It's in the News!

Today we began by checking our homework and discussing each assignment. We then went on to review the Open Court Reading story about the invention of ice cream cones. We talked some more about the writing assignment the students did yesterday, and I clarified some points about newspaper writing style and content. The students revised their rough drafts as needed, and added a little bit of art to the final draft by creating their own front pages.


After recess, they went to Mr. Pratt again for History and Drama. After lunch, we continued our look at multiplication by two digits.

Homework: (1) Do spelling sentences for words 11-20. (2) Do "Words with Prefixes" worksheet. (3) Do "Another Pair of Prefixes" and "Theme Connections" paper. (4) Do "Greater Numbers," pages 148-149 in the math book and "Playing with Numbers" on the back of the answer sheet. Show all work on a separate paper. (5) Do the "Multiplication 2" worksheet to continue practice on this skill. Again, be sure to show all work.

Coming Back

It was hard coming back today, at least for the teacher. I had such a great break, and so many of the students did, too. We all shared our vacation experiences in the morning after we said the pledge of allegiance and took attendance. But the school day, like the show, must go on and we went on to have a pretty normal Monday. We started a new story in reading called "Ice Cream Cones:  A New Scoop" that tells the story of the invention of the ice cream cone at the Saint Louis World's Fair in 1904. The students read this short selection and then practiced writing a summary in the form of a newspaper article. We'll be continuing this tomorrow.

After recess, the students went to Mr. Pratt where they worked on early explorers and some songs. I worked with his class on magnetism experiments. Our class will be doing that later. After lunch, we read some of James and the Giant Peach. We went out for a fairly long PE block. Mrs. Caruso, assisted by one of the parents from room 7, did some fitness testing with all the students. Meanwhile, I worked with them on dribbling skills.

In math, we worked on multiplying by two digits. There's plenty of practice on that this evening.

Homework: (1) Do the "Pronouns" worksheet. (2) Write sentences for words 1-10 on the spelling list. (3) Do pages 146-147 in the math book. (4) Do the multiplication practice sheet. (5) Do the cursive connections practice paper.

A Tearful Goodbye

Today was our final day in the library with our beloved librarian, Mrs. Koneff. Words fail me when I think of the pedagogical idiocy of this school system in disabling its school libraries, and the loss of such a fantastic person to our school is deeply tragic. Despite the loss of her position, Mrs. Koneff is a true professional, and our her last day she read us two really funny stories after we returned out books.

On a happier note, Andrew received his medal for completing the reading marathon. Way to go!

In math we learned the short way to do multiplication by two digits.

Homework:  Finish any unfinished work from our short day:

• pages 216-219 in the Language book,
• page 144-145 in the Math book, and
• the two digit multiplication worksheet.

Abstracts

The days right before a holiday are hard for both the teacher and the students. Everybody feels a little restless waiting for the vacation to begin. So the day seems a little long for everybody. Still, we did our best to learn.

In the morning, we discussed informational articles and the structure of nonfiction paragraphs. We also began learning how to multiply by 2 digit numbers. The way the new math series introduces this is not exactly intuitive or the way most of us adults learned it, but it does sort of help them learn the meaning of the procedure.

In the afternoon we did art. Our lesson today dealt with the use of rhythm and movement in art, and the students studied and discussed a work by Catalan painter Joan Miro. Their abstracts were pretty good, don't you think.

Homework:  (1) Do the spelling wordsearch. (2) Multiplication, envision Math, pages 141-142. (3) Action Verbs, Language Handbook, pages 212-213.

Fremont Library

First of all, as you can guess, we have our electricity and internet back in room 19. Apparently one of the circuit breakers is seriously in need of replacement, but the LAUSD electrician managed to jury rig the existing board until replacement parts can come in.

Our big item today was our trip to the Fremont Library on Melrose Avenue. We went with room 7. The children's librarian there is absolutely fantastic. She began by giving our classes an orientation to the Los Angeles Public Library system and reading a heart-warming story about an elephant and a dog at an elephant sanctuary  in Tennessee.

The students then had an opportunity to pick out books and check them out. Many were using an LAPL library card for the first time.

Our walk to the library and back was quite pleasant, and Mr. Pratt stopped several times to point out interesting architectural features in our neighborhood.

