Let’s Talk Magnetic Minds #2

Read-A-Thon!

By Lucas Rodstrom

On December 20th, 2018, the kids in B-24, B-25, and B-26 got together in their pod hallway and read for about 30 minutes. At the beginning of the day, the students wore pajamas to school and brought any book they wanted. They kept the book in their desk until 2:00, when they brought it out and read silently for half-an-hour. The reason the Read-a-thon happened was because this was the day before Winter Break and it was a special event to jumpstart the holidays.

Lucas Rodstrom interviewed students on what they read. Will Pendergrass from B-25 said, “I read a Wings of Fire book”. “I read Angry Birds the Movie” explained Stefo Karas

from B-24. Also, from B-24, Avery Black said, “I read Forever After”. From B-26, Desmond Costlow read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Gwyneth Katz, from B-25, also read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but she also read from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Tanek Harmon from B-24 read Charlie and the Great-Glass Elevator. “I read Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas” answers Max Merchant from B-25.

The students really enjoyed this event, and I’m sure that the students next year will enjoy this too.

Snow Day and Cold Day By Gwyneth Katz

McDowell Elementary had some snow days and cold days. There is a difference between a snow day and a cold day. A cold day is when it is too cold to go to school and a snow is where there is too much that bus can’t get past the snow so the kid can’t get to school on time.

So far, McDowell Elementary had 3 cold days, one on Jan. 22, Jan. 30. and Jan. 31. The reason the kids at this school had a cold day was because, it was a day that temperature was -20 wind chill mainly because of the strong wind.

A survey was taken of Mrs. Armbuster students asking them what

The Quote of the Day: ““It is not that I’m so smart, it is just that I stay

with problems longer.” ~ Albert Einstein

they did when they were home during the cold days.

Most of the kids would get their homework done and play with their friends. Some of the less popular activities that the kids in Mrs. Armbuster class did were: playing outside in the snow, reading books and watch their favorite movie or show on the T.V. during snow day and cold day.

It is still cold outside, but not -20 for a cold day. Do you want one more snow day? This reporter knows that some students want a snow day or a cold day.

Updates on the 30 Book Challenge

By: Analise Alers

Have you heard about the updates on the Thirty Book Challenge? Recently, more and more people have completed the Thirty Book Challenge. Those people are: Analise Alers, Tanek Harmon, Cameron Bowen, Anna Barger, Lucas Rodstrom, and Kendall Paine.

Many people are extremely close to completing the Thirty Book Challenge. Every time that someone achieves it, the children go out and do a dance in the hallway. The person would get a star to put up on the wall. The genres are: Biography, Realistic Fiction, Traditional Literature, Mystery, Informational, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Historical Fiction, Poetry, Chapter Book Choice, and Other Choice.

The people that are close are: Chet Kolaske, Gwyneth Katz, Elise Kass, and Julia Schneider. B-23 does this because they need to read to stretch their brains. The students say that they like it a lot. Others say that it’s a pretty hard challenge because it is hard to read that many books but it stretches your brain. Mrs. Kelly records them on a chart by the carpet.

One student said,`` I like the thirty-book challenge because it is hard to read that many books but it stretches your ability to read. Recording is a challenge too but we always get by.” All of the children in the class have 10 or more books. Some kids have trouble recording That makes it harder for them to complete the Thirty Book Challenge.

Some kids are more behind than others and most of the time they have other activities. Most kids are confident that they will reach the Thirty Book Challenge by the end of the year.

Those are the recent updates on the Thirty Book Challenge.

B-23 AWESOME Podcasts

By Tanek Harmon

Have YOU ever wanted a funny story? How about an educational story? Well, if you said yes to either of these questions than you will like B-23 podcasts! B-23 podcasts are short stories. One of those stories is Will the Real Abe Lincoln Please Stand Up? That podcast is about a game show where there are three people, one is the real Abe Lincoln and the others are fakes. The three Lincolns have to tell the real facts and nothing but those facts. If you want to know who was the real Abe Lincoln you just need to listen to the podcast by going to the B-23 podcast tab on Mrs. Armburster’s website. Another podcast by B-23 is The Sound of Great Voices. In this podcast, it tells about how Martin Luther King Jr learns about different African American heroes. This inspires him to be a black hero of history. If you want to know who the hero's he learned about, you will have to listen for yourself. There are many more podcasts to listen to!

