American Experience

It's been a couple busy days in room 19, so I apologize for a couple days without posting. The Concert in the Park event went really well, even if the rain-soaked ground forced it to be held in the auditorium, and our students received warm applause from everyone present.

Today we went over the math classwork from Friday - which was the closest we had to homework for the weekend - and that has been corrected and put in the gradebook. We also read another chapter from By the Great Horn Spoon! In the chapter today, Praiseworthy and Jack save Cut Eye Higgins from the gallows and make a very exciting discovery. We started to watch an episode from the PBS American Experience series on the gold rush. It's a really good film, though one not particularly designed for young viewers. I prepared a study guide to help them focus on the major points and significant details in the film, and they did quite well with it. We'll watch about 30 minutes of this each day this week.

After recess, we went to the auditorium where Mr. Pratt blocked the climactic last scenes of Oliver! It went really well, even if it was not always fascinating for the chorus members. We had Physical Education as usual after lunch, and in math we are turning our attention to mastering the metric system.

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words ten times each in cursive and write a sentence for each word. The words are festivities, cantankerous, heinous, exuberance, dispatch, savor, and interfere. (2) Do the study sheet for chapter 16 of By the Great Horn Spoon! (3) Do "Metric Measurement," pages 355-356 in the math book and "Measuring with Metric" on the back. (4) Do pages 24-28 in California Content Standards:  Practice and Mastery book. You may mark in the book.

Careers in Tech

Another productive day here in room 19. We had a good discussion, as we usually do, about our homework assignments as we carefully corrected them. We then read most of another chapter of Horn Spoon! We went to Tech Center where Ms. Richard is having them start to research careers in technology. They will be working in teams to develop a PowerPoint slide show on a career, and they will then be porting this to the school's website through the iWeb program.


After recess, they went to Mr. Pratt's class for History. In the afternoon, we talked about problem solving in math and we did our usual skill rotations in physical education. We also switched seats (which can be a form of problem solving....)


Homework:  (1) Write the spelling words 10 times each. The words are solution, variable, integer, diagram, and Sierra Nevada. (2) Do By the Great Horn Spoon! study sheet for chapter  15. (3) Do "Problem Solving" pages 342-343 and "Test Prep" on pages 344-345  in the math book. Also do "Buried Treasure" on the back.

Just the Homework Today

Homework:  (1) Write the spelling words 10 times each. The words are free enterprise, entrepreneur, industry, territory, and isthmus. (2) DoBy the Great Hornspoon! study sheet for chapter  14.  Also do "Writing Home" and "Modern Gold Mining." (3) Do "Ordering Integers," pages 340-341 in the math book plus "Below Zero" on the back.

Drying Out

What a miserable day yesterday! Oh well, at least it wasn't a school day. But things were still incredibly wet around Third Street all day today and we were stuck with rainy day schedule during recess and lunch. I guess by the time it dries out on Wednesday or Thursday we should have more showers again.

It wasn't a miserable day in room 19, however, but a most productive one. We began by correcting and discussing our math from Friday. Negative numbers are often hard for fourth graders to understand, but our students seem to be grasping this concept admirably. We went on to take a quiz over last week's chapters in By the Great Horn Spoon! After this we went on to read another chapter of the book. In today's chapter, Jack accidentally buys a bushel of neckties at an auction, a move that Praiseworthy correctly see as being "brilliant."

We worked some more on last week's art project on perspective, using water color to finish off our drawings. We blocked and practiced some of the last couple scenes in the play. We corrected a math test from last week, and we did our usual exercises and skill rotations in PE. In math, we continued to learn about negative numbers.

So, into every life rain does fall, but learning still goes on.


Homework:  (1) Write the spelling words 10 times each. The words are technology, discrimination, vigilante, population, and consumer. (2) Do By the Great Hornspoon! study sheet for chapter  13 plus "Similes" on the back. (3) Do "Comparing Integers," pages 338-339 in the math book plus "Countdown to Zero" on the back.

Walk-a-thon

Today was our Walk-a-thon and if you haven't heard already, it was a rousing success raising about 36,000 dollars for our school.

We were delighted in room 19 to have had the opportunity to participate, as you can see.

We did other things besides the Walk-a-thon, of course. We checked, corrected, and discussed our homework and Thursday's math test. We took a spelling test, and we checked and corrected that, too. We rehearsed scenes and dance numbers from Oliver! And we had an introduction to negative numbers.

The students all had ample time to get the math done during class time today, so I don't think that many should be taking it home. So, enjoy a rare weekend without homework!

Be Back Soon

We had a good day today and did a good bit of practice on the play, too. We went over our homework, first thing, as we usually do. Then we read the next chapter in By the Great Hornspoon! where the citizens of Hangtown learn about the just how far Praiseworthy can knocked a ruffian when he's sufficiently upset. He even gets a new name, "Bullwhip." We took a math test today, but we haven't checked it yet. The students worked with Aiden's mom on a really fantastic choreography for "Be Back Soon." This is going to be amazing!

Tomorrow is the Walk-a-thon. A big thank you to all the families who have already sent in their pledge form and money. If you haven't yet, please do so tomorrow.


Homework: (1) Write the spelling words 10 times each and write a sentence for each one. The words are ruffian, thievery, clung, compassionate, and tintype.  (2) Do the study questions for chapter twelve of By the Great Horn Spoon! (3) Do the study questions over "Electromagnets Everywhere." (4) Do the “Simplest Form” and “Adding and Subtracting Fractions” worksheet.

Our Perspective

We began the day, as we usually do, by checking, correcting, and discussing each last night's homework. We then went on to read another chapter of By the Great Horn Spoon! In the chapter we read today, Jack and Praiseworthy make it to the gold country only to almost be shot by an irate miner who thinks that Praiseworthy stole his washpan. In the end, though, the miner, named Pitch Pine Billy, proves to be an amiable fellow who shares his claim with the butler and the boy he nicknames "Jamoka Jack."

