Busy and Artsy

It was a busy day in room 19 today! As usual, we started out with the students reading silently while I checked to see if their homework was completed. After 15 to 20 minutes of reading, they wrote in their journals about what they had been reading and tried to apply some of their reading strategies. We went on to correct and discuss the study questions over "Sarah, Plain and Tall." I then had the students work on final drafts of the "My Favorite Stuff" composition. This will be part of a compilation of Thinking Map inspired compositions which will be made into a book - in time, I hope, for Back to School Breakfast.

After recess, we did some Science again. The students made three hills of potting soil in their foil trays. They left one pile dry, slightly moistened another, and drenched the third. After this, they placed isopods in the trays and watched for the favored environment for the roly polies and the sow bugs.

We check out math right after recess, and then we did art. Our art lesson today focuses on both line drawing and point of view. First, we began by looking at a couple of pictures, one by the great Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel and another by a contemporary American, Paul Goodnight. Both were pictures of children playing. As we examined the pictures, we talked about "bird's eye" vs "ant's eye" points of view. We then went out to the playground where the students took turns playing and drawing each other playing.

Returning to the classroom, the students did "final drafts" of their pictures, first in pencil and then in sharpie.

Homework:  (1) Finish the brace map if necessary and then do the rough draft of "My Favorite Meal". Be sure to have a topic sentence. There should be good details with adjectives and specific nouns. The salad should be made of "cool, green, crunchy lettuce" and "sweet red tomatoes". (2) Do spelling sentences for words 11-20. (3) Finish the Rain Forest questions. We started on these in class. (4) Do "Subtracting," envision Math, pages 40-41, EVEN only. Again, show all work on a separate sheet of paper while putting the answers on the answer sheet.

Out and About

Today we were outside of our classroom more than we were in it! But that was fun for the students and a nice break for the teacher, too.

We started out in the room, of course. Following our new pattern, the students read their library books quietly while I checked to see if their homework was done. I am happy to say that our students are turning into champion homework completers! After reading for about 20 minutes, they then took some time to write about what they read in their reading journals. This is a great exercise for developing reading comprehension, and it will also allow me to respond to the students and guide their freely-chosen books. We then corrected our "Sarah" crosswords and I collected various papers.

As I said yesterday, we have been focusing on the strategy of "Making Connections" as we have been reading "Sarah, Plain and Tall." We finished that story today, and just like yesterday, the students, as they read through the story, recorded their connections on post-it notes. They then took these and placed them on a T-chart.

We went to Tech Center where the students started the process of setting up their LAUSD email accounts. This is important because it will allow them to use Google Docs for Education where they can work independently and collaboratively at school or at home on compositions and other assignments.

 

After recess, we went over to the auditorium where Mr. Mason gave a demonstration of various musical instruments and discussed the orchestra program. 

During PE today - it was cool enough finally for us to go out - I worked with students from all classes on jumping skills while Mr. Pratt worked on cooperation and team building activities. Mrs. Caruso concentrated on jump rope, a fun way to develop aerobic fitness. In math, we had an easy lesson today on adding whole numbers.

Homework:  (1) Do sentences for spelling words 1-10. (2) Do the "Sarah" study questions. (3) Do the "H" cursive. (4) Do "Adding Whole Numbers," envision Math, pages 37-39, ODD ONLY. Students should put answers on the answer sheet but also do all work on a separate sheet of paper which they will bring in with homework tomorrow.

Making Connections

Today was thankfully not quite so hot! It was easier for both the students and the teacher to keep focused.

We began the day with our Reader's Workshop. This is the independent silent reading with journaling that we started on yesterday. This will be the regular start of our day from now on. This gives me a chance to check the students' homework while they are engaged in a productive activity.

In Open Court Reading, we started the story "Sarah, Plain and Tall", an excerpt from the book of the same name. Our focus reading this story is to learn the reading strategy of "Making Connections." This refers to the way that good readers make personal connections with the text. Something in the text triggers a memory or a thought in the reader's mind. For example, as we were reading today, one of the students saw the words "cool, damp, and gray" which the author used to describe the weather in Maine. It reminded her of sitting in her family's house on a rainy day doing homework while the rain pelted against the windows.

We also worked on the skill of categorizing by studying the Tree Map. This is one of the thinking maps that looks most familiar to adults because it looks an awful lot like a corporate organization chart! The students brainstormed their favorite things and thought of appropriate categories for each one. They did some partner sharing of these - in LAUSD talk it's called "Think-Pair/Share" - and then did the rough draft of a paragraph.

We correct our Science homework, and we worked some more on rhythm using jump rope style rhymes. Again, the students used body percussion. I will be filming some of these and trying to get them on the blog. I say trying because recent "improvements" to the LAUSD firewall make doing anything with video very difficult. Since so many kids have internet-enabled smart phones, I am not sure who is getting protected here.

In math, we worked on telling the difference between important and unimportant information in a word problem.

Homework:  (1) Do the spelling word search. (2) Do "Sarah, Plain and Tall" crossword puzzle and the "Silly Sentences" on the back. (3) Do the letter E cursive. (4) Do "Extra or Missing Information," envision Math, pages 34-35 and the "Bird Houses" on the back side.

