CDI

Here’s the performance from yesterday.

Quick Post

Just the homework for right now….

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words 3 times in cursive and write sentences for words 1-5. (2) Do the “Magnetic Poles” and “Magnet meets Magnet” study sheet. Students will need the purple Science book for this. "(3) Do “Multiplying Money 1” worksheet. Be sure to place the decimal point in the right spot! (4) Do “Perspective,” pages 212-213 in the math book, and “Building Blocks” on the back of the math answer sheet.

Racing Along

Breaking the Force

This was the big day for our orchestra players, their first concert! They performed for the second and fifth graders this afternoon, and they will be performing for parents tonight at our annual winter Family Night. This is also a great time for some Christmas or Hanukkah present purchases at the Book Fair!

We did a few things differently because of this, and the students who are not in orchestra had an hour of "study hall" at the end of the day. Our students worked on a project for Mr. Lawton this morning which combined both music and fractions. They read a story about Jaime Escalante, the famous calculus teacher from Garfield High School. They went to Mr. Pratt for Social Studies. They learned the difference between radii, diameters, and chords in mathematics.

Probably the most interesting thing we did today was to explore how distance can weaken the force of magnetism. The students were given balances. On one side of the balance was a magnet on a stick. In the cup above it there was another magnet. The students had to carefully add washers to the other cup and then determine how many washers were sufficient to "break the force" and separate the magnets. They then added little plastic chip between the magnets and repeated the process several times. They recorded and graphed the results. This was fun!



Homework: (1) Write all spelling words 3 times in cursive and write sentences for words 11-15. (2) Do pages 173-174 in the Practice book. (3) Do the "Division 3" math worksheet. (4) Do "Circles," on pages 204-205 in the math book. 

Come to the Fair!

It was like we were hardly ever in the room today! We started off today in the Tech Center where we worked with Mr. Riko on creating special holiday story PowerPoints. We then went off to see Mr. Lawton who discussed rhythm with the students. After recess, the students went to Mr. Pratt for history. And, after a scant 45 minutes, we finished our day at the Book Fair.

One of our students even helped with the cash register there! Also note Tim Hill, one of our dads, helping out as well.

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words 3 times in cursive and write sentences for words 6-10. (3) Do the "Division 2" math worksheet. (4) Do "Quadrilaterals," on pages 202-203 in the math book. 

“For the Rain it Raineth Every Day”

So sang Feste at the end of Twelfth NIght. It certainly feels like that lately! I suppose we in Southern California are just not prepared for five straight days of drizzle. My sister from Portland would have no idea what I was complaining about.

Despite our third day of rainy day schedule, we had a productive day. We worked on revising our holiday stories. We went to a performance of The Grinch who Stole Christmas put on by the students in room 17. We continued looking at polygons in geometry.

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words 3 times in cursive and write sentences for words 1-5. (2) Do "Phonics," page 167 and "Vocabulary," page 168 in the Practice book. (3) Do the "Division 1" math worksheet. (4) Do "Triangles," on pages 200-201 in the math book. Also do "Mixed Up" on the back of the answer sheet.
The PTA Toy Drive starts today. Please be generous!

Those Autumn Leaves

We do not have much, I suppose, in the way of seasons in Southern California, but by the end of November we do have so reasonably good fall color. And that was our inspiration for a water color project today. Some of the work the students did was absolutely lovely as you can see!

We did some of the more usual activities as well. We worked on persuasive writing in our journals contrasting what we thought were the best and worst sports. We worked on drawing conclusions from our reading. We re-read the “Ranita” play working on developing expression in our reading. We discussed some of the basics of plane geometry:  points, line segments, and the different kinds of lines and intersections. We explored magnetism and what kinds of materials are magnetic, and what kinds are not.

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words 3 times in cursive and write sentences for words 11-15. (2) Do "Conclusions" on pages 157-158 in the Practice book. (3) Do “Helping Verbs” on pages 218-219 of the Language book. (4) Do the "Factors 3" math worksheet. (5) Do “Points, Lines, and Planes” on pages 194-195 in the math book.