B-23’s Super Podcasts

By: William Pendergrass

Did you like Tanek’s article about

podcasts? If you said yes, then these

two podcasts by: The Magnetic Minds

are great for you. First there is A

Turkey Takes a Stand . It is about a

turkey trying to change Thanksgiving

feasts to salmon instead of turkey to

save hundreds of turkeys that die on

Thanksgiving. If you want to know if

he won, here is the answer... You have

to listen to the podcast to find out.

The Magnetic Minds also did a

podcast called Mrs. Claus’s Christmas

Gift. It’s about elves forgetting Mrs.

Claus’s Christmas gift. They then make

a list that says what the elves promise

to do for her, like clean the workshop

and bring her breakfast in bed as her

Christmas gift. Tanek said he would

rate it a 4 out of 5.They did the

podcasts to have fun and learn. If

you want to listen to them go to Mrs.

Armbruster's website and click third

grade podcasts.

Presidential Websites By Julia Schneider

There are a lot of fun websites on Presidents on Mrs. Armbruster’s website on the Hudson website. If you want to find out more about these websites read on. If see you want to find out more about the presidential websites. As you probably know it is on the web so you can do it any time. Why do this? It is simple - so you can learn about the presidents.

On the “If you were President” website all you have to do is enter your name and if you are a boy or a girl. Then you have to pick your three top advisers which can be Francesca Famous, General Betsy Battle, Will Treehugger, Dr. Teresa Thermometer, and last but not least Thomas Teacher. What three will you choose? You might change your mind once you find out what each person wants to do. Then you have to say which amount of money goes to which place. Next, you get asked a lot of questions and they get put in a newspaper.

On the website, “Washington Code” you get a code to solve and a code decoder and you have to solve the code and if it is wrong you have to fix it.

On the website, “Help Lincoln get to the White House,” you answer questions about Lincoln's life and move across the timeline and discover things about Lincoln your teacher might not even know.

Another website called, “Name the President,” you have to guess which president out of four presidents is in the picture. If you are wrong it shows you which president that you guessed and if

you are right it tells you a little about that president.

The last website, “60-second president” is where you pick a president and then listen to a video which tries to cram everything important about that president in just 60 Seconds. These videos are very fast and sometimes it is hard to understand. If you want to find out more about the amazing Websites? Then check out Mrs. Armbruster's website.

How Mrs. Kelly Helps

The Magnetic Minds By Camryn Nye

B-23 has a lot of very capable students, but sometimes even they need a little help to be successful. Luckily, they have a friend named Mrs. Kelly and she is always willing to help! She helps with many things including recording and celebrating their 30 Book Challenge progress and finalizing and publishing their books.

Mrs. Kelly lives in Hudson with her husband and has a labradoodle puppy named Bondi. The couple has a grown son who lives far away in San Jose, CA. She retired from and engineering company where she used to write computer programs to help design power boilers and environmental equipment. Mrs. Kelly has Chemical Engineering degree from Virginia Tech. In 1997 Mrs. Kelly became the coordinator of McDowell’s YEA (Young Elementary Authors) Center- which publishes students writing. She has been doing this for 21 years.

In 2014 Mrs. Kelly started helping the students in B-23 one on

one with their work. Mrs. Kelly decided to start helping the students in B-23 for a couple of reasons. She really enjoys helping others and she feels that it is interesting to see the students mature in their writing, and also Mrs. Armbruster is her best friend.

Mrs. Kelly’s favorite part of helping B-23 is watching the kids be proud of their finished work, especially the students that struggle. Mrs. Kelly runs into some frustrating events too. The thing that she finds most frustrating is when kids don't use their talents and don't focus on their work. Mrs. Kelly also has some experiences with other classes. Mrs. Kelly’s mom was a fourth-grade teacher so when Mrs. Kelly came home from college she would help out with her mom’s students. Mrs. Kelly also visits Mrs. Armbruster’s fourth grade class a few times in the year.

