Starring . . . the Students!

This week I decided to use portions of the students' writing to highlight a few things we've been doing at school.  The students below were creative in their ideas and detailed in their facts.  Enjoy!

First, we've been studying aspects of Native American culture such as language, religion, and art.  The students have each chosen one of five North American tribes to focus on.  When we learned about storytelling traditions and symbols, the students had to write a story that could take place in their tribe's geographic location (for example, tribes living in heavily forested areas wouldn't be hunting buffalo). Here are a few of the stories:

A chief went in the morning. He saw some bird tracks. He decided to go hunting in three days and three nights. A spirit appeared. He went hunting again. He camped under the stars.  He killed a bear. He went home. He was a wise man.  by: Jacob N.

Two friends met and started to dance. And there were two brothers and they had a blanket and it was in a teepee. Then they started a campfire. It was by a tree. And then they saw a fish to go swim. A chief crossed the mountains. A chief saw bird tracks and then he won an award for finding the bird tracks. It started to rain and he saw a hill. There was a sign that said, "No deer here at all." And then he invited some friends to a feast at the hill where there were no deer at all.  by: Andee 

The chief went hunting for deer.  He camped under the stars. When he woke up he saw lots of bear. He ran home at lightning speed. He had a feast of deer. He got an award for getting food for the tribe for one month.  p.s. There was lots of deer.  by: Luke

 

On November 15, 2011, our class was able to go on a walking field trip to Alta High School to see "Crazy for You."  Here are some thoughts the students had when they returned:

First we walked up to Alta. Next we sat down. Then the play began. After the play, we got to high five all the actors. Finally, we walked back.  by: Emily

The play is about a city boy and a country girl that fall in love. And a city girl and a country boy who fall in love, too.  by: Ethan
We got seated. The play began. It was kind of a musical and dancers were there. They kissed nine times. It was gross. We saw five different parts. We left at 12:00. We came back and had lunch. by: Alexa

The field trip we had was fun. There was a lot of Gershwin music. People would clap to the beat. It was the best play I've ever seen in my life! It was very, very funny. There was a lot of dancing. There was silliness, because one fell into the street and did not get up. Some people mimicked a lot. We got to have granola bars and give high fives to the actors and actresses. I love the play. by:Emma

I loved our field trip because they danced and singed. My favorite part was when they got married. We got to high five the people in the story. I said to a girl that she was my favorite and she said I made her day. She wanted to know my name. I told her. She said her name is Christine.  by: Taylor