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Hi,
Maybe you were wondering why everyone was bringing food to school.
Our names are Estelle, Maeve and Tess. This week we had a homesick party. We each brought in food from our immigrant persona’s country. In Deborah and Megan’s 4th grade we are studying immigrants. Immigrants were from Ireland, Scotland, Greece, Italy, Russia, Sweden, or France. Each Immigrant had a special food from their own home country. The food may not taste delicious to us, but it was special to the immigrant. Remember your yuck could be your immigrant’s yum [Some people brought in sweet dishes. Some people brought in savory ones. For example, Mia brought in a sweet dish called a cannoli. Andrei brought in pasta which is not sweet. We all got to try a little bit of each person’s dish (and some of us got seconds). We all got milk because that’s what immigrants first drank when they came through Ellis Island. We drank it In America also. We did this project because we wanted a chance to really get to know what they used to eat. We all loved to try different food from different countries. It was interesting to see how immigrants ate. When we made our food, we really thought about how they ate. Maeve and I (Tess) made the same thing. It was called poverty cake.

When we first got into the room we talked in a circle about what our immigrant name was, what our food was and why it was important. I (Estelle) made “Prosciutto e melone.” This is an Italian dish. My immigrant persona brought it because, only Italians made this dish I remember Stella saying “My name is Sibina Moore. I am from Ireland, I made soda bread. It is important to me because it is my grandmother’s recipe when she passed through Ellis Island, she adopted a baby.” Everyone wanted to actually be their immigrant so they could always have this feast. Also everybody shared their immigrant persona’s dishes, and everyone else had different stories. Some kids made healthy foods like Sophia’s scottish pie. Lots of people made pastries like Thomas’s crepes, Mia’s cannolis, and Pema’s broken biscuit chocolate bar with shortbread. Others made in between foods like Charlie and Andrei’s spaghetti, Stella’s Irish Soda bread and Ally’s meatballs. These foods you would not find so often. You would probably find them in a country of origin.

Some 4th grader’s quoted:

“The homesick party had a lot of food representing a lot of countries.”-Max

“I liked teaching people to put lemon juice in my crepes.” -Thomas

“Tasting the food was so good.”-Ally

“I tried so many new foods!”-Julia

“ I liked how everybody’s dish was different”-Charlie

“I found out that I really like prosciutto and melon.”-Sophia

“I loved all the different sweet, salty, and savory food.”-Stella

“I thought it was really cool that we had different foods from all over the world in our classroom”

“It was amazing seeing how immigrants ate”-Tess

Everybody loved everybody’s dish. There was no dish that was not liked by anybody. Everybody complimented and appreciated everybody’s hard work. In fact nobody discouraged anybody about their foods even if they did not like it they would hold it in for the sake of the person who made it’s feelings.

Nobody ate lunch after this feast!
We loved all the dishes that we had never tried. We also loved the ones that we did try! Some of them, we still eat today! like:
Estelle’s Prosciutto e melone, Thomas’s crepes and Andrei and Charlie made some pasta with tomato sauce. Each food was unique in it’s own way. Most of them were different and new we have never had a better time taste testing.

“It kind of felt like I was traveling all over the world.” -Clarissa

By Maeve, Tess, and Estelle

Pinocchio wants to be a real boy. How do you know that you’re real? What does it feel like to be real?

Maeve: “When you are real you can experience more feelings. Some of those feelings are: happy, sad, frustrated, scared, excited, and many more. You can feel bad and sad but being real is like a scale, bad and good measure perfectly. I know I am real because I experience all of these things.”

Max: “Maybe Pinocchio is a real boy and all of us are not real…Well, if you’re a human you might not be real but if you’re human you can have emotions, you are vulnerable to sharp things and you can walk and talk.”

Mia: “You know you are real if you have emotions.”

Ava: “I think that when you are real your heart is beating you have many moods, you’re not made out of wood, you can eat, you can talk.”

