Wednesday

September 24 2007, by Megan

Geuss what? We started the day with four drawings!The class did really good this morning.First, in math,we started with page 50 review in our math book and corrected it.Then,we took our chapter 3 math test because we didn't get to do it on Friday.We also did 4.1 in our new math packet, which was on expressions, then,the class did the math log. Our math log is where we write down what we learned in math today.

In reading,the class did a spelling pretest.Almost everyone got most of the words right.We also did our vocab and clues chart on our new story "Mae Jemison".Some of our vocab words were astronaut,excelled,and simulates.Plus we went fifteen minutes earlier for recess!
After recess,we did "What is a Sentence" in our C.L.A.S book.We learned about a predicate and subject.

When lunch was over Mr.Kootman read School Story.In School Story Hanna has problems with her boss because Hannas boss wants to edit the book instead of letting her do it. Natalie found a way for Zoe to get her moms boss to let her mom publish the book.

In social studies,we learned about locations in California.The class also learned about how people can live in the desert,and that they need us to send fresh water through a canal because there is no water in the desert.

Finally in PE we played steal the bacon.Alot of students didn't hear their numbers,and some people would circle around the eraser (the bacon).We had fun and we can't wait for yoga tomorrow!!!

Monday

First Week of School Revisited- Sept 5- by Reina

Guess what? Today we had our first math test! But before the test Mr. Kootman let us do some mixed review on the test. He wants us to achieve,not fail like some teachers nowadays. Since he let us do the mixed review, I think we did pretty darn good. The mixed review and the test was on benchmarks, place value and pictographs.

After math we did reading. In reading we read Toto. Toto is about an elephant who gets caught in a snare and a African boy who frees him. Next the class answered questions about Toto and did vocabulary that was in Toto. Afterwards we did a class blog on the projector. Here is how the class blog worked: the class gave some ideas and Mr.Kootman typed. Mr. Kootman is a good typer!

At 12:45pm we went to lunch. I brought lunch that day. As usual the cafeteria was loud. Once lunch was done we read our chapter book, The School Story. In that part of the story Natalie (the main character) and Zoe (Natalie's friend) are researching about how to get Natalie's book published. Natalie went to her mom's office and learned about the slush pile. To close up our day we did Social Studies. In S.S. we did vocab words (hemisphere,tropics and climate) with a game. Mr. Kootman would click on the projector while we had our eyes closed and it would say the meaning of the word, then we would click on the word we thought it was. Afterwards we packed our bags and flew out the door to go home!

Friday

September 19, 2007- by Room 40

Are you a savvy shopper? Today, Mr. Kootman told us how we can save money by using coupons we find in newspapers, magazines, on boxes or even in Mr. Kootman’s shirt pocket.

We began the day by reviewing math, which included a Quick Review and a Mixed Review. These are short and quick math problems that are based on material we should already know. Our new lesson for today was subtracting across zeros. This is when the top number of a problem has a lot of zeros, so we have to borrow from a greater place value. It can get confusing because there can be a lot of crossing out and borrowing.

In language arts, we read “Escape”, which was a story from the book Charlotte’s Web. It is about the risk that Wilbur takes when he leaves the pig pen. One of my favorite vocabulary words from this story is appetizing, which means giving the desire for food. After we read the story, we created our own tree map for the story. This helped us to organize our ideas and make sure we understood the story. Then, we wrote a summary for the story. Mr. Kootman says that the more we write for our organizer, the easier it is to write our summary.

After lunch, we created our very own map of California, with the four regions in different colors. We used water color paint to make the regions stand out. We also included a key on our map. We were all heartbroken that we did not get to read School Story after lunch. After we made our map, we went home to get ready for our field trip to the Avo Theater tomorrow.

Tuesday

September 10, 2007- by Room 40

A new student named Mattison joined our room today. She jumped right in and seemed to know exactly what to do... as soon as we found her a desk to sit at! We began our day by practicing cursive. Mr. Kootman said he needs to know how well we can write in cursive so he knows what to teach us.

    In math, we started out with a quiz on chapter 1. This was so we could review the things we got wrong and learn from them. Then, we started on lesson 2.3, which was about using tables and data. This took a long time and we went right into recess!

    After recess, we started our new Open Court story, "Sarah, Plain and Tall". We did our clues chart, which tells us what the story is about and we practiced our vocabulary words in our vocab log. My favorite word from this list is feisty, which means to have a lot of energy and being very spirited. In our CLAS book, we reviewed first and third person point of view. First person is when someone who is in the story is telling it. Third person is when the narrator is not in the story.

    In our chapter book, School Story, Ms. Clayton says she will help the girls get the book published. Zoe explains her plan to help out Natalie. During the day, we took notes for this blog as a class. Tomorrow we will write it up. We wrapped up our day by going out to play with the fifth graders while Mr. Kootman went to a PTA meeting. We can't wait to do yoga and have the Freedom Walk tomorrow!

Wednesday

September 4, 2007- by Room 40

Do you know who Katarina is? Now we do! She is a new addition to our class and we are very excited to have her here! Now we have 33 students in room 40!

    The first thing we did today was review for our chapter one math test. This test will be on place value and pictographs. Mr. Kootman did a wonderful job of preparing us for the test. After math, we began our new story, Toto, in our language arts book. After that, we created a clues chart for the story. The purpose of a clues chart is to learn about the story before we read it. Mr. Kootman says that good readers try to get an idea for a story before they begin it. We also did our vocabulary log for Toto.

    Throughout the school day, we took notes for the blog you are reading now! Tomorrow, we will all write our own class blogs. After lunch, we read our chapter book, School Story. In this chapter Zoe went to work with her dad to study publishing.

    The last thing we did on Tuesday was social studies. We learned new vocab words, such as: tropics, climate and hemisphere. Climate is the pattern of weather in a place over a long period of time. That wraps up our spectacular day. We can't wait for Thursday to come so we can start yoga!