Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Holiday Cards



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The Funnest Day

Today had to be just the best day of the year. I mean, to begin with it was a minimum day. We spent our morning at theater class with Mr. Pratt. Not only did we do our melodramas, but he brought along all kinds of costumes so make it even more fun. All of the groups were videotaped, but I'll need a couple days to get the film edited and posted. Returning to our room, the students made the last entries in their theater journals, and then made colorful covers. I bound them into booklets. I'll be grading these, and sending them home soon. By and large, they're great! (for those of you old enough to remember the voice of Tony the Tiger....)

After lunch we went to Tech Center. The always-wonderful Ms. Richards had the students explore the Tux Paint program today. She gave them the assignment to create some kind of holiday card. The results were amazing! I scanned a couple of them as you can see above. I'll post some more in the next few days.

We had lunch, and then we went over the homework. Many students are still struggling with the multiplication by 2 digits, so they may need a bit a assistance with this at home. Once they get the hang of it, they'll be fine. But they do get a bit confused at this point about the order in which to multiply the numbers.

Homework: (1) Write a sentence for each spelling word. (2) Do "Multiply," Math, pages 224-225. (3) Continue researching the job or profession. Students should have some notes to bring in for this on Friday.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Cards



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Untraditional?

Sorry for not posting yesterday, but I was rushing out of here to deal with a sick dog. She went to the vet, and seems to be doing much better now.

We had a very productive day. We did some review work on different types of adjectives for Independent Work Time. We finished reading and discussing "Business is Looking Up." Since this story deal with two children who make nontraditional greeting cards, we also made some cards of our own. Some were normal cards for unexpected categories of people (such as "Happy Holidays" to grandmother's boyfriend) while others were for less common situations (for example, "Glad You're on Parole Now.") You can see some examples above.

After recess we finished this project, and we correct homework. This helped us get ready for the math test, and we took that after lunch. We'll correct that tomorrow and it should be on the gradebook soon. We finished the day by practicing our melodramas. This will be the culmination of our theater sessions with Mr. Pratt. We will get those filmed soon and on the blog.

Also, congratulations to Ricardo for finishing the Marathon reading challenge. We now have four finishers in room 19. We hope to have several more soon!

Homework: (1) Do the Reading Strategies page. This is the one with the post-it notes. (2) Do the spelling jumble. (3) Do "Multiply by Two Digits," pages 220-223. We discussed this skill a little yesterday, but some students may need a lot of help here. If they have trouble, concentrate on getting them correct instead of all finished. (4) Continue to research the job or profession they chose last week.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Commercials

Temporary Post

I'll write more about the day later. For now here is the homework.

Homework
: (1) Write a paragraph about a job or profession that you find interesting. Write what you already know about this profession. This is the first step in writing a rough draft, so skip lines and write on one side of the paper. (2) Do "Estimate," Math, pages 210-211. These are not exact answers! This is mental math! Every year somebody goes to way more effort than needed to do this lesson. (3) Do "Simpler," Math, pages 214-215.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Movement in Art




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The Longest Day of the Shortest Week

Today we did the shortest story in the Open Court reader, "Ice Cream Cones: A New Scoop." I switch the order of the stories in this unit because a two page story with minimal workbook pages is just perfect for what is basically a two day week, don't you think? We also practiced our commercials for baby food. This was a project that they started with Ms. Feldman, and they will be filmed tomorrow and on the blog soon.

We also read a chapter of Island of the Blue Dolphins and worked on our Indian songs and play. We're adding the Orff instruments to this! We corrected the social studies homework from last week.

After lunch we did silent reading and we had a gallery walk to appreciate the art students did last week. You can see some of the best pieces above. Students were pretty articulate in explaining how these worked used repeated lines and motifs to create a visual movement. We did some softball during PE, and returning to the classroom we corrected our math test. Results are on the gradebook.

Homework: (1) Do the chapter review, pp 162-163 in the California book. (2) Do "Mental Math," pp 206-207. Since this is mental math, the work is definitely answers only. (3) Do "Multiples of 10," pp 208-209, also in the math book. For many students most of these problems too can be solved in their heads.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Rush!

While yesterday was about doing a few things over a long period of time, today seemed to be about doing a lot of things and maybe not having quite enough time for each.

