Finishing the School Year on a Good Note
Hello, Philomath community! We’re coming up fast on the end of the 2022–23 school year, and our virtual class is hard at work on a strong finish to the semester.
In ELA our class has begun reading Part Two of Echo, and we’re having some excellent discussions about 20th century history, figurative language, and how an author uses setup and payoff to engage the reader and tell an exciting story. Our final Social Studies unit will begin next week and stretch to the end of the school year.
Science is wrapping up on Friday and the students are presenting their final projects. 4th Grade will be sharing their engineering designs, data, and modifications. 6th Grade will be teaching lessons on reproduction, mutation, and genetic variation. They plan to teach the 4th grade what they have learned through Role Playing Games designed by them!
In Math, 4th Grade took their final 4th grade assessments this week and next week will be joining 6th Grade in their final unit of the year: Statistics and Probability. They’ll start off with finding means, medians, and modes.
Most importantly, we’re pleased to announce that Professors Smith and Althoff will be holding our spring 2023 Parent–Teacher conferences on Monday, May 15th and Tuesday, May 16th. If you would like to schedule a 20-minute block to meet with each of us, we’re available on those two days outside of normal class hours. Please reach out by email as soon as possible so we can try to accommodate your schedule. If you would like to speak with either of us outside those times, let us know right away. Otherwise, you can expect to receive feedback on your child’s full progress over the school year in their final progress report, which you should receive shortly after our last day of school on Friday, May 26th.
And last, we’re proud to present the winner of our ELA class’s latest monthly story contest! Our class voted on which student’s original story made the best use of figurative language, and I hope you’ll agree that fourth grader Jake did an amazing job with their story “Robbin the sentient rock: Road to Sentackia.” Happy reading!
Road to Sentackia
By Jake
Chapter 1:
Robbin and Ben, the two friends from Sentackia looked around the destroyed house that they crashed into and then they get an idea.
They will go back to Sentackia to get supplies to fix the house but wait.
How will they fix their ship?
First they realize they need the rock wand a magical tool that can fix anything with at least one pebble inside of it
Then they need a pebble,
Finally they need to fix their ship to get to Sentackia
In a different order though.
“Robbin, how will we get the rock wand?” said Ben.
“I know, we need to fix the ship,” said Robbin.
“Not helpful,” said Ben.
“Oops sorry Ben.”
“It’s okay Robbin.”
“Aww thanks Ben, but wait we need to get to work Ben you find some Mallelator comprehators to montunicate the ship.”
“Right away!” said Ben.
“I’ll help too,” said Dobbin.
“Alright, Dobbin you find some omtonipy cryonis and some magnesiton maleculators,” said Robbin.
“Okay!” said Dobbin.
Chapter 2:
Ben was looking around the city for a shop to find some parts and eventually found one. It looked like the sketchiest store in a sablemall, though Ben went in.
“What is this place?” Ben thought.
Then Ben saw a sign pointed at a chair that read: ‘This is the lotus looking lottery loser 3000.’
Ben thought that was weird and he kept on looking.
Then he saw another sign pointed at a metal bar that read: ‘This bar is as strong as a bear, you won't see any better than this reality breaking mind bender.’
Then he saw it, a sign that said “The path to finding Mallelator Comprehators so you can montunicate anything.” The sign was pointed at a book in an aisle called: “Science Fiction.”
“OH MY WHIZZORATED WINDERPATUMILATER WONTUKAMENTA THIS SAYS SCIENCE FICTION!?” exclaimed Ben.
“Hey, how did you know that the Sentient rocks in Sentackia say that from the book?” asked the shopkeeper.
Chapter 3:
“I-uh I’ve read it before sir,” Ben chuckled awkwardly.
“O-okay…” the shopkeeper responded.
Ben was going insane thinking that that book was about his kind, luckily they all look like humans once entering the atmosphere, he had to tell Robbin.
As Ben turned around and started walking, the door got blocked by bars, and the windows with metal plates with alternating from indented to not, and alarms ringing he took the bar as strong as a bear and lunged at the metal plates on the windows and to a bystander you would think he was like a prisoner escaping based off of his dedicated face.
Ben leaped out the window and went running towards Robbin
Chapter 4:
When Ben reached Robbin he told him all about how the humans wrote fantasy books about sentient rocks like them and that we had to find the parts soon to go back to Sentackia.
“Wait, really? You're right, we need to find parts. Speaking of parts have you found any? I haven't,” said Robbin.
“I haven't either,” said Ben.
“Okay, Oh wait! Look at that behind you. It's a store that says they sell Montunicating parts for Aerospace vehicles, just what we need!” said Robbin.
“Let’s head over there now,” said Ben.
And so they did, while they were there they found all the parts they needed and fixed their ship but what adventures await them now?
The End.
The final installment in this journey of earth subseries will be next story contest, I hope you enjoy.
