The Campfire Chronicles

reported by Miss Camp

March 27, 2002

Miss Allio is our Scout Leader of the Week! When Miss Camp was out for three days with an illness, Miss Allio helped to keep Camp Linus running smoothly.

Camp Linus is very grateful to have Miss Allio’s assistance every morning. She demonstrates for us the good character qualities of being kind, productive, respectful, responsible, and helpful. She always has a smile, and is always willing to give her best effort in helping others.

Camp Linus is proud to have 3 Citizens of the Month for March!

Eric is the Citizen of the Month for Camp Linus. Eric has strong qualities of leadership and integrity. He gives his best effort, is kind and respectful to his classmates, and enjoys helping others.

Colin is the Citizen of the Month selected by the Physical Education teachers.

Chelsea is the Citizen of the Month selected by the Computer staff.

At Camp Linus, we have begun watching a little bit of the 2002 Paralympics on tape each day. We are learning about the technology that helps disabled athletes to compete in Olympic events.

For example, blind skiers have another skier ski right in front of them as a guide. The guide shouts out whatever information the blind skier needs to know about bumps, turns, etc. In the Biathalon event, the blind skiers have to shoot a target. The skiers wear a headphone that makes different tones depending on how close they are to the target!

Soon we will see our friend Dan Kosick in the downhill skiing competition for athletes who ski on only one leg!

Melissa and Cory are our Reader Buddies of the Week. When Melissa reads, sometimes there is a word that makes her think of something else we have learned…and her whole face lights up with excitement!

For example, we had talked in class about how the word SUDDENLY builds suspense and makes us wonder what is going to happen next. As Melissa was reading to her Reader Buddy, she saw the word SUDDENLY coming up. Right before she read the word, she turned to her buddy and asked with a smile, “What do you think is going to happen next?” Then she said dramatically, “SUDDENLY…” and kept going. Her Reader Buddy was hooked!

We have also learned in class about alternatives to the word SAID. Melissa loves it when she finds a word like “moaned, groaned, yelled, whispered, cried, shouted, panted” etc. She stops and says, “There’s one of those good words for SAID!

These 3 students are working at The Editors’ Table. On the left is the Spelling Editor. In the middle is the Punctuation Editor. On the right is the Capitalization Editor. Their job is to check the stories written by their classmates (placed in the IN BOX), and to use a checklist that helps them look for and edit any spelling, punctuation, or capitalization errors.

When the Capitalization Editor is done, she passes it to the Punctuation Editor along with her checklist. When the Punctuation Editor is done, she passes the story to the Spelling Editor along with both completed checklists. When the Spelling Editor is done, he staples all 3 checklists to the story and puts it in the OUT BOX for the teacher to check over.

These students are working together to write a one-paragraph summary using the group’s Story Map. (They created the group Story Map by their discussing what they had each written on their individual Story Map.)

One of the students wrote the Introductory Sentence. Then a different student wrote a sentence stating the problem in the story. After that, the students took turns writing sentences that explained the sequence of events in the story which helped solve the problem. Next one of the students wrote a sentence for the solution. Finally, one student wrote a concluding sentence.

The Problem, Events, and Solution were taken from the group Story Map. The Introductory Sentence and Concluding Sentence were the result of some brainstorming by the group together. When they were done, one student circled all of the “transitional words” (next, first, then, after that, finally, last).

        

Here is a one-paragraph summary that five students completed by using the group Story Map they created (being projected on the overhead screen).