We started today with Mr. Lawton. Most students had done some of the work they needed for class, but many had some real problems with rhythm and meter or restricting the melody to a five note scale. Mr. Lawton was quite patient and gave them some pointers on the project. He even gave them a few extra minutes so they could help test out ideas on the Orff instruments. When we were finished, I decided to give them another 20 minutes or so to work with their partners and to begin composing the lyrics. We did a couple pages in the Reading/Writing workbook, look at time-order words and at the features of informational articles like "Food from the 'Hood."

We discussed the pages from the workbook after recess, and I also had the students work in small groups on their commercials during this time. A couple groups finished and shared their progress. We will do more on this assignment tomorrow, and we will film them next week.

After lunch was when it started felling rush. We had time for silent reading and working in our reading journal. We corrected yesterday's homework. We practiced the Native American play and the "Cloud Maiden" song. We read and discussed the rest of the "Life in the Missions" chapter from the history book, giving some of the less appealing facts about the missions which the docents in San Fernando had not bothered to mention. We started on an art lesson, but ran out of time. We'll have to finish it tomorrow! Maybe we'll all have caught our breath by that time.

Homework: (1) Do the spelling wordsearch. The test will be tomorrow before library. Please be on time! (2) Do the two papers from the History packet. I am not sure why some of the photocopies have words from a Christmas song on one side, but students should still be able to read it. (3) Do the Chapter 10 Review/Test and Cumulative Review, Math, pages 202-203. There will be a test tomorrow.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Practicing Our Melodramas

Melodramatic!

Today was one of those days when an activity was going to well that as a teacher all I wanted to do was to give the students enough time to really immerse themselves in it. In our case, that activity was melodrama.

The culminating activity for the theater class, as I noted last week, is writing and staging a melodrama. Mr. Pratt gave the students the outline for the play today, and gave them a standard blocking for it. He helped put them into groups, and the groups improvised lines and worked on characters. Once we returned to the classroom, we briefly wrote reflections about this, and then the students returned to their groups and began writing their scripts. They were still working hard when the recess bell rang.

After recess, we went to the Tech Center. Ms. Richards and I collaborated on this lesson. She is having the students work on a PowerPoint slide show about "American Spirit" and I figured that our field trip to the San Fernando Mission surely pointed to an important time in California, and therefore American, history. So the students learned how to download pictures from the Internet (in this case my Picassa/Google photo albums), and they incorporated one of those pictures into their slide and added some text about how this particular picture said something about America and the American Experience.

After lunch, we had more time to work on the play script, and a couple of the groups even started practicing it. You can see some scenes from this practice session in the slide show above. We went to PE where we just did some routine rotations through activities. We corrected Tuesday's homework when we returned to the class. And then the day was over! I did not do all the things I planned to do, but I had no regrets giving the extra time to play writing because the students were so motivated and the work they were doing was so hard!

Homework: (1) Write a good sentence for each spelling word. (2) Do "Multiply by 4 Digits," Math, pages 197-199, even numbers only. Be sure to show all work again. (3) Do "Write an Equation," Math, page 201, all problems.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Quick One

Just a quick post with the homework. It was a good day, but I need to get home.

Homework: (1) Do the spelling jumble. (2) Do the "Food from the 'Hood" questions. Be sure to answer in complete sentences. (3) Do "Multiply," Math, pages 193-195, numbers 1-65 odd only. Students need to copy problems or otherwise show all work. Tomorrow we will exchange and check and no work will be marked wrong.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Smoky Days and Mondays

You may remember the song with the refrain, "Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down"? Well, it was not raining today but because of the wildfires we were on rainy day schedule all day. And that can a little too much teacher for the children, and a little too much children for the teacher.

Still, we not only survived but learned some good stuff today. We reviewed a bunch of skills during Independent Work Time, and we started to read the "Food for the Hood" story. We skipped over the "Ice Cream Cones" story, for anybody who happens to have a copy of the book handy, because it is so short that it works perfectly for Thanksgiving week.

Students worked on final drafts of their Mission San Fernando compositions. Many are already done with this, and those who are not should finish it as soon as possible. I did not mention this explicitly when I was going over homework at the end of the day, so it is not strictly due tomorrow. But as soon as possible....