It's Too Darned Hot!

Wow! It was an insanely hot day today. Kids are really sensitive to changes in the weather, and any time it gets really hot I know it's not going to be anybody's most perfect day. But we all muddled through in room 19 and we actually did some really good stuff.

We began by correcting Friday's math and discussing it pretty carefully. Estimation and mental math are not easy for kids for developmental reason. They are still in fourth grade at what Piaget called a state of "concrete" thinking, so the idea that answers do not have to be exact seems a little foreign to them. So we took time to really go over some of the ideas and the problems we had with the assignment.

We then started to get organized. With some of the money parents have donated, I gave each student three colored folders:  gray for Open Court Reading, black for math, and olive green for Science. We went through out desks and made sure that everything was where it should be, and that the students knew which papers, like their tests, should go home and which, like returned spelling work, could be recycled.

We then did the word study and vocabulary and some other preparation for the next story, an excerpt from the novella Sarah, Plain and Tall. We also changed our desks. After a couple weeks, I have an idea who will work best separated from somebody else, and also who absolutely needs to be a the front of the room. I have to say that the students did the best job I have ever had a class do at changing seats the first time.

We did math after recess, and also a little music. In music we are introducing the concept of body percussion. This means using the body as a percussion instrument through snapping fingers, clapping hands, patting hands on thighs or chests, and stomping. It's a fun technique and it really help student internalize rhythm. Plus, there's nothing to pass out or collect!

After lunch, we did our first work with reading journals. This will be a significant part of our reading program as I said in the Parent Meeting. We then went on to Science. We are supposed to be doing an Investigation with Isopods and Beetles. Unfortunately, Delta Education, the district's science vendor, only provided us with pill bugs and sow bugs. So I guess we'll just go ahead with half the insects we're supposed to have. If anybody knows a good local source for darkling beetles, please let me know! Today we just took a look at these critters under a hand microscope.

Homework:  (1) Do "Estimating Sums and Differences," pages 32-33 in the math book. This is estimation and mental math - it should be relatively quick! Also do the "Camping Trip" on the back. (2) Do the "Isopods and Beetles" study sheet. This is the big assignment for the evening. (3) Do the "D" cursive page. (4) Do the spelling scramble. The word search is for Tuesday night.

Quick Post

I'm busy trying to get the email addresses into the gradebook, so you'll just have to believe me that it was a pleasant and productive day. Homework Club is going quite well; if your child has not stayed yet, it's amazing how much they get done at 2:30 (and you all know how little they get done at 8:30....)

Homework:  (1) Complete the "Toto" study sheet. Students started this in class. (2) Do Rounding, envision Math, pages 26-27 and "Rounding Around". (3) Do the cursive practice for letter C. (4) Do the spelling sentences for words 11-20 and review for the test tomorrow.

Thanks Again

First of all, let me thank all the parents for coming last night. I realize how hard it can be to get from work to school by 5:00 pm; your attendance showed your deep belief in your children's education. I also very sincerely appreciate the generous financial support of our classroom program. I can tell that this is going to be a very, very good year.

Today we worked a little on the visualizing strategy. Yesterday, reading the Toto story, the students identified the most descriptive language in the story. They wrote these on post-it notes and we glued them to a piece of paper.

Today, looking only at those post-its and not at any illustrations from the text, they had to create an image of some person or event in the story. This was a little hard for some of them because they have been very dependent on the illustrator to help them "see" the story. But, of course, as they grow older the number of pictures in the story will rapidly disappear. So today's exercise was to help them rely on words instead of pictures to imagine the story. Many were quite successful with this.

This student was particularly relying on the author's description of the "blue and purple hills" as you can see above.

We had our first trip to Tech Center today. Ms. Richard went over the rules and procedures and then had students start by writing a letter to their parents inviting them to Back to School Breakfast as way to review typing skills and Microsoft Word. 

After recess the students went to room 7 where Mr. Pratt worked with them on latitude and longitude. After lunch we corrected the Topic 1 math test. The results were generally quite good; ask your child to bring it home if he or she did not pull it out and proudly show it to you today.

We did our rotations in PE today with Mrs. Caruso working on endurance through jump rope, Mr. Pratt working on social skills like cooperation and anger management, and I working with them on leaping skills. Returning to the classroom, we did math. We are starting Topic 2, Rounding and Estimation. This is generally the most challenging unit of the year for students. Again, if math is frustrating at home, have them stay after school for "homework club."


Homework:  (1) Do pages 24 and 25 in the math book. The students can skip the back of the answer sheet. I couldn't remember whether I had assigned this before. It looked so familiar to all of us... (2) Write sentences for spelling words 1-10 only. (3) Do the Verb worksheet. (4) Do the letter B cursive page.

Short Post

Just a short post as I have to get ready for tonight’s Back to School evening.

Homework:  (1) Finish final rough draft of Perfect Day. (2) Do the Toto Vocabulary crossword.  (3) Do the Spelling Wordsearch. (4) Do the Letter A cursive page.

