Should We Have A Half Day On December 21st??? by Sully & Bobby

December 21st is the last day until holiday break, so should we have a half day? Here are some students’ opinion. 

(Feel free to share your opinion with us in the comments!)

NO...says Aiden. "We need more time for the holiday party and that is the fun part! Teachers have fun games planned and half day will eliminate the games! Plus it’s more fun staying in school and having so much fun than doing nothing at home."

YES...says Kymberly. "Yes, We have a half day before Thanksgiving why not Christmas break! Work shouldn’t replace the holidays!"

Aiden Kymberly

Flexible Seating by Ella

Hi, it’s me…Ella back with a another great story. If you liked “Buses Late on the First Day of School”,  then you will love to hear about what kind of chairs we have in our classroom.

The best thing happened on the first day of school. Our teachers said that we can change our seat every day, but it needed to be in a ¨smart spot¨. That means we have to sit next to someone that we will not get distracted by( like our best friend in the world), but sit next someone you can get work done with.

In room 217, at Austin Road Elementary School, we have many cool chairs. There are high chairs, stools, low chairs,and mushroom chairs that look like real mushrooms! We have desks that look like coffee tables. We also have several bean bag chairs that are on the carpet and in our back room. In the back room, we have a small couch that one person can sit on when we need an extra quiet place to work. The back room is where we can read or do math problems.

I love flexible seating, but I think we should have the same seat for a month because it’s hard to pick a new spot every day.  However, other people in my class may think it’s not fun sitting next to someone for one whole month.

Buses Late On the First Day of School?! by Ella

Hi, my name is Ella. I am in Mrs. Ryan and Mrs. Ziegelhofer’s 4th grade class. I am having so much fun. However, that wasn’t the case on the first day of school when it came to the buses. Wait until you hear what happened to Austin Road Elementary School...

On the first day of school the buses were one hour and 15 minutes late at dismissal! This is all because they separated the high school and the middle school bus runs. The change made all of the bus routes, except the high school’s, late for arrival and dismissal since they arrive and dismiss first. The high school routes made all the other schools late because they had new bus runs. My mom was mad because my bus that I took home is arriving at my house at 4:15pm, and it is supposed to come at my house at 3:40pm.

Fortunately, the problem has improved, but Austin Road is still dismissing later than normal. Maybe it will be back to normal next year.

Trunk or Treat by Sully & Bobby

HAPPY  HALLOWEEN!!!

This is the SPOOKIEST party yet. When you go to TRUNK OR TREAT you bring your “trunk” and your costume. You  decorate your trunk, throw in some candy and a costume and you’re in the green. Run around collecting candy and treats while you meet up with your buddies.  The teachers walk around judging trunks and costumes. After awhile you all come together and receive awards for the best trunk and costumes. The winners get a gift card and some candy!!! This is a great Halloween event for all ages. Wouldn't  you agree? You can meet us there on Friday, October, 26th at 6 P.M. See you there!!!

We're Back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have a tough act to follow, but we're back with more great stories!!!  Stay tuned...

Hatching Pekin Ducklings by Sophia

Hi, I am Sophia and I am in Mrs. Ryan and Mrs. Zeigelhofer’s amazingly brilliant 4th grade class. I am sooooooo lucky to be in this class this year because we hatched pekin ducklings! 6 adorable pekin ducklings! The teachers themselves thought of this amazing idea! Crazy, right? Here is how we take care of them.

Incubation

Incubation
When we first got the eggs in the mail, after waiting about 6 hours, we put the eggs in an incubator. We placed 11 eggs in the incubator on May 1st. An incubator is a machine keeping our duck eggs warm and moist, like it needs to be. In the wild the mother would keep the eggs warm. The eggs were in the incubator for 28 days before they hatched. The incubator’s water is kept at 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit.The humidity comes from water. A wet bulb thermometer helped us measure the level of humidity.  The eggs had to rotate every hour, or about 4 times a day!