Most students are also revising the song lyrics they are supposed to be writing for Mr. Lawton. The first and second lines should rhyme as should the third and fourth. There should be only one syllable per space. And, most important of all, the song should make sense!

Molly Malone (and other songs)

We started another new program today, music class with Mr. Lawton.

In third grade, he taught recorders to the students (one of many, many reasons I don't teach third grade), but in fourth grade we are focusing on song writing. The students have an assignment to write lyrics to a song tonight as part of their homework. Mr. Lawton and the class, with a bit of help from yours truly, came up with a sample lyric (sung to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star":

Zombies like to eat brain cake,
But it's something you can't bake.
You can find it on the street,
Grab a child and start to eat!

Gruesome, yes, but welcome to fourth grade!

We also had Tech Center where the students either finished their PowerPoints or did some geometry games on the computer.

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words 3 times in cursive and write sentences for words 6-10. (2) Do "Maps," page 160 and "Antonyms" page 161in the Practice book. (3) Do the "Factors 2" math worksheet.

Clarabelle and Oreo

First of all, I hope that everyone had a great holiday. I would also like to thank the students for being so good while I was out the week before:  Mr. Yoo, their substitute, not only wrote that they were a good class but said that he "had a blast" being with them. I understand what he meant!

The highlight of our day was a visit from the California Dairy Council's mobile classroom. The gentleman in the front - whose name I never did quite get - did an admirable job of teaching the students about dairy cows and milk production. The students were fascinated by Clarabelle, a 5 year old, 1600 pound Holstein.

Clarabelle seemed somewhat intrigued by the students, too.

As the assembly was winding down, we were introduced to Clarabelle's son, the 6 month old Oreo. He is so cute!

The students had a chance to pet Oreo as we returned to our classroom.

Other than this, a very ordinary Monday. 

My dog is pretty sick, so I have to take her to the vet again today. As a result, I gave the students the last hour or so to do homework and I'm canceling homework club. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words 3 times in cursive and write sentences for words 1-5. (2) Do a tree map to illustrate soft sounds of c and g. We started this in class. (3) Do "Phonics," page 155, "Vocabulary," page 156, and "Main and Helping Verbs," page 164, all in the Practice book. (4) Do the "Factors 1" math worksheet. (5) Do "Solve Multi-Step Problems," pages 182-184 and "Test Prep," pages 186-187 in the math book. Also do "Graphing Sales" on the back of the answer sheet. 

Turkeys

Even for a minimum day, today breezed by pretty fast! We spent a good part of it finishing our mosaic turkey projects. I have to hand it to this class, I have NEVER had this project come out so well! They were excellent!

We did do some other things. We went to the library where Mrs. Sartore read a really touching story about Nubs, a dog saved by a marine in Iraq. We took the reading, spelling, and math tests. And students also took a test for Mr. Pratt in history.

Homework:  None!

Cool and Gray

It was a cool, gray day and students were quiet and industrious today in room 19. In short, perfect.

We worked a good deal on our mosaic art project – more on that tomorrow – and we revised and edited our “Place to Love” papers. We learned about dividing numbers with three digits. We had a good time at CDI.

Homework:  (1) Do the final draft of the “Place to Love” paper in cursive. Try to revise as well as edit before doing that draft. (2) Do the odd problems only on the multiplication practice sheet. (3) Do “Three Digit” on pages 172-173 of the math book. Be sure to show all work on a piece of scratch paper.

After the Election

First a big thank you to parents who helped push Proposition 30 over the top to victory. Our children are the biggest winners here since this means that their school year will not be shortened by 3 weeks, but the teachers are grateful not having our pay slashed by a full month, too!

Otherwise, a pretty ordinary Wednesday.

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words 2 times in cursive. Write sentences for words 11-15. (2) Do "Toolbars" on page 136 and "Prefixes" on page 137 of the Practice book. (3) Do the “Three Times Two 3” worksheet, odd numbers only. (4) Do “Dividing 2 Digit by 1 Digit," even numbers only, on pages 169-170 of the math book and "Will They Reach the Top" on the back of the answer sheet.

