Trinity Audubon Center--Field Trip

At the beginning of the week our fifth graders had the opportunity to take a Field Trip to the Trinity Audubon Center in Dallas.  They were quite excited to see many of the things that we had been studying in Science out in real life :)  They identified decomposers, interactions of living things in their environments, overpopulation of algae, two biomes (grasslands and deciduous forest), organisms competing for survival, adaptations, and alternative energy sources to name a few.  The students had a blast, and even though we were all exhausted from walking the trails, I feel as though they were able to apply a lot of their in class learning to our hiking experience.  Here are some photos of our adventure.

Student Made Movie Trailers :)

The students have been working diligently to create a movie trailer for the novel study (Number the Stars) that we have been working on in class.  They were very excited to learn about the Holocaust, and were able to enjoy the troubles that Annemarie and Ellen encountered along the way.  Hope you all enjoy their movies :)

Number The Stars

       

The students have been working
hard and learning about the period of the
 Holocaust.  Take some time to look over
their comments on the poems that deal
with the Holocaust.

The Butterfly

The Butterfly

The last, the very last, 

So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow. 

Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing 

against a white stone…

Such, such a yellow 

Is carried lightly ‘‘way up high. 

It went away I'm sure because it wished to 

kiss the world goodbye.

For seven weeks I've lived in here, 

Penned up inside this ghetto 

But I have found my people here. 

The dandelions call to me

And the white chestnut candles in the court. 

Only I never saw another butterfly.

That butterfly was the last one. 

Butterflies don't live in here, 

In the ghetto.

-Pavel Friedmann 4.6.1942

Fear

Fear

Today the ghetto knows a different fear, 

Close in its grip, Death wields an icy scythe. 

An evil sickness spreads a terror in its wake, 

The victims of its shadow weep and writhe.

Today a father's heartbeat tells his fright 

And mothers bend their heads into their hands. 

Now children choke and die with typhus here, 

A bitter tax is taken from their bands.

My heart still beats inside my breast 

While friends depart for other worlds. 

Perhaps it's better –– who can say? –– 

Than watching this, to die today?

No, no, my God, we want to live! 

Not watch our numbers melt away. 

We want to have a better world, 

We want to work –– we must not die!

-Eva Picková, 12 years old, Nymburk

Homesick

Homesick

I've lived in the ghetto here more than a year, 

In Terezín, in the black town now, 

And when I remember my old home so dear, 

I can love it more than I did, somehow.

Ah, home, home, 

Why did they tear me away? 

Here the weak die easy as a feather 

And when they die, they die forever.

I'd like to go back home again, 

It makes me think of sweet spring flowers. 

Before, when I used to live at home, 

It never seemed so dear and fair.

I remember now those golden days… 

But maybe I'll be going there again soon.

People walk along the street, 

You see at once on each you meet 

That there's a ghetto here, 

A place of evil and of fear. 

There's little to eat and much to want, 

Where bit by bit, it's horror to live. 

But no one must give up! 

The world turns and times change.

Yet we all hope the time will come 

When we'll go home again. 

Now I know how dear it is 

And often I remember it.

-9.3.1943. Anonymous

Secret Talk

“Secret Talk”

by: Eve Merriam

I have a friend


And sometimes we meet

And greet each other

Without a word

We walk through the field


And stalk a bird


And chew a blade of


Pungent grass.

We let time pass


For a golden hour


While we twirl a flower


Of Queen Anne’s lace

Or find a lion’s face


Shaped in a cloud


That’s drifting, sifting


Across the sky

There’s no need to say,

“It’s been a fine day”


When we say goodbye:

When we say goodbye


We just wave a hand


And we understand.