Here are a few quotes from the Magnetic Minds about what Mrs. Kelly means to them.

“Mrs. Kelly is always really nice. She even got the covers for our Authors’ Party stories and that meant a lot to us because we worked really hard on the stories,” said Elise Kass.

Tanek Harmon said “Mrs. Kelly is really nice because she helped to put our books together and she records all of our 30 Book Challenge progress too!”

Kendall Paine exclaims, “Mrs. Kelly is so helpful and I loved that

she helped me edit my Authors’ Party book.”

With happy tears in her eyes, Mrs. Armbruster said “Mrs. Kelly is a unique individual and gives herself without a second thought. She has been helping us for many years. I consider her a good friend, not just a good editor!”

As you can see, Mrs. Kelly is a huge help for the Magnetic Minds in B-23 and she is very much appreciated!

Clay Tiles

By Cameron Bowen

You all may know that B-23 is SO

lucky to have Mrs. Armbruster as a

teacher, but did you know what they have

been up too? They have currently been

making CLAY TILES! It is all thanks to

Mrs. Armbruster. They did it so that they

could show how they are unique. Now let’s

see how they did it.

First, they cut out a unique shape out

of square paper, then they illustrated things

that represented them. Mrs. Armbruster

then borrowed the papers so that she could

shape the clay into the shapes.

Next, Mrs. Armbruster brought in

the clay shapes so that they could carve out

the things that represent them. For

example, Mrs. Armbruster drew mountains

to represent goals that she has.

After that, Mrs. Armbruster took the

clay tiles and let them dry. It took a little

bit, but after that she brought them in so

that they could paint them. The colors (I’ve

heard) change a lot. She had one color that

looked like tan when it was dry, but it

changes to blue! Then Mr. Armbruster

fired them in a kiln (baked).

Then, Mrs. Armbruster brought in

the clay tiles on Friday, March 1! The tiles

came out very pretty, and the tiles look

way different when they were dry.

So that is what students are up to in

B-23 and they hopes that you enjoyed

reading about how these tiles were made.

2nd Quarter Book Projects

By Stefo Karas

Have you seen the great book

projects the Magnetic Minds have made? Well, if you haven’t, Stefo Karas will tell you about them. They’re

awesome! The choices were to make a tri-fold or a diorama of the book that the student read. It had to be fiction or realistic fiction ( the students’ choice). The first project was made by Will Pendergrass. Will’s book was The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. Will said, “I think I did a great job and put a lot of work into diorama one of the challenges was spreading the grass and sand” .

The second person who finished their project was Cameron Bowen. She presented on Fox Craft by Inball Iserles. She made a trifold. The third presenter was Julia Schneider. Her book project was on Castle in The Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop. She chose this book because she felt she could be creative with her book project. Twelve out of 20 did a tri fold for their projects.

Weighty Words

By Alexandra Coombs

In Mr. Armbruster’s class, or you may know them as the Magnetic Minds, have been studying words. But not just any words! No, no, no. These are big words we’re talking about. Words like abasement, dogmatic, and paradox. Read on to find out more. This class doesn’t just learn all these words at once. They all come from a book, The Weighty Word Book. It is filled with gigantic words that will stretch your vocabulary. This is important because the class is filled with budding writers, and it makes their writing more interesting and unique.

“I like to learn new words,” Is what 9-year-old Anna Barger told our reporter. When our reporter asked what Mrs. Armbruster liked, here’s what she said, “I like the way they make a story around the meaning of the word!”

Here’s how it works. Mrs. Armbruster reads the story from The Weighty Word Book, and talks about the word. Then, the students get their Weighty Word Books. They write the word, then the definition, and finally, an example sentence using the word correctly. Voila! They just did a Weighty Word!

Brain Boosters By Emma Liu

Do you like problem solving? No! The Magnetic Minds didn’t mean THAT problem solving. These are problems that will boost your brain out of your head! Also, if you feel down you’ll be out of your turtle shell by the end of the day. Read this article if you want to have a boost of fun.