We watched The Wild during our indoor lunch time. Then afterwards we did a gallery walk and discussed Friday's art project, corrected Friday's math test, and read a chapter of Island of the Blue Dolphins.

Homework: (1) Do tree map as a spelling sort. (2) Do "Mental Math," Math, pages 186-187, and (3) "Estimate Products," pages 188-189 in the same book.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Culture Day

How fantastic to see so many people here today for Culture Day! I understand our class booth was a huge hit (there's a pun intended here) and closed up shop early because we were sold out of prizes.

Congratulations to Helen Kang for organizing the whole day. Also many thanks to the parents who staffed the booth (I'd mention the ones I know were there but I don't accidentally want to leave anybody out). You guys are the BEST!!!

Flowing Rhythm



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Friday, November 14, 2008

Artsy Friday

Our day began today with Mr. Lawton. We missed his class yesterday because we were at the field trip, so he rearranged his schedule to accommodate us. He started the class working on a music composition project. This will be the culmination of their work with him. This is a pretty challenging assignment, but I am sure that our students will do an excellent job. Keep posted here and on Mr. Lawton's blog for more updates.

Returning to the classroom, we discussed yesterday's field trip and started a composition about what we learned about this mission and other missions. We did a couple of Thinking Maps as pre-writing, and then students worked on the rough drafts. This should be a five paragraph essay. Most finished their drafts by the end of the day, but a few students will need to finish these with homework.

After recess, we took the district Science test and the Open Court Reading quiz over "Elias Sifuentes." After lunch, we took the Chapter 9 math test. We will have results on these tests posted soon. Since we had not had art on Thursday because of the field trip, we did our weekly art lesson today. We reviewed the idea of rhythm in art, and then we discussed how artists can use rhythm to create a sense of motion in the work. We did some abstract pieces to illustrate these. I will have some of these scanned and posted by Monday.

Homework: (1) Do the Word Study and Vocabulary for the next story. This is a handout. (2) Do the Math worksheet.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Our Trip

Well, it was touch and go at first. The buses were almost an hour late, and it looked like one of them might not even show up. But we made it to the mission!

The missions are so important to California history that it is almost essential that students should have an opportunity to visit one. All but one, however, are active Roman Catholic parishes and the expectations of the devout docents and the reality of easily bored fourth graders are not always easy to reconcile. Still, we were fortunate today to have a really patient guide who had to deal with an unusually large group. And, I must say, this year's fourth graders are some of the best-behaved students I've ever seen. So it all went pretty well.

Some pictures of the trip are posted below to give those parents who have never been there a chance to see a bit of the mission.

Homework: The students were awfully good on the trip, so why not take a day off now and then?

Mission Pictures


The interior of the mission church.


A detail from the reredos behind the high altar. Saint Ferdinand,
King of Spain, after whome the mission is named, is the central figure.



The entry to the cloister with its almost Moorish flavor.
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More Mission Pictures.


John, our guide, was patient and knowledgeable.


Students had a chance to see and touch abobe bricks. The
original mission was made out of adobe. It has been mostly reconstructed.



However, in one part of the old building, some original adobe bricks
and wall painting remains behind protective glass.
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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Field Trip Tomorrow!

Our field trip will happen tomorrow! We did not discover until Monday afternoon that the funding for the bus had finally come through. Now here are the important parts:

  • Students must have a signed field trip. As of lunch time on Wednesday, 8 students still needed to return the form.
  • Students must bring a lunch including something to drink.
  • Students should bring one dollar to pay for admission.
  • Students will NOT be going to the gift shop, so please do not send money with them for this.

Adult volunteers are welcome. Adults are four dollars each.

In other news, we had the usual fun Wednesday. We started out with Theater class with Mr. Pratt. We will only have two more theater classes for the year, and our culminating project will be writing and performing a melodrama. During the Gold Rush era, long before television and movies, melodramas performed by troupes of traveling actors were a common form of entertainment. Actors in the early Hollywood silent movies had all been trained in the conventions of melodrama. So, you can see how nicely this project will tie into our Social Studies work!

