wonderings or reflections about school, your life or what's happening in the community or world around you. It's a good way for us to stay connected.

Well, as usual, I had a lot to say. Take care and I look forward to seeing you all Monday morning.

Wow! Who could believe that more than a month has gone by since we first got back to school? We had an awesome time visiting our animal friends at the Bronx Zoo this past week and pondered the ethical dilemma if whether or not they belong there. We will be thinking about this and actually do an in-depth investigation on this issue soon. Wasn't Ms. Fleischman's presentation on the orangutans of Borneo fascinating? We will definitely be "adopting" an orangutan for our class. Hopefully, our class service learning endeavor of raising awareness and money for endangered primates will take place shortly. I was very impressed by your powerpoint presentations and the work you all did investigating the primates and the masterful comparisons you made. We will now take our findings and published them in a compare and contrast essay.

Our election unit is getting into full gear. This is a very exciting time of year as the race towards the White House heats up. Who do you think the better candidate is and why? Which issue is most relevant to your life and who supports your perspective? We will explore this more and continue reading the hysterical satire, "The Kid Who Ran for President" and continue learning more about how the president is elected. Please keep reading Time for Kids and Nick News. It is important we stay up to date on current events and the "stuff" that affects us. In social studies, We will also start exploring explorers of the western hemisphere shortly.

Did you enjoy creating your decimal math game? Hope we continue to have time to try out our marvelous math creations. We will continue to have math talks, pursue in-depth problem solving and other exciting enrichment activities in unit 2: multi-digit and whole number-decimal/fraction operations.

Are you enjoying learning about figurative language? Isn't it fun looking at song lyrics and poetry to see how writers incorporate similes, metaphors, personification and imagery into their writing? We saw that it is used in literature as well (like in the vignette, "Four Skinny Trees" from the House on Mango Street. You should all be working on your essays that are based on the book and compare it to another text you have read. Did you enjoy writing and illustrating your own extended metaphors? We will share them soon. 

We are in the midst of an in-depth character study and will be working on a "Character Counts" response to literature and create our own character puppets. On October 31, we will have a character celebration where we can come dressed up as a favorite story cha

We had a great start to our new school year! We have so many wonderful activities and trips planned. We can't wait to head to Broadway in December to see "Annie." We will also have exciting several new trips to be announced shortly. So stay tuned.

You all did such a great job with your bio poems and they are prominently featured on display, near the elevator. We look forward to our first author's celebration on Friday to share our chaining memory booklets. It will be the first of several times during the school year when we will have the chance to share our published work with each other (and nibble on a few goodies as we do so).

Please make sure to check the homework page every night and try to stay up to date with due dates. I will begin sending notes home to your parents if you are missing work. You will usually have a problem of the week due every Friday. Science news responses for now, are due every Wednesday and current events responses are due every Thursday. This is apresidential election year, which is very exciting. In a few weeks, we will begin a special "Electing the President" unit. But for now, you should be watching the news and following the candidates and issues at www.timeforkids.com and nicknews.com. You should be working on your reading journal responses and completing entries in your writer's notebooks regularly. There will be other long (and short term) assignments. If you are confused or have questions, it is your responsibility to ask me for clarification and assistance. If I do not hear from you, I will assume that "all is clear." I will be sharing a homework planning sheet with you soon. You will need to pace yourselves since many of your assignments are long-term. You may have more than a day or two (sometimes up to a week or more) to complete your tasks. You will have to begin to plan how you want to space your work out so you don't get stressed by saving it for the last minute. We will discuss.

I look forward to meeting your parents this Friday, September 21 for "Meet the Teacher" day in the morning. Band will begin this week, too. I know we will have another great week. Hope you had a wonderful, long weekend. See you soon

Bon jour-hello, everyone!

Montreal is a  beautiful city. Most people are bilingual and speak both French & English, although all of the street signs are in French. Here is a scene from the downtown area. A French delicacy I checked out was poutine, which is basically french fries covered with cheese and gravy. Actually, I am not a big fan and just prefer my fries with good old Heinz ketchup. It was very warm during my visit. I got to check out several sites including Old Montreal, which is one of the oldest urban areas in North America and features beautiful cobblestone streets and lovely architecture, the Botanical Gardens, Olympic Park and the Biodome, which is located in Olympic Park contains four  different ecological habitats - rain forest, polar, marine and forest - where visitors can see the plants and animals native to each ecosystem. It was so cool to check out animals including the polar penguins & puffins, the tropical monkeys, parrots and beavers. Have any of you ever visited Canada? (We will actually study the regions of Canada this year in-depth. However, our first social studies unit will be about the geography of the western hemisphere. We will also learn more about explorers of the western hemisphere).

I can't wait to hear (and read all about) your exciting summer vacations. Have you had any super special experiences lately? Our first unit of study this year will be memoir writing. So get set to write about those memorable, life changing moments.

We will also be working with a new multi-media math series called Envisions. We will also be doing a lot of problem solving and real-life math investigations. Our first unit will be on place value and decimals.

We will launch our reading workshop by setting goals for ourselves, start keeping track of what we read in our book logs, continue to developing important ideas about texts, review ways to respond to texts and how to conduct post it chats and begin reading partnerships.

Please make sure you have your supplies, completed your inventories and summer reading logs. Also, please try to get your Broadway permission slip and deposit back to school as soon as possible.

Well, I could keep writing. But then I may be at a loss for words on Thursday and that wouldn't be very cool now, would it?

Anyway, au voir, goodbye for now and I can't wait to meet you in a few days.

Isn't summer a magical time of year? You can just kick back and move at your own pace. Hope you are all enjoying yourselves. Have you read any good books lately? Have you gone on any interesting trips or vacations? I recently spent a couple of days on the Northfork of Long Island (in Riverhead and Greenport) where I got to enjoy lots of local produce (fruits, vegetables and fresh baked goods) along with eating a couple of  my favorites (crabcakes and lobster rolls) while I experienced spectacular water views and had fun checking out the antique shops and spent some time "chill-axing" at the pool. Shortly, I will visit Montreal and look forward to taking in some local sites. Parlez vous, francais, anyone?

In addition to continuing to doing volunteer work at  the Paley Center for Media and helping a couple of local animal rescue groups, I have been busy taking several technology workshops and I just finished a fabulous online humane education course entitled, "Teaching for a Positive Future." This year, it will be very exciting to work together on integrating the four major elements of humane education. Humane education not only instills the desire and capacity to live with compassion, integrity, and wisdom, but also provides the knowledge and tools to put our values into action in meaningful, far-reaching ways.  

Humane education enables us to find solutions that work for all by approaching human rights, environmental preservation, and animal protection as interconnected and integral dimensions of a healthy, just society. 
Humane education includes 4 elements:

1. Providing accurate information (so we have the knowledge to face challenges);
   
2. Fostering the 3C's:  curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking (so we have the tools to meet challenges);
   
3. Instilling the 3R's: reverence, respect, and responsibility (so we have the motivation to confront challenges);
   
4. Offering positive choices and tools for problem solving (so we will be able to solve challenges).  In other words, we will work on becoming "solutionaries" and critical problem solvers. 

Does that sound exciting? I think so and can't wait to get started!