Thomas: “It feels good to be real. It feels good because you have senses that work. I feel like I’m real when I pull a planeswalker and the first idea that pops into my head is NEW IDEA.”

Sophia: “I am real because I do not have a nose that grows every time I tell a lie. I have skin and bones and I am not made out of wood. I am a human being. I like myself. I can be who I want, when I want.”

Ally: “I don’t know if I am real. I think I am real. I am real because I’m alive so is Pinocchio but he has a long nose that grows when he lies and our nose doesn’t do anything when we lie.”

Zoe: “ You can move. You can breathe and you have blood. You also have bones, skin and a heart. You also have a brain. It feels cool to be real. If you are real you don’t really think about what it feels when you are real. To be honest I don’t even know if I’m real.”

Andrei: “Something that makes me feel real is when I tap. Tapping makes me feel like I can do whatever I want.”

Charlie: “I know I am real because I am free to do what I want to do always. It feels like I am free. One time I feel most free is when I swish a three pointer and it also give me a lot of confidence.”

Pema: “A real boy is a living human. Pinocchio is kind of a real boy and kind of not. He is a boy because he is living and can do some things that boys do. I think when he wishes that he was a boy he actually means that he wishes that he could tell a lie. I know I am real because I am made not out of any materials. When you are real it is not that easy. You have to deal with real things. The difference between us and Pinocchio is he is carved and we are not. He cannot tell a lie, we can.”

Clarissa: It feels alive and exciting. It feels plain and ordinary to be fake. When you’re fake you feel insecure…When you’re real you feel secure in this world and you don’t feel like you are lying. When you’re fake you feel like you’re lying to people who think you are real.”

A note for students whose ideas are not included in this post, send me your thoughts on the subject and I will update the post.

Lately in science 4th graders have been studying chemistry and the reactions of different things to red cabbage juice. We are seeing if they are a base, an acid, or a neutral. We have tested many things like sodium hydroxide, nitric acid (you can tell it’s an acid by the name), and rubbing alcohol.
Michael told us that red cabbage juice is an indicator and that is why it is able to tell whether it is an acid, base, or a neutral. The way to tell if it is an acid, a base or a neutral, is if it’s pink it’s an acid, if it’s green, it’s a base, and if it’s purple it’s a neutral. Some liquids are too strong for red cabbage juice so we are starting to us a new Indicator that is called pH paper. PH paper is literally a small piece paper when if you dip it in the liquid it will turn a color and you have to match it with the colors on the canister that held the pH paper (there are 12 colors on it). 1-5 are acids, 6-7 are neutrals, and 8-12 are bases. It’s really cool how a piece of paper can do this.

by Andrei and Max

We went to the Tenement Museum to meet Victoria Confino. The Tenement Museum is located on 97 Orchard Street. To get there we took the F train to Delancey St. and then walked from there.

The Tenement Museum is a place where you can go to learn about immigrants and where the poor once lived.

When we arrived we split up into group A and B. Megan and Molly (Maeve’s mom) were with group B. Deborah and us were with group A. Group A went to meet Victoria Confino while we learned about her. When half an hour went by we switched. Group B went to meet Victoria Confino and group A went to learn about her.

We went to another building to meet her. We were told she was from Ireland and we were supposed to pretend that we were an Italian family fresh off the boat. We were with a guide. Victoria had a strong accent. She had us sit in her parlor she had 3 rooms in her tenement apartment. One was the Parlor, one was the kitchen and in the back there was a bedroom. She had 2 boarders sleeping in the bed in the parlor head to toe. Victoria is one of the older siblings out of many siblings. She lives with boarders, her siblings and her parents.

Then we started asking our questions about what it was like to live in America and then we also tried to learn things about her. When she came to America and went to an American school she didn’t know how to read, write and speak English. She was put in a second grade class even though she was about 13 years old.