REMEMBER, Friday, November 9 is a MINIMUM DAY (12:30 dismissal). Monday is a holiday - no school. Tuesday is a SHORTENED DAY (1:30 dismissal). Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of next week are also MINIMUM DAYS. 

Elections

We started the day in Tech Center where students learned how to paste pictures from Google Images into their PowerPoint. They continued to work on their biographical presentation about a person who “made a difference.”

Returning to the room, we worked in our journals. Since our theme in Treasures is currently “Powerful Words”, I asked the students to make a list of 30 words that they thought were powerful. I made a couple of them into Wordles. The students liked this so much that they will be doing the same with it over the next week during our Independent Work Time.

Today was not only the election for our nation’s president, but it was the election for Student Body President as well. Only fifth graders can hold this job, but fourth graders are the “swing states” in this election.

In other news, our PTA Thanksgiving Food Drive is starting. Please remember to send canned good and other non-perishable food items to school with your child. Room 19 is usually one of the top contributors each year, and I would like to see us win this year.

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words 2 times in cursive. Write sentences for words 6-10. (2) Do the “Three Times Two 2” worksheet. (3) Do “Models and Symbols” odd problems only on page 166-166 of the math book and “New Shapes" on the back of the answer sheet.

Fall Forward

Almost every year the day after time changes some poor child comes in an hour early or an hour late. My congratulations – everybody in room 19 was here on time today!

Pretty ordinary Monday. We worked in our journals on writing narrative fluently, and we began to look at subject and object pronouns. We read “Name that Reptile” and talked about both the vocabulary words and making inferences. We are doing a descriptive writing project this week inspired by the classic picture book All the Places to Love by Patricia McLaughlin. Today students listened to the book and brainstormed by making a cluster. Here’s an illustration from the book.

Students went to Mr. Pratt for history. We also started a special Thanksgiving Art project today. More on that later….

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words 2 times in cursive. Write sentences for words 1-5. (2) Do “Phonics” on page 131, “Vocabulary" on page 132, and “Inferences” on page 133 of the Practice Book. (3) Do the “Three Times Two 1” worksheet. (4) Do “Remainders” on page 162-163 of the math book and “Order Lunch" on the back of the answer sheet.

Typical Friday

It was a pretty ordinary Friday. We went to the library. We took all the usual quizzes and tests. Everybody was much calmer than yesterday – I think the Halloween sugar high finally subsided.

Homework:  As necessary, finish pages 160-161 in the math book.

It Just Zipped By

Just a couple more pictures from Friday’s field trip. First, our students did love shopping and found lots of treasures!

And we were fortunate to have a couple fantastic guides!

Our day today started with an assembly about traffic safety.

It was a little lame, but our students took part and seemed to know all the right answers.

The rest of the day was pretty routine. We went over the math and reading tests, we wrote in our journals, and we went to CDI.

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words 2 times in cursive. Write sentences for words 16-6. (2) Do “Plurals and Possessives” on page 128 and 129 of the Practice Book. (3) Do the “Two Times Two 4” worksheet. (4) Do “Using Mental Math” on pages 158-159 of the math book and “Barry’s Best Sellers" on the back of the answer sheet.

Scenes from Friday’s Field Trip

As promised, here are some shots from Friday’s Field Trip, all thanks to Debbie Hill, room mother extraordinaire.

We narrowly missed the bus we planned to take downtown, but even waiting for the next one was fun for the students. After all, it beat taking a spelling test!

The students were excited to enter the subway station at Wilshire and Western. And, of course, they had to pose the moment they saw a camera.

Despite living in New York in the past, many our adult chaperones were newbies to transit in Los Angeles. But they figured our how to get a TAP card pretty fast.

After exiting the subway at Union Station downtown, we paused to get a quick class portrait before beginning our visit to El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Park, more commonly known as Olvera Street.