Switching Off

Again, we had a nice productive day in room 19. We started out by checking and correcting our homework. Although most of the students had everything, there were a number of students who were missing much or most of the work. It's not a problem to occasionally miss a day of homework, but those students who consistently do not have their homework or do not finish it usually also score poorly on their tests and other major assessment. Once our online gradebook is up and running I will let parents know if there is a problem.

I let the students get a head start on a couple of tonight's assignments while I worked with some of the groups to measure the growth in their terrariums.

We went to the auditorium after this to hear Miss Limb discuss the Student Council and elections for this important body with the fourth grade classes.

After recess, our class went to Mr. Pratt and the students from room 7 came to me. I am going to be teaching Science and Music to both classes; he will be teaching Social Studies and Drama to both groups. I think this will be a great opportunity for the students, and it went quite smoothly today. We will be switching off by the week so they will have History all this week.

After lunch, we checked math and then went out to PE. Our students have pretty much mastered the Physical Education procedures so we are now starting to work with them on very specific skills. As usual, we finished the day with Math.

Homework:  (1) Finish the "Search and Circle" page in the Open Court packet. This is really easy. Also finish the "Vocabulary" pages in the same handouts. (3) Finish the Science vocabulary crossword. This is the most difficult assignment. Be sure to use the number of letters and already completed words as clues. (4) Do "Make and Organized List," envision Math, pages 16-17. Also do the "Test Prep" on pages 18-19. The test over Topic 1 will be given tomorrow.

Fab Friday

Well, our first week came to an end, and I must say that we are off to a great start. We had a pretty regular day today. We checked homework, went out to PE, and did math. We did a couple unusual things. We had an art today. The first assignment in our art series discusses line and asks the students to use a variety of different lines to create a poster for a social cause of their choice. The students took this seriously and did some nice things.

 

We also started our observations of our terrariums. Only a couple of them showed much growth from the seeds, but I am sure that this will change by Monday.

Homework:  (1) Do the "Tropical Rain Forest" study sheet. Students had time to start this during class. (2) Do the cursive review paper. (3) Do "Zeroes" envision Math pages 14-15 and "The Number Game" on the back. Again, I gave them time to start this during class time.

Working Hard!

It was a pretty fast day here in room 19 today, and quite a productive one, too. We began by correcting our homework. As I said yesterday, I am quite pleased by how seriously the students are taking this responsibility. We reviewed the elements of story like setting, character, and plot, and then we went on to doing a variety of follow up assignments related to the Frisby story. After recess, we did some reading relating to different environments, particularly deserts. The FOSS Science series does not have much written material, but what is there is quite densely written. I find the students have to read and re-read it to gain the vocabulary and concepts, and so I prepare quite detailed study questions to help them do this. They had a chance to start on this.

In music today we began our exploration of how beat and rhythm are present in words. The students finished brainstorming words related to food, and then working in groups of two to four they created 8 bar phrases. We will continue with this tomorrow and add the really fun element of body percussion to it, too.

After lunch we corrected our math homework and went out again to PE so we could work on the procedures of color groups and rotations. In Math, we explored the idea of comparing and ordering larger numbers.

Homework:  Most of the homework today is to finish work which was started in class. It should not be too extensive despite the large number of papers if they worked hard during class time. (1) Review spelling words for tomorrow's test. (2) Finish the Open Court Reading packet. (3) Finish the "Deserts" study questions. (4) Do "Comparing and Ordering Whole Numbers," envision Math pages 11-13 and the "Follow the Leader" page on the back of the answer sheet.

Hands On!

Today was another really smooth day in room 19. I can tell it's going to be a great year. We started by correcting and collecting most of the homework. I was very impressed by how many students had done all their work and how well it was done, too. We moved on to considering the theme of "Risks and Consequences" again, and the students also wrote ideas and questions about this theme for the Concept-Question Board. We read the first story in the Open Court Reader after that. It's called "Mrs. Frisby and the Crow", an excerpt from Robert O'Brian's novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. We worked on the reading strategy of predicting as we read the story today and the students recorded their predictions as they read on post-it notes which they stuck on the page as they read along.

We did our first Science investigation today. The students planted five different kinds of seeds in terrariums. It was a pleasant day outside, so I took advantage of our patio to keep the dirt out of the classroom. The students had a great time!

Doing this kind of Science is a lot harder than just giving them pages to read in a book, but they learn so much more this way that it's worth it!

After lunch, we corrected our math homework and went out for PE. Once we get our routine down we will only do PE 3 times a week, but right now we are learning the basics of squad order, warm-up exercises, and color rotations. After PE, we did math as we generally will do last thing in the day. Our topic today was reading and writing numbers in the millions place.


Homework:  (1) Write spelling sentences for the 20 spelling words. (2) Do the cursive letter formation review page. (3) Do the "Terrestrial Environments" study sheet. Note that the page number where the students can find the answer is written after each question. Do NOT do page 4. (4) Do "Millions," envision Math pages 8-9 and the enrichment sheet on the back.

Risks and Consequences

Today was really sort of the first day of school. It's the day that we start the routines that will define our class for the rest of the year. And I'm happy to say that everything looks great!