We usually have Tech Center on Wednesday and art on Thursdays but we changed that around again this week. Today in art we are continuing our look at perspective. We talked about foreground, middle ground, and background. The students did a little plein air sketching of second recess, and then they returned to the classroom where they turned some of these sketches into the beginning of a painting. We will finish these tomorrow.

We had PE after lunch, and we finished up our short algebra chapter today. We will have our test over chapter 13 tomorrow and along with that will be the second chance to improve the chapter 12 score. Please review for the test!

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words 10 times each in cursive and write one sentence for each word in cursive. The words are notoriety, bedrock, fisticuffs, idly, and bandana. (2) Do the study sheet for chapter 11 of By the Great Horn Spoon! (3) Do "Problem Solving" on pages 328-329 and "Test Prep" on pages 330-331. (4) Do the division practice sheet.

They're Playing our Song!

A very quiet, orderly, and productive day in room 19. We checked, corrected, and discussed our homework. I was really pleased that every single student had finished every piece of homework today. That doesn't always happen for a variety of reasons, good and bad. We read and discussed another chapter of By the Great Horn Spoon! We read a chapter in the Science text about how electromagnets are used in simple motors, doorbells, and in speakers. We also talked about how electromagnetism is used to create electricity, too. In math we talked about converting words into equations. That's not always the easiest of skills for fourth graders, but our students did quite admirably at it.

In Music, Mr. Lawton went over some of the best songs that the students have composed in the last couple weeks. In particular, the students had the pleasure today of hearing their songs played back to them on by the Sibelius computer program. It was fun for them to see the written notation on the screen and watch the cursor as it passed over the notes and produced a ethereal vocal sound.

Homework:  (1) Write the spelling words 10 times each and write a sentence for each one. The words are elated, petrified, peering, elegant,  and exaggerated. (2) Do the study questions for chapter ten of By the Great Horn Spoon! (3) Do pages 325-327 in the math book. Also do "Symbol Acrobatics" on the back of the answer sheet. (4) Do the “Equivalent Fractions” and “Adding and Subtracting Fractions” worksheet.

The Big Wave

In light of the current tragic situation in Japan, we took a break from our usual reading schedule today. We talked about the earthquake and the tsunami this weekend. Most of the students were pretty well-informed about it,but we clarified some things. I then shared with them some things about the 1923 quake which leveled Yokohama. Pearl Buck used this earthquake and the tsunami which followed it as the basis for her 1948 book The Big Wave. We read a selection from this book and took time to talk about how people deal with great tragedy. The boy in the story has to deal with the loss of his family, and many, many people in Japan at this time will be dealing with that as well.

On a lighter note, we practiced some of the scenes and the choreography that the students learned last Thursday with our guest choreographers. We also worked on learning to multiply and divide decimals in math. Students were dismissed at 2:00 pm so that fourth grade teachers could have some time to begin work on report cards.

Homework:  (1) Write the spelling words 10 times each and write a sentence for each one. The words are equation, hospitality, awesome, glance, and extract. (2) Do the study questions for "The Big Wave". For the letter be sure to have date, greeting, body, closing, and signature. The body should be about two full paragraphs. (3) Do pages 322-323 in the math book. Also do "Symbol Acrobatics" on the back of the answer sheet.

They Could Have Danced All Day

If yesterday was off schedule, today was really that way. Most of the students had the fantastic experience of working with two experienced dance teachers in the auditorium on two of the big dance numbers for Oliver! These parents are doing amazing things with the students, and both Mr. Pratt and I are really grateful for the fantastic participation and support.

The students also had the opportunity to have a couple recesses again so that I could attend our last library aide interview. It went well, and it looks like we will have a superb person in there. But I'll let Dr. Oh give all the details about this when it is all finished. The students who did not go to the auditorium in the morning went to Tech Center where they worked on turning their tuba stories into comic strips. They also went to room 7 in the afternoon where they watched more of the movie version of Oliver!

Homework:  (1) Do the final spelling words for the week. The words are necessity,  courteous, undertaker, commutative property, and impostor. The last one was somehow misspelled on the spelling list, but I did ask them to correct it on Monday. (2) Do the Great Horn Spoon! chapter 9 study sheet. (3) Do "Equal or Not Equal" on pages 318-319 in the math book.

Changes

Today was a little off schedule, as tomorrow will be, too. First of all, we did not go to Tech Center today as we switched, for a variety of reasons, with room 7. We will go tomorrow. Then, I had to take part in interviews for the new library aide. So the students had the opportunity to go to both recesses, and our PE was pushed ahead to 11:00 from the usual time. The two classes switched after lunch instead of after recess. That's a lot of changes for the students to have a day!

Despite this, we were productive. We checked homework, of course. We took our math test, though we have not yet had a chance to correct it. I worked with the students on their project for Mr. Lawton, trying to take it a bit more step-by-step for those who were confused. Finally, I ended the day by reading the next chapter of By the Great Horn Spoon! to them.

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words 11-15 ten times each in cursive. Also write a sentence for each one. The words are obliged, exasperated, ambled, lunatic, and jostling. (2) Do the Great Horn Spoon study sheet for chapter 9. (3) Do the "Adding and Subtracting Fractions" and "Division" review sheets.

Tongva!

The last couple days have been pretty off schedule in room 19. That's not always a bad thing; in fact, for the students it's usually fun. For the teacher it's a bit unsettling, however.

First, yesterday we had a special assembly in the morning organized by Fred Escheverria, a parent in room 13, of representatives from the Tongva nation. These are the native peoples of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. They're sometimes also called "Gabrielino" since they were stationed at the San Gabriel Mission after conversion. They did a great presentation about their language, culture, and music. They even did a dance which I managed to catch a bit of on my camera.

We had to leave a little early, unfortunately, because we had our Music class. Mr. Lawton worked some more with the students on their songwriting project. After recess, the students went to Mr. Pratt where they are finishing their study of early American explorers in California and the Bear Flag revolt. After lunch, we had a quick math lesson.

