Sunday

December 15, by Ashley

It's raining! It's pouring! Where's my umbrella!?!

Well we (the class) started the day off with some easy similes and metaphors. What are similes and metaphors, you ask? Well you're lucky that you know me. Oh, excuse me. My name is Ashley. I'm in 4'th grade in Mr Kootman's class at Mary Fay Pendleton School. Where were we? Oh right. A simile is something that compares two things using the word "like" or "as". A metaphor is comparing two things not using "like" or "as".

After that, we went on to math in our Saxon Math book. The lesson we were learning about is about Adding and Subtracting Decimals. Adding and subtracting decimals is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. For example,( 5.4 + 6.1=11.5). How you can figure it out easier is by lining up your decimals.

Ring-a-ding, ding!!!!!!!!!

Recess time! So at recess no one could go outside because it was still raining!!! So instead the class watched a BrainPop video inside our warm and cozy classroom. Some people talked to each other after the video. Myleigh brought some Saltines for a snack. She didn't like them so she gave them to me because I love them so much!!!!!!!!!! After recess, we read our class chapter book called The Homework Machine.

Soon after recess, it was time to go to lunch. Now it's time to go to lunch. After lunch we had a music assembly. It was part assembly, part concert which had the woodwind family. The instruments that were in the family were the flute, oboe, clarinet, and the bassoon. We traveled to different places like France, Europe, Africa, and other places around the world to hear different types of music. The orchestra played different sorts of music like peaceful music and traditional music. I think that the assembly lasted 30 to 45 minutes. But the music assembly was interesting!

Minutes later, it was time to go home. Thank you so much for reading my Daily Blog!!!!!!!!!! See you next time. Good-bye!

Here are the image credits for the pictures:

http://www.how-to-study.com/images/simile2.jpg
http://www.gearpipe.com/i/StudentBandInstruments.jpg
http://www.ashevillemusicandart.com/MusicImages/instruments275.jpg

Wednesday

December 9, 2008- by John

Wahoo! It's almost Christmas! On Tuesday December 9 the class stood on the black top, and then Ms. Kepley told us to run around the track two times. Afterwards when everyone finished running we all went inside and started our morning work. For todays morning work we had multiplying with triple digits. Ex. 200x50= 10,000. The secret is looking for the simple fact, such as 5x2.

We didn't have any D.O.L but I don't know why. D.O.L is a tool that helps with spelling, grammar, speech, and etc... Next, the class started on our Saxon Power Up workbook- page thity-nine. Once we finished, our new math lesson was on Word Problems about Multiplication. It was pretty easy, but then we did another lesson on Rounding to the Thousands Place. That was also easy. After we did one more lesson that was about Decimal Place Value, then we got our homework assignment. Our homework assignment for today was pg. 277 through 280, 1 through 30.

When we finished math we went to recess, except for the people that had their cards up. During recess, people played different varieties of sports and other things. When the bell rang everyone went straight to their lines and waited for their teachers to signal them to come inside. It took a while for Mr. Kootman to come get us because he was doing something in the front office. Once recess was over Mr. Kootman let us inside and began to read The Homework Machine by Dan Gutman. The Homework Machine is really only dialog from the characters, but everyone still likes the book. There are many characters in The Homework Machine like Brenton Damagatchi, Judy Douglas, Kelsy Donnelly, Sam Dawkins, and all their parents too.

When we finished reading we started to read our new story of the week called "Sewed Up His Heart" by Lillie Patterson. "Sewed Up His Heart" is about a man named James Cornish who was stabbed in the chest and needs an operation. Then Dr. Dan looks after Cornish over night and Cornishs conditions worsened over night. Dr. Dan had to make a decision fast or Cornish would die in a matter of hours. Finally Dr. Dan made his decision to operate on the chest. When Dr. Dan entered the room he was bathing in perspiration. During the operation he would discuss what he found because he was pioneering an unknown territory.

The final part of the operation was sewing up the pericardium and sewing up the skin as well. Finally the operation was over and Dr. Dan became famous for the first successful heart surgery. In the middle of the story, while Nina was reading, Mr. Kootman interrupted and told us what a pericardium was. The peri- in pericardium means "around" and card- means the heart. For todays Language Arts homework we had to make a drawing of Dr. Dan out of facts from the story.

After Language Arts we went to lunch instead of going to writing. For lunch there was pizza and PB and J, but I brought my lunch and had a burrito, granola bar, mandarin oranges, and apples. For lunch recess everyone played either wall ball, kickball, hangout, or played on the big toy. After lunch recess Mr. Kootman came up to the black top and didn't see Hunter. Mr.Kootman asked what happened and Bryce told Mr. Kootman that Hunter was slammed into the ground and his tooth was out of place. When we got in the classroom we got our science materials and went to Ms. Barone's class. In science we did a lesson on Ecosystems like the Rain Forest, The Desert, and The Coral Reef.