We also went to Tech Center today where Ms. Richards worked with the students more on PowerPoint. They are starting work on Presentations about "American Spirit." These should be interesting: I think they once they are finished the students will be setup with think.com accounts and these presentations will be embedded into their pages on that website.

The afternoon was devoted to finishing up some work for the morning, doing some PE activities, and beginning our study of the mission system. It's perfect timing that we pay a visit to a real-life mission just when we start to read about them in history class.

Homework: (1) Do the "Settling Alta California" worksheet. Students will need their California book for this, particularly since we did not completely finish reading the chapter in class. (2) Do "Review/Test" and "Cumulative Review" on pages 176 and 177 respectively of the Math book.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Flowing Rhythm



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Repetition and Rhythm

We started out today with Mr. Lawton and music class. He is starting a project with them on line and melody, and I am sure that you can find more information about that on his blog.

Back in the classroom we correct and discussed our extensive homework from yesterday. It really was a lot - I wanted to give them a lot of work so they'd work hard during their study hall in the last 45 minutes - so you'll notice that tonight is pretty much a free day.

We did a poem project today. It is one of my favorite composition projects of the year. Students brainstormed what life was like when they were younger and how it is different now they are older. They then wrote their poem. Instead of a rhyme and rhythm scheme, their poems used a couplet scheme the repetition of certain words to create the poetic form. Here's one example:

I used to ride a tricycle,
but now I ride a bicycle.
I used to watch Curious George,
but now I watch Hellboy.
I used to drink juice all the time,
but now I like to drink soda.
I used to play with my pet turtles,
but now I play video games.
I used to play with my friends,
but now we "hang out."
I used to play with my baby toys,
but now I play basketball.

We also did pictures to go with the final drafts of the poems and mounted both on construction paper.

Thursday is the regular visual arts lesson day, and today we focused on flowing rhythm. Last week's class had been about regular and random rhythm. Students picked flowing line shapes and cut these out of construction paper and pasted them onto another piece of construction paper. You can see some examples above. They then wrote about this project in their Arts Journals and we finished with a gallery walk and shared compliments with each other.

Homework: (1) Study for tomorrow's spelling test. (2) Do "Equations with Variables," Math, pages 170-171.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Stage Combat

The Day After

Many of us felt pretty tired after last night. I sure was! Fortunately for me, I did not have to teach as much today. But that did not mean that the students did not learn. They sure did!

We began today with our Theater class with Mr. Pratt. We continued our work with stage combat. This is a great lesson for several reasons. First, it covers basic stage movement. Students learn ideas of upstage and downstage, stage right and stage left. Second, students learn that fights on stage are very carefully choreographed and are NOT improvised. That keeps the actors safe. You'll notice in the video above, that the combat moves are identical in each set. And this also helps the students learn that the fighting they see in movies and on television is completely fake. During our lesson, nobody actually ever touches anybody else. And yet, as you can see if the video, it often looks pretty realistic. Third, students learn to develop characters and they do improvise dialogue for these characters. They have fun making insults, but they know that the insults are aimed at the character, not at the fellow-student actor. Finally, the story introduces the students to the story of the Greek hero Theseus who defeats the half-man, half-bull Minotaur in the Cretan labyrinth. Talk about cultural literacy!

After recess, we went to Tech Center where Ms. Richards and Ms. D did more work with the students on either PowerPoint or Internet research. These are two absolutely incredible teachers, and they are doing some a wonderful job in our computer lab. Many thanks to Friends of Third for making this great program possible.

After lunch, we did continued with California history. We finished reading a chapter of Island of the Blue Dolphins, and we practiced our acorn songs and dances. (These are the acorns which grow on oak trees, and they have nothing to do with the voter registration!) We also started a discussion of the first Spanish explorers.

I had to leave early to deal with appliance problems. You know how they will only tell you, "Between 1 and 5 in the afternoon" no matter how much you plead that you have a job. Mrs. Caruso and her assistant, Mrs. Garcia, helped me out here. Many thanks. The students had a good 45 minutes to start on their homework after PE today.

Homework: (1) Do the spelling scramble and wordsearch. (2) Do the subtraction and multiplication worksheets. Be sure to show regrouping. This is a review of third grade skills. (3) Finish reading the chapter on "Explorers" in the California book and do the study sheet. Page numbers are provided next to each study question to make it easier. (4) Do "Variables," Math, pages 168-169.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

New Products! Buy Now!