In the afternoon, we had a couple fistball games for PE instead of our usual rotations because Mrs. Caruso was out on a field trip. We're starting double digit multiplication in math.

Homework:  (1) Do sentences for each of the spelling words. (2) Do the "Using Reading Skills" paper for the Open Court Reading story. (3) Do the study questions on the same story. (4) Do "Estimating Products," envision Math pages 138-139 and "Vacation Estimation."

Why No Blog

Sorry for the fact there have been no blog posts for the past few days. Several classrooms, including room 19, have been hit with electrical issues. Most of my plugs do not work, and there is no internet access at all. The district is working on this, but apparently the problem is more serious that just the circuit breakers.

I can received email on my phone, so feel free to contact me that way if there are any problems or concerns.

Short and Sweet

We had a short but productive day. We read "Elias Sifuentes, Restaurateur" in Open Court. It's a bit dated, but the students did understand why he might prefer to own his own business instead of working in a factory. With Mr. Pratt, the students reviewed for their next history test and learned did a great little improv about buying shoes at a shoe store. We ended the day with math discussing the order of operations, particularly using parentheses.

Homework:  (1) Do the spelling jumble. (2) Finish the "Using Reading Strategies" paper. Students had time to start on this during class. (3) Finish the "Sifuentes" study questions. Again, students had time to start on this during class. (4) Do "Parentheses," envision Math pages 122-123. (5) Do the multiplication practice paper. (6) Do the cursive practice worksheet.

Clearing

The day started unexpectedly with rain, but it was otherwise a pretty ordinary Monday. We did our independent reading, and we checked out homework to begin the day. In writing, we discussed broad vs narrow topics, and the students brainstormed some different topics and did a quickwrite. They went to Mr. Pratt for history where they learned about the native peoples of the Sierra Nevada area. After lunch, we read a bit of James and the Giant Peach, and went to Physical Education. In math, we studied inequalities today.

Homework:  (1) Make a tree map of the spelling words. (2) Do the "Word Knowledge" and "Vocabulary" page for tomorrow's reading of the OCR story, "Elias Sifuentes." (3) Do pages 120-121 in the math book and the "Chain Challenge" on the back of the answer sheet. (4) Do the multiplication practice worksheet. (5) Do the I and J letters in cursive on the worksheet provided.

Ms Jennifer Castaneda, or Miss C as the students call her, one of our aides, had her baby over the weekend! He's healthy and happy and we look forward to learning more details and sharing them with you.

Odds & Ends

It was a day to tie up a bunch of loose ends. We collected and turned in all of our Open Court Reading papers for the first unit. We turned in our reading journals. We graded and corrected both of our math tests from Wednesday.

We also had one of our final days in our school library. As many of you know, Mrs. Koneff received a layoff notice from the district and her last day with be the 19th of this month. She will be profoundly missed by students and teachers alike.

In PE, we worked again on various skills including hurdling. We took spelling and reading quizzes. And, of course, our students DEMANDED homework tonight.

Homework: (1) Do Concept and Question for the Concept/Question board. (2) Do the adjective worksheet. (3) Do "Expressions," pp 118-119 and "Pizza." (4) Do the multiplication practice worksheet.

Picture Perfect

Today was miserably hot, but we tried to keep cool as best we could. In some ways it was a pretty normal Wednesday. We checked our homework, finished reading an Open Court Reading story, and went to Tech Center. The students did particularly good work in Tech Center where they are writing a five paragraph essay with the help of PowerPoint.

Our most out-of-the-ordinary activity today was getting our pictures taken. This can sometimes be an ordeal lasting an hour or more, but today it moved quite smoothly and we were in and out in only about 20 odd minutes.

In the afternoon, we took a math test (actually two math tests, since they had their "second bite at the apple" chance for Topic 3) and they had a chance to get a good head start on homework.

Tomorrow is our field trip to Stunt Ranch. Please dress in cool clothes, and bring water to carry on the trail. Wear a hat and some sunblock. Bring a sack lunch that will be easy to carry in and to take the trash out. 

