Celebrating the End of the Month!

~Thanks to all the parents who came out for our End of Month Luncheon! We had more pizza than we could eat! We worked hard in January, and those who met their reading goal of 17 books were rewarded! The goal for February is 21 Books!

Does Marcus look like his mother or what?

the Shefflers

Mitch and Mom

Gavin and Dad

Bailey bean and Mom....... thanks Mitch

Mykayla's Mom looks just like her sister!

Smile Mrs. S.

Gretel and Dad

Emmie Lou...and Mr. Lou

STAR STUDENTS!

~Congratulations to Jose and Nick! They both had awesome weeks and were rewarded with STAR Student! It was fun to celebrate them today!

Mr. G, Gibby & Jose Canusee

Mrs. G, Gibby and Buck

Smile for Mrs. Peck

PTA

~Start saving your money....... Smencils go on sale February 4th! (if you put your nose up to the screen you can actually smell them!)

(don't deny it.....you know you actually smelled the screen)

Luncheon!

~End of Month Luncheon is tomorrow (Friday) at 11:45! Be there!

Pizza Pizza!

Second Annual Fun Run

~Today was our second annual Beauclerc Fun Run. It was a great day , and the Apes raised 400 dollars!

all the Apes

warming up

Ms. Stokes and Ms. Hollaway

exercising

Elijah and Delilah

DJ Runsalot and his sidekick

Kayla and Hannah

the 2011 Apes

Reading Celebration Day

~Today was reading Celebration Day for those students who have read their 17 books! Thanks to the PTA and Mrs. Hartley for setting this up! It was awesome!

We were angels in the hallway

this guy loved bananas

a big snake!

Ms. Hartley was scared!

this is one big big snake!

Box Top Champions!

~Thanks to everyone for sending in the soup labels and box tops. The Apes of Room 71 won! Every student received a gift certificate for a free kids meal at Red Elephant! We also earned a way cool trophy and cookies on Friday!

Champs.......Again!

Pritch

Happy International Ian Day

~Happy International Ian Ian the Human Being Day! This holiday is celebrated by all those people around the world named Ian.

James Forten

~Who was James Forten? Click here to learn a little bit about the man we are learning about!

This week's word study!

The new word study list is on the right side of the blog! The words that have a star (*) next to them are the ones that will be used for meaningful sentences.

The Real "House" at Aushcwitz

~In the Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Bruno and his family have moved into a new home that is not nearly as big or as glamorous as his old house in Berlin. The new house is at a place called Outwith. We learned in class that it is actually Auschwitz, the death/labor camp. Event though our book is a work of fiction, Auschwitz was a real place. This is a picture of the REAL Commandant's house at Auschwitz. Her really lived here. In real life, he did not have a son named Bruno.

Gibbons's in Saint Augustine

~Had some fun in St. Augustine on Saturday. My older brother Joe and his wife came down for a visit. They were expecting warm weather....haha. It was good to see family and spend a day in one of Florida's most interesting cities.

the oldest school house in America

St. George Street

boats

warming up in the sun outside Castillo de San Marcos

We ate dinner here

Friday Friday Friday

~It was kind of boring today with no students. Check out the new puzzle below!

~You guys are moving through Striped Pajamas faster than any class has ever moved through it! Mr. G likes the striped cover more than the movie cover! Maggie May and Natavia are doing an awesome job as Gretel....... and Connor, Gaveen, and Willie Mo are awesome as Bruno!

New Safety Patrols!

~Congratualtions to Miranda, Nice Bryce, and Hailey! They are the new Beauclerc Safety Patrols!

~Today was Daniela is Delightful Day! Everyone in Albania celebrates this day!

Bruno is in Auschwitz

~We are right back into our routine. We figured out so much today! Bruno is at Auschwitz, or Out With as Bruno knows it. His father is the Commandant, and the father's boss is Hitler, the Fuhrer, or as Bruno knows him, the Fury. Gretel, his older sister by three years, is not as smart as she thinks she is, and she is a Hopeless Case, and cannot bare to be around Bruno.

Luke and Elijah

Pritch reads about Bruno

Who Keeps Us Clean?

~Big thanks to Mr. Bushi! He keeps our room clean! He is an awesome custodian!