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Election Day!

Today we mostly worked on the Quarterly Math Test from the district. We did a lot of preparation for this so that students were familiar with some of the key concepts and how questions were being phrased. I think they probably did fine, but I am not going to count this towards their grade. It is supposed to "inform instruction" anyhow. Whatever that means....

We did some other stuff, too, including finishing off a couple of our advertisements which I posted above. We also practiced our Theseus & the Minotaur stage combat, and we corrected a lot of yesterday's homework.

I'm off to the gym right now, and then I'm glued to the tube tonight for election results. OK, I'll work in a dog walk, too. Edie and Eli don't understand about elections.

Homework: Watch the election results. Keep track of what states go for which candidate. Ms. Richards will be using this tomorrow in Tech Center.

Monday, November 03, 2008

Delightfully Dull

This was a delightfully routine day, even dull. That was particularly nice after all of the barely-contained Halloween energy on Friday. During Independent Work Time, we worked on syllabication and plural forms with -y. We went outside to practice our stage combat, getting ready for theater class on Wednesday. This was related to the Theseus and the Minotaur story. We started an advertisement for an imaginary product. We will finish that tomorrow.

After recess, we did the chapter 2 History test. I will work hard to get this on the gradebook as soon as possible. We needed more time to work on this after lunch, too. We then checked our homework and read a bit of Island of the Blue Dolphins. We went to PE. After that, we came back to the room where we corrected the Math test from Friday, and reviewed the idea of multiplying both sides of the equation by the same number. We working hard to get beyond just the facts of the times tables to seeing the broader patterns here. That's what algebra, in the end, is all about.

Homework: (1) Do spelling sort. All the words this week have the schwa sound. (2) Write the definitions for the "Eddie, Inc." vocabulary words in the green vocabulary booklet. (3) Complete the study questions over "Eddie, Inc." This is a handout. (4) Write a paragraph explaining which candidate for President you would vote for if you were allowed to vote. Provide as many specific details as possible. No insults to the other candidate. (5) Do "Match Words and Expressions," Math, page 163. (6) Do "Multiply Equals by Equals," Math, page 166-167, numbers 4-31.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Fast Friday

The usual quick Friday post. The only homework is finishing up some classwork. They really should not be taking any of this home, BUT, with Halloween-induced Attention Deficit Disorder, quite a few may have some weekend work.

Congratulations to Alex for being the first person in our class to complete the Library Marathon reading contest.

Homework: (1) Finish the double bubble map comparing any two Native California tribal groups. Be sure to put good pictures inside the bubbles and write a short phrase to explain what each picture means below the bubble. Remember, there does not need to be an equal number of bubbles on left and right. (2) "Parentheses," Math, pages 160-161, number 6-49 only.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Rhythm in Art




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Picture Perfect

We started out day with Music with Mr. Lawton. He had given us an assignment last week to do "Rainbow Rhythm" and we worked on it together in class on Monday. I posted a couple good examples of this assignment Tuesday. He was quite please with our students' work, and he picked several examples to use as a basis for improvisation with the Orff instruments.

Back in the room, we went over the Word Study and the Vocabulary from Context homework from last night. Our first story, "Eddie, Inc." is pretty long, so I read it to the students so that they could concentrate on using their strategies. They will be doing some followup tonight with their post-it notes and the textbooks.

The big event today was Picture Day. Teachers hate picture day. It's boring for children to wait endlessly while others are having their picture taken, and trying to keep them from excessive talking is like trying to keep corks underwater. We were lucky to get a slot right in between recess and lunch, so it was not as bad as I remember it from other years. I had a proof of the class picture so I could write the students' names, and I did a quick scan and posted it below.

After recess, we corrected and discussed the math homework. We also did an art project about pattern or "rhythm" in art. I'll post some examples of these later. As usual, many of the pieces were quite exceptional.

Homework: Light tonight. I need again to go home somewhat unexpectedly, so there will not be any homework club. Sorry for any inconvenience. (1) Do the "Using Reading Strategies" paper for this morning's "Eddie, Inc." story. (2) Do "Choose the Operation," Math, page 153. (3) Also do the Review Test, page 154 and the Cumulative Review, page 155 in the same book.

