Angela Regan’s Grade 2 recently participated in the second annual “Ogre Awards”. The students decided on superlatives for fairytale characters. For example, Shrek was nominated “Most revolting”, while Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk was considered “Sneakiest”. The students then wrote an opinion piece explaining why a character deserved a specific award. Their writing was very convincing and in the end each character was given an award that they truly deserved.

Ogre Awards from Karin Gravina on Vimeo.

On Thursday the students in Alissa Alteri Shea’s classroom celebrated a successful year of learning how to write for an audience. Each student presented a written piece to the audience of appreciative parents, students and staff.

The first graders were challenged to create something that would “take them somewhere.” They could choose from legos, blocks, and other construction materials in the classroom. As a team, they had to agree on the creation and the construction materials. Once completed they were interviewed and filmed by other teams on their project. Learning how to film is a work in progress!

Questions that were asked included: describe what you invented, why did you invent it, where will you go in it, and why did you choose the material you used to make your invention. Below are their final interviews which were filmed by their classmates using the iPad.

Audrey, Caroline and Riana

Invention – Audrey, Caroline, Riana from Karin Gravina on Vimeo.

Rory and Caesar

Invention – Rory and Caesar from Karin Gravina on Vimeo.

Adam and Caleb

Invention – Adam and Caleb from Karin Gravina on Vimeo.

Uli and Alina

Invention – Uli and Alina from Karin Gravina on Vimeo.

Clay and Gael

Inventions – Clay and Gael from Karin Gravina on Vimeo.

Students in Alyson Bull’s class were challenged to create earth science books for a third grade audience. Working in teams, the students researched their topics, created original illustrations and designed books using Comic Life to appeal to their third grade audience. Before their books could be published, each group had to present their books to experts in the publishing field: Heather Rush, Lead Graphic Designer at Pioneer Valley Press, Kristen Beam, Editor, Content Producer, Proofreader at Pioneer Valley Press, and Craig Cohen, Executive Publisher at PowerHouse Books. Their final books are available below the photo gallery.

**Click on the box on the bottom right of each book, it will open to a full page spread. It looks like this:

Mia’s Magic Bracelet

Mia's Magic Bracelet

Life in the Sky

Life in the Sky

The Ocean in Motion

The Ocean in Motion

Big G’s Adventure

Big G's Adventures

Natural Disasters

Natural Disasters

Christine Paglia Baker’s class has been learning about inventors and inventions. Today was the annual invention fair and once again the fourth grade students created some pretty awesome inventions! Talented students!