In Series

Our morning began very quietly with the students practicing cursive by writing the words to "Consider Yourself" from Oliver! We went on to check our math homework. We had a brief power failure while we were doing this, but the lights popped back on after a couple minutes - much to a few students' disappointment. We went on to Science after this. The students worked on creating series circuits with light bulbs and motors. They first used only one battery, but then added a second to make the light bright and the motor run faster.

They also learned to make schematic drawings of their circuits. Tomorrow, they will explore the difference between series and parallel circuits. We finished the first part of the morning by doing some practice for the state writing test, actually using the 2007 question which asked them to write a day in the life of their favorite animal.

We went to the auditorium after recess, and we once again practiced the opening scenes of Oliver! under Mr. Pratt's expert direction. The music director - that's me - was a little grouchy here, but that helped make it a quite productive session.

After lunch, a few of the students finished the writing assignment while others started homework. At PE, the students did the usual rotations. My group worked on playing tag and dribbling a ball at the same time. It was not completely easy but a lot of fun. In math, we continued our look at fractions. This is still mostly review, but it will start getting more complicated in the next day or so.

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words 1-5 ten times each in cursive and use each one in a sentence. The words are stethoscope, microscope, kaleidoscope, ailment, and excitement.  (2) Do the Word Knowledge and Vocabulary paper. Ignore the printed directions: use a glossary or a dictionary here. We will discuss the context clues when we correct the paper. (3) Do "Fractions and Division" on pages 228-229 of the math book. Also do paper fun on the back of the answer sheet. This one is challenging! (4) Do the "Factors" and "Multiplication Practice" worksheets.