Our class was not scheduled to have our tour until 11:00, so the students had time to go shopping at the many puestos or stalls in the area. Despite their youth, our students are already accomplished shoppers.

Finally, the time for our tour came. We had two excellent docents who showed us around and explained the early history of Los Angeles, Here we are by the statue of King Carlos, the monarch who authorized the settlement of Alta California.

Of course, after a hard day of touring, students are ready for lunch!

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words 2 times in cursive. Write sentences for words 11-15. (2) Do the “Two Times Two 3” worksheet.

Talking Animals

As usual on Tuesday, we started the day in Tech Center. We’re working on our biographies of a person who “made a difference.” Most of the students are done with their research, and they are beginning to work on the PowerPoints that will go along with their presentations to the class.

Our journal topic today – which tied nicely into our Treasures story – deal with what might happen if animals could talk. Some of the entries that were shared were great! Here’s one of the best:

I forgot to feed my dog and suddenly she barked, “I want food! I’m hungry!” I jumped and looked at my dog. She was still barking and she said, “What are you looking at, huh?”

I hurriedly got her food and pinched myself. It wasn’t a dream. I said to my dog,” What the heck? How did you talk?”

My dog replied, “Duh, dogs are smarter than humans.”

“Prove it,” I said.

“Okay, what’s 28 times 63?” I started to slowly solve it. “It’s 1,784 my dog said. “I did it faster than you can.”

“I don’t care!” I replied.

“Well, I care,” my dog exclaimed. I started going to bed and my dog said, “Hey, where are you going? Wait up!” as she followed me.

I slept for a long time. When I woke up, I said to my dog,”Talk.” She didn’t talk. I have no idea how it happened….

Our story from the reader was called “Mystic Horse” and it was the retelling of a Pawnee legend about a boy and his talking horse.

The students were given some time to work on finishing their Science packets, and over half of them are done and have turned them in. We will be taking the Science Periodic Assessment tomorrow. We also finished Topic 6 in the math book today, and so they will be having a quiz over that tomorrow as well.

We finished the day with our reading buddies in first grade,

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words 2 times in cursive. Write sentences for words 6-10. (2) Do “Sequence,” page 121, “Sequence Chart,” page 122, “Table,” page 124 and “Homophones” page 125 in the Practice Book. (3) Do the “Two Times Two 2” worksheet. (4) Do “Problem Solving” on page 150-151 and “Test Prep” on pages 152-153 of the math book. Also do “Something’s Missing" on the back of the answer sheet.

Tomorrow students may bring candy to share if they wish during the last hour of class. However, we are not having a Halloween Party and under no circumstances are they wearing costumes.

Cats and Dogs

Friday’s field trip went swimmingly, and pictures from that adventure will be coming shortly.

It was a pretty quiet day after all the hurry and scurry of Friday, but a good day nevertheless. The students began by pondering in their journals what it would be like if it one day literally “rained cats and dogs.” We corrected last week’s reading quiz and we took the spelling test we missed on Friday. The results of both are on the gradebook. We went over this week’s vocabulary and spelling.

In math, we’re continuing our work on multiplying by two digits. And in Science, we’re getting ready for the Periodic Assessment in that subject.

Parent conferences are ongoing this week, so there will be no afterschool homework club this week or next. I will resume again after Thanksgiving Break.

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words 2 times in cursive. Write sentences for words 1-5. (2) Do “Suffixes”, on page 119 and “Vocabulary" on page 120 of the Practice Book. (3) Do the “Two Times Two 1” worksheet. (4) Do “Greater Numbers” on page 148-149 of the math book and “Playing with Numbers" on the back of the answer sheet.

The Election

Our day began in the auditorium listening to fifth graders running for Student Council offices speak to us. The students were quite articulate. And as they answered questions in the “town hall” format I found myself wondering why our adult candidates cannot directly answer questions and speak courteously like our children do. A little sad, isn’t it?

A couple of the students running, I am proud to say, are room 19 alumni.