Our first unit in Open Court Reading is called "Risks and Consequences". It would be better called "Cost/Benefit Analysis" but maybe that's a little too much like Econ 101 for fourth grade. We started the unit today by getting the students to think about the theme. This is what teachers call "front loading". I gave the students pictures of people involved in a variety of activities. For each activity the students, working in pairs, had to identify the possible benefits and risk. For instance, one group had this famous picture.

Lots of people are on an I-beam. They are building the Empire State Building. The risks are falling and getting badly hurt. They could also die because they are very high off the ground. The risk is worth is because they are building the Empire State Building.

We also talked about how to figure out words from context and reviewed the Circle Map. We started to get ready for our first Science investigation tomorrow. We started to learn about correct breathing and posture for singing and did some activities to learn about beat and meter. So, all in all, a very busy and productive day.

Homework:  (1) Complete the circle map about yourself. Write about paragraph about yourself using the ideas from the map. Be sure you have a good topic sentence. Skip lines. Staple on top of the circle map. (2) Do the spelling scramble. All the words are in the box at the bottom of the page. (3) Do the cursive review sheet. (4) Do "Thousands", envision Math pages 5-7. Use the answer sheet provided. Also do the "Changing Places" section on the back of the answer sheet.

Great Start!

Welcome! We had a great first day of class in room 19! I can tell it's going to be a great year. I'm very excited! Can't you tell from all the exclamation marks?

We did some usual first day things. Students filled out interest inventories to help me get to know them better. They took pretests in reading and math so I can have a better sense of their skills in these critical areas. We spent a lot of time going over basic procedures like entering and exiting the room, lining up after recess and lunch, getting paper and sharpening pencils. Not very interesting stuff, but having these procedures learned makes the class work smoothly for the rest of the year.

We did some fun things, too. The students interviewed a partner and wrote a paragraph about their partner. They also drew portraits of their partners. They worked hard on these and many of them are really quite good as you can see.

As I mentioned to many of you this morning, we are having a special meeting for parents next Tuesday, September 21, at 5:00 pm. Please try to be there:  a really successful school year starts with good communication right from the beginning.

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words in syllables on a separate sheet of paper. For example, for the first word, auburn, on the paper the students should write au-burn. (2) Do the cursive review sheet.

Parents also need to sign the teacher letter and the library permission slip. Please turn the emergency cards in as soon as possible. 

Happy Rosh Hashanah

L'Shanah Tovah to everyone in room 19 who is celebrating Rosh Hashanah today.

Ready to Go!

I would like to welcome everyone to a new school year and to our first day of school on September 13 at 8:05 am. As you can see, everything is ready and the pencils are even sharp and on the table. I will be leaving this weekend to go to Maine and see my mother and will not be back until Sunday, September 12th.

If you have any questions you can email me at either jbasse1@lausd.net or johndavidbassett@gmail.com. You can also leave a voice mail or a text for me at my Google Voice account: 323 570-1392.

Please be aware that there will be a special parent meeting on Tuesday, September 21st at 5:00 pm. This will allow us to meet before the Back-to-School Breakfast on October 12th.

I'm looking forward to a great year!

CST Day 1

Today was our first day of our California Standards (CST) testing. I think it went pretty well, though I studiously avoid looking over their shoulders as they are doing their work. It took up most of our time until recess. After recess we corrected the history test, and most of you have already received an email with those results. After lunch, we worked on math and did physical education.

Homework is lighter during testing week, but we need to have some to get through math.

Homework:  (1) Do “Graphing,” pages 426-428 in the math book. Also do “Mixed Problem Solving” on page 429. Be sure to do the graphing as indicated. This will be on a separate sheet of paper. (2) Do the final draft of the tree house writing assignment. Students who did their rough drafts had these returned and graded; alas, not all students did the rough drafts and these students will have to do the final drafts without benefit of a corrected rough draft. This needs to be in cursive and quite neat.

Appreciated!

First of all, let me say that I feel appreciated! Today was the first day of Teacher Appreciation Week and the students sent me a nice card along with a lovely plant.

We started off, as usual, with our Independent Reading. This is going really well now and it is a delight to read their journals each week. We then did what’s called “frontloading” in education-talk. Frontloading is giving the students an assignment which will help them to relate better to something that they are going to read or study later. In this case, I front loaded a selection the students will read tomorrow from Pearl S. Buck’s The Big Wave. This is a tale of a tsunami which destroyed a small town in Japan and a young boy’s entire family. I had the students write an email to a friend whose family was killed in a massive earthquake in Northern California. The did a really good job with this.

After recess, we began reviewing Chapter 8 of the history book in preparation for a test either tomorrow or Wednesday. We continued this for a bit after lunch while I got ready for physical education. In PE, I began working with the students on underhanded pitching. In math, we are skipping a couple chapters so that we can go over equations and formulae before testing next week.

We also corrected our Topic 15 math test and the double-digit division quiz. The scores are on the gradebook. These results were a bit disappointing, and the students will have another chance at Topic 15 in a week or so. They should use the Practice and Reteach pages in the workbook to review this before the next math test.

