Brooklyn Bridge Park

September 26 was a beautiful day for art and city watching.

Tess: We went on a field trip today. We went to Brooklyn. We walked a lot. We went to see these sculptures that were a part of the Statue of Liberty. We sketched. We listened to the sounds around us. We sketched what was around us including the sculpture.

Ava: We went to the park. We saw a sculpture. Then we went to a grass park and we played around in the grass. Some people played tag and some people sat and talked and some people did gymnastics.

Alon: “We had fun all.”

Simon: “The sleeve had poles. It was really bumpy like an actual sleeve.”

Charlie: “You could feel the grooves in the indented lines of the sleeve.”

Diego: “There were a lot of beams inside. On the outside you saw two but if you looked inside the sleeve, you saw lots of beams. The beams were holding it together so it wouldn’t cave in.”

Clarissa: “All of the shadows were all going in one direction.”

Diego: “We found a lot of giant acorns – they looked like grapes.”

Ally: “The sleeve was a little ragged.It was light and dark.”

Zoe: “After we sketched we got to play in this grassy field which was very fun. I went crazy doing cartwheels.”

Tess: We played tag and no one caught me.

Pema: “On the sleeve it was pointy and then it went down and then it went straight.”

Andrei: “The sun shined onto the copper sleeve making a shadowy figure behind it.”

Estelle: ”There were parts the Statue of Liberty. This artist made a replica of parts of the Statue of Liberty. They weren’t parts taken off of the Statue of Liberty. We saw a dead run-over rat.”

Mia: “They were as big as the stature. They were twice as tall as us and they were gigantic.”

Julia: “There was a bird named Foodini on the piling where we were having snack. He ate saltines.”

Maeve: “On the way back we all had fun. It was a really really long walk. It was a really steep hill that we all had to walk up and most of us were annoyed by that. Finally, we got on the subway and we sat for a while. We went on the street and passed the dead rat and finally we made it into our classroom. We all had a fun today.”

Diego – “I re-met many of my friends. Everyone is a little different than they were last year. Some of their interests have changed.”

Charlie – “I agree with Diego. At camp, I met some new friends, and now I’m back at school and now I have school friends.”

Alon – “Me and Thomas changed at how good we are at soccer. We used to not be as good!”

Simón – “In Mexico, I was always speaking Spanish. And on the first day of school, people would ask me a question in English, and I would respond in Spanish! I also got better at staying focused on my book. I am really into it.”

Andrei – “I disagree with Alon and Thomas, you weren’t the worst players, you were never bad, you just got better!”

Max – “We’ve been doing a lot of cursive, and I kind of like that because last year I wasn’t very good at it.”

Ava – “I went to Italy over the summer, so I didn’t get to see many of my friends, so I liked seeing my friends this week. A lot of people are different. A lot of people have changed.”

Ally – “I was also nervous, like Diego, about cursive. I thought I was really bad at it, but I pushed forward and I discovered that it wasn’t that bad.”

Maeve – “Since I came back, I have been pushing myself more than I used to. I used to not always think about the answer to questions, but now I’m pushing myself more.”

Clarissa – “In art, we are making vases or cups out of clay.”

Thomas – “I think homework has been easy. I am not worried about it.”

Tess – “I liked making the math posters. We had kind of a tricky number, we had 45, and we couldn’t think of any other ways to show it other than 1 x 45.”

Stella – “I thought it was really cool to see all of my friends and to be back in familiar places.”

Pema – “I liked coming back and going to all the specialist classes. I really enjoyed art and shop this week.”

Estelle – “I liked seeing you and Megan again.”

Diego – “On the first day, I was really never because I heard we were going to do a lot of cursive, and I felt like I couldn’t write in cursive really well. I am really excited to learn again because I feel like I never really learned it, and I thought I’d be the only one who didn’t learn it.”

Sophia – “I barely saw any of my friends this summer. So I was excited to see my friends again.”

Julia – “My highlight is seeing my friends on the first day.”

Zoe – “I thought third grade was kind of boring, and fourth grade is much more fun!”

Mia – “I really enjoyed reading Smile during independent reading time.”

Antonio – “It was fun making the globes even though I messed up.”

Deborah: “My favorite moment so far occurred when we had just started making our paper mache globes. Everyone was messy and excited. There were surprising moments during that project when the classroom was quiet; there was only a subtle hum of industriousness. Spontaneous quiet is wonderful to me because it means you are all really into what you are doing. Thank you Megan for setting up that moment for us!”