Her family doesn’t have a lot of money. Now she does some sewing as a job. She told us that boys and girls had different jobs.

She took us to her kitchen. She let us smell and look at some of the food and spices.

It was really surprising they fit about 10 people into that small 3 bedroom tenement. The whole tenement apartment together wasn’t much bigger than Deborah and Megan’s classroom.

It was cool to see an actor playing an immigrant and making it really feel like we were actual immigrants. We learned a lot about the life and history of immigrants in a really fun way. It makes us really think about about what we have now and what other people had to go through to survive now and back then. This was only our first time going to the Tenement Museum but there are many more trips there to come.

I recently visited Bridget Meehan Moore’s house, she immigrated to New York from Ireland with her three children. Her house is very cute and clean. She said, “I love the American fashion, it is so pretty!”

Bridget loves tea (or as she pronounced it te’ ( T-E-H) because she has an Irish accent) because in her hometown tea was very uncommon to drink. Bridget let me smell some of her herbs from Ireland and they smelled superb. The reason this herb was special to her, she said, “It smells exactly like my mother’s kitchen!”

Bridget would also make little dolls for her children, but entirely made out of dish rags! The one she showed me was beautiful. Bridget’s children seemed to like this doll very much because it had become very shriveled up and torn apart. Bridget Meehan Moore’s husband, Joseph, is a woodworker. He carves little toys for their children. He carved a nine pin set and even a horse! Bridget also tells her perspective of the Five Points neighborhood. Bridget said, “Five Points is a very unsafe place. There are people stealing. Nobody should go alone. If you have a husband then go with him, but if you have children do not go with them alone.”

Bridget claims there are not too many big piles of poo, on the streets of New York right now, in 1868.

Everyday Bridget stays home and does chores. That is all that a mother and wife can do.

Bridget is wearing a dress and she is very petite! Also Bridget told me there is only one other Irish person in the building and everybody else is German. So Bridget told me in the mornings, when she goes downstairs to get water she gets kind of frazzled because she does not know how to speak German. Bridget asked one of the reporters if they know any German words and he said to say “Gutten morgen!” Bridget asked,“What does that mean?” “It means good morning in German.” Our reporter answered “Okay. Perfect, thank you I will start with that,” replied Bridget.

News Article Written by,
Annie Casertano (Estelle)

Deborah and Megan’s fourth grade class did a simulation of immigrants going through inspection on Ellis Island. We all chose a picture of an immigrant and we chose a name and country for them. In the simulation we were those immigrants. In the beginning we all walked in and as soon as we got there, we were our immigrant. We were dressed like our immigrant and we had to imagine being there at that time and going through inspection. Maeve was the first immigrant to pass through that day. Then sometimes after you were chosen you could be an inspector. When you were an inspector, it was a lot of fun. You got to choose whether someone was okay, mentally ill, had back problems, or other types of problems. It makes us laugh. But also we imagine how hard it is for them. I think our whole simulation was fun but for me the best part was, being an inspector.

Being an inspector is a really fun job but also a really hard job because half of the class was in your face saying, ‘I have back problems’ ‘I’m Mental’ “They told me I was limping!’ So as you can see its a little overwhelming. But you gave physical tests and mental tests, you would say stuff like “Do one jumping jack!” “Turn around” and you would have to do what they say, OR ELSE you might get deported!

Something we did in the simulation was dress up as our immigrant. Lots of girls wore scarves and bandanas on their heads. We all looked like real immigrants. The girls all wore thick skirts and shirts without designs. The boys wore hats and vests. Their hats looked like a newspaper boy.