Homework:  (1) Do Concept card based on one of the stories read so far. Many students completed this in class this morning. (2) Do spelling sentences for words 1-10. (3) Do Word Knowledge and Vocabulary from Context for “The Big Wave.” (4) Do the review questions for chapter 8 in the history book. (5) Do “Equations and Formulas” on pages 418-419 in the math book. (6) Do the Algebra and Fractions review worksheets. Again, this is to help the students get ready for testing next week.

I hope that many of you had a chance to see the California Dance Institute show on Friday. Our room 19 students were fantastic. Unfortunately, I neglected to bring my camera (which never does very well without flash in the auditorium anyhow) so I do not have any picture to post of this. Should anybody have so good pictures of the performance, please email them to me so we can share some visuals.

More Practice, More Perfection

Today we had two big practice sessions for our CDI performance. One took up much of the morning before recess, and the other occupied the last hour of the day, right up to the dismissal bell. The more practice, the more perfect. Right?

Our room 19 students are looking pretty good, and I definitely invite any parents who are available to come to the show tomorrow at 8:30 in the auditorium.

We did a few other things. We took our spelling test, and the results are on the gradebook. We did reading, we checked homework, and we read a chapter in the History book about California during the Second World War. We also worked on an art project related to the idea of formal balance (symmetrical and near-symmetrical designs). I’ll have a few of them to add to this post tomorrow.

Homework:  (1) Finish the tree house picture and write a two page description of your tree house. Skip lines and write on the front side of the paper only. (2) Do the World War II study sheet. (3) Do Lesson 15.8 in the Math book and the Test Prep pages. There will be a test tomorrow.

Making Perfect

Practice, they say, makes perfect, so we are heading towards perfection in room 19. We practiced reading and responding to literature today, we practiced long division, we practiced hitting a baseball with some kind of accuracy, and, above all, we practiced our play.

Charlie Brown is coming along, and I am feeling quite confident about our June 9th performance. Further times will be forthcoming…..

Homework:  Mrs. Mark had to leave early for a doctor’s appointment, so I gave the students a couple math assignments and told them that if they finished them they should have no homework. These were Lesson 15.7 in the math book and a division worksheet. Most finished both.

Y’all Would Have Had a Good Time

Today we spoke with a Texas twang in room 19. This week’s story in our reader is called “Josh McBroom and the Big Wind.” It is a tall tale about surviving the winds of the southern prairies. It’s a great story fun of lots of silly exaggerations. And, best of all, it sound best read with a bit of an accent. And we had a wonderful time readin’ and talkin’ about it. Y’all would have thought it funny.

We also did some math, and we checked and discussed our homework.

Our California native plant garden is doing quite well. Another big thank you to Alysoun Higgins and Laura Salwet for helping us with this project. I just noticed a new blossom this morning. Isn’t it pretty?

Homework: (1) Do spelling words 11-20. Some of these words may unfamiliar to some students, so feel free to use a dictionary or talk to an adult. (2) Do the “McBroom” study questions. Use the page numbers to help find the correct answer. (3) Do the “Tall Tales” and “Author’s Purpose” study sheets. (4) Do “Same Perimeter, Different Areas,” Math, pages 368-369. (5) Do the double digit division worksheet.

Hyperbole!

We had a pleasant day in room 19 today. The students spent much of the early part of the morning, after our independent reading time, exploring metaphor and hyperbole. We did this for a couple reasons. One, it identifying figurative language and hyperbole is a standard which will be tested on next month’s test. Two, and probably more important for me, it helps get the students ready for reading “McBroom and The Big Wind,” a tall tale which is this week’s story in the reader. To do this, we created some very simple Thinking Maps.

After recess, we talked about the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and other problems California and the United States had during the 1930’s. I shared some of the stories my parents had told me about growing up during this time. As we come into these more modern times in our state’s history, it is a great idea to share some of your family stories with the students to help make all this more real to them.

We had a great time in PE today. We are still using the tees for batting, but this time the students actually got to hit an untethered ball. They had a good time with that! In math, we looked at trying to figure the areas of L-shaped figures and other things which are not perfect rectangles.

Homework: (1) Do sentences for spelling words 1-10. (2) Write a paragraph summary of last week’s “Nachito’s Teaching” story. (3) Do the History study sheet. (4) Do “Irregular Areas,” Math pages 365-366. (5) Do the Division worksheet.

On the Home Stretch

This is one of our last banked-time Tuesdays. I will not miss them when they are over; I would so much rather be with the students than sit through a faculty meeting….

It was definitely a quiet day in room 19. We had our independent reading, and then we went over homework. We read some more of “Matthew Henson,” though we are still not quite finished with the selection. We had our History Test. Some students finished before lunch, but others took the extra time I gave them after lunch.

Instead of our usual reading buddies, we had play buddies with the kindergarteners. After sitting quietly through the tests, they were ready to run around and have some fun.