First of all, what are brain boosters? Brain boosters are pieces of paper that have problems on them like;

The rope ladder of a boat hangs over the side of the boat and just reaches the water. Its rungs are 8 inches apart. How many rungs will be left when the tide rises four feet. Think about the problem and read on to find out the real answer.

The reason these are so fun is because the problems are tricky but fun. First, you get a Smartie even if you did not get it right. It only matters that you try. Second, one Magnetic Mind Gwyneth Katz said you have time to do it and, it’s optional. Mrs. Kelly says she loves when she figures out the answer to the problem.

( The answer to the rope ladder is: No rungs are below the water. They are the same because when the tide rises so does the boat.)

Haiku Books

By Nathan Zheng

During the winter, B-23 made Haiku books about winter and its glories. A Haiku poem has th3 lines. The first line can only have 5 syllables. The second line can have 7 syllables and the third line only has 5 syllables. All three lines has to do with nature and the lines have to make sense together. Here is an example of a haiku.

Snowflakes falling down

Dancing in the sky above

Coating the bushes

The students in the Magnetic Minds made Haiku books for their parents. They gave them the Haiku book to their parents during winter break. Nathan Zheng’s parents liked it and so did Julia Schneider’s parents. Lucas Rodstrom’s parents loved the books.

Avery Black’s parents thought it was great. While William Pendergrass’s parents enjoyed his haiku poems a lot. Max

Merchant’s parents thought it was excellent and Max liked making the haiku book. Later this year the students will be writing more poetry.

Time for Kids

By Anna Barger

This year the kids in Mrs. Armbruster’s class are reading a magazine called Time for Kids. What is Time for Kids? It is a magazine about the new things happening in the world. For example, the last one showed that there has been a successful cure that allows children with peanut allergies to be able to eat one peanut without an allergic reaction. It also talks about politics such as the wall problem.

The front page often shows charts that go with the subject in the rest of the magazine. Such as, one time the magazine was talking about the elections, and the charts showed how much of the House of Representatives was Republican and how much was Democrat. On the articles they have text features such as maps and side bars, which are little things of information that go along with the text. On the back cover, it always shows a new movie and a book, such

as the Kid Who Would Be King and Inkling.

Occasionally, Time for Kids does a News article with children debating if it should happen, like once the magazine put an article about going to online school on snow days, children debated whether this should happen. Sometimes the magazines talk about problems, such as people not having a grocery store close enough and how people are fixing it.

Once, the magazine listed a recent study that said children under ten learn new languages better than children older.

Here is what some of the students in B-23 said about their favorite parts in Time for Kids. Julia said, “I liked the books and movies on the back.” Analise said, “ I like the education and Arts section.” (These sections are not always in the magazine but often are.) Chet said, “ He liked the cover page.” The children in B-23 enjoy reading Time for Kids a lot.!

Martin Luther King Jr.

Club By: Matthew Matyja

Martin Luther King Jr. Book Club was fun and exciting for all of the students in Mrs. Armbruster’s class on the book Martin Luther King. The discussion happened in between the two rows of tables in the classroom. It started on January fourth and lasted four weeks.

There were four discussion leaders, one per week. The first discussion leader was Avery, the next

was Matthew, and then Camryn N. The last discussion leader was Lucas. Each week on Thursdays the discussion leader would go through a checklist of questions to ask the students. The discussion leader would ask how students answered their homework questions.

After that the discussion leader would say a 0-5 rating on how well we did, 5 being the best and 0 being the worst. The Magnetic Minds never got a five because not everyone turned in their book and answer page. Mrs. Armbruster was watching the discussion and taking notes on how people responded to the questions. The only thing else that Mrs. Armbruster did was make sure that people wrote their answers in complete sentences.

There are some clips of the book club that you can watch. To see them, you can ask someone who is in Mrs. Armbruster’s class for help or go to the McDowell website. Once there, click on third grade and then click on Mrs. Armbruster. Now you are on Mrs. Armbruster's website and you now click on 3rd Grade Photos/Videos and then scroll down to see the videos.

