Plymouth Murals--They're Complete!

Our Plymouth murals are complete and beautiful! Read the blog entry by Allie, Bria and Ellis to find out more information about the process we went through to create the murals! Click on the images to enlarge them, or attend our Plymouth Celebration on Friday at 8:40 a.m.!

Life in Plymouth

The Artists of "Life in Plymouth" 

The Mayflower Compact

The Artists of "The Mayflower Compact"

Wampanoag Village 

The Artists of "Wampanoag Village"

The First Thanksgiving

The Artists of "The First Thanksgiving"

The First Encounter (with the Wampanoag)

Artists of "The First Encounter"

Landing in the New World

The Artists of "Landing in the New World"

Journey of the Mayflower

The Artists of "Journey of the Mayflower"

Plymouth Murals (by Allie, Bria and Ellis)

Introduction
Now in Social Studies, we're studying the Pilgrims. We're making murals from big events in the Pilgrim's lifetime. Before this, we were writing journals of different Pilgrims: Stephen Hopkins, Giles Hopkins, Francis Cooke, John Billington, etc. From this (the events of Plymouth) we are drawing murals that will become fully painted and creative. We have seen many murals that take place in a Pilgrim's lifetime, so now we have amazing ideas for our murals. We hope you enjoy reading about the making of our murals!

Day One: Drawing with a Grid:
On the first day, Marc (Zack's dad) came in so we could start drawing our murals. We split into the following groups:

• The Mayflower Compact: Jane, Ellis, Allie, Bria
• Wampanoag Village: Katya, Sabina, Adina, Sydney
• The First Thanksgiving: Zack, Jonathan, Dylan, Elliot
• The First Encounter (with the Wampanoag): Jack, Michael, Sam
• Life in Plymouth: Alec, Andrew, Eric, Jason
• Journey of the Mayflower: Mayu, Ava, Leela
• Landing in the New World: Ida, Chloe, Emma, Charlotte

First, we drew our sketches on small pieces of yellow paper and added a 1 inch by 1 inch grid. Then, we drew a grid on large brown paper that was 3 inches by 3 inches. We drew all the big shapes on the paper from the little drawing. After this, we did all the details. Marc showed us pictures of murals so we could have a good idea of what murals look like. On day two, we will paint! All of our murals were very successful! We appreciated all the parents who helped on Day One!

Day Two: Painting Day

Zack's dad Marc came back to help us with painting our murals, as well as several other parents. Parents helped the groups mix different colors. Zack's dad encouraged us to think about colors and what's realistic for Plymouth. The parents did a good job with alternating in the different stations. That day was important because we put color into our murals. We painted the big spaces first. At the end, every mural was perfect, and we couldn't have done such a good job with our murals if the parents didn't volunteer and help a lot. 

Day Three: Details

Details. Details. Details. That's what we did on the third day. We did drawings and paintings before, so today was focused on details. With the detail part you can still be creative. You can mostly add any details as long as it's OK with your group. You get to use colored pencils and crayons to add details. It might not sound fun, but with those tools it really helps improve the quality of the murals a lot. Details are fun and can help your paintings. We call this detail day! 

Check out our upcoming posts to see pictures of our finished murals!

Writing Mentor Texts (by Alec and Andrew)

Today 4-324 worked on mentor texts in writing. The mentor texts were: Chicken Sunday, Sam and the Lucky Money, and Our Gracie Aunt. A mentor text is a book that a writer would look at to inspire the examples writers or to see what the writers liked.

Some of the examples for our work is: describe, describe--pointing out different areas that really describe the character. For example in Sam and the Lucky Money when Sam thought "for once I am glad to follow my mother."

Another example is clear visions. Which is when you can see what's happening in your mind very clearly. An example from Sam and the Lucky Money when Sam saw: "The colorful lion wove down the street like a giant centipede. Teased by a clown wearing a round mask, it tossed its head up and down."

This is what we worked on today in writing. Remember! You can find a mentor text anywhere!

What did you learn from studying the mentor text? Leave your comments here!

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

I hope you are enjoying Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national holiday that honors a man who dedicated his life to further the cause of civil rights in America. Interested in learning more about the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? Scholastic News published this article about his life. Time for Kids published this article. National Geographic Kids put together a beautiful slideshow of pictures about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. View them here!

Ava's Amazing Idea

Ava says, "This was my first piece of art for the project. Everyone in my family thought it was brilliant. They suggested I make more to sell and give the money to a charity. A couple of days before that, I had gotten a note from the WWF thanking me for helping so much and giving me all these profiles of animals. So I thought maybe I could make more to sell and share the project with my class so they could help with it also. We'll hope to sell our work on or near Earth Day!" 

Here are some questions to consider:

• Do you want to volunteer to help with the project? 
• Do you have any ideas for the sale? 
• What kinds of art could we make to sell?

Post your answers below! Be sure to read all the comments. 

SPHDZ BOOK #2

SPHDZ Book #2  hit bookstores December 21! The adventures of Michael K continue, and life isn't getting any easier for Michael K (or for Agent Umber!) Think disguises, school plays, and more hamster speak!

If you read the book and want to write a review of it for the blog, email it to me and I'll post it! I can't wait to hear what you think! If you missed the first book, check out Bria's review! Still haven't registered to be a SPHDZ? There are 13,690 SPHDZ now!

Has anyone read 

A Sneak Peek...

Our independent writing publishing party is on Friday morning at 8:40 a.m. Here's a sneak peek at one of the recipes being featured in Alec's cookbook this Friday morning: chocolate layer cake!

We hope you can join us!