You had to wait in line for your turn to be inspected. The line was so long that you had no hope of getting there soon. Thousands of Moms, Dads, Sisters, Brothers, Cousins, Grandmas, Grandpas, were ahead of you. When it was your turn you were very nervous. This was one girl’s experience, “How old are you?” “Seven” “Where are you from?” “Ireland” “Who are you staying with?” “My dad” “What is your occupation?” “Child” ”Ok, you can pass. NEXT”

One of the immigrants in our class named Charlotte Moore (Tess) went to the inspector. The inspector sent her to the hospital because they thought her eye looked like it carried a disease. Really it did. So Charlotte tried to keep the secret and they sent her to the doctor. The doctor (Maeve) looked at her eye. She looked under it and over it and then she told Charlotte that she could pass. Some people passed inspection, but some were too sick.

Then when we finished the inspections we got our passports stamped. We all had passports with pictures of of our immigrant selves in it. Then you had money from whatever country you were from and you traded it in for American money. Then, we took a boat to Manhattan. We went downstairs to the lobby where we pretended we were on a boat. We ate the white bread the teachers had given us. Some of us ate it fast because we were “starving” others of us ate slowly so we could “ save it.” When we were done with going on the boat we were in Manhattan! 🙂 Lower East Side, here we come!

by Tess and Maeve

The trip to NYU was lots of fun. We learned all about the brain. The trip was 6 blocks to NYU. The address is 82 Washington Place New York New York. We went on 12/12/14. My favorite part was when we got the brains. We learned with my mom, Dr. Goverover. She made a slideshow that we watched and did stuff for the brain.

The most interesting thing that I learned was the specific parts of the brain and what they do. I learned what to do to protect the brain. Headers are very important not to do because they give little shocks to the brain that hurt the brain.
We did some tests that people with brain injuries do. One was trying to get the cork out of the bottom of a glass. The other was to get three blocks to the other side in as few moves as possible. The cork test one person did alone, the other we did in a group. The materials for the cork were: a jar of water with lid, a metal thing, and a bottle with a cork. The rule was, no picking up the jar and bottle. At the end we had chocolate balls and we played in the park. We played boys vs. girls. The boys won!

By The Writer Alon and the Editor Diego

In art we are making paper maché immigrant dolls. The first step of the project was to take wire with newspapers around them and make the shape of a body. For the head we made circles of newspaper wire and we twisted the wire to attach the body to the head. When we were done we paper machéd the body into the shape we wanted. Then we let it dry. The next class when the paper maché was dry we painted the doll with skin color paint. In the next class we dressed the doll to look like an immigrant. I thought it was a fun part. That happened for the next two classes. Then it was time to paint the face. I thought that was the hardest part. You were so nervous that you would mess up on the face because it was for the art show. It was optional if you wanted to make a suitcase or a pet. To make a suitcase you would take a small box and paper maché it. Then you would make a paper maché handle. You could paint the suitcase brown and make a design. You could also put leather over handle. I thought it was really fun.

On Wednesday (12/10/14), we went to Ellis Island!

We went on a ferry, it was really cold. We all crowded around one warm spot on the wall so that the wind would not hit us. When we got there we met ranger Jessica. She led us to more rangers with only her hands, no talking! So we really had to look. The other rangers made us do stuff like pushups and jumping jacks, then they gave us cards and if you had a letter on it means you took the test wrong.
Then we sat down and drew sketches of old suitcases. Then we got audios and listened to immigrants talking. Then we went up a staircase to the Great Hall where Governor Christie was honoring veterans by saying a speech. After that we listened to audios 4, 6, 12, 16 and heard immigrants talking about their experiences. Then we wrote about them in our journals. We sketched the Statue Of Liberty through the window, and then Simón found number 888, on the audio and it was about Marty the Meerkat. Next, we split into little groups to explore Ellis Island. Then we met up in the Great Hall and went outside to have lunch. There was a giant wall and Max’s great grandfather was on the wall of honor. The wall of honor is a wall to honor people who paid money to Ellis Island. Then we went back on the boat to Manhattan and some people ate their unfinished lunch. At school the next day we edited are letters home (by our immigrants) with our new information from Ellis Island. That was our trip to Ellis Island
THE END By Andrei and Max