Persuasive Writing

By: Avery Black

In classroom B-23, the students were writing persuasions. Persuasive writing is where you try to convince somebody to do or not do something. The students started out with brainstorming who they wanted to persuade. A student named Anna Barger chose to write to the Hudson city school board, because her persuasion was about not eating off of Styrofoam trays. The person the students write to has to go with what their topic was. Then they had to think about what they wanted to persuade that person to do.

There was one student, who probably thought a lot about what she wanted to write about. Her name is Elise Kass. “My dad is a doctor. Also, when I go on vacation and I’m having so much fun. Then I see someone smoking, and it makes my vacation less fun, and I think people should have fun other than dying.” Elise Kass said about her topic.

The next step was to write their plans for their persuasion on a piece of paper that asked them questions. For example, one of the questions was, “Give a reason to support your belief.” Once the students filled out the paper, they started typing their persuasion on their Chromebooks.

Emma Liu said that what she liked about the persuasions is that she like to share her beliefs with other people. Avery Black asked Gwyneth Katz why she thought we needed to write persuasive writing. Gwyneth thought that we need persuasions because if we didn’t have persuasions nothing would change, and we would be living in the 19th century.

Avery Black also asked Analise Alers why we need to write persuasive writing. Analise’s answer was so that we can try to change things that need to be changed. Persuasive writing is something that everyone should know how to do. Otherwise our world wouldn’t have needed changes, that other people might not notice. Because of persuasions, our world is the place we live in

today.

Computer Games By: Chet Kowalske

In the fall of 2018, in McDowell Elementary, in classroom B-26, Mrs. Armbruster's class was playing computer games including; pumpkin multiples, puny pets, crazy cones, and more! The reason that Mrs. Armbruster put these games on her website is to make learning fun! There are a lot of different types of games including easy math, hard math, word questions, and angles. The newest links are the angles games, “I like Alien Angles the most,” Stefo Karas says.

A lot of the games are challenging but still a little fun. The ways they challenge you brain is by giving you one idea to distract you so you pay attention to one topic then they throw in another topic for example, it might say 36+34 might be ninety, but then they say its seventy.

If you would like to play any of these games, go to McDowell website, click on Mrs. Armbruster’s website, go to Math and enjoy!

Literary Essays By Kendall Paine

In B - 25, the Magnetic Minds have been writing Literary Essays. A literary essay is an essay, usually about a text. It gives information about one thing in the text, like a characteristic or character relationship. The class’s first literary essay that the class has written was on Those shoes. The story is about a boy named Jeremy who wanted some shoes

that almost every kid in his school had. The Magnetic Minds wrote their literary essays on how the main characters in the story changed after their teacher Mrs. Armbruster read then the book. For example, one of the characters in the book named Jeremy had changed from greedy and jealous to happy and generous.

Another book that the class has done a literary essay on is called Chrysanthemum. They wrote about how the main character Chrysanthemum changed from the beginning of the story to the end of the story. In this book, Chrysanthemum loved her name at the beginning of the story and then one day she went to school and all of the kids there made fun of her and then she hated her name. So, Chrysanthemum changed when she loved her name and then she hated her name and then she loved her name again.

The class also learned how to write a literary essay where they compared two stories. In their literary essay that compared the book Those Shoes, with a book called Fly Away Home. Fly Away Home is about a boy named Andrew who lives in an airport with his dad and other homeless people. They compared the main characters. They both want something. Andrew wants a home and Jeremy wants “Those Shoes.” They are also writing a comparing literary essay on the books Those Shoes, and A Bike Like Sergio’s. A Bike Like Sergio’s is about a boy who wants a bike, but cannot afford one. Then one day he finds a one-hundred-dollar bill that falls out of a lady's purse and he does not know either to keep it, or to return it.

The Magnetic Minds have written other literary essays and are learning something new every day in their writing, finding more ways to write them, and are ready to write even more literary essays!!!

Biography Projects

By Leah Ackerman

The students in Mrs. Armbruster's class were told to do a biography project, about anyone they wanted to learn about. Every kid was given a piece of paper that told them when their project was due. On the other pages It told them how to make the celebrity corner. On the other page the children were supposed to fill out an information sheet. The students were allowed to do a celebrity corner, a puppet, or a poem.