Homework: (1) Do the spelling jumble.  (2) Write a long paragraph explaining how the Inuit survive in the harsh arctic conditions. Include Tree Map for prewriting. (3) Do the Double Digit Divisors worksheet. Be sure to do the check step, too. (4) Do “Ordering Integers,” envision Math pages 340-341.

Shrimp

Today went pretty smoothly. I admit I was not happy after learning about the approval of the shortened school year, but we will make the best of it. I shudder when I think about the hundreds of dollars that will be missing from each of my next three checks.

We started off with Independent Reading. It’s a chore reading and responding to all the journals, but I am really impressed by the growth I see in reading comprehension and the use of reading strategies. We then went on to our next Open Court Reading story:  “Arctic Explorer:  The Story of Matthew Henson.” This is not a real thriller, but it does have some icky details in it that fourth graders like. We will take a couple days to finish it.

After recess, we did another Science experiment. This one, like the last couple we did, deals with tolerance, specifically saline tolerance. But here we are using brine shrimp rather than plants to check for response to salt levels. The students were fascinated by the tiny brine shrimp eggs.

We are doing Physical Education with Mrs. Caruso’s and Mr. Pratt’s class. This is going really, really well, and I really appreciate the generosity of the parents which has made it possible for us to have such great equipment. One of our rotation areas has been hitting, and the students have been practicing their swings with tees. This has been a lot of fun!

We concluded by looking at negative numbers in math, specifically comparing and ordering positive and negative integers. The students seem to get this without much problem.

Homework:  (1) Sort the spelling words into two tree maps. One tree map should focus on prefixes, the other on plurals. Since all the plurals end in –es, focus on the letters before this.  (2) Do the “Adventure Tale” worksheet. (3) Do the Double Digit Divisors worksheet. We went over this in class and they had some time to get started. This is a new skill, and they will be working on it all week. (4) Do “Comparing Integers,” envision Math pages 338-339. The enrichment page on the back is a little tricky, but figuring out the missing numbers on the table should be fun.

Back to the Real World

First, a big thanks to all the parents who came with us yesterday on our trick to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. We had a perfect day for walking to and from, and there were enough docents there was one guide for every five students. And they were good, too! All in all, an excellent day.

Today was a bit more back to the real world. We did a lot of work in the morning on the Open Court Test. We’ll still have to do a bit more tomorrow on the final draft of the composition. We discussed and read about the rise of large scale commercial farming in California in the late nineteenth century; not a fascinating topic, admittedly, but an important one. After lunch, we read about how the Glen Canyon Dam altered the ecosystem of parts of the Colorado River and we discussed how equations are true or false.

Please sign the report card and get it back to me. Once I check off that it was received, I will send it home again for good. You can keep it for when they’re older: my mom gave me all my elementary report cards a few years ago, including the one from fourth grade where I got 2 well-deserved D’s in math.

Homework:  (1) Do spelling sentences for this week’s spelling words. They’re easy again. (2) Do the study questions on the “Farming Takes Hold” chapter. (3) Do “Equal” pages 318-319 in the Math book and “Connection Detection” on the back. (4) Do the “Further Fabulous Fractions” worksheet. Be sure to reduce to lowest terms. (5) Do the Science questions on page 157. Be sure to copy the questions and write in complete sentences.

Busy but Calm

It was a quiet day. We did a lot of work on the Open Court Test – more to follow tomorrow. We also watched the third part of the Transcontinental Railroad film and we worked on our paragraphs with personification and similes. I’ll include some examples of those tomorrow or Monday.

Homework:  (1) Write sentences for the following vocabulary words:  profusely, protect, scarcely, shock, superstitious, suture, symptoms, and verge. (2) Do “Problem Solving,” envision Math, pages 310-311 and “Test Prep” pages 312-313.

We’re “Found” Art

Our big event today was the visit to Third Street School of Hanoch Piven. Born in Uruguay, Mr. Piven is an Israeli citizen who is currently living in Barcelona, Spain – quite an international guy! His particular art form is making caricatures with objects. This use of often-discarded object to make art is known as “found art” and kids love it. Here is his self-portrait and then his portrait of a well-known cartoon figure.

Besides this wonderful assembly, organized by our fabulous librarian, Mrs. Koneff, we went to Tech Center, watched the second part of the Transcontinental Railroad documentary, and went out to PE. 

Also, a Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to any of my fellow Irish (my paternal grandmother was a Walsh).

Homework:  (1) Write sentences for the following vocabulary words:  listless, lulling, maneuvered, manipulate, meticulous, mystify, ominous, overwhelmed, pitch, and polluted. (2) Do “Multiplication and Division of Fractions,” envision Math, pages 307-308.

Transcontinental

Today we started off with a a wordsearch to get us ready for the Spelling subtest of the Open Court Reading unit test.  We then checked, corrected, and discuss most of last night’s homework.

We had our last music class with Mr. Lawton today. We had some good work with the song writing assignment, and I hope to showcase some of these at Open House next month.

After recess, we watched the first part of the PBS film on the transcontinental railroad. This is not quite as interesting to kids as the Gold Rush documentary, but it has some really good sections about the lives of the Irish and Chinese workers who built the railroad itself. We’ll be continuing with this for the rest of the week.