We finished the day with a celebration of Mardi Gras. The DuMont family, originally hailing from the Crescent City, gave us the history of Mardi Gras and then provided our class and Mrs. Mark's class with King Cakes to share. It was a great opportunity for the students.

Productive

It was a most productive day. We read another chapter of By the Great Horn Spoon! and we discussed it. We also wrote a short essay about the pictures that the students worked on last week. I have never had students actually write a composition about how they did their art before, but it was a surprisingly good way to force them to be aware of the techniques that we were using, and those that they could have used. I'll have some examples of this on the blog as soon as I can.

After recess, we went to the auditorium for some more play practice. They are getting really good at both acting and singing! The afternoon was devoted to Physical Education and Math. In Math, we are learning to multiply numbers with decimals. It's a pretty easy skill, particularly today's assignment.

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words 1-5 ten times each and write a sentence. The words are invasion, glum, lumber, morsel, and junk. (2) Do the Great Horn Spoon chapter 7 study sheet. (3) Do the "Latitude and Longitude" and "Butler" worksheets. Some of the maps did not photocopy that well, but do your best with it. (4) Do "Multiplying and Dividing Fractions" on pages 307-308 of the math book.

Also, be sure that the writing and art is finished. And, finally, make sure that the homework Mr. Lawton assigned for Music two weeks ago is finished.

Seussical

Today was the birthday of Theodore Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. But more about that later.

We read another chapter of By the Great Horn Spoon! We also worked on creating telegraphs using our electromagnets.

We went to Tech Center where Ms. Richard had them completing their "How I Learned to Play the Tuba" stories. They will start using special software to make these into cartoon strips next week.

Then in the afternoon we paired up with the first graders in room 5 to read Dr. Seuss books. A great time was had by all.

Homework:  (1) Do spelling words 11-15. Write each word ten times each in cursive and write one sentence for each word. The words are inclement, ration, guava, Patagonia, and stalwart. (2) Do "Rounding and Estimating Decimals," pages 296-297 in the math book. (3) Do By the Great Horn Spoon! chapter 5 worksheet. Be sure to answer in complete sentences.

Writing Test

Today was the State Writing Test for fourth grade. This is the first part of our CST testing sequence. The reading and math tests will come as usual in May. This took up most of the morning before recess.

We also checked homework, corrected yesterday's math tests, and talked about rounding decimals. We had the extra hour today, so we did some more play practice.

Homework: (1) Write spelling words 6 - 10 ten times each and cursive and write one sentence for each. The words are becalmed, tarry, yard, languish, and exotic. (2) Do "Rounding Decimals," pages 292-294 in the math book, and also do "More than One Way" on the back of the answer sheet.

More Magnetism

Friday started out badly for me when I managed to break the frames of my glasses. I apologize for no blog on Friday, but I needed to get to Larchmont Optimetric as soon as possible!

One of the things we did Friday was to finish some of our pointillist paintings. They were really good!

Today we corrected and discussed our math homework. We read chapter four of By the Great Horn Spoon!. We also worked on Science. The students worked in small groups as usual. They made electromagnets with different numbers of twists to see if more wire twisted around the steel core would improve the strength of the electromagnet. To nobody's surprise, it did. The students recorded the results of their experiments on a t-chart and then put those results in a bar graph.

After recess we went to the auditorium for some more play practice. After lunch, had physical education and the students took their math tests.

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words ten times each in cursive and write a sentence for each word. The words are latitude, horrendous, monotony, banshee, and impending. (2) Do the Great Horn Spoon worksheet over chapter four. (3) Do the Division and Fraction review sheets. Since today was the test, there is no assignment from the math book.

IMPORTANT:  Tomorrow is the fourth grade state writing test. Please make sure your child is here on time. They usually do not do well on makeups. Also, tomorrow is REGULAR schedule. The students will dismissed at 2:30, not 1:30.

Pointillism

Thursdays are usually art day in room 19, and today was no exception. We are in our unit on Color right now, and today we talked about how our eyes blend individual colors into hues. This led us to a discussion of Georges Seurat and the technique of pointillism. I showed the students a couple of his most famous works, and then we decided to do a bit of our own pointillism.

As with the great French master, distance tends to blend the points together into a scene with some depth.

Many of the students are not finished with their paintings yet, so we'll have a little more time to work on these tomorrow.

In addition to the art, we did the usual school things. We checked, corrected, and discussed homework. We read another chapter of By the Great Horn Spoon! They went to Mr. Pratt for History while his class came to me for Science. In math, we continued our work on fractions and decimals.

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words ten times each in cursive and do one sentence in cursive for each word. The words are balance, whistle, clamor, scoundrel, rogue, and ooze. (2) Do "Sea Routes." Students should use the maps in the back of their history books to help with this. (3) Do the By the Great Horn Spoon! study sheet for chapter 3. (4) Do pages 282-283 in the math book. Also do "Bright Ideas" on the back of the answer sheet.

There will be a spelling test tomorrow and a quiz over the first three chapters of Horn Spoon.

On the Number Line

Wednesdays usually pass by quite quickly and pleasantly, and this one was no exception. We began by checking, correcting, and discussing our homework, as usual. We then went on to reading the second chapter of By the Great Horn Spoon! We went to Tech Center. After recess, the students went to Mr. Pratt for history where they are learning about the Mexican War. We had PE after lunch as we usually do. With me, the students are practicing foot dribbling, a soccer skill. In math we're connecting fractions and decimals to number lines. This is one of those frustrating activities which never adults are never asked to do with numbers, but it is a designated standard and it's going to be tested so we do our best to teach and learn it.
Homework:  (1) Do spelling words 8-14. Write each word 10 times in cursive and write one sentence in cursive for each word. The words are dispirited, lurch, baffled, fierce, molting, penetrate, and despicable. (2) Do the chapter two study sheet for By the Great Horn Spoon! Be sure to answer in complete sentences and use a dictionary as needed to help with vocabulary. (3) Do "Fractions and Decimals on a Number Line" pages 278-280 in the math text. Also do "A New Measure" on the back of the answer sheet.