After we listened to the speeches, we return to the room and worked some more on the Literacy Periodic Assessment. The students did the rough drafts of the “memorable recess” story that is the required writing prompt. Since their recesses are seldom if ever memorable, we worked on making up and interesting but believable story with a problem and a solution, a beginning, a middle, and an end.

The students went to Mr. Pratt for history. After lunch, we read the last story of the week in Treasures, and we started on the regular and normal way to do double digit multiplication. It is such a relief to finally get to the standard algorithm. It is so much easier than these other ways of doing the problem even if they supposedly are better for demonstrating comprehension.

We did mixing as usual, and then the students went to the California Dance Institute class. The pictures below were actually from last week’s class, but help give an idea of how the program works.

One of the really great things about CDI is that there is always a musician there to provide live accompaniment. Usually it is a pianist, but sometimes a drummer comes instead.

The field trip to Olvera Street is tomorrow. We will be leaving at 9:00 am right after library. We have several parents accompanying us, but more are always welcome. For parents accompanying us, fare is 1.50 for each section of the trip. Since we will be doing both the 16 bus and the Purple Line, that will be a total of 6.00. Bus drivers do not make change, but the machines at the subway will. Students received special day passes from the MTA.

Please make sure that the children have lunch, and that their names on the lunch bags or boxes.

Homework: (1) Review spelling words. (2) Do “Two Digit by Two Digit” pages 146-147 in the math book and “Food for Thought” on the back of the answer sheet.

A Little Bit of This, A Little of That

It was sort of an odds and ends day. We started out by working on folders for work for parent conferences. The students were challenged to decorate these and given a wide array of construction paper colors as well as scissors and glue. Some of the finished work was great!

Others, well, I suppose those students could have used a little more direction.

We read the next story called "Wild Horses" in the Treasures anthology. We worked some more on getting ready for multiplying two digit numbers. Students went to Mr. Pratt for History and also went to mixing. Everything went reasonably well though I doubt anybody will consider it a particularly memorable day.

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words 2 times in cursive. Write sentences for words 15-19. (2) Do “R-controlled Vowels”, part A only on page 115 and “Possessive Nouns" on page 116 of the Practice Book. (3) Do the “Subtraction with Regrouping 3” worksheet. (4) Do “Multiples of 10” on page 144-145 of the math book and “Finished Product" on the back of the answer sheet.

Fast!

Today went by fast. We started out in the Tech Center where the students used the resources of the digital library to help research their biography. Returning to the room, we checked, corrected, and discussed our homework. We finished the first part of the day by planning the narrative writing assignment for the Literacy Periodic Assignment.

The students wen to Mr. Pratt for history. After lunch, we looked at the somewhat crazy chapter in the math book. We finished the day with our first grade reading buddies.

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words 2 times in cursive. Write sentences for words 7-14. (2) Do “Hyperbole” on page 112 and “Context Clues” on page 113 of the Practice Book. (3) Do the “Subtraction with Regrouping 2” worksheet. (4) Do “Arrays and an Expanded Algorithm” on page 141-143 of the math book and “Crazy Cubes" on the back of the answer sheet. Do ODD PROBLEMS only on the math book pages.

Quick Post

Just the homework for now…

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words 2 times in cursive. Write sentences for words 1-7 (2) Do “Phonics” on page 107 and “Vocabulary” on page 108 of the Practice Book. (3) Do the Quotations worksheet. Be sure to copy all sentences. (4) Do the “Subtraction with Regrouping 1” worksheet. (5) Do “Estimating Products” on pages 138-139 of the math book. Also do and “Vacation Estimation" on the back of the answer sheet.

Chugging Along

The miserably hot weather continues, and we’re chugging along as best we can with the heat. We continued reading in Treasures about people with disabilities. We worked more on possessive nouns. We practiced evaluating and then revising a story as part of the 6+1 Writing Traits program. We talked about erosion and deposition as natural forces creating landscapes.