After lunch we did a little more work on math and we had our reading buddies.

Tomorrow is the author visit from Hanoch Piven, the Israeli illustrator. It should be a fun day.

If you interested in coming along on next week’s field trip, please let me know. On walking field trips, we can always use extra people.

Homework:  (1) Write sentences for the following vocabulary words:  energetic, epidemic, fatally, feeble, germs, guilty, immunize, incision, innocent, inundated. (2) Do “Addition and Subtraction of Fractions,” envision Math, pages 303-304.

Springing Forward

We managed to all arrive more or less on time this morning, everybody apparently getting the message to change the clocks. It may seem odd, but I usually have one or two students each year who are stunned to come and find school already in session. But this year we had all sprung forward our hour and were ready to learn.

We are starting on the Unit Test for the “Mystery to Medicine” unit. The students did the Comprehension section, and they generally did quite well on this. The scores are in the gradebook. We then went over the crossword puzzle from last week. These are tough words and all will be on the unit test in one form or another. We will use them as vocabulary and spelling words this week. I’ll pick the easiest 20 or so for Friday’s spelling test, and we will be writing sentences on all of them during the week as well as, of course, constantly reviewing and discussing.

After recess, we started studying the transcontinental railroad. This is just as important as the Gold Rush, though it is not as immediately interesting to the students. Again, we have a great American Experience documentary that we will start watching tomorrow.

After recess, we took another look at our plants and read about the cleanup of Lake Erie. We went out to Physical Education, and when we returned, we studied how to add decimals. They key, of course, is lining them up by the decimal place, and once the students remember this, the skill is one of the easiest of the year.

Homework:  (1) Do sentences for each of these spelling and vocabulary words:  antibiotics, artificially, bacteria, brink, clean, condemned, confident, contaminated, disinfected, end. (2) Do the “Linking East to West” study sheet. Also do the handouts about the railroad and railroad time tables. (3) Do “Addition and Subtraction,” envision Math, pages 299-300 and “Where Do You Live?” (4) Do Fraction Review and Massive Multiplication worksheets. Be sure to show all work on the multiplication.

Testing Tolerance

No, not my tolerance! Though some days really do test that…. This is a science experiment. But I’ll come to that later.

We began today by giving the students who needed to complete the social studies test or the check step on last night’s homework. Those who did not need this extra time got a chance to work on the Unit 3 crossword puzzle, one of tonight’s homework assignments.

We then turned our attention to Science. Our latest investigation tests tolerance for water. This is a simple example of isolating a factor, one of the key scientific method skills. The students planted four different types of seeds in four cups. The only difference from one cup to another is how much water was placed in each. One cup was not watered, another received a mere moistening, and third received a hefty amount of water, and the fourth was really drenched.

The students hypothesized that the dry soil would be the least productive and that the moist soil would be the best environment. We will be checking back on our seeds regularly to see what the optimal water tolerance for each kind of seed is.

After recess, we read about the advent of the stagecoach, the Pony Express, and the telegraph in California. After lunch, we did a little time with Charlie Brown. Parts will be assigned next week.

• Students interested in Charlie need to learn the “lunchtime” monologue on the top of page 3.
• Students interested in Lucy and Linus need to learn the “queen scene” – middle of page 6 to the middle of page 7.
• Students interested in the part of Patty and Linus need to learn the “rabbit” scene on pages 10 to 11.
• Finally, anyone interested in Schroeder should learn the “crabby” monologue on page 13.

We talked about rounding decimals in math. Students then had the rest of the day to work on the mosaic art project that we started last week. This one will still need work; it is a slow project which tests their tolerance for slow methodical work. That’s why it’s so great!

Homework:  (1) Study spelling for tomorrow’s test. (2) Complete the Unit 3 Vocabulary crossword. (3) Do the “New Links to the East” study sheet and the worksheet about Morse Code. (4) Do “Rounding Decimals,” envision Math pages 293-294 and the enrichment activity on the back of the answer page.

After Oscar

We did some catching up this morning about our weekends, as we often do on Mondays, and I was quite surprised by how many of the students had watched the Academy Awards last night. They could remember who won what, and some even had strong opinions about whether awards were deserved or not. So, today was room 19’s post Oscar party. Well, party of sorts. We did mostly serious things. But we did end the day on a fun note.

We worked a bit this morning on the kinds of reading skills that will come up on the testing in May. I am not a big believer in test prep, but many of our students are not good test takers and their scores from last year do not represent their best abilities. So we would like to help them to show how smart they really are. This is helpful in the race for a good junior high school spot as all the parent know. We also took the spelling test, and the results were wonderful. That is already on the gradebook.

After recess, I read a bit of By the Great Horn Spoon! and we talked about the first California constitutional convention. If you are in Monterey, be sure to stop by Colton Hall where the original desks – many with quill pens – are still on display from this historic event. After lunch, we turned our attention in math to changing fractions and mixed numbers into decimals and placing them on the number line.

We did PE, as usual, with rooms 19 and 37. I was not sure at first how mixing the grade levels would work, but it had been a big success. In fact, the second and third graders are beating our fourth graders at the soccer skills game!