Homework:  It may seem like quite a bit here, but students had ample opportunities to start this before picture time and after the math test. (1) Do spelling sentences for all 20 spelling words. (2) Do the "Eddie, Inc." study questions. (3) Do the "Multisyllabic Words" worksheet. Be sure to find the word which you can divide between consonants. (4) Do the multiplication practice worksheet. (5) Do the cursive practice.

Glad to be Back

My meeting yesterday was pretty pointless, even by the generally low standards I've become accustomed to after many years in the district. But every member of school site council is supposed to go over year, so I had no choice. Still, it was really nice to be back here in room 19. The substitute, Miss Wynn, left a nice note, and that made it even better.

We spent a lot of time today going over Friday and Monday's homework. We also started our next OCR story, "Eddie, Inc." It is one of the lamest stories in the entire anthology, but it introduces the students to ideas like profit and investment. We went over "Reasonableness" as a checking strategy in math; we have the test over Topic 4 tomorrow. Students will also take the "B" form of the Topic 3 test to see if they can improve their score any.

Homework: (1) Do the spelling jumble. (2) Do "Reasonableness," envision Math pages 108-110 and "Test Prep" page 112-113. (3) Do the cursive connections worksheet.

Please make sure that the field trip form is signed and turned in! We have space for a couple parents on Thursday's bus trip.

No Homework!

Today we did a few Friday things like taking our spelling test since we will be leaving for downtown relatively early tomorrow. The only thing we did that was really different or fun today was to start on a collage project. The students had a lot of fun looking through old newspapers and magazines and finding pictures that interested them.

They did a surprisingly excellent job of cleaning up after this, and they were rewarded with no homework for the evening. Of course, for the teacher, this was also a recognition that there was no way we could check it until Monday anyhow.

So enjoy!

A Pretty Nice Day

Recess is one of the best parts of the school day!

It was a nice sunny day, and we had a pretty nice day in room 19. After reading and checking our homework, we went to the Tech Center where the students worked on their PowerPoint projects related to the Reflections theme of "Together We Can." After recess, the students went to Mr. Pratt where they begin their study of California's native peoples. After lunch, we listened to some of James and the Giant Peach. We did our usual rotations during PE, and Reese's mom was here to help students measure their ability to do sit-ups. We'll be monitoring their progress towards the Presidential Fitness goals. We worked on learning the standard algorithm for multiplication in Math - that's the way that all adults normally do it by carrying over a number.

Homework:  (1) Do the spelling jumble. The word search is optional. Because of the field trip on Friday, the test will be tomorrow. (2) Do the "Girl who Loved the Wind" study questions. (3) Do the "Doubling Final Consonants worksheet. This one is not hard, but please read the directions and the explanation in the box. (4) Do "Multiplying," envision Math pages 101-103 and "Mathematical Marlena" on the back.

Just the Homework Today

Quick post before I head off to a meeting....

Homework:  (1) Do "Complex Sentences" worksheet. (2) Do "Using an Expanded Algorithm," envision Math, pages 97-99. Also do the Quick Review page we skipped in class.

Windy

A good, productive day, despite winds blowing leaves inside the room every time we opened the door....

We started a new story in OCR, appropriately enough called "The Girl Who Loved the Wind." Students went to Mr. Pratt for History and Drama today. They'll be having a test there tomorrow, so please review the worksheets with them. In Math, we're working on rounding and estimation.

Students are also taking home a field trip permission form. I should have sent this out last week, so please get it finished today and turned in tomorrow. We're asking the students to bring in 6 dollars to pay for Metro fare. We're doing the Metro for this field trip to save our bus for something farther away. Since we're going to downtown, we'd love to have as many adults as possible come with us. Please let me know if you're available.

Homework:  (1) Finish the "Using Reading Strategies" page. We started on this in class, but it took them astonishingly long to complete it and many didn't. (2) Write the spelling words in syllables. (3) Read the worksheet on "Complex Sentences" and finish it. If the students read the section in the box, this should be easy. (4) Do "Using Estimation," envision Math pages 94-95. (5) Do the "Word Knowledge" and "Vocabulary from Context" pages for "Girl who Loved the Wind."

Review the history worksheets. The students will be able to use these to do their test.

