Mr. Donahue's Class

Want to learn about some of the best spots in Oakland? Take a look at this guide, which describes a variety of delicious restaurants, shops, and fun places to visit.

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Looking for a good movie to rent this weekend with the family? Here’s a guide to some of the best movies recently released, with reviews from our expert reviewers from Mr. Donahue’s class. 

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Check out the latest news from some of Mr. Donahue’s third graders. You’ll read about all kinds of things — from exciting sports events to broken bones to food projects and new pets.

Take a look.

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TESTING TIME!!!!

We have completed two sections of the CST reading and language arts test and it is going well. Students enjoy having a water bottle and a snack during the testing sessions so you may want to provide those in addition to our regular snacks. When a session is completed the students do quiet activities at their seats like reading, drawing, or puzzles. Next week we will have three math tests and then the tests will be completed.

POEM IN YOUR POCKET

In preparation for POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY (Thurs 4/26) Students have been writing poems. Some of them are quite good! I am looking forward to our Garage Band sessions and getting these on the website. Jon Cecchettini and and John Roestler will be assisting the seven students who have been trained By Lisa Hobbs to record their poetry.

CHABOT FIELD TRIP

Thanks to all of the parents who were able to drive on our field trip to Chabot Space and Science Center. It was a fantastic trip and the students seemed to have learned a lot. Our last unit in Science is SUN, MOON, AND STARS so this field trip was important.

FILED TRIP MAY 3rd

Our upcoming field trip will be next Thursday. It is another great old Okland tour at Jack London Square. Permission slips went home yesterday. We will be leaving around 9:15 and back around 12:15. Please have your child pack a bag lunch.

TESTING TIME!!!!
We have completed two sections of the CST reading and language arts test and it is going well.  Students enjoy having a water bottle and a snack during the testing sessions so you may want to provide those in addition to our regular snacks. When a session is completed the students do quiet activities at their seats like reading, drawing, or puzzles.  Next week we will have three math tests and then the tests will be completed.
POEM IN YOUR POCKET
In preparation for POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY (Thurs 4/26)  Students have been writing poems.  Some of them are quite good!  I am looking forward to our Garage Band sessions and getting these on the website. Jon Cecchettini and and John Roestler will be assisting the seven students who have been trained By Lisa Hobbs to record their poetry.
CHABOT FIELD TRIP
Thanks to all of the parents who were able to drive on our field trip to Chabot Space and Science Center.  It was a fantastic trip and the students seemed to have learned a lot.  Our last unit in Science is SUN, MOON, AND STARS so this field trip was important.

Following a month of discussions about compassion and an assembly presentation our class was given an opportunity to demonstrate what we learned.

The class donated $207 in quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies– lots of pennies– to Meals on Wheels last week. The big containers of spare change were given to the class by a Crocker neighbor, Rosie Kaplan, as well as Hal Haugnes (Oliver Tuttle’s Grandpa). The children decided to donate the money to a charity. They discussed several possibilities before settling on Meals on Wheels.

The kids counted the money and weighed it. They realized that it is sometimes easier to weigh coins than to actually count them out. The kids got lots of good math practice, which they checked on calculators. They also found out that adding pounds and ounces is more difficult than adding dollars and cents, but a couple of them eventually figured out that this $207 weighs about 33 lbs!

After counting all the money, they found out that banks would not take the money unless it was in rolls, so an industrious group of 6 children to give up their rainy day lunch hour last Thursday to re-count the change and pack it into rolls. We found out that a roll of pennies is worth 50 cents, while a roll of dimes is worth $5.00. Those dimes mount up really quickly!

Meals on Wheels was thrilled with the donation of rolls of coins and will be sending a thank you letter to the class soon.

There are lots of things going on in the classroom.

As you might have heard, Mr. Donahue’s class is in the middle of a journalism unit led by Tina Barseghian, Lucy’s mom, who’s a journalist. Their first project was to write an article about Living Museum, and most of them have completed that. Their second project is writing a news article about an event that happened recently. For both of these projects, they’re gathering facts — who, what, where, when, how, and why — and collecting quotes from three different people: friends, parents, teachers, etc. You may have been interviewed for one or both of the articles.

The next three projects will be 1) writing a movie review, 2) writing a travel article, and 3) writing a how-to article. For each of these, we’ll provide worksheets with questions for them to answer to help them write the drafts. Tina will work with each one of the students to craft the articles as they would appear on a news site or newspaper (or as close to it as possible).

Please help your child come up with a subject for each of the upcoming projects: the movie, the travel article, and the how-to article. This way, they’re prepared to start writing when they come to class.

Students can type their articles either at home or at school, depending on when they have time. We’re collecting the articles on a Google Doc. Here’s the link (it’s the same one we sent a few days ago):  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGVDQzdQb0l4VXNRMHVnZGsyLURlb1E6MQ

Once your child submits the article and they’ve all been written, they will be posted on Mr. Donahue’s web site, which is being created now. We’ll send you the link and you can see what all the students have written about. We hope this is a fun and interesting learning exercise for the kids.

Easter and Passover Projects

(Thank you Chrissy for working with the kids on these projects)

The children took thyme and rosemary from the school garden and infused it in Olive oil. They wrapped matzo and herbs together along with a recipe on how to make Herbal Infused Matzo. This is for the upcoming Passover holiday. The kids will be bringing home the matzo and olive oil along with the story of Passover. Next week the kids will decorate old German egg boxes and fill them with goodies. This will be a nice treat for Easter.

Happy holidays to all!

Garden Update

It seems our garden had some unexpected visitors, APHIDS. Chrissy brought in Ladybugs so the kids could place them on the plants that had the Aphids. Seems Ladybugs eat Aphids. A group of kids also went out this week to pick Thyme and Rosemary for the Passover project.

Field Trip

Permission slips were sent home for the Old Oakland Tour. Please return them soon. After the tour and lunch, if time permitted we will visit City Hall. Frankie will be coordinating the drivers.