Quiet Day

If I were Garrison Keillor, I’d probably start it with something like “It was a pretty quiet day in room 19, our hometown….” It was a pretty uneventful day here, but those are some of the best for learning.

We worked finished our Literacy Periodic Assessments today (except for bubbling in the blue answer sheet). We learned more about hardness as a property for identifying minerals. We read more of James and the Giant Peach. We discussed adding and subtracting fractions with unequal denominators.

Before going on to the homework, I thought I’d show an example of one of their art projects with Mrs. Choi.

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words 16-20 five times each in cursive. Also write a sentence for each word. (2) Do the spelling word search. (3) Do “Understanding Special Meanings” worksheet. (4) Do “Evaluating What You Read” worksheet. (5) Do the “Birthstones” study sheet. Be sure to use the Science Resources book. (6) Do “Unlike Denominators,” pages 256-257 in the math book. (7) Do “Comparing Fractions 4” practice page.

Scratching

In the last few weeks, the students have been learning about the missions and the Spanish colonial period with Mr. Pratt. One of the things they did in room 18 was to do pictures of some of the particular missions. Here are a couple particularly great ones

Today was a pretty ordinary Wednesday. We checked, corrected, and discussed out homework. We did a little more on the second Literacy Periodic Assessment. We went to Tech Center where Ms. Richard had them work on their “Vacation” podcast project.

In Science, the students reviewed the idea of using properties such as color, transparency, and texture to help identify minerals. They agreed that since so many minerals looked similar, other tests would be helpful. So we talked about hardness as a property and the students learned about the scratch test. They then took Monday’s mystery rocks and scratched them with fingernails, cooper pennies, and steel paperclips. This helped them to figure out which one was quartz, which was calcite, which was fluorite, and which was gypsum. They had a pretty good time doing it.

In the afternoon, we corrected the math test and listened to James and the Giant Peach. Our students went to Mrs. Choi for Art while Mrs. Cha’s class came here for music. In math, we’re discussing addition of fractions with like denominators – an easy concept for most of them.

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words 11-15 five times each in cursive. Also write a sentence for each word. (2) Do the spelling scramble. (3) Do “Determining Cause and Effect” worksheet. (4) Do “Making Inference” worksheet. (5) Do “Like Denominators,” pages 253-255 in the math book. (6) Do “Comparing Fractions 3” practice page.

Singing the Blues

Today, in music class Mr. Lawton had the students doing a variety of blues-related activities. First, the students engaged in a game from the Georgia Sea Islands. They had a lot of fun with this!

Then he introduced a couple of classic blues songs to them like “Hound Dog” and the students both identified the elements of the genre and learned to feel the rhythm.

We also spent a lot of time discussing the math homework is preparation for today’s test. The student took the test this afternoon, but we will correct it tomorrow.

After the test, they had a lot of time to get started on the homework. So even though it may seem like a lot, most of them should have most of it done by the time they get home.

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words 6-10 five times each in cursive. Also write a sentence for each of these words. (2) Do “Making Inferences.” (3) Do “Determining Fact from Opinion.” (4) Do “Discovering Meaning Through Context.” (5) Do “Getting the Main Idea.” (6) Do the “Mining for Minerals” study sheet. Be sure to use the Science Resources text and to write in complete sentences. (7) Do “Comparing Fractions 2” worksheet.

Looking at Minerals

The weekend went by pretty fast, didn’t it? But it’s nice to be back together again, too.

We started off discussing the math homework from last Friday. The students seem to have a pretty good grasp of fractions for the first chapter. They’ll be tested on it tomorrow. We also went over the Cricket in Times Square quiz and the spelling test from last week. The results – generally quite good – are on the gradebook.

This week we are going to be taking the Literacy Periodic Assessment. So, we will be doing a number of things to help focus on some of these key tested skills. One of those is the ability to distinguish among simile, metaphor, hyperbole, and personification. Our students first practiced writing and sharing examples of these today. They will be writing a story this week that will include examples of all of these. They started on the rough draft today. We’ll be refining it and doing second and final drafts later in the week.

In Science, we are starting work on minerals. Our students examined four mystery minerals today. They looked for properties such as color, opacity, and texture. They will be learning later in the week about the scratch test and the Mohs hardness scale to make a final determination of which minerals are which.

After lunch, we continued listening to James and the Giant Peach. We also evaluated a couple of paragraphs against a rubric for the trait of Word Choice. We are finishing topic 9 in math today.

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words 1-5 five times each in cursive. Write one sentence for each word, also in cursive. (2) Do “Remembering Details” study sheet. (3) Do “Classifying Words” worksheet. (4) Do “Finding Synonyms” worksheet. (4) Do “Problem Solving,” pages 243-244 and “Test Prep” on pages 247-248. (6) Do Comparing Fractions 1 worksheet.

Also, be sure that the rough draft of the story is finished for tomorrow.

Another Breathless Day

This may seem like a lot, but they also had a lot of time to get started on it in class.

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words 16-20 five times each in cursive. Write one sentence, also in cursive, for each of these words. (2) Do "Advertisements," pages 197 and "Context Clues," page 198 in the Practice Book. (3) Do "Think and Compare," on page 429 and "Critical Thinking" on page 433 in the hardcover Treasures book. These should be answered in short - 2 or 3 sentences - paragraphs. (4) Do the two James and the Giant Peach sheets - "Compounds" and "Endings" (5) Do the even numbers on the Division worsheet. (6) Do pages 238-239 in the math book.

Too Busy!!!!

It's been awfully hectic this week. Sorry for the negligence in posting.

More details on the great things they're doing later this week.

Homework:  (1) Write the spelling words 11-15 five times each plus one sentence. (2) Do the spelling jumble. (3) Do the division worksheet. (4) Do "Improper Fractions," pages 236-237 in the math book.

Coins, coins!