Wise Old Owls

Our week came to an end with a bit of sunshine, finally. We had a pretty quiet and productive Friday, but we squeezed in a bit of fun, too. We began by checking our homework. We went to the library where Mrs. Koneff gave us a great reading of Chris Van Allsburg's The Widow's Broom, a particularly great story for Halloween. We took our spelling test and we took a couple of reading skills tests. Results for both are already posted on the gradebook.

After recess, we went over to the auditorium for Mr. Lawton's special program. This is, as I mentioned a couple weeks ago, the research for his master's degree.

Today he had the students work on a short song called "The Wise Old Owl" which had a place for improvisation. The students were attentive and really enjoyed the improvisation section.

You can tell how hard they're concentrating. This is part of the mental "flow" that Mr. Lawton is trying to measure.

In the afternoon, we had PE by ourselves - room 9 was on a field trip and room 7 was busy - we just had kickball. That's not good physical education generally, but every now and again it's sort of a treat for the class, the pedagogical equivalent of eating potato chips!

We finished the day with Math. Today we are doing mental math strategies. These are often I find more challenging for the adults to figure out than for the children to perform.

Homework:  (1) Do "Mental Math," envision Math, pages 92-93. (2) Do "Joke" and "Theme Connections". These relate to the "Two Tickets" story.

Shaking

Today was the great earthquake drill that wasn't much of a great earthquake drill. We always have a couple big, district or state earthquake simulations, one in the fall and the other in the spring. This year, apparently because of budget cuts, we only ducked and covered under out desks. I am not quite sure how this saved money, but I can't say I missed spending 45 minutes on the yard.

We make thinking maps of the "Two Tickets" story after we checked, corrected, and discussed our homework. Some of these are quite promising, and I am looking forward to getting all of them completed and turned in.

We graded both of the math tests. I am happy to report excellent results on Topic 3, and significant improvement for most students on Topic 2. The results of both tests are on the gradebook. If the students had a better grade on the Topic 2 test, the new score has replaced the original grade.

After lunch we listened to a bit of James and the Giant Peach. We also went out for the PE, more I suspect, for the teacher's mental health after three days of rainy day schedule than for the students' physical health. We finished off the day with math.

Homework:  (1) Do the "Ticket" wordsearch and study for the spelling test tomorrow. (2) Do the vocabulary review crossword puzzle. (3) Do "Multiples," envision Math pages 90-91. (4) Do the U and X cursive pages.

More Rain

Another dreary, rainy day. The teacher was depressed. The students, who actually enjoy rainy day schedule, seemed to have a good time. They did not get to go to PE, of course, but they did go to the Tech Center where they started a PowerPoint project. During lunch, they watched Homeward Bound:  The Incredible Journey, a really nice adaptation of the 1963 book. After lunch, we listened to Jeremy Irons read a bit of Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach, our current core literature selection. They took their math tests today (the topic 3 test, and the second bite of the apple for topic 2). They had a lot of time after the test to get started on homework, so I would be surprised if they took anything home.

Homework: (1) Do sentences for each one of the spelling words. (2) Do the "Two Tickets" comprehension questions. (3) Do the "Drawing Conclusions" worksheet. (4) Do the subtraction practice worksheet. (5) Practice cursive T and Y using the pages provided.

Gray!

It was a very gray day, and things were pretty subdued in room 19. Of course, that's not a bad thing for a Monday morning. We did reading, and we shared our weekends. We began reading "Two Tickets to Freedom", one of the better stories in the Open Court reader. This is the story of William and Ellen Craft, two slaves who escaped from Georgia to the north.

We did a little work in Science, and quite a bit of music. We're coming to the end of our rhythm unit this week. We skipped PE today because it was starting to sprinkle right at the end of lunch recess, and Mrs Caruso and I both did not want to be out there and suddenly trying to race inside to avoid a shower. So the students had  a chance to get a good head start on their homework.

Homework:  (1) Write the spelling words in syllables. You can use a dictionary to help you. (2) Do the two cursive pages. (3) Do "Use Multiplication Facts," envision Math pages 80-82 and "Tables that Rule" on the back. (4) Do "Sentences" pages 166-167 in the red language book. Look at the examples at the top of the page for directions.

There will be a test on Topic 3 Wednesday; students will also take the "B" form of the Topic 2 test to see if they can improve their grades here. Please use the Topic 2 test to review. The students have this test in their folders or desks.

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.