New Things

It sounded like everybody in room 19 enjoyed their three day weekend in honor of Presidents' Day.

We started reading By the Great Horn Spoon! as our main reading this week.The previous emphasis at our district level on using the Open Court Reading series - and pretty much only that curriculum - seems to have diminished significantly, so until our hands are slapped we will be using texts which I think will be much more interesting and meaningful to students. It is a good bit more work for me, but frankly it is worth it. By the Great Horn Spoon! is a story about the California Gold Rush so it also helps the students master key history concepts as well.

In math we are learning to convert decimals into fractions and vice versa. Not really that hard a concept after a little practice, but it does require the fourth grade minds to jump through a few unfamiliar hoops. Although many of the students may say they are done with their work by the time they come home, it would be a good idea for an adult to spot check it to see if the concept was really mastered.

Homework:  (1) Write the spelling words 10 times each in cursive and write a sentence in cursive for each word. The words are slake, imperative, suspicious, inundated, dire, cholera, and anxious. These are taken from the novel we are reading. (2) Do the By the Great Horn Spoon! chapter one study sheet. Students may need a dictionary to help with the vocabulary section. Be sure to answer in complete sentences. (3) Do "Fractions and Decimals," pages 276-277 in the math book. Also do "Shady Spot" on the back of the answer sheet.

Just Deserts

Most of our morning was devoted to taking the district-mandated Quarter Two math test. It went quite well, in part because I forced the students to go at my pace through the questions and we read each one aloud. If only I could do that on the CST in May....

Thursday is our usual Art day, and we did some desert scenes today. We'll be doing some writing inspired by this tomorrow.

We also went out and played some kickball with room 7 today since we'll probably miss PE with the rain tomorrow. We started decimals in math. This is a hard concept for the students at first, so please review their homework here.

Homework:  (1) Do spelling words ten times each plus one sentence. The words are courage, muscles, customers, ammonia, and pneumonia. (2) Do "Decimal Place Value" pages 270-271 in the math book.

Rainy Days and Wednesdays

Ah, after a long streak of nice weather we had some rain again. Great for nature. Not so good for teachers.

Nevertheless, we had a good day. We did our math tests, and we'll correct them tomorrow. We did the final draft of a composition. We went to Tech Center. We had a blustery PE time, and we read a chapter from the Science book.

There may seem like a lot of homework tonight, but each assignment is pretty simple. 

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words 10 times each in cursive and write one sentence for each. The words are thoroughly, through, threw, throw, and matador. (2) Do the "Comparative and Superlative Adjectives" worksheet. (3) Do the "Following Directions on Graphic Sources" worksheet. (4) Do the "Maps and Atlases" worksheet. (5) Do the "Magnetism = Electricity" study sheet. Be sure to use the book. (6) Do the "Factors" and "Simplifying Fractions" worksheets.

Electromagnetic!

We explored the relationship between magnetism and electricity today. I showed the students a large rivet and showed them that it could not pick up steel washers. I then touched a bar magnet to the same rivet, and suddenly the rivet could pick up the washers. I challenged the students to figure out a way to make a rivet magnetic without using a magnet. Each group had a circuit base, a switch, a couple wires, and a D-cell. With an occasional prompt, the groups discovered electromagnets.

We'll be doing more with electricity and magnetism throughout the week. We then went to Music. Mr. Lawton began by demonstrating the banjo and having the students make up lyrics to "Streets of Laredo".

This led them to working in songwriting partnerships. They'll be doing some more with these songs as Mr. Lawton's program continues.

After recess, we finished reading the "Shadow of a Bull" story. After lunch, we concluded our short math chapter on adding and subtracting fractions. Tomorrow there will be a test over Topic 10 and there will also be another chance at the Topic 9 test. Students should review everything in both chapters about fractions because the grades on the last test were not that great overall and they have a fantastic chance to improve their scores tomorrow.

Homework:  (1) Do the spelling words 10 times each and use each one in a sentence. The words are feeble, listlessly, bandage, gauze, and scrubbed. (2) Do "Using Reading Strategies" paper with the post-it notes. (3) Do "Draw a Picture and Write an Equation" pages 261-262 in the math book. Also to "Test Prep" on pages 264-265 in the same book. Also do "Crazy Quilt" on the back of the answer sheet.

Shadow of a Bull

We started reading "Shadow of a Bull" in the reader today. This is an excerpt from the Newberry-award winning book of the same name. It's not a completely easy story for the children to get because the social world of Franco-era Spain is pretty distant from that of contemporary Los Angeles, but they certainly enjoy the blood and guts that accompany bullfighting.

We also went to the auditorium again for more play practice. After lunch, we checked last Friday's reading quiz. We went to PE. In math we're doing subtracting fractions with unlike denominators.

A few kids brought Valentine's Day stuff, so we passed that out at the very end of the day.

Homework:  (1) Do spelling words 1-5. Write each word ten times each in cursive and write one sentence for each word in cursive. (2) Do "Subtracting Fractions" on pages 258-259 in the math book. Also do the "Fraction Action" on the back of the answer sheet.

Another Quick One

Homework:  (1) Do spelling words 16-20. (2) Complete the Study Guide for "Susan La Flesch Picotte". Be sure to use complete sentences. (3) Do "Adding Fractions" on pages 253-255 in the math book.

Just the Homework Today

Just a quick post today with the homework....

Homework:  (1) Do spelling words 11-16. As usual, write each word 10 times in cursive and also write a sentence. Not that "reluctantly" should have the t crossed. (2) Do the "Using Reading Strategies" paper. (3) Do the "Capitalization of Titles" worksheet. This is review, but all the information needed is in the box. (4) Do the division and multiplication worksheet.

Almost a Tweet

A short post today because we have a meeting in here after school and I need to get ready for it! So short it's almost a tweet!

Today we worked on the final drafts of the "Sewed Up His Heart!" story. I'll post some examples tomorrow. We also went to music with Mr. Lawton. We reviewed fractions; we'll be having a test on this tomorrow.

