Singin' the Blues

Today we started a new story in the reader. It's called "The New Doctor" and it is hardly one of the more fascinating selections. It deals with how a new medical doctor comes to a small New Mexico town about 30 years ago and how she learns from the old herbalist, Manuelita. We did not finish it today; we'll do that tomorrow.

Tuesdays are Music days, and Mr. Lawton had them singin' the blues today in honor of February being Black History Month. The started out by having them do some body percussion to get a better sense of the rhythmic peculiarities of the blues style, and then led them to understand the classic twelve-bar blues progression. Students will be writing song lyrics for a blues song as this week's music homework.

In math we started equivalent fractions. This is not an hard concept, but students have difficulty mastering the algorithm or procedure. They keep forgetting that the numerator and the denominator can be changed an infinite number of times, but that both must be treated identically, i.e., multiplied or divided by the same number. This is important beyond merely fractions as it is both a key algebra concept and their first introduction to the world of rational numbers.

Homework:  (1) Do spelling words 6-10 ten times each in cursive and write one sentence for each. The words are instrument, furiously, gossamer, profusely, and threshold. (2) Reread pages 30-34 in the Science Resources book. Answer the questions on the study sheet. Be sure to use complete sentences.  (3) Do the "Diseases" crossword. Be sure to use the letters already provided and the words in the word box! The clues are written in "doctor talk," so they are not easy to understand. (4) Do "Equivalent Fractions," envision Math pages 231-232. Also do "Playing the Part" on the back of the answer sheet.