Finally, in Social Studies we did our presentations for our missions and explorers reports. The first person to go today was Destiny and she was doing mission San Luis Rey. Dimitri went right after Destiny and did a great job, and he had great pictures for his poster board. Finally Katelyn went and she did an excellent job on her mission San Luis Rey. The last thing we did was reviewed our homework, cleaned up the room, and went home.

Image Credits:
http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2008-03/36648660.jpg

http://www.eos.ubc.ca/courses/images/course/eosc315.jpg


http://www.wired.com/images/article/full/2007/09/pericardium_580x.jpg

December 8- by Kaylee and Room 40

Aahh!!! A wave of mission projects! Today our California history projects are due. Mr. Kootman had to find places in the classroom for all the models that some students built. Of course, not everybody built a mission; some people did Photostories, some created a poster and some visited missions or did reports.

First,we started out with DOL by respelling words that are spelled incorrectly. Next, we did extremely easy multiplication facts for our math lesson. Ms. Kepley, our student teacher, instructed us on this topic.

Then, at recess Jordyn,Nina,Jena,and I played extreme hopscotch by doing two twists, two handstands ,and one cartwheel.

After recess, we began reading our new chapter book, The Homework Machine. We don't really know what it is about yet because the characters
are keeping it a secret, but we know that the perspective is first person.

At about 11:00am we moved into language arts. We learned our vocabulary for our new story "Sewed Up His Heart." One of our words was anesthesia, which is a drug that puts you to sleep for surgery. Then Mr. Kootman gave us some time to start our Clues Chart. This is our prereading so we can get an idea of the
story before we read it.

We did this up until lunch, which was turkey hot dog and taco salad. At lunch recess, I did pull-ups on the monkey bars.

After lunch, we went to Ms. Barone's for sc
ience. We learned about ecosystems. Two of our vocab words are biotic and abiotic.

Then we went back to Room 40 where we graded people who were presenting their mission projects. One of the qualities that makes a good report is if people speak loudly.

After that, Mr. Kootman gave a bit more time to start our homework and then we went home!

Image credits:
http://www.davidwallphoto.com/images/%7B3CE41A08-4EA7-46D6-93E9-798894B73EDD%7D.jpg
http://www.missionsofca.com/mission-images/hcay9014-mission-03.jpg
http://www.canaryzoo.com/Geog/ecosystem.jpg


December 5, by Jordyn

Yeah!!!! Today is Friday!!!!! That means we can have HOT time (homework on time). There are 20 more days till Christmas! We started our day with a morning run around the track. Me and Destiny also ran all the way to the big toy (it was not for extra credit). When we came inside it was as warm as toast. First we started to do our morning math, it was all multiplication it was mostly 3-4 digit numbers (piece of cake). Following math, we took out our Saxon Math power up lesson 37 it was multiplication.

Afterwards , me, Jena, Nina, and Caylee played extre
me hop-scotch. Here's how to play, for 1,2,3,6 and 9 you jump all around. Then for 4,5,7, and 8 you do a hand-stand. OK, now you guys know how to play extreme hop-scotch.

Afterwards, Mr. Kootman read us our new chapter book The Homework Machine by Dan Gutman. It is where these 4 kids got in trouble, but they keep going off topic so we still don't know how they got in trouble. They live near the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The kids' names are:Sam Dawkins, Judy Douglas, Brenton Damagatchi, and Kelsey Donnelly.( They are called the "D squad" because they all sit at the same table.)

Ring a ding, it's lunch time! When we got into the cafeteria it smelled like, PIZZA! Not just cheese pizza it smelled like peperoni and sausage. First I sat down at our regular table and ate my lunch. For lunch I had chicken nuggets with ketchup. Then I was surrounded by all of my all of my friends I was so happy they chose to sit by me.

Once we came into the classroom it was time to read time to read Medicine : Past and Present for the last and final time. It was about how people died from a type of medicine. Did you know that the Native Americans used to chew willow bark to reduce the pain. But it grossed me out when it told me that when your body gets rid of smallpox it produces a scar from your face and you have to heel it with lemon and lime juice.

In Social Studies, Kiara and Ashley started their mission projects early. Mr.Kootman thought that it was so nice that they wanted to go first. First, Kiara shared with us her project about the San Luis Rey mission. One of her facts was that a 500 foot wall was build around the mission. Next up was Ashley, her topic was the San Diego de Alcala mission. It was really fascinating to here that it was the first mission to be built in California.

Finally its H.O.T. time!!! H.O.T. time means "homework on time". I played extreme hop-scotch just like what I played at recess. And I also got to do pull ups on the littlest bar there is (I'm still shorter than it) and Ms. Betty counted. I hope you liked reading my daily blog on Friday.