Class Picture

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Minotaurs and Elections

We started today, as usual for Wednesdays, with our Theater class. Today Mr. Pratt introduced the idea of stage combat. All our students had a great time with this, not just the boys! As Mr. Pratt explained to the students, actors often have to pretend to fight. He talked about how important it is for them to stay safe while they do this because they will have to have the same fake fight over and over again for many performances. He explained that in order to keep safe the actors very carefully choreograph their fights.

Mr. Pratt went over the classic Greek tale of Theseus and the Minotaur. (See, were already getting ready for May's field trip to the Getty Villa!) He had the students practice a simple, but very effective, choreography for the final fight between the protagonist and the antagonist (Mr. Pratt really stresses vocabulary) of this myth. The students had a blast. They will be practicing this during the week, and they will be performing it next Wednesday. So in about 10 days or so, expect another video. 'Til then, don't be surprised if you see your child stabbing the air when he thinks nobody is watching, crying, "Die you disgusting creature!"

Tech Center was also great today. Ms. Richards focused on the election. She had the students look at a map of red and blue states on the NPR website, and she explained what the electoral college is and how many votes are needed to elect a president. Students had to decide which of the undecided states will go for Obama and which will go for McCain, and they saved this information in a text file. Next week, when the final results are in, they will import this data into Excel to create a spreadsheet and a graph. Politics, math, technology...I wish I had been exposed to stuff this challenging when I was in fourth grade.

The rest of the day was normal. We corrected and collected homework. We went out to PE. We did silent reading. And yes, we got this evening's homework.

Homework: (1) Do the pages 1-4 of the second OCR packet. These focus on the theme and also the word study and vocabulary for the first story. (2) Do the take-home Quiz over chapters 6-10 of Island of the Blue Dolphins. (3) Do the front cover for the "Land and Early Peoples" packet in History. This should have the words "Land and Early Peoples," a color picture, and the student's name. (4) Do "Multiplication Through 12", Math, page 149 and "Multiply 3 Factors," pages 150-151 in the same book.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Concepts and Questions

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Outside Expertise

We have many very talented parents in room 19, and one of them, Claire Feldman, is an expert in Open Court Reading. She works for the district as a Literacy Coach out in the San Fernando Valley. At our Back-to-School evening, she volunteered to do a unit opener for me. I immediately suggested the Dreams to Jobs unit because I've always found that one a little hard for the students to make a connection with the materials. Or maybe it's just that I am so accustomed to working in the public sector that I have trouble understanding the idea of business and profits and the like.

Anyhow, Ms. Feldman taught our Open Court this morning, and the students had a grand time. I learned a lot, too. She helped the students to review what they already knew about business and economics - more than you might have expected - and to develop some good questions. These were distilled into the Concept/Question board, and Ms. Feldman provided cleverly color-coded papers for students to use as they go through the unit. In addition, Ms. Feldman came brought in jars of baby food and split the students into groups. Each group will come up with an advertisement which we will film a little later in the unit when we come to the "Birth of a Baby Food" story. It was a real pleasure to have such an excellent introduction to this theme, and all of us in room 19 are now excited to start thinking about jobs. (Well, right now, I suppose an awful lot of people in the banking industry are also thinking about jobs, but that's another, sadder, story.)

The rest of the day was pretty normal. We corrected yesterday's math test and the results are on the gradebook. Please remember to check that regularly. We did our silent reading and journaling. We read and discussed a chapter in Island of the Blue Dolphins. We read and discussed a lesson in the old Harcourt Science book. We checked, corrected, and collected a bunch of homework.

Homework: (1) Do the Review questions, page A 71 in the green Science book. Be sure to copy the questions. (2) Do "California Connections" in the Math book, pages 136-137. This is going to count as a History rather than a math grade. (3) Do the Regrouping worksheet. I am not sure why the computer made the top number always 9000. Please show all work. (4) Do "Facts Through Ten," Math, pages 144 -147.