Homework:  (1) Do spelling words 6-10 in the usual way. (2) Do "Problem Solving" on pages 243-244 and do "Test Prep" on pages 246-247 in the envision Math book.

Once More

Today we spent much of the day working on the second rough draft of our newspaper story about the "Sewed Up His Heart!" story. It's not easy as a teacher to admit that your directions were not that good when you first gave the assignment, but the students did so poorly on it that I had to figure out that I needed to go over what I wanted more carefully. So we divided the story into sections and we reviewed it and made notes together for this. We will do the final draft tomorrow combining it with an art project.

We did some other things. We reviewed finding common denominators as we corrected Friday's homework. We rehearsed a bit more for the play. We worked with foot dribbling in PE. And we talked about ordering fractions as part of today's math.

Homework:  (1) Do spelling words 1-5. Write each word ten times each in cursive and write a sentence for each one. (2) Do Word Knowledge and Vocabulary for the "Susan La Flesche Picotte" story. Ignore the printed directions and use a dictionary or glossary for the definitions. (3) Do "Ordering Fractions" pages 240-241 in the math book.

Also, be sure that your homework for Mr. Lawton is done.

It Zoomed By

It was a fast day! I had an IEP (special education) meeting in the morning, and Sandra Choi, our coordinator took the class. We had play practice after lunch, and that went quite well. In the afternoon, we worked on comparing fractions with unequal denominators. That was a hard concept for the students, but with the help of the cross multiplying trick, I think they got it.

Homework:  (1) Do Negatives, pages 232-233 in the Language book. (2) Do "Comparing Fractions," pages 238-239 in the envision Math book. (3) Do the Division worksheet.

Lunar New Year

Today we celebrated our of pan Asian heritage by composing Japanese poems, painting a Korean celadon vase, and doing it all on the Chinese New Year! As you can see in a couple examples below - it was not always easy to get a good photograph of a complete student work - the students wrote Haiku about a branch of a flowering white cherry tree I had brought in from my yard. They then sketched the bough and the Korean vase in pencil, went over the lines in sharpie, and used watercolor to finish. Some of their work was astoundingly good!

That took up a surprising amount of the day, and students who finished early - quite a number of them - had a chance to start homework. In math, we worked on mixed numbers and improper fractions. It's not that hard a concept, but it's a new one to the students and it took a bit of time for it to sink in. 

By the end of the day, they were tired, I was tired, and we pleasantly spent the last 30 minutes in free play on the yard. 

Homework:  (1) Do spelling words 16-20 as usual. The words are :  appetite, banister, canister, subscribe, and fisticuffs. (2) Do the "Making Inferences" worksheet. (3) Write the words to "Food, Glorious Food." This helps the children learn the words to the song and practice their handwriting! (4) Do pages 236-237 in the math book. (5) Do the Equivalent Fractions and Division Practice worksheets.

No Internet Today

Quick homework via phone since our network is down...

Homework: (1) Spelling - facilities, superstition, reception,
pressure, and sense. (2) New Doctor study questions. (3) Commas, pp
244-245 in red Language book. (4) Math pp 234-235. (5) Math worksheet.

Sent from my iPhone

Singin' the Blues

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

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

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

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

In Series

Our morning began very quietly with the students practicing cursive by writing the words to "Consider Yourself" from Oliver! We went on to check our math homework. We had a brief power failure while we were doing this, but the lights popped back on after a couple minutes - much to a few students' disappointment. We went on to Science after this. The students worked on creating series circuits with light bulbs and motors. They first used only one battery, but then added a second to make the light bright and the motor run faster.

They also learned to make schematic drawings of their circuits. Tomorrow, they will explore the difference between series and parallel circuits. We finished the first part of the morning by doing some practice for the state writing test, actually using the 2007 question which asked them to write a day in the life of their favorite animal.

We went to the auditorium after recess, and we once again practiced the opening scenes of Oliver! under Mr. Pratt's expert direction. The music director - that's me - was a little grouchy here, but that helped make it a quite productive session.

After lunch, a few of the students finished the writing assignment while others started homework. At PE, the students did the usual rotations. My group worked on playing tag and dribbling a ball at the same time. It was not completely easy but a lot of fun. In math, we continued our look at fractions. This is still mostly review, but it will start getting more complicated in the next day or so.

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words 1-5 ten times each in cursive and use each one in a sentence. The words are stethoscope, microscope, kaleidoscope, ailment, and excitement.  (2) Do the Word Knowledge and Vocabulary paper. Ignore the printed directions: use a glossary or a dictionary here. We will discuss the context clues when we correct the paper. (3) Do "Fractions and Division" on pages 228-229 of the math book. Also do paper fun on the back of the answer sheet. This one is challenging! (4) Do the "Factors" and "Multiplication Practice" worksheets.

Practicing

Today we did a good bit of practicing for the play. But more on that later.

First we corrected and discussed the Topic 8 Test and the Topic 7 test. Since there are a couple new students in the class, let me explain again that I give students two chances at each math test. After we finish the unit, we take for A of the test and move on to the next unit. Students should take their tests home and review it with their parents. They can get additional practice on their weak areas by looking at the soft cover math workbook. Then, when we finish the next unit, the students will get a "second bite at the apple" by taking form B of the test for the previous unit. They get whichever score is higher.

After recess, we went to the auditorium where Mr. Pratt blocked the first three scenes of Oliver! including the opening "Food, Glorious Food" song. In the picture below, you can see the orphans in the workhouse eating their gruel while they dream of "...hot sausage and mustard."

After lunch, we had PE. Today, since room 7 was busy working on an art project - actually they were finishing the mission pictures that we did so beautifully yesterday - we just played kickball with room 17. It was fun for the kids.

In math, we are starting the fraction unit. This will be easy at first but get difficult when we come to reducing to simplest form.

Homework:  The only homework tonight is to finish the math pages for lesson 9-1 in the math book.

Amazing!