Candling
Every week, until the last, we candled the eggs. I know what you may be thinking; for I thought it, too. You probably think it has something to do with a literal candle. Well, yes many years ago candling did have to be done with a real candle. But today a candler is a special light that allows us to see inside the eggs. We take an egg out of the incubator, then put it against the light. You can see inside the eggs!!!! The first time we candled the eggs we checked to see if the eggs were fertile or not. Again you are thinking, what does that mean? Well, a fertile egg has an embryo. An embryo is the developing duckling inside of the egg. Believe me the embryo does not look like a normal duck. That is because the duckling is growing. A non-fertile egg is an egg that looks like it has nothing inside it. In fact, all that is in there is a yolk!  There was never an embryo in the egg!! In a fertile egg you can see a black dot. That dot is the eye of the embryo. One week later we candled the eggs again to see if they were still growing. A growing egg looked different and you couldn't see as much light passing through. We also could see an air sac getting larger inside of the egg. The air sac as you might have guessed is what gives the embryo its first breath of air when it’s ready to hatch.

Duckling Care (Hatching)
In this paragraph you will be learning all about how we take care of the ducklings and when they hatched. Two ducklings hatched on Memorial Day, May 28th. 4 more ducklings hatched two days after, May 30th. These ducklings of course need food, water, and shelter. They are a lot of hard work!!! They have special food, actually. For about a week or 2 they will need a heat lamp; they need to stay warm!! The ducklings need shavings and a cage. Ducklings are NOT easy to take care of!!! They, again, are a lot of work and very messy!!!! Ducklings are very social animals, which means they don't like being alone and they will cry if they don't have a buddy. When the ducklings get older they will go to a duck coop made for us by Campanella Fence in the courtyard. In the coop, they will have water, food and their friends! They have webbed feet to help them swim. A duck's beak is actually called a bill. Here’s a fun fact, it takes about 1,000 pecks for the duckling to get out of its egg!! That is why they are born with an egg tooth. An egg tooth is a small, sharp, cranial protuberance used by the duckling to break and tear out of its egg. The egg tooth will fall of after 2 or 3 days. Once school ends, we will donate the ducklings to a farm.

Safety
Now this paragraph is added for importancy. You need to know how to handle the ducklings if you want to be able to hold them. One thing to know is the ducklings are NOT harmful!!! If they start to peck on you, do not panic they will NOT hurt you. Do NOT let go!!! Ducklings are very fragile, if you drop them you will break its neck! Hold the duckling close to the ground and your body. Keep your hands cupped when holding the duckling, they will jump!! I hope you enjoyed learning about our ducklings!! Have fun looking around our Mini Zoo, and keep the animals safe!!!

Our Constellation Experience by Sofia

Who wants to see the constellations? Well, I really do! Oh, wait our class already did by visiting Mrs. Huestis' 3rd graders! It was amazing, they are so talented. First, we went to their classroom and there was this huge sign that said: ”Welcome to our Planetarium!” That's when I got excited. As soon as we got in, I personally thought that I was in outer space! Then, there were groups of third graders all teaching us about different constellations in the night sky! The classroom had pieces of black paper cut out to look like constellations, taped to the lights on the classroom ceiling. There was also music playing which sounded like outer space!  The 3rd graders taught us about Hercules, Aries, and Orion. Overall, that “trip” was amazing!!!! 😁😃

Tadpole Update!!!!!! by Hayden & Bella

The tadpoles have changed since the last time we told you about them!!! They now are growing little buds that will become legs when they get older. Also, their faces are getting more narrow. We are extremely happy that they are growing so quickly.

We can now see the tadpoles nostrils and their eyes when viewed very closely. We put one in a bottle cap with water in it then looked at it on the SmartBoard using the “ladibug” (which is an overhead projector that helps us see things closer).

We hope you like learning about our little soon to be toads!!!!!

Preparing for the Science STATE TEST!!!!!! by Sophia

Next week we are taking the NY Science State Test. Let me tell you after the last two, my teachers said this one would be fun, and I really think they are right. Why? Because the last two state tests we had only 9 people that took it. 9 out of 21!! This time we had about 17 kids taking it. Way bigger amount if you ask me! That means people must think it is somewhat fun. Besides, we get to be in a science room doing experiments! That sounds pretty fun to me!

To prepare for this state test we have science stations set up all over our room; 5 stations. I already went to one, experiencing what that station would be like. And yes that was fun!  The feeling wasn't like just sitting around, it felt like you were actually doing something. The stations have all different science experiments to help us. Some of the stations were electricity, weight, volume, things like that.  After a few more days of going to these stations I think it really will be fun! The writing half maybe not so much, but I think the experiments will be!

A few days ago my class took the experiment part of the test. Yes, the stations were fun!  There was a volume station, a ball and ramp station, and with the volume station there was weighing. The last station was with magnets.