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas!

~We just finished Milkweed........and there is no time to waste! We started The Boy in the Striped Pajamas today! It is the story of a naive German boy, Bruno, who is moving because of his fathers job to a strange town that is desolate and gives him a not so good feeling. We can't tell you anything more..... you'll have to wait to find out what happens to Bruno and his family.

Bryce, Natavia, Gretel, and Hannah G

Star Students!

~There will be no STAR Student this week due to the short week. Our goal with STAR Student is to hopefully celebrate every student and their accomplishments at least once during the year. We have chosen 12 STAR Students from each class so far this year and we hope to get to every student between January and June. If your child has not been chosen for STAR Student, please be patient. We each have 20 students and it is not possible to celebrate all those who deserve it every week.

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

~Today, we also learned a little more about the Uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. The Uprising was led by Mordecai Anielewicz. He died in the fighting, but it was considered a miracle that a few thousand Jews could do what many armies in Europe had been able to do, fight off the Germans for over a month. Mordecai is a true hero. He was roughly 23 years old at his death. Below is one of the last photos taken of Mordecai before he was murdered by the Nazis. To read more on Mordecai click HERE.

HERO

Justin is Awesome Day!

~Did anyone know that January 18th is Justin is Awesome Day! We had fun celebrating it with Justin.

Misha survived!

~We finished Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli today! We discovered that Uri died in the ghetto Uprising of 1943, and Janina did indeed go to the ovens at Treblinka. Uri had been secretly working with the Jewish Resistance. Misha survived on the streets of Poland for a few years, and then made it to America. He married after a few years here, but it did not last due to his problems created by what he had lived through. He lived for many years on the streets of Philadelphia. He was the man who appeared to be talking nonsense at all times, and acting crazy. He just wanted someone to listen to him. After many years on the streets as a homeless man, two old ladies who were also survivors finally listened. They told him it was OK, it was over. A few years later, the daughter he never knew about, Katherine, found him in Philadelphia. She gave him the opportunity to give his grandchild Wendy a middle name. He did not hesitate..... her middle name would be Janina.

~The bread ladies named him Stopthief

~Uri named him Misha

~The orphans named him Stupid

~The Germans named him Filthy Son of Abraham, Dirty Gypsy, and Jew Pig

~The Milgroms gave him a last name

~The man at Immigration named him Jack

~The people on the streets of America named him Crazy

~Wendy Janina named him Poppy..... or Poppynoodle and she is the one to tell him who he really is..... a human being who loves her. To Misha, Wendy is Janina.

I hope you all have enjoyed this book as much as Mrs. Peck and I have!

Blast from the Past!

~Former Gibbon Ape, Adrienne came by with her brother Justin today to say hello and update us on their lives! Beauclerc is proud of Justin, he is a student at Florida State College, and Adrienne is a senior at Wolfson getting ready to graduate and head to college! The Jablonskis rock!

Stories for a Rainy Day

Click HERE to listen to some great short stories and listen to a famous person read the text. I especially liked Enemy Pie, Sophie's Masterpiece, and The Polar Express. Click on the story you want, then click Let's Read It!

Polish Ghettos

~Last week, a student asked about other ghettos in Warsaw. Here is a map of Poland which shows the major ghettos of Poland during the Holocaust. Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, and Lublin were the largest of the Polish ghettos. Warsaw was the largest ghetto. Milkweed was set in the Warsaw Ghetto. Most of the ghettos on this map were set up near railroad stations, just as the Warsaw Ghetto was set up near Stawki Station.

~The Jews of Warsaw wore the white armband with the blue star, while all others wore the yellow Star of David.

~Ghettos were set up in almost every country that the Germans invaded in WWII. They were used as staging points to send the Jews to their death in places like Treblinka, Chelmo, Sobibor, Auschwitz, and Majdanek. They were never meant to be permanent.

Milkweed Connections

~Right now we are reading about the Jews being forced onto the trains headed for Treblinka in Milkweed. Below are some actual pictures taken from the real Stawki Station in Warsaw.

note the Jewish police on the left (the Flops in Milkweed)

Jews being loaded on trains at Stawki Station

Jews at Stawki Station waiting for the next train (you can see the ghetto wall in back of picture)