Rainbow Rhythm


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Monday, October 27, 2008

Jobs to Nightmares

Our next theme in Open Court Reading is called "Dreams to Jobs." To get them thinking about the idea of occupations, I asked them the normal question in reverse: "What would you NOT like to do when you grow up?" There were lots of trash collector essays, of course, but a several stood out for the detail or the unusual choices. Here are a few:

Construction Worker

I would hate to be a construction worker. I would freak out if I had to balance on a beam ten thousand feet high. I would have to eat my lunch ten thousand feet above the ground. If you trip, you fall all the way down to the ground. I think the elevator cables are going to break on normal elevators. But the construction elevators look even scarier. They don't have any walls! You could fall out of the elevator at ten thousand feet above the ground and die. That's why I don't want to be a construction worker.

Surfer

I would hate to be a professional surfer. Why? Because I can't surf! Riding waves? Ain't happening! Even if I learned, I only enjoy running and swimming sports. Them: "Hanging 10!" Me: Hanging on for my life!!! They say, "Duuuude." I scream instead. I have little balance and sight control. And I'd rather not be over 250,000 dollars per year earner. I'll write draw, or program, but sports are out of the question. S-U-R-F-I-N-G. Surfing is not for me!


Kindergarten Teacher

If I were an adult, I would hate being a kindergarten teacher. They always have to be all nice and soft when the kids get in trouble. The kids always cry and scream. When there is a fat, ugly, dumb kid, you have to hug them and say, "You'll get some friends." They always fall on their knees, bleed, and pull out their teeth. I don't like it when you have to teach them the alphabet and keep saying over and over and over again, "A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y and Z." It's so darn boring! They can't pronounce words an then they hit each other. The girls are always saying, "Where are the Barbies?" They act all sassy and try to have their own posse. The boys always play with dinosaurs and those Pokemon cards. They pretend they have guns and then they making those shooting noises and spit in your face. I don't like to tie their shoes because sometimes they are all muddy and gross. I wouldn't want to be a kindergarten teacher. The kids always break the crayons and markers and then start crying. When they draw a picture you have to lie to them and say it's pretty. They also make up jokes and they are really not funny, but you have to laugh anyway.


Finally, one that really spoke to me,

Lawyer

My hatest job is being a lawyer. I hate it because you have to go to law school and go on others' sides when they are saying that they are good or it's wrong. But at court if you lie you go to jail. I would rather be a normal person. I hope you agree with me that being a lawyer stinks!

Homework: Light tonight. (1) "Relate Multiplication and Division," Math, pages 140-141, and (2) "Facts Through Five," pages 142-142 in the same book.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Fairy Tale Tableaux

Fast Friday Post

Again, Fridays are hectic for me so just the minimal weekend homework:

Homework: (1) In Math, do the chapter 7 "Review/Test" on page 130 and the "Cumulative Review" on page 131. We will have a test on Monday. (2) In the history book, do the chapter two review pages, 114 to 115. Only do
  • Connect Main Ideas (copy the chart)
  • Use Vocabulary (read the directions carefully here)
  • Check Understanding and Read Critically (be sure to answer in complete sentences)

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Colorful Collages



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Cockles and Collages

We started out today with Mr. Lawton. He was working with the students on developing awareness of meter, and they did some cute variations on the traditional Irish tune, "Cockles and Mussels." Returning to the classroom, we worked on the Spelling and Writing subsections of the Open Court test. We needed some time after recess for this, too. We corrected our math - I'm happy to say that elapsed time on a calendar is a lot easier for them than elapsed time on a clock - and after lunch we also discuss our History homework.

The big activity for the day was making collages in the afternoon. This was part of the exploration of organic vs geometric shapes in the art curriculum. I am not totally sure the lesson fulfills that purpose all that well, but it sure is fun for the children. Well, cleaning up is not that fun. Some pictures of the best ones will be coming soon.

Homework: (1) Do "Activities in Central Valley" and "How to Identify Causes" worksheet. The students will need their history books for this. (2) Read "Alcohol and Health," pp D10 -15 in the Health book. Copy and answer the Lesson Review questions on the bottom of page D15. (3) Do the "Expanded Form" worksheet. (4) Do Extra Practice, page H38 in the back of the Math book.
(5) Do "Elapsed Time," Lesson 7.3, in the Problem Solving Workbook, page PS 36.