I really agree with everybody that says the science state tests are fun!!

"Fish Bowl" Fridays by Robby and Matt

Our class “Fish Bowls” on Fridays!!!  A fish bowl is when a group of people (we had 4) sit in the middle of a large circle and discuss important topics.  The people on the outside of the fish bowl are called the backchannel. They have laptops or chromebooks and they listen carefully to the discussion going on in the middle of the fish bowl.  The backchannel doesn’t talk, only writes...just like texting. They write what they feel which gives everyone a chance to share their opinion on the topic. Everybody gets to read the backchannel on Padlet after the fish bowl is over.  We can read everybody's opinion. Each new fish bowl, our teachers change the people in the middle to give them a chance to talk. We’ve already discussed different topics from our Scholastic News...should schools give homework or should elementary students learn a foreign language???  Fish bowling is really fun because you can debate different topics and see who agrees or disagrees with you.

Our New Tadpoles!!! by Bella & Hayden

Our class got another great, educational pet…TADPOLES!!! We have many animals in our class, but our tadpoles live in water as a baby and on land as an adult, which makes them amphibians. The life cycle of a toad is called metamorphosis. The students in our class will never be the same after these tadpoles become toads. Every week our class has to sketch the growth of the tadpoles and write what we observe. We have lots, and we mean LOTS, of tadpoles. Not trying to brag, but now we have a guinea pig, duck eggs, and cute, little amphibians! We will make an update when our tadpoles become toads!

Take a Guess??? by Bella & Sophia

Every time we get a ticket from our teachers, we have to take a guess. A guess about what, you are wondering? We earn the tickets by being very well behaved and/or if you are on the awesome board. We need to guess a number that represents the amount of objects in the ring pop container. The amount changes every month and the item changes every month, too. Right now we have connect cubes in it and it is filled up. Every Friday the teachers will randomly pick a winner by sticking their hand in a bucket. The first few weeks it is for a lucky winner, but at the end of the month it is for whose estimate was closest to the answer in the bucket, so we try to guess right! The more tickets we have in the bin, the better our chances to win...BOTH ways!!!

Wonderful Winterfest by Austin & Connor

This year was Austin Road Elementary School’s second annual Winterfest for grades 3-5. Winterfest is great for hanging out with your school friends without your parents! You can play hoops with high school senior basketball players, take a picture in a photo booth, or play Nucum in the gym. You can even earn raffle tickets for donating pajamas to children in hospitals. The raffle tickets get placed in a box so you can win a prize at the end of the event. In the cafeteria, there were games, pizza, four square, and even a Photo Booth! Winterfest is so much fun and we’re definitely going back next year. We hope you do, too!

Martin Buser YouTube Live Event

Our Questions for Martin Buser

The Ending to our Secret Santa by Sofia

We all knew that we were going to have a Secret Santa, but you’re probably wondering how it ended!  It was a wonderful day but no snow.  However, Mrs. Ryan and Mrs. Ziegelhofer let us wear pajamas and we all put our gifts near our mini Christmas town!  And man...the anticipation to open up one of those wonderfully wrapped presents!  It was nice while everyone was walking into the class.  Most of us just talked and looked at all the beautiful decorations!

Finally, the time came and we all sat in a huge circle on the rug waiting for the teachers to give us directions! We went one by one having 2 guesses of who we thought our Secret Santa is! By the time it ended only 4 people guessed right. We were SO excited to open up our gifts. At the end it was nice to see all the wonderful crafts everyone made! Everyone’s gifts made us feel warm and cozy inside like a cup of cocoa!

Our Secret Santa was extraordinary!

Our Letter to Mr. Campanella by Sophia & Connor

Austin Road Elementary School

390 Austin Road

Mahopac, New York 10541

January 10, 2018

Campanella Fence Co.

289 Route 6

Mahopac, NY 10541

Dear Mr. Campanella,               

Hello Mr. Campanella. This is Sophia and Connor in Mrs. Ryan and Mrs. Ziegelhofer’s 4th grade class at Austin Road School. Our teachers told us that you donated a coop to our school about 10 years ago. We would greatly appreciate it if you could make and donate a duck house to our school once again. Our class plans on hatching ducklings this spring. Our teachers loved the duck house you made for their class before, but it seems we need a new one. We will need it by the end of May. We also need a ramp to get the ducklings in the house. Other students in our class are drawing a picture of what we think is best for the duck house to look like, and we are hoping you can get the closest to the design.