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words 2 times in cursive. Write sentences for words 11-16. (2) Do “Irregular Plural Nouns” on pages 104-105 of the Practice Book. (3) Do the Quotations worksheet. Be sure to copy all sentences. (4) Do the “Short Vowels” and “Syllables” worksheet accompanying the Stone Fox book. (5) Do the “What’s X? 3” worksheet. (6) Do “Use Reasoning” on pages 127-128 and “Test Prep” on pages 130-131 of the math book. Also do and “Subtracting Greater Numbers" on the back of the answer sheet.

“Making a Difference”

We started out today in Tech Center where the students did some online research using the special reference materials of the LAUSD Digital Library. The students picked out a person last Friday who seems to have “made a difference” in the life of a community or the country. “Making a Difference” is the theme of this Treasures reading unit. Returning to the classroom, we checked, corrected, and discussed our homework. We also read in the Treasures book about Rudy Garcia-Tolson, an amazing athlete whose legs were amputated at the age of 5!

We worked in math on the order of operations some more, and the students seem to love the classic mnemonic, “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.” Fourth graders love to speculate about just what Aunt Sally did. We did an art activity based on Island of the Blue Dolphin and we did reading buddies with our new first-grade friends in room 36.

Homework:  (1)Write all spelling words 2 times in cursive. Write sentences for words 6-10. (2) Do “Parts of a Book” on page 99 and “Idioms” on page 101 of the Practice Book. (3) Do the “What’s X?” worksheet. (4) Do “Simplifying Expressions” on page 124-125 of the math book and “Order of Operations" on the back of the answer sheet.

Reading Buddies

A couple shots of us with our friends from Mr. Ricker's class.

Quietly Productive

It was a pretty quiet Monday here in room 19 … but a good one. Our stories this week in Treasures focus on athletes with disabilities. Our journal prompt this morning asked the students to think about how they would adapt if they had been in a serious accident and lost the use of their legs. We looked at this week’s vocabulary words and went over the spelling. We reviewed possessive nouns and worked on writing dialogue, particularly using quotation marks and knowing where to begin new paragraphs. In Science, we focused on the difference between physical and chemical weathering. In math, we continued our work in algebra adding order of operations to the skills already mastered in using variables.

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words 2 times in cursive. Write sentences for words 1-5. (2) Do “Vocabulary” on page 95 and “Main Idea and Details” on page 96 of the Practice Book. (3) Do the “What’s X?” worksheet. (4) Do “Expressions with Parentheses” on page 122-123 of the math book and “Chain Challenge" on the back of the Quick Review page.

Picture Day

What a busy day! We had pictures today, and the “rough draft” of the class picture is here. We also had the California Dance Institute program. Along the way we worked in reading about Biddy Mason, writing fairy tales, learning about algebraic expressions, and a few other things. And we mostly managed to stay dry.

Homework:  (1) Write the spelling words 2 times each and write a sentence for words 16-20. (2) Do Quotation worksheet 1. Copy the sentences on another paper and add all punctuation marks needed. (3) Do the multiplication worksheet. (4) Do pages 118-199 in the math book.

Quick Post

Just the homework … at least for now.

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words twice in cursive. Write sentences in cursive for words 6-10. (2) Do “Primary Sources,” page 87, “Context Clues,” page 88, and “Singular and Plural Nouns,” on pages 91 and 92 in the Practice Book. (3) Do the “Four times One” math worksheet. (4) Do “Reasonableness” pages 108-109 in the math book and “Jump to Score” on the back of the answer sheet.

Rushed … but Good

To be honest, the teacher could have been more prepared for class today, but somehow everything still went smoothly. I guess that doing this for 25 years comes in handy sometimes.

We began with our journals as usual. Students wrote about their weekends, and they were given the option to make something up if their weekends had been dull. A couple did, and the results were hilarious when we shared them. We corrected and discuss the math and science work from Friday. We went over the vocabulary and spelling for the week and read a brief story from the Treasures book.

Students went to Mr. Pratt for history and social studies and the students from room 18 came here. In the afternoon, we listened to a couple chapters from Island of the Blue Dolphins including the best written – but saddest – in the book, the chapter where Rontu dies.

There wasn’t much new content to learn in math, so students had abundant time to get started on their homework.