We spend the first part of the morning correcting homework, spending particular attention on the math. I always stress how important it is to ask questions when the students get something wrong and do not understand why, and that this is particularly important when one of the assignments is a review for a math test. After we had had our discussion, the students took the test. We will correct it and it will be on the grade book tomorrow.

We then finished our mission pictures. All of them were decent, but many such as the ones below were absolutely amazing!

 

The students went to Mr. Pratt for History. After lunch, we started some of our prep for the big test in May. I try to do as little of this as possible, but we need to do some and an afternoon when I am feeling slightly sleep deprived and they were feeling restless seemed like perfect timing!

I had to leave a little early to deal with AT&T, so Mr. Pratt took both classes for the last 45 minutes and they looked at Oliver!  

Homework:  Just do the spelling words tonight. And enjoy the respite....

Our "Mission"

Wednesdays are pretty easy days for all of us here in room 19. We have Tech Center and we have Physical Education on Wednesday. Those two things make the day go pretty quick. As usual, we started out by checking, correcting, and discussing our homework. We then went on to math so that we could have time to do an art lesson in the afternoon. After recess, students went to Mr Pratt for History and Drama. We started on our art project before PE, and we concluded the first phase of this after exercising. The students will be doing picture of different missions. This is a joint project with Mr Pratt for both art and history.

Homework:  (1) Do spelling words 11-15 ten times each in cursive plus one sentence for each. (2) Do the "Bridge Dancers" study guide. (3) Do the "Multisyllabic Words" worksheet. (4) Do "Make Generalizations," pages 214-215 and "Test Prep" pages 216-217 in envision Math. Also do "Make Hundreds" on the back of the answer sheet.

ERRATA:  On the study guide, the word in the box should be "herb", not "herb medicine". Also, the short essay on the back should be about Maisie, not Callie.

Shooting By!

Tuesdays are always a pretty quick day, and now with Mr. Lawton's class as a regular feature of our Tuesdays they just shoot straight by! We began by checking our homework. We continued by reading and discussing "The Bridge Dancers" in the reading book. This is a somewhat strange story. It's in the reader to introduce the idea of herbal or folk medicine to the students. They seem to like it more than I do because it does have a sense of drama in it and two fairly well-drawn characters. I'm just not sure of the message....

Students went to Mr. Lawton and after reading. We have second recess on days when they have their music class. After recess, they went to Mr. Pratt for history and drama. In math we are closing our short geometry unit. They will have a test on Thursday.

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words 6-10 ten times each in cursive. (2) Do the Scramble and the Theme Connection - this is for last week's story, "Medicine:  Past and Present". (3) Do the division practice sheet. (4) Do "Views of Solids", envision Math pages 212-213. (Note that the page numbers written on the answer sheet are wrong and refer to yesterday's assignment.)

Dribbling

The days right after winter break seemed to go slowly, but after a couple weeks they seem to start whirring by again. We checked homework, of course, at the beginning of the day. The students then put together some of their work from the last Open Court unit and the last math unit which Miss C. will be putting together in booklet form for them. We started looking at the trait of Organization as part of our 6+1 Traits of Writing program. The students looked at the rubric and then evaluated two anonymous pieces of writing (not from our school or class). They scored them quite well!

After recess, they went to Mr. Pratt for History and Drama. After lunch, we had PE. Students worked with me on dribbling. I had them doing figure 8's around cones with the balls, and they were all better than me!

In math, we looked at solid figures and reviewed faces, edges, vertices, and the like.

Homework:  (1) Do the Word Knowledge and Vocabulary for "The Bridge Dancers". Ignore the printed directions on the back:  use a dictionary or the glossary. (2) Do the Author's Purpose worksheet. (3) Do the Drawing Conclusions worksheet. (4) Do spelling words 1-5 ten times each in cursive and write one sentence for each one. (5) Do "Nets," pages 210-211 in the math book. 

Grossed Out!

 Today we finished off reading "Sewed Up His Heart!" The students were suitable disgusted by the details of heart surgery and serious infections. Fourth graders like to be disgusted.... I added details about how surgeons back then learned medicine by dissecting bodies and how sometimes people dug up bodies from graves to sell them to medical schools to make make them cry, "Gross!" We did some focused revision during writing time. This is an activity where the students are given an actual piece of pretty sorry student writing (not from our class or school) and the students make it better.

After recess, the students worked on an art project which helped them to both review polygons and the difference between primary and secondary colors:

They had a chance to start on some of the Language Arts homework after they finished the art project.

After lunch, we tested objects to see which ones were insulators and which were conductors. Students had fun with this, as you can guess.

We also read some of Oliver! and worked on circles in math.

 Homework:  (1) Write spelling words 11, 12, 18, 19, 20 ten times each in cursive. Also write one sentence for each. (2) Finish the "Using Reading Strategies" page including the summary. (3) Do the study guide for "Sewed Up His Heart!". Skip the tree map on page 24 of the packet. (4) Do the crossword puzzle. The definitions are straight from the dictionary, so use the number of letters and the other clues to help figure these out. Skip the wordsearch. (5) Do "Circles," pages 204-205 in the Math book, plus "Circles in the Air" on the back of the answer sheet.

Ordinary Day

It was a pretty ordinary Wednesday, but a good one. We began our day, as we usually do, checking, correcting and discussing our homework. After this, we went on to read the story "Sewed Up His Heart!" using our reading strategies. Student wrote predictions, questions, and connections on post-it notes while they read. We do this to show how good readers often annotate the texts they read while not, of course, having them actually write in a book which belongs to the school. We went to Tech Center as we usually do on Wednesdays.

After recess, we worked on Science. The students were challenged to discover how to make a light and light using a couple wires and a D cell battery. This helped them to figure out the idea of a circuit.

 

They were then challenged to use the D cell to make a motor run and to add a switch to the circuit.

