Looking at Ourselves

Our day started in the usual quiet way, but we had a visit from a company of actors from room 7 who performed their version of "The King's Fountain" for us. They were great! In the picture below, the poor man tells the two blacksmiths about the King's plot to divert all the water and cause everyone to die of thirst.

We then finished reading the story in the Open Court reader, and the students continued the "Asking Questions" strategy. The students then took the post-it notes on which they had been recording their questions and they created a T chart with the textual references on one side of the page and the questions on the other side.

The students worked with Mr Pratt, concluding their look at California geography. Meanwhile, I worked with his class on the bugs and learning to reading rhythm using the Kodaly rhythm syllables.

After lunch, we briefly looked at math. This is, I think, a pretty easy topic because our students seem to have their times tables generally quite well mastered. After that, we started art. Our topic today was lines and watercolor. The students experimented making different kinds of lines - thick, thin, light, dark, straight, curved, and zigzag - on a sheet of practice paper.

After that, I gave the students photographs of themselves. They used the photo to briefly sketch themselves on paper on a piece of regular paper, and then - and this was the hard part - they painted themselves in water color without already using pencil lines. This is not easy even for many professional artists, but some of our students did quite well with it!

Homework:  (1) Do the spelling wordsearch. The students already have the words from previous assignments. (2) Do "King's Fountain" study guide. (3) Do "Relating Multiplication and Division," envision Math, pages 74-75 and "Just the Fact(ors)" on the back.

Ordinary

First of all, my apologies for not posting at least the homework yesterday. We had a School Site Council Meeting which lasted about two and a half hours and when it was over all I wanted to do was to get home as fast as possible! Fortunately, just about everybody did all the homework last night.

We went to Tech Center where Ms. Richard had them write a letter in MS Word. After lunch, we had PE. I'm continuing on with the students in hurdling skills. Mrs. Schiffman, one of the parents in room 7, is working with Mrs. Caruso to help the students get ready for Presidential Fitness Testing. Math was really easy today - the students reviewed division as the inverse of multiplication.


Homework:   (1) Do the spelling jumble. (2) Do the K cursive practice. (3) Do the "Subject-Verb Agreement" worksheet. (4) Do "Division," envision Math pages 71-73 and "Baby Sitting" on the back side of the answer sheet.

Swan Lake

The highlight of our day today was a visit from the Colburn Music School orchestra. These college musicians are fantastically talented, and their conductor really understand kids well and picks great music for them.

Our concert today featured selection from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. The orchestra used narrators, musicians dressed up as the prince and the princess, and a few simple props to help tell the story. 

Interspersed with the selections from Swan Lake were a few pieces to help introduce students to instruments of the orchestra. Here a very talented young bassoonist played an excerpt from a Mozart bassoon concerto (included a really beautiful cadenza).

Students switched off to Mr. Pratt for history and drama. After lunch, we checked homework, made folder, passed back work, and I gave the students some of lot of time to get a head start on some homework. It may seem like a lot of work, but they had over an hour to work on it in class and most of the assignments are pretty simple.

Homework:   (1) Do the Long Vowel Spelling Patterns worksheet. (2) Do sentences for spelling words 1-10 only. (3) Do pages 65-67 in the math book. (4) Do the subtraction and multiplication worksheets. (5) Do the two cursive letters practice.

Not too Demanding

We started the day with student council elections. We had seven highly qualified candidates running, but unfortunately we could only elect two representatives and one alternate. So, congratulations to Eli and Sally, our representatives, and to Nurjannah, our alternate. And thanks to everybody for running. Here is the entire group of fabulous candidates:

After the election, we went to library as we usually do on Friday.

We took our spelling test and the results are on the gradebook already. We also took the "Mae Jemison" quiz, but the results of that will take me a while to grade.

We had PE early today. Our students rotated among the three teachers as usual. While they were with me, the students practiced - and we assessed - on some simple hurdling.

After lunch, we corrected our math and did the next lesson which, to their delight, was unbelievably easy. We then went to the auditorium where we had a special music lesson with Mr. Lawton. We are helping him with some research for his Master's thesis.

The students did a wonderful lesson which asked them to improvise music to the telling of a simple story about a rainy day.

We left from the auditorium. It was a very pleasant day, not too demanding at all, for both teacher and students.

Homework:  (1) Do "Properties of Multiplication," envision Math, pages 62-63. (2) Complete the packet of stories for the Introducing ... Me!"    book. Since the students have had a lot of time to work on this, Monday is the final day to turn it in. I will not accept this one late.

Contours

Today we finished reading "Mae Jemison" and the students worked a little more on the final drafts of the book of Thinking Map inspired compositions that will become a book for Back-to-School Breakfast. Most students went to Mr. Pratt after recess so I could work with students from both classes who needed to finish up the CELDT test. The last section of the test is oral and it needs to be given with a bit of privacy. Mr. Pratt had the students watch an old video version of Sarah, Plain and Tall, the story we read last week in Open Court. It's a pretty dull after-school special from the 1980's, but he reported that they were surprisingly interested after having read the story.

