What We’ve Been Up To…

For this session of ImpACT Academic Boost classes, we learned the answers to three important questions. What makes a great invention great? What’s a Haiku? Who impacted our lives?

What makes a great invention great? In ImpACT’s Papermaking class, we learned from Teacher Cindy that without paper our lives would be pretty hard. She challenged us to think about it. Without paper to print money, we would have to carry lots and lots of heavy coins. Without paper, we’ll have to turn in homework assignments on clay tablets or on big sheets of rock. Paper, like all great inventions should, makes everyone’s life so much easier. After learning about the greatness of paper all the ImpACT students got some hands on experience helping Teacher Kathy make their own paper! Students contributed shredded paper, glitter, and even flowers! The end product was the most colorful, recycled paper.

What’s a Haiku? Is it an animal from South America or a fruit from Asia? According to Teacher Tracy, it’s a form of poem from Japan! Haikus are short poems with three lines. To write a successful Haiku, the first line must have five syllables, the second line must have seven syllables, and the last line must have five syllables. Wait a second, what’s a syllable? It’s the smallest unit of word. For example, the word IMPACT has two syllables. Hint: You can tell how many syllables a word has by counting how many vowels are in the word. In true ImpACT-style, we practiced counting syllables by playing a game. Teacher Tracy read a word aloud and everyone had to quickly count the number of syllables it has and get into a group according to the number of syllables. After an exciting time of running around everyone sat down and wrote their very own Haiku on a scroll. The students wrote about a variety of topics: their love of basketball, pets, family, and of course, ImpACT.

Who impacted our lives? Our lives are actually connected to the lives of other people, so when others make a decision it can change our lives as well. For example, if our parents or grandparents did not decide to come to America, we would have never grown up here. Our families are not the only ones who impacted our lives; people in history impacted the way we live now. Without people like Martin Luther King Jr., our world would not have been so great. In our ImpACT class, we learned about another awesome person, William Wilberforce, whose great sacrifice and life’s work greatly impacted our lives. It’s because of him, England abolished the slave trade and many people, including people in America, changed their attitudes about slavery. Had it not been for him, we may not live a free country.

Truly, it has been another exciting session of ImpACT Academic Boost. But you don’t have to take our word for it: come and join us next Sunday. Pickups are at Franklin and Garfield schools at 1:30pm. See you there!