We started reading Oliver! after lunch. The students have been working on some of the songs from this show with Mr. Pratt, and we will be also doing this regularly each day after lunch from now on. At PE, the students did various rotations with the three different teachers. When they came to me, they worked on dribbling skills. During math, we worked on the different types of quadrilaterals. This is one of the trickier plane geometry concepts. Students like to think of parallelograms, rectangles, and squares and different shapes, and have trouble seeing that a square is also a rectangle, a rhombus, and a parallelogram.

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words 6-10 ten times each in cursive and also write one sentences for each in cursive. (2) Do the "Edison Sees the Light" questions. Be sure to actually use the Science Resources text and not try to do these from memory. (3) Do "Quadrilaterals," pages 202-203 in the envision Math book. Also do "Doodles" on the back. Be as specific as possible and name the different types of triangles and quadrilaterals precisely. (4) Do the "Multiplication Practice" worksheet. Again, be sure to show all answers.

Fast Day!

My apologies for not keeping up last week. Unfortunately, the district has put so many pointless blocks on outside accounts that it is not always easy to get connected to Blogger at school to actually be able to post what we have done and our homework. In a day when so many students are walking around with smart phones connected to the Internet, I am not sure who is being protected here.

Our three day weekend was a nice little break for us, particularly since we had such fine weather. I was lucky enough to get away to San Diego with the dogs. I know that a couple of our students were also able to have a little escape, too. But with the shortened schedule and the music class, the day clipped by pretty fast!

Our day began with checking our homework from Friday, and we particularly discussed the polygon page from Math. Our next story in Open Court Reading is called "Sewed Up His Heart!". It is the story of Daniel Hale Williams, the African-American surgeon who conducted the first surgery on the human heart. There is a lot of medical vocabulary with this story, and the students worked on the Word Knowledge and Vocabulary page here. A few will need to finish this in addition to any other homework.

We then went to Music with Mr. Lawton. This week he focused on rhythm with the students. They have a homework assignment from him tonight as part of their work.

In math, we looked at Triangles. This is review for most of the students, and mostly is about learning the names for the different types of triangles. This will also be part of the spelling for the week.

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words 1-5 ten times each in cursive, plus writing one sentence for each. The sentence should also be in cursive. (2) Do pages 200-201 in the math book. (3) Do the Multiplication practice sheet. Again, be sure to show all work. (4) Do the Science questions. (5) Do the rhythm worksheet for Mr. Lawton.

As mentioned before, a few students will also need to finish the Word Knowledge and Vocabulary.

The Sound of Music

Today's news was our first class with Mr. Lawton. I'll update this post later with more details and pictures, but for now here is the homework.

Homework:  (1) Write spelling words 6-10 ten times each in cursive. Also write a sentence using each one of these five words in cursive, too. (2) Do the division worksheet. Be sure to do the check step.

Back Again!

 It wasn't easy getting up early again this morning, but I think everybody was happy to be back in room 19. We had a couple changes in the class:  Ralf's family moved back to Estonia; Serim went to the KDLP class; and we welcomed Miri to our class. We were happy to welcome back Miss C from maternity leave.

We started on a new unit in Reading called "Mystery to Medicine". There is one of the more interesting themes in the Open Court series, though the vocabulary for the first story is pretty tough. We took our spelling this week from those words. We started our Writer's Workshop today.

Our students went to room 7 for history and drama today. I worked with the students from that class on static electricity and making electrical circuits. Room 19 students will be doing these experiments next week.

We read a little more from James and the Giant Peach. We went out for some easy PE. In Math, we worked on multiple step problems. We'll have our test on Topic 7 tomorrow.

Homework:  (1) Finish putting concept and question on the word cards. Be sure to write the words large and dark and also to provide a color illustration. (2) Write spelling words 1-5 in cursive 10 times. Also write a sentence for each word. (3) Do "Multiple Step Problems," pages 182-183. Also do "Test Prep" on pages 186-187. Both of these are in the math book. Do "Graphing Sales" on the back. (4) Also do the multiplication practice worksheet..

Twas the Day Before

One of the funniest descriptions I ever heard of teaching elementary school was that it was like trying to keep 30 corks under water at the same time. It usually is not that hard, but the days before Christmas Break does have this feeling. Particularly if the teacher is coming down with the flu....

Anyhow, we muddled through. We corrected and discussed homework. We talked about prime and composite numbers. I gave the students the math early so that I could conference with each of them about their final drafts. The math assignments should be done leaving only the writing as homework for tonight. Nevertheless, since we'll check it tomorrow morning, I'll put it on the homework.

Homework: (1) Do "Prime and Composite Numbers," pages 180-181 in the math book. (2) Do the division practice sheet. Be sure to check the answers as well. (3) Do the final drafts of the holiday story in cursive.

Chilly!

What a cold day! For a while, the office even had rainy day schedule planned for us. Fortunately, that didn't happen.

We reread the "Salt" story today. We went to Tech Center where the students worked a bit more on their PowerPoint presentations. We talked about factors in math.

Homework: (1) Do sentences for the spelling words. (2) Do the "Salt" study questions. (3) Do the commas worksheet - which for some reason only printed out on the front side. (4) Do pages 178-179 in the math book.

Conference Day Two

Our second day of this last week of 2010 is going along swimmingly! We read "Salt", the last story in the Dreams to Jobs unit in the reader. We worked on a variety of skills with this story, too. We practiced the strategies of predicting and questioning. We worked on determining the meaning of words from context. And we reviewed compound sentences and prefixes, too! After recess, our math work introduced the procedures for dealing with quotients with a middle zero (such as 207 R 2). The students seem to grasp this pretty easily. I gave them the whole hour to get this work done so I hope that few have it has homework tonight though it is still on the list below. Finally, after lunch I returned their stories and they shared them with partners. I graded these first rough drafts just for ideas. They will work on second rough draft tonight. These revisions should help improve the coherence of the story and add details and dialog.

Homework: (1) Do "Fixing Compound Fractures" and "Theme Connections". (2) Do the "Prefixes and Suffixes" worksheet. (3) Do pages 176-177 in the math book. (4) Do the second rough draft of the holiday story. Like the first rough draft, it should be at least four pages skipping lines, front side of the paper only.

