World Outreach

 Pennies For Peace

By: Taylor

    A few weeks ago, Chaparral finished doing the program called Pennies for Peace.  It was a resounding success, making $669.50.  Even though a penny does not buy anything in Calabasas, in the Middle East it can make a world of difference.  One penny can buy a pencil, two an eraser, ten a notebook, the list goes on and on.  Really, to comprehend the change that Chaparral students made, you have to hear the whole story.

    

              After a failed attempt to try and climb K2, the second tallest mountain in the world, Greg  Mortenson stumbled onto a remote mountain village in Central Pakistan.  The inhabitants of this village nursed him back to health.  Just before he was about to go home, Mr. Mortenson asked to see the place where the children studied.  He saw all of the village's children sitting on the frigid dirt, writing with mud-covered stocks on slates, or more often, the ground.  He found out that the children only had a teacher come to them a few times a week, because the village of a few hundred people could not afford the $1 a day to pay for their children's education.  He decided to do something about that.  He wrote around eight hundred letters to celebrities, earnestly pleading for money to help impoverished children half a world away.  The only response that he got was from the newscaster Tom Brokaw, who donated the measly sum of $100, which would not get you far in building a whole school anywhere in the world.  This is where Pennies for Peace comes in. Greg spoke to the school where his mother was principal about the children that he had come to care so much for.  One boy said that he would donate his piggy bank, but Greg did not think too much of it.  Pretty soon, more and more children were donating and the grand total was $623.45, which contributed quite a lot toward the $12,000 it would take to build a school.  With the help of Jean Hoerni, Greg did manage to build a school, a bridge, and a foundation called the Central Asia Institute.  This led to many more and made the Central Asia Institute and Pennies for Peace the organizations committed to promoting peace there today.  More recently, the Central Asia Institute started building schools in war-ravaged Afghanistan.  This helps fortify the idea that world peace will only be achieved if every citizen is educated and has the opportunity for a good, free life.  As you can see, Chaparral students made a big difference by participating in Pennies for Peace. 

Comment:

1. How do you feel about the Pennies for Peace Campaign?

2. How do you feel that ONE fifth grader at Chaparral has made an impact such a significant impact?

3. Has Taylor inspired you to help in your community?

Griffith Park Observatory Field Trip

Griffith Park Observatory 

THE PLANETARIUM: 

The planetarium sky made me feel like I was flying.

Danielle Y

...it made me feel like I was laying down and looking at the stars

Jerry

It was gorgeous looking up at the stars, even though I got motion sickness.

Mikaela

It was so real, that I felt like we were moving in the sky.

Shana

The narrator's voice was inspirational.

Isabel

Looking at the constellations  made me feel like I was in space.

Cameron

I felt like we were actually moving.

Rawmteen

We felt like we were in space when we were in the rocket ship.

Courtney

FAST FACTS:

There are underwater volcanoes on Jupiter's Moon.

Ali

The bigger the planet, the more you weigh.

The planet we weigh the most on is Jupiter, and the planet we weigh the least on is Mercury.

Sophie

On February 10th we were in the sea goat constellation

Rockey

Comets are made of water, carbon, sand, and amonia.

Shana

CHNOPS 

Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus, and Sulfer

(elements that appear in all living things)

Brian and Jerry

Two types of telescopes:

1. Reflecting

2. Refracting
Noah 

Tesla Coil, created by Thomas Edison's competitor,  Nikola Tesla was going to be used to transport electricity, but was rejected because of its loud noise and startling appearance. 
Brian

Eight planets make up our solar system
Courtney

Life on earth requires: LIQUID WATER, ENERGY FROM THE SUN, and STABLE ENVIRONMENT

1 million EARTHS can fit INSIDE the sun

Foucault Pendulum

Grizzly Bear Family Book

Exploring the Wild Alaskan Tundra with the Grizzly Bear

This week we read The Grizzly Bear Family Book by Michio Hoshino, a wilderness photographer and adventure enthusiast. In this expository story, Michio Hoshino spends nearly a year in the Alaskan wilderness capturing the lives of grizzly bears throughout the seasons. 

After reading the story together in class, we learned many interesting facts about the grizzly bear, Alaskan tundra, and the changing seasons. 

Blogging assignment for the week:

1. Please share 4 interesting facts that you learned after reading the story this week.

2. Did this story make you curious about grizzly bears? Alaska? Are there any other questions you have after reading? 
3. Have you been to Alaska? What was it like? Did you see grizzly bears? Share your experience.
4. Make 4 generalizations (general statements) about grizzly bears after reading the story.

Challenge:

Create a HAIKU about ANYTHING mentioned in the story (bears, salmon, caribou, hibernation). Remember that a haiku should follow the following structure:

Title

5 syllables

7 syllables

5 syllables

World Math Day- March 3, 2010

Can We Meet The Goal?