Thursday is art day in room 19, and today's lesson focused on contour drawing. The students first picked an object in the room. This student picked one of the computers.

They then did a blind contour drawing. This is a classic art school exercise where the artist does not look at the paper nor lift the pencil. The results always look awful, but they force the student to really look at the object.

They then had the opportunity to draw the object again. This time, they could look at the paper, lift the pencil, and even use an eraser. But, because they had already looked at the object so intensely during the blind drawing, the results were much better!

Homework:  (1) Study spelling words for the test tomorrow. (2) Do "Patterns," envision Math, pages 60-61.

Homework is light tonight and tomorrow so that students can finish off the writing project.

Into Every Life

...some rain must fall, they, say, but why did it have to fall today? Sigh. Well, we made the best of it, and we had a pleasant day. We did our independent reading and checked our homework as usual in the morning. The students who had expressed an interest in orchestra after last week's assembly went off the auditorium to talk to Mr. Mason about this program. We read some more of the "Mae Jemison" story. And then we went off to the Tech Center. The students signed on to their new email accounts and most of them successfully sent an email off to me. They really liked hearing my phone "ping" when the emails were delivered!

 

After recess we worked on our Introducing ... Me! books. This is the project which is the culmination of our Thinking Map unit. The students have now studied all 8 maps and have made at least rough drafts of compositions based on those maps. They are now doing final drafts and we will be binding them on Friday and Monday so that they will be ready for the Back to School Breakfast on Tuesday.

By lunch time it was raining and we watched The Incredible Journey during lunch. It's probably my favorite rainy day movie and I usually save it for February or something, but we seem to be getting a lot of rain early. I know, I should have to write a hundred times, "We need the rain in Southern California" but I really don't see why it can't rain only between 2:30 in the afternoon and 7:00 in the morning.

In math, we're starting the first multiplication unit. This is one area where parents can really help their kids in math by quizzing them a lot on the tables until the students have them completely memorized.

Homework:  (1) Do the "Main Ideas" and "Biographies" worksheets. (2) Do the Spelling Scramble. (3) Do "Meanings of Multiplication," envision Math, pages 57-58. (4) Do the cursive I practice.

Short and Quiet

A short quiet, day. We started to read "Mae Jemison" in Open Court and we did a lot of work on our Introducing ... Me! books which we hope will be ready by Back-to-School Breakfast. Several students continued work on the CELDT test, and we all took a math test. Results on that tomorrow.

Homework:   (1) Do spelling sentences for words 11-20. (2) Do the cursive G practice. (3) Do the Jemison vocabulary crossword. (4) Do the Types of Sentences worksheet.

Weather or Not, Here We Come!

Gosh, a week ago we were sweltering under the highest temperatures ever recorded in Los Angeles. Today, we had rainy day schedule. Who says we don't have weather in LA?

Today, we did a couple other unusual things. First of all, shortly after school began, we went to the auditorium for speeches for student council. Four of our students were running and I tried to take pictures of all of them. I'm still learning in the ins and outs of the iPhone as a camera, however, so one of them was just hopelessly blurry. Sorry. I wish I could have recorded the speeches because they were wonderful. And the oversized pencil and eraser, well, you just had to have been there.

Today marked the beginning of the CELDT (California English Language Development Test) administration. Only a few of our students are taking the test, but the rest of them had to be quiet while I gave it. They did a wonderful job of this, of course. We'll be doing this after recess for much of this week.

We watched a movie during lunch - which lasts a little longer than usual on rainy days because teacher share watching adjoining classrooms - and we skipped PE. So the students had an opportunity to begin the homework a little bit early, and many of them finished before the final bell. 

Homework:  (1) Do "Jemison" vocabulary sheet. (2) Do Problem Solving and Topic Review pages, envision Math, pp 44-49. (3) Do cursive practice. (4) Do sentences for spelling words 1-10.

Fantastic Friday

We started out today with our second trip to the library. Even our new students are mastering the routines there well and I am really impressed by how carefully they are choosing their books.

Returning to the classroom, we took our quiz over the story "Sarah, Plain and Tall". I have not had an opportunity to grade it yet, but I suspect they did quite well. We also took and corrected our spelling test. Most students did excellent work on that.

We concluded our work with the isopods today by adding them to the terrariums. The students had fun with that, as you can imagine.  This did not take the full science period, so they had time to start on their science homework.

 

We worked a little more in music on body percussion and rhythmic speech. We did this before and after recess. We had "free choice" for PE today because Mrs. Caruso was unable to join us for our usual rotations and groups. They students enjoyed that, as you can guess.

Homework:  (1) Finish the Deserts and Rain Forests tree map and double bubble map. We started this during the science block. (2) Do "Subtracting Across Zeroes," envision Math, pages 42-43.

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.