Thank you very much, and again we greatly appreciate it!

Sincerely,

Sophia and Connor

Duck Coop Design by Peter

Students in Room 217 designed a duck coop!!! My classmate and I designed a coop for ducklings we plan to hatch in the spring.  We sent our design to a fencing company (Campanella Fence in Mahopac) hoping they would make it for us. While we designed the duck coop, two other classmates wrote a letter to the company asking for a donation to build us a coop for our ducklings. We hope they say yes because we’ll be hatching ducklings in our classroom this spring using an incubator.  Before we made our design, we had a meeting with our principal and he said that our design would work out! Stay tuned...

Spectacular Reading Response Journals by Austin & Connor

Have you ever written a reading response? If you haven't, you should definitely try it out! There are some steps to writing a reading response. Here are the steps. First, read a book. If it’s a long book, you can just read a chapter. Second, fill out a graphic organizer.  You can even use your hand! Trace your hand on a piece of paper. Put the main idea in the palm of your hand and put five supporting details on your fingers.  Your graphic organizer is like your rough draft that you write all the important events from the story that you want to remember. Next, use your graphic organizer to write your response in your journal. Now it’s time to draw a full-page picture. We all rate ourselves on a grading sheet before we hand them in. Lastly, everyone swaps journals so they can grade each other’s and give advice and comments to help you with your next response. Some things our class is working on are full page pictures, paragraphs, or colorful vocabulary, spelling and grammar.  We rate ourselves and each other using four main categories; Awesome, Good, Okay, and Oops! I forgot it.  If you ever try reading responses in your class, we hope you’ll enjoy doing it!

What are Precepts??? by Keira & Jisella

Do you know what precepts are?  If you don't know, we´ll tell you.  It’s like a motivational speech.  So like...if you're getting bullied an example might be, “Be a buddy, not a bully.”  And here’s another one; “Your actions speak louder than words” There's one that says, “If you want a friend, be a friend” There might be some precepts you don't understand and there might be some that you do. However, they all have one thing in common;  they're supposed to remind you to be kind and to treat others how you want to be treated.  Our teachers are REALLY big on precepts and sometimes so are we. We’ll say a precept without even knowing we’re saying one!  Our classroom has a lot of posters of precepts to keep reminding us to be thoughtful of others!

Real-Live "Wonder" by Stephanie & Sofia

The book, Wonder, is about a kid named August Pullman who was born with a cleft palate along with other birth defects.  Auggie had been homeschooled since he needed lots of surgeries.  He begins school for the very first time when he’s entering 5th grade and faces many challenges.

Wonder taught us to be kind to others regardless of how people look and everyone should be treated equally. We read the book first and then watched the movie. Along with the reading the book and viewing the movie, we actually connected with a real-live “Wonder”, Megan Brown!

Last month, our class got to “hangout” with an awesome girl named Megan Brown.  She was born with similar birth defects as August Pullman.  We got to interview her while we were at school and she was in her home in Michigan.  Megan told us she had about 25 surgeries, but still does not live with a typical face. However, our class didn’t even think her face looked bad.  She was very kind to us and answered all of our questions.  Megan has a twin sister and they do not look alike.  Unfortunately, she got bullied in school which made her sad.  It was super fun to hangout with Megan and get to talk about her reality.

Unusual Homework by Sophia

Since the first week in December, our class has been given unusual homework.  It’s nothing like a normal 4th grade class would be given.  But then again, we’re not a normal 4th grade class.  Our teachers think it would be better for us to complete a 2-page packet, which they call a spiral, each week for math.  It contains 16 math problems with only the math we learned so far.  That way it’s more of a review and we won’t forget anything.  I think it's better this way too!  Although we might get a sheet due the next day for spelling or something and of course we always have our reading response journal due each week as well.

Our reading response journal is used for what we read each week.  We have to write a full-page summary of the book or chapter we read that week.  Then we have to draw a FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATION of what we wrote about.  Yeah, drawing a picture for 4th grade homework?! DEFINITELY not your average 4th grade homework.

I explained to you that our homework is pretty unusual.  But sometimes unusual is good.  I like this new homework style, do you?  Many people in my class agree with me and believe this new homework method is cool and useful.  We’re reviewing, but it’s less homework and less stressful.  So I’ve got a question for you...do you think ALL grades and schools should have homework the way our unique classroom does?