Conference Day One

Today was our first day for parent conferences. Like most of these minimum days, it seemed to go by in a blur! We checked and corrected our math homework, read a short chapter from the Science book, and then we were off the the KDLP winter concert. It was really quite sweet, particularly the little ones and the fifth graders who wrote an original bilingual play for the occasion.

After the concert, we came back to the room and the students had a few minutes to get started on their Science homework. After recess we started on math. Lunch comes early on minimum days, and after that we were done!

Homework: (1) Do the "Summary: The Force" questions. (2) Do pages 174-175 in the math book.

We're Inventive

Yesterday we read about the Gerber family and how Dan and Dorothy Gerber used their imaginations to create a labor-saving creation, canned baby food. Today the students used their imagations to create their own labor saving technologies. They then made advertisements for these devices, just as the Gerbers had to do for their baby food.

After recess the students worked on magnetism. They made balances and connected two magnets on each side of a plastic cup. They then used steel washers to see how much weight would be required break the force. They then inserted plastic spacers in between the magnets to see how that affected the amount of weight needed.

After lunch we made paper cut outs in the style of Henri Matisse. We did these with a holiday theme, and you will see them next week if you are able to come to our holiday pot luck.

Homework: (1) Do the spelling word search. (2) Do the "Conjunctions" worksheet. (3) Do the "Cause and Effect" worksheet. (4) Do pages 169-170 in the math book. Be sure to show all work on a separate paper as well as writing the answers on the answer sheet.

Long Division!

Today we introduced the students to standard algorithm for division. That's a fancy pedagogical term for teaching them the way the we adults do division. Most of them seemed to grasp it fairly well, but it would be a good idea if parents double checked student work today.

We also went to Tech Center and took a very pleasant trip up to the Fremont Library. We reread "Birth of a Baby Food." We did our usual PE, as well. For those students participating in tonight's Family Night and winter orchestra concert, good luck!

Homework: (1) Do the "Baby Food" study questions. Be sure to write complete sentence answers. (2) Do pages 156-166 in the math book.

It's Already Over?

The day just zipped by! We read a story, "Birth of a Baby Food" in the Open Court reader and we practiced using connecting and questioning as strategies here. We reviewed a bit of what we did yesterday with magnetism and read a chapter in the FOSS science text. We focused on the idea of division with remainders in math. And, to end the day, we went to the book fair.

Homework: (1) Do the spelling scramble. (2) Answer "When Magnet Meets Magnet" questions. Be sure to use complete sentences. (3) Do the multiplication worksheet.

Most students should be finished with the pages from the math book. They were given ample time to work on them during class. However, 162-163 in the math book will be check and corrected with other homework assignments tomorrow.

Conference letter confirmations went home today. Please be sure to ask your child for it. Also, be sure that the field trip form is signed for tomorrow's walking field trip to the Fremont Library.

Magnetic

We had a couple of really fun activities today in room 19. First of all, we went to the auditorium for a production of How the Grinch Stole Christmas done by the students in room 17. Since many of our students had had Mrs. Caruso as their third grade teacher, this was a familiar script. All the students did a good job.


It was a particular pleasure to see Eve Whitman, Mrs. Caruso's daughter, as the accompanist. She is a room 19 alumna now at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.


After recess, in Science, the students explored magnetism. They had a bag of test objects and they check to see which ones a magnet would stick to. When they were done, they figured out that magnets only stick to iron and to other magnets.



In the afternoon, we had sock ball for PE since room 17 was too tired to come and and do the usual rotations. We worked in math on estimations - never an easy skill for students, but they seemed to do pretty well with it.

Homework: (1) Sort spelling words by digraph. Some words have both vowel and consonant digraphs: put them in as many categories as apply. (2) Do "Estimating Quotients," pages 160-161 in the math book.

Students also took home a field trip form for Wednesday. We're just going up to Fremont Library to check in and check out some books: no presentation by the children's librarian this time.

Unconventional Greetings

Today we finished reading the "Business is Looking Up" story. The students made greeting cards. They had their choice of picking either an unconventional recipient like the one below,

or picking an unusual situation such as this one where granny gets sent to jail!

There were some other great ones like "Happy Justin Bieber Day" and another welcoming vegetarians to the world of eating meat!

In the afternoon, we took two math tests, one over Topic 6 and the other as a "second chance" for Topic 5. The students finished their cards and then got a head start - well, some of them did - on homework.

Homework: (1) Do the "Business is Looking Up" study sheet. (2) Also do the "Conjunctions in Compound Sentences" worksheet. This is pretty easy, but students do need to read the directions inside the box. (3) Do "Different as Night and Day" and "Theme Connections" to finish off our work on this story. (4) Do "Multiplication Practice 4". There will be a multiplication quiz tomorrow as well as the spelling test.

Quick!

What a quick day! It seemed like today just went whizzing by.

We started off today with checking and correcting homework. This often takes more time than I'd like to spend on it, but I do think that if homework is assigned it should be corrected and discussed, not merely collected and "checked off". We started "Business is Looking Up", one of the least interesting stories in the Open Court Reader. Some of these stories can just be read quickly and "checked off"! We will do an art and writing project with it tomorrow, so the story is not a complete waste....

We went to Tech Center where students received flash drives from Ms. Richard. They saved their PowerPoint presentations on them, and many will be bringing them home tonight to continue work on these. After recess, the students went to Mr. Pratt. He continued teaching them about the early settlement of California and also is starting to them them the songs from Oliver!

We read more from James and the Giant Peach after lunch, and our math lesson dealt with problem solving. The students will have a math test over topic 6 tomorrow. Students were dismissed for play activities at 2:00 today so that teachers could work on getting ready for conferences. For that reason we did not have the usual afterschool homework club today.

Homework: (1) Do the Word Knowledge and Vocabulary paper for "Looking Up". (2) Do pages 150-151 and 152-153 in the math book. (3) Do the Multiplication 3 practice paper.