The children picked all sorts of people for their projects. For example, Leah did a report on Roald Dahl, Camryn N did a report on Alex Morgan, and Matthew did a report on Babe Ruth.

Camryn N said that, “I thought that it was not only fun, but I got to learn about somebody new, and my person

inspired me to become a better soccer player.”

When asked why Matthew picked Babe Ruth to do his project, he said, “I liked knowing what happened in the past, and I like watching baseball.”

Writer’s Workshop

Stories By Max Merchant

Every Wednesday, students in B-23 go to Mrs. Armbruster’s class like normal. They type literary essays, they review poems, and they have fun reading. Then they hit second recess. They are off playing games while Mrs. Armbruster prepares for Writer’s Workshop.

The Magnetic Minds (the students) walk down the hall to the Creation Space or Computer Lab when they get back to class. There, they type with creativity about talking basketballs, or 9-tailed foxes, and just let their imagination run free.

There are even “Editors” which are the students’ parents and Mrs. Kelly. They go to certain students and help

revise their writing, and help make their stories better, so they can have a great story for the Authors Party. The editors make the hour of writing simpler and more fun. They talk to the students about what they need to do, and what is good about their stories.

They have great stories and ideas to write about. Because who knows what a kid can think of! It is a scientific fact that kids are more imaginative than grown adults (no offense parents).

Writer’s Workshop is an amazing place to be. When the kids finish a story, everybody drum-rolls and claps for the person who finishes their story. And it is an amazing sight to behold. It gives you the time to think about what’s next in your story. And you don’t even have to write sometimes. When you are done with your story, you can illustrate your writing.

If you want to have full concentration with a friend or two by your side, then support the Writer’s Workshop soon!

Writers Workshop for the

Magnetic Minds! By Elise Kass

Do you know what the Magnetic Minds do in Writers’ workshop? Writing of course! But that’s only part of the story. The big project the Magnetic Minds have been working on is their stories for the upcoming Author’s Party. Great news… every student has now finished their story! Now the students are working on new stories and they can be in any genre! Writers workshop happens on most Wednesdays after 2nd recess. ( Unless an event is blocking the way.) During the Magnetic Minds writers workshop they can have. a chance to work with the guest editors who are parent volunteers.

Writer’s workshop is a favorite of the Magnetic Minds. Here are two students’ opinions about Writers' Workshop:

“ I enjoy Writers’ Workshop because you can use your imagination and what you personally think and insert it into a book.” said Camryn Nye, “Also we have so many amazing editors that help us to improve our books and writing.”

This is what the second Magnetic Mind’s opinion is:“ I like Writers ‘ Workshop because I’ve always wanted to be an author,” said Lucas “ and it gives me an opportunity to write a series.”

As you can see the Magnetic Minds Love Writers’ Workshop. When the Authors’ Party comes it will be fun, fun, fun! The Magnetic Minds don’t just work on their Authors’ Party stories, they also work on their literary essays, informational, narratives and persuasive

letters. The Magnetic Minds are always helping each other. They even have writing partners that help improve their partner’s writing. Sometimes the partners will work together on documents. The Magnetic Minds always love writing. ( Unless they are doing a boring subject) Even when they do literary essays, they find a way to make it fun. Here are the most recent written literary essays: Chrysanthemum and “Those Shoes”

So, if you come to the Authors’ Party you can be assured that you will get the full experience and you will want to become a writer in their class. Just read their stories and you will be amazed at the fabulous writers in the Magnetic Minds class! Thank you editors from the Magnetic Minds: Thank you for helping make our stories better! Mr. Kass, Mrs. Nye, Mrs. Paine,

Mrs. Rodstrom, Mrs. Barger, Mrs. Black , Mrs. Coombs, Mrs. Alers, and Mrs. Kelly

Newspaper class editors for this

edition are: Camyrn N., Elise, Avery, Alexandra, Matthew, and Tanek

The Magnetic Minds would love more editors

come and join them on Wednesdays from 2;30-

3:25. If you have a Wednesday free come and join

us!