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words twice in cursive. Write sentences in cursive for words 1-5. (2) Do “Digraphs” page 82, “Vocabulary” page 83 and “Author’s Purpose” page 84 in the Practice Book. (3) Do “Greater Numbers” pages 106-107 in the math book and “The ‘Key’ to Multiplication” on the back of the answer sheet. (4) Do the “Four times One” math worksheet.

Not the best day

I usually try to be pretty upbeat in this blog, but I have to admit, I was not the best day. I have been a teacher at Third Street since 1998. In that entire time, I have never had anything stolen from me. Today I discovered that someone had stolen my camera – mine, not the school’s. I am not accusing anyone from our class; I am pretty confident it was not one of our students. But it is still pretty disappointing to know that there are children or adults like that. I know that something similar has also happened to a couple of students in the room too, and I know their parents are as unhappy about it as I am.

Despite this, we had a reasonably productive day. After the usual morning activities, we did some integrating of art and writing. I had the students do that classic art school exercise called “blind contour drawing.” This is when the artist tries to draw something without looking at the paper or lifting the pencil. The results are always awful, but the concentration on the object is what matters. I handed out a box of crayons to each student and had them do a blind contour drawing of it. The students had fun with this assignment; it was the first time when having something that looked bad meant that you’d done a good job!

After that we looked inside the crayon box and the students allowed the colors to generate similes. We wrote these in free verse couplets like this:

Pink like

        strawberry ice cream dripping down a cone.

The students then had the opportunity to do a real drawing (when they could look at the paper) of their crayon box and to color it. They will be finishing both of these assignments for homework as needed.

Homework:  (1) Finish the simile poem about the colors in your crayon box. Be sure to use at least 8 colors. For each one write a comparison with “like" or “as”. Write it in cursive split into couplets as discussed above. (2) Finish drawing and coloring the crayon box. (3) Do review questions over “My Brother Martin” in preparation for the quiz tomorrow. (4) Do “Multiplication,” pages 101-102 in the math book. (5) Do the expanded form worksheet. There will be a quiz over this tomorrow, too.

Short Post

I have a meeting to go to after school, so just the homework for today. Students had the last 45 minutes of class to get a start on this, so they shouldn't really be taking that much home today.

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words twice in cursive. Write sentences in cursive for words 12-15. (2) Do “Common and Proper Nouns,” pages 79 and 80 in the Practice Book. (3) Do "Critical Thinking" on page 153 of the hardcover Treasures book. (4)  Do “Using an Expanded Algorithm,” pages 97-99 in the math book and “Rhyming Multiplication” on the back of the answer sheet. (5) Do the Expanded Notation worksheet. (6) Do the study guide for chapter 23 of Island of the Blue Dolphins.

Hot!!!

These past couple days in room nineteen we’ve alternated between melting (when the air conditioning is off) and freezing (when they air conditioner is on). The weather is supposed to get better by the end of the week, and I can hardly wait!

We started out the day in Tech Center where the students learned how to change the passwords for their new email accounts. Their “My Mail” accounts are full-fledged Google accounts; better, actually, because there are some education specific features to them. This will allow us to start projects in Tech Center and to finish them in the classroom and at home since the data will be saved “in the cloud.”

We did a little follow up to yesterday’s fire safety assembly. We reviewed the difference between common and proper nouns. We read a lovely short biography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. written by his sister Christine. We learned how to use estimation when multiplying larger numbers. This is really helpful in checking answers. Plus, we read another chapter of Island of the Blue Dolphins.

Not at all a bad day. Now if we could only do something about the heat…

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words twice in cursive. Write sentences in cursive for words 6-10. (2) Do “Prefixes,” pages 76 and 78 in the Practice Book. (3)  Do “Using Rounding,” pages 94-95 in the math book and “Who’s Here?” on the back of the answer sheet. (4) Do the Expanded Notation worksheet. (5) Do the study guide for chapter 22 of Island of the Blue Dolphins.