After PE, we paining our bas reliefs that we did Friday. The results here were really good as you can see. I put this last so that students who finished early could have the opportunity to get a head start on homework.

Homework:  (1) Do spelling sentences. (2) Do “31st State” study guide. (3) Do “Mixed Number and Fractions on a Number Line,” envision Math, page 282-283. (4) Do the fractions to decimals worksheet.

Fun Friday

 

Focused!

It was a great day. I was completely prepared, the students were completely focused:  it couldn’t have been better.

We started with a wordsearch to help with Friday’s spelling test. After that, we went on to our usual opening business. The students were intrigued by today being Doll Day in Japan and learning about this custom. We corrected and discussed the language arts homework, and I think they have the rules for writing titles down pretty solid. We read and discussed the story “Susan LaFlesche Picotte” in the reader. This is a slightly fictionalized account of the life of the first female Native American doctor.

After recess we went to the Tech Center where Ms. Richard worked with the students on Microsoft Word. After lunch, we read and discussed a chapter from the history book. Much of the information here had been already discussed in the documentary we watched, so this went quite smoothly and quickly. I gave the students time to start on their history homework before sending them to PE. We did our usual rotations today. After PE, we did math. Our topic today was converting fractions into decimals and vice-versa. The students seemed to get the idea pretty well.

There’s definitely a bit more homework tonight than the last couple nights, but there will be little if any on Friday. I also gave the students a good bit of time in class to start both the history and math assignments.

Homework:  (1) Do the “Reading Strategies” pages – that’s the one for the post-it notes – for “Susan La Flesche Picotte”. (2) Do the study questions for the same story. (3) Do the “Good Times, Bad Times” study questions. (4) Do “Fractions and Decimals,” envision Math, pages 276-277.

Happy Birthday, Dr Seuss!

We started out today with a mid-year math assessment. This was a pretty easy test, and students generally did quite well on it. I sent it home to be signed; it is a pretty good indication of whether or not your child is on track in math at this time. A score of 20 or better (80 percent) is a good sign.

I then gave the students some time to work on their song writing assignment for Mr. Lawton. I gave them some help correctly annotating the note and rhythm for this task, but I gave them the responsibility to add the lyrics. They had a surprising amount of trouble with this even though the basic requirement – have an equal number of syllables as notes in the measure – seemed pretty simple to me.

We went over to room 33 and Mr. Lawton worked with them a bit on their songs. He saw the same problems I did, though he noted that many of the fourth grade classes had encountered this difficulty. We will be working on it later this week. Music class ran over a bit, so I let the students have second recess instead of first.

After recess we corrected our math homework. After lunch, we got ready to celebrate “Read  Across America” Day. This is the annual celebration of the birthday of Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. I had always felt a special affinity for Dr. Seuss since we are both native sons of Springfield, Massachusetts. Mrs. Mark and I have always done things together to celebrate Read Across American Day, and this year I figured we could include room 2 since it was taking place on the day we usually have buddy reading. The plan was to divide the fourth graders, first graders, and kindergartners into three groups and have them rotate from room to room with special activities in each. Mr. Rios, subbing for Mr. Ricker who is off for the birth of his daughter, had the older kids share Dr. Seuss books with the younger ones. Mrs. Mark had the students complete Dr. Seuss puzzles and word searches.

I had the students make Cat in the Hat hats. I first taught the skill to the fourth graders, and they in turn taught the project to their young charges.

Not every had came out, but the students were thrilled when they did.

Meanwhile, in room 5, the students were busy coloring and solving puzzles. Again, the older students ably helped the younger ones.

Homework: Light tonight since we were so busy with other things today. (1) Complete the “Capitalization of Titles” worksheet. (2) Do pages 273-274 in the math book. We did not have much time to go over this, so the students will need to pay careful attention to the information at the top of the page. They will also do the “Quick Review” and “Problem of the Day” which we usually do together in class.

Mellow Monday

The day started out with a well-intentioned, but extremely dull assembly about tree planting and school beautification. Tom LaBonge, our local member of the City Council was there. He talked at length though I cannot really remember a single thing he said.

After that we went back to the classroom where we had the math test that was postponed on Friday for lack of time. The students tended to either get everything right or almost everything wrong. I have already sent home the test results by email. We will continue to work on adding and subtracting fractions for the rest of the year. Like long division, it is one of the essential fourth grade skills. We also went over Friday’s homework, and I gave the students some vocabulary work to help get them ready for this week’s story in the reader.

After recess, we finished watching the last part of the Gold Rush film. In a related vein, after lunch I started reading By the Great Horn Spoon! to the students. We practice Charlie Brown a bit, too, and we went to PE where we had some new activities to add to our rotation today. Coming back, we had math. We are starting on decimals, a topic which is usually a little easier for the students.

We ended the day with a short birthday celebration for Joshua.

Homework:  Do sentences for each of the spelling words. This is an easy list this week. (2) Do the Story Map & Double Bubble Map about “The New Doctor”. (3) Do Math pages 270-271. (4) Do the fraction worksheet.