Friday, September 30, 2016

4th Annual Walk-A-Thon

This past Wednesday on September 27, 2016 Heritage Elementary participated in our PTO's 4th annual walkathon. Our students & teachers walked for one mile around the high school track while a DJ played some tunes. The weather was beautiful, students were excited, and the proceeds collected were phenomenal! Thank you to the PTO officers that organized the event. Additional thanks to the hundreds and hundreds of family members and friends that supported the fundraiser. Students were able to enter tickets into a basket raffle from proceeds they collected. Photos of the walkathon and a few of the 39 basket raffle winners are shown below. 



All proceeds from this Walk-a-thon will help fund the Heritage Elementary PTO.  
The Heritage PTO helps to pay for things like field trips, class parties, student daily planners, Field Day, Fifth Grade Farewell, teacher and bus appreciation, and much, much more.  







Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Kindergarten Kicks off KidWriting!

There was a buzz in the Kindergarten hallways of Heritage Elementary today as our ready readers and writers kicked off KidWriting! Many parent volunteers were on hand to help students tell their stories in the air and on paper. Although KidWriting is a staple in our daily Kindergarten schedule, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from September through May, Heritage opens its doors to groups of trained parent volunteers who support our writers in an all-hands-on-deck approach to literacy and learning!














Friday, September 16, 2016

Reading Like Writers in the Heritage Literacy Lab

During the month of September, Heritage students in grades 3rd - 5th are studying mentor author Dav Pilkey and his 3rd person narrative craft moves. Crafting stories of ourselves in the 3rd person can be very tricky...but all students are experiencing success in this new writing territory.  As students publish their pieces, samples will be shared on the Heritage Highlights Blog, so please check back to read and enjoy bits of our published work!

Here are a few 5th grade pieces to kick off our narrative study:

The Hot Chocolate Drinker
by Rachel


The cold winter days of the hot chocolate drinker are very relaxed.  On these days, the ground is blanketed with a fresh coat of snow.  It is too cold to go outside, but it is warm like a summer day inside her house.  The hot chocolate drinker heads downstairs still in her pajamas from the night before.  She heads straight for the kitchen where she makes herself a bowl of cereal and a cup of hot chocolate.
When the hot chocolate drinker is finished making her breakfast, she devours her cereal.  But the hot chocolate sits in the glass, still full.  The hot chocolate sits there, untouched.  But the hot chocolate drinker waits.  She has learned how to do this, and she has gotten quite good at it.
She moves into the living room with her hot chocolate.  She sits down on the couch and turns on the TV.  A burst of color explodes from the TV as the hot chocolate drinker begins to flip through the channels.  When she finds a good channel, she begins to drink.  The world now feels more vibrant and colorful to the hot chocolate drinker as if the hot chocolate allowed her to travel into a different dimension.
The hot chocolate drinker finishes her show, turns off the TV, and walks back upstairs.  She changes into clothes.  And she goes back downstairs, ready to start the day.

The Dancer
by Jules

The Mondays of the dancer are burning and sweaty…even in the winter.  She carefully picks out an outfit she knows she can easily move in and takes her dance bag out to pack.  And after she knows all of her shoes are packed, she walks downstairs to the kitchen to get her water and phone.  And after she makes sure she has everything, she goes down to the car where her mom is calling her to leave.
At the dance studio she puts on her jazz shoes and starts stretching.  And after she has stretched enough she does her splits.  Most people have trouble with splits but the dancer has learned how to do this, and she is good at it.
After hours of dancing, the dancer is exhausted.  And hot.  But she was doing what she loved.  Her favorite time of day.  As her mom pulls up she gets in the car.  And drives home.  Then she throws her bag on the floor and falls asleep dreaming of her next dance.
The Fisher Boy
by Jonathan


In the early morning, the fisher boy wakes up.  The wet wind blowing on his face while riding on his bike.  It is foggy and windy while he rides through muddy water puddles.  And watching cars drive by.  Boom.  He is slamming his brakes so he does not crash into the trees.  He walks down in the rocks trying to balance.  He makes it by the lake so he sits down and puts his tackle box on the ground.  And sets his rod, trying to put the worms on the hook.


Then he throws the hook with the worm on it.  One minute, two, three, four, five, six minutes later the bobber goes down.  Fish on.  He pulls it in.  It is a twenty inch Bass.  He is so happy.  


The Porch Sitter
by Tyler


Every morning at the beach, when the sun is just waking up, the porch sitter has already awoken.  And is listening to the ocean breeze with not one person in sight.  Just the porch sitter.  You will always find him alone…occasionally with a small treat for breakfast.


The porch sitter likes to creep down the hall past his sound asleep sister and two parents that are not up yet. And most of the time he hits the kitchen to grab a snack.  After that, he goes to the porch and listens to the sounds of the beach.

Once his parents and sibling are up, his glory is over, and it is time to spend some family time.






Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Mrs. Sherwin's 5th Grade Writing Class

Students are learning how to use descriptive words in their writings. They are describing a personal experience and then sharing their writing with the class. They will then begin a Narrative writing piece which they will take through the writing process.







Thursday, September 1, 2016

Human Digits

Math in 5th grade is an opportunity for students to develop a deeper understanding of the place value system. Mrs. Sberna's class enjoyed being "human digits" and practicing these skills in math class today.