By: Emily

World Math Day is a website that began in 2007. In the 48 hours after it started, over 287,000 students from 98 countries took part in breaking the world record and answering 38,904,275 questions correctly. In 2009, the participation grew to 2 million students from 204 countries answering more than 400 million questions correctly. Can we beat that score this year?
   

 Students on World Math Day play against other students around the world in live games that last 60 seconds each. Like any other activity, practice makes perfect. So, students practice daily with people from countries like India, Bermuda, Greece, and my favorite, Australia, to train for World Math Day. This year's World Math Day is on Wednesday, March 3, 2010. During World Math Day, students earn points for each correct answer. A recent poll on the website's blog shows that students think we can answer 1 billion questions correctly. So, its important that everybody logs on to www.worldmathday.com so we can reach our goal of 1 billion questions!

What's your opinion?

1. Can we help meet the goal of answering 1 billion math questions?
2. What do you like about the World Math Day website?
3. Do you have a goal for the month of February, while you train for March 3rd?
4. What are some of the countries you've competed against during the World Math Day tournaments? 

Spelling Bee 2010

Chaparral SPELLS $12,000 

Worth of Words for HAITI!

By Ava & Aden

         This year was the 3rd annual Chaparral Spelling Bee. The school decided to raised money for Haiti after the earthquake 2 weeks before. Each grade had their own spelling list, but I believe the fifth grade words were the most difficult. Here are a couple of the 5th grade spelling words: incomprehensible, contemptuous, lustrous, astonishment, and halfheartedly.
       Other than the 5th grade, every other grade participated. Parents, grandparents, neighbors, and others pledged money for every word or test the student got correct. Everybody took the test on Tuesday, January 26, 2010. Prizes and awards for grades  1-5 were given on Friday, January 29, 2010. Everyone with a perfect score of 100% had their picture taken for the year book. Awards for the children in kindergarten were handed out and announced on February 1st.
       Many students earned 100%, and the school raised $12,000.00 for Haiti. We are all proud and happy for raising money for such a great cause! This year's bee was a hit, and we hope to have an even better one next year!

5th Grade Spelling Bee Winners 

Mrs. Coro's Class

Mrs. Shipow's Class

 Mrs. Costantino's Class

Dear Mr. Henshaw

Author of the Week!

This week we read the story Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary. Our story is about a boy named Leigh who he has been corresponding with his favorite author for years because he dreams of being a writer. After winning Honorable Mentions in the school writing contest, Leigh is given an opportunity to meet a Famous Author. Although it's not Mr. Henshaw, Leigh is very excited to have lunch with a true writer!

Students are asked to share the following:

If given the opportunity to meet YOUR favorite author, who would you want to meet with and why? What 3 questions would you be interested in asking your favorite author?

Stock Market Project- Accelerated Math

Investing In Our Future

By: Healy, Danielle C., Karin, and Mrs. Coro

This year Mrs. Coro's math class is doing a Stock Market Project. We hope to understand a little bit more about investing money, while using online resources, like Google documents & finance,  to track our earnings. 

The Process: 

First, we have had to pick a group with a least 2-4 people, but the hardest thing to do was to make up our investment group's name.  Most people came up with very creative and spectacular names. Then we had to pick which stocks we wanted to buy with $10,000.  After we agreed on the ones we wanted to keep, all the groups made a spreadsheet using Google documents. On the spreadsheet we wrote the public name, corporation, cost, ticker, number of shares, total number of shares, and the money we made and lost. This is so great because all the students in a group can share a common document. We will be tracking our investments weekly in class using the Google finance tool.

BLOGGING:

Each week Investment Teams will be asked to blog about their stocks,  whether they have made or lost money, and how the team expects to proceed in the upcoming week. Please check back regularly to see how our investment teams fair against the stock market.

Week 1:

In your first post, please follow the following format:
1. Introduce your Investment Group and the members involved (no last names).
2. What stocks did you invest in?
3. After the first week, what where the total gains or loss?
4. What are you enjoying most about this simulation..so far.
Week 2:
1. How did your stocks do this week?
2. Any surprises? Disappointments? Accomplishments?
3. What GOOGLE TOOL are you enjoying the most and why?
Documents? Finance? Spreadsheet? Blogger?
Week 3: 
1. How did your investments do this week?

1. Next week will be week 4 of the stock market project, are there any stocks that you might like to sell? Why?
2. If you purchase a new stock next week, what stocks will you  be following this week as a "test run"?

Week 4:

1. What stocks did you decide to sell? Why? How much had you lost?
2. What stocks did you decide to buy? Why?

Week 5:

1. CATCH UP!!! Make sure that your group has answered ALL FOUR BLOGS ASSIGNMENTS
2. Check your Google Spreadsheet to make sure you are caught up on your stock prices (there should be 5 weeks of data recorded- including this week)
3. We will start a Power Point presentation on our project in the upcoming weeks!