Safe Moves LA

It was mostly a pretty ordinary Monday. We wrote in our journals about the field trip Friday and we did a little more review about nouns. We checked Thursday’s math homework. We talked about the “Big Question” for the next Treasures theme, and the students started writing about someone who had “made a difference” in the life of our community or our nation. In math we talked about “breaking apart” and other mental math techniques.

Our big event for the day was our afternoon assembly with firefighters from the LAFD. This was called “Safe Moves LA.” A volunteer lead the assembly. He was interesting because he had graduated from Third Street 50 some years ago. He even told us about a fire they had had here at this school shortly after it was built. Most of the assembly focused on how families can develop a safety plan and how important it is to practice fire drills at home, too. The students really came alive when the firefighters showed off their stuff.

And the students were even more excited when they were able to inspect a fire truck up close.

Homework:  (1) Write a paragraph about a person or a group of people who have made a difference in the life of this community or the nation. First write a rough draft. Then write a final draft and do a color picture to accompany it. (2) Do “Prefixes,” page 70, “Vocabulary,” page 71, and “Author’s Purpose,” page 72 in the Practice Book. (3) Write all spelling words twice in cursive. Write sentences in cursive for words 1-5. (4) Do “Using Mental Math,” pages 92-93 of the math book and “Block Party” on the back of the answer sheet. (5) Do the Expanded Notation worksheet. (6) Do the study guide for chapter 21 of Island of the Blue Dolphins.

Stunt Ranch

Today was our field trip to the UCLA Stunt Ranch nature preserve in Calabasas. Despite the name, the Stunt Ranch has nothing to do with filming old-time westerns:  the first European family to settle in this area was named Stunt. Now a part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, it is run by UCLA as both a natural area and as a center for the study of Chumash and Tongva culture.

It is a strikingly beautiful area.

After our long bus ride, our students and parents were met by volunteer docents. This was Paul who lead the group I helped to chaperone.

We walked about a mile from the road to the heart of the nature preserve. Along the way we passed through a variety of habitats:  chaparral, grassland, savannah, and oak woodlands. We did not see any of the many animals who call this area home – they were smarter than us and decided to stay inside when it was so hot! – but we found evidence of them everywhere.

Once we reached the site of the old Stunt homestead – soon to be a lovely new interpretive center – the students engaged in a variety of activities designed to show them how the Chumash and Tongva peoples interacted with their environment. Here they worked on grinding acorns into mush.

They also practice some of the games and activities that the native children would have loved. Here they learned to swing a singing stick.

After eating lunch, they made their way back to the bus through another environment, the riparian. Along the way, they learned to identify and avoid poison oak.

Homework:  Have a great weekend!

Quick Post

A busy afternoon in homework club, so let me just post the assignments right now.

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words twice in best cursive. Also write a sentence for words 15-20. (2) Do “Run-on Sentences,” pages 67-68 in the Practice Book. (3) Do Winn Dixie review questions. (4) Do the Three times One multiplication skill sheet. (5) Do “Special Quotients,” pages 76-77 in the math book and “Analogies” on the back of the answer sheet.

Fizzy

Our Science adventures continued today with our students using acid! Well, just vinegar, but it is acid enough for them to begin to understand how geologists can use acids as well as the other techniques we have already practiced to identify particular minerals. In this case, the students were testing for the presence of calcite in basalt, marble, sandstone, and limestone.

We also read a selection from Because of Winn-Dixie in the reading book, worked on writing longer narratives, and reviewed sentences with compound predicates. We are studying the inverse relationship between multiplication and division, something which most of the students seemed to already have figured out pretty well. So, at least math should be pretty easy!

Homework:  (1) Write all spelling words twice in best cursive. Also write a sentence for words 8-14. (2) Do “Onomatopoeia,” page 63 and “Connotation,” page 64 in the Practice Book. (3) Do Island of the Blue Dolphins chapter 17 study questions. (4) Do the Three times One multiplication skill sheet. (5) Do “Relating Multiplication and Division,” pages 74-75 in the math book and “Just the Fact(ors)” on the back of the answer sheet.