Image Credits:

Tuesday

December 2, 2008

Time to go back to school! I wonder if Mr. Kootman will remember all of our names after our nine day Thanksgiving break. Many students are almost done with their Photostory projects!
We started off our day with DOL, just like we usually do. One of the questions asked us to find the correct spelling for “cookie.” The second part of our morning work was to complete an x, y table. This is when we get an equation like y=2x+ (x+4) and we have to solve several equations.

After our morning work, we reviewed for our math test. This math test was totally different than all of our other math tests. We usually have a test on a single topic, like rounding, but our new math book, Saxon Math, tests us on many bits of different topics. Some of the questions on this test involved perpendicular and parallel. Most students thought it was an easy test.

After math, we went out to recess where kids played all different kinds of sports, including wall ball, soccer and football. Joshanda saw a teacher helping a student who was injured.
When we returned, we read “Medicine: Past and Present.” This story gave us the history of medicine and various diseases throughout time in many cultures. When we were through discussing the story, we reviewed synonyms and antonyms in our Spelling and Vocabulary Skills book. We used the SMART board to categorize different words.

When we moved into social studies, we watched the video for lesson 3.1 which was about pioneers moving into California. When the lesson was over, we summarized it out loud and clapped it shut into our brains.

Finally, we saw a BrainPop movie about “The Black Plague”, which related to our medicine story. Then Mr. Kootman gave us our drawing prizes from last week and we went home!

Photo credits:
http://images-cdn01.associatedcontent.com/image/A8209/82090/300_82090.gif
http://www.cagenweb.com/cpl/west008BB.jpg

November 17, by Jaclyn

Time to begin our day in room 40! If we get to school early we get to play for 30 minutes on the blacktop. When the bell rings we get to line up and our teacher comes and sometimes we jog,run,and skip.

Next we went into the class room and we took out our homework and our homework checkers checked it. If we don't do our homework they put our card up. Then we have to stay in for recess and Mr.Kootman would have call the people who did not do their homework. He would ask what you did not do. I only have been in there 3 times."Oh" and on Fridays we don't have extra recess time if all of our work is not done.

Then, we take out our yellow book so we can do our DOL. A "DOL" is where you look at the SMARTboard and we copy it down in our small yellow book. When we are done with DOL we check it and we do some of our homework.

After we were done we did x and y math. For example:if y=100(311+600) you would have a number like 6 so you add 100+6=106 then you would add 311+600=911 lastly you add 106+911= 1,517 so 1,517 equals y.Sometimes you get to make your own x."Oh" and Mr.Kootman gives us 5 min. Mr.Kootman tells Tory to put on the 45 sec. timer and open up to lesson 28 multiplication facts and he gives us 2 or 1 min. to finish the multiption facts.

Before we take out our hardcover math book and white board and open to page 199 and he says I do it,we do it,and you do it.Once he is done doing it we do it. Once we are done doing it Mr.Kootman points to us if we're right or wrong. Sometimes our classmates check it like Christopher and Bryce.We sometimes get our paper ready for notes or homework.

Ding,Ding,Ding time to line up for recess. Some teachers are on duty because some people don't follow the rules at recess. Some people bring a snack like Top Raman,chips,brownies,and muffins.

On the blacktop there are many fourth,fifth,and six graders. They play soccer,football,play on the playground,and they bring out a teniss ball and throw it on the wall. We only have 15 min. to play and eat. On the playground there are 4 swings,2 swirl slides,2 leaders,and a spider web were you can hang up side down on and people like to climb up yo the middle of the spider web. On the swings people get in a line and they count to 100. Then they have to get off or some people will tell the teachers. Ding,Ding,Ding time to line up says the teachers. Mr.Kootman tells us to walk down to the class and who ever is first in line they get to open the classroom door and it's a gold key.

Before we take our trimester 1 test we did Fluency.Fluency is where you get with your partner and Mr.Kootman gives us a folder with the papers you are suppossed to be reading and writing. The teacher gives us 1 min. to read. If we get a word wrong our partner puts a dot above the wrong word. Mr.Kootman put on 1 min. to read and when the timer rang we had to STOP reading and our partner put a line after the word you stopped on. We look on the side of the paper and it is in a row and the number stands for the words in that row and if you missed a few you subtract that number you read. That creates a graph for us to see our progress.

Then we took our trimester 1 test and we got our name in dark words and it came with a packet so we can see the question and on the other paper and fill in the bubble so we can get the answer right. Some people had to finish it the next day, me too.

After we are done with our test we had to go to Miss Barones class and you have to bring a small yellow book,highliter, pencil,and Comprehension and Language Arts Skills book and in writing we are writing what we are afraid of.The most people wrote about clowns. To me they are scary.

Ding,Ding,Ding "time to go to lunch"said Mr.Kootman and once we walked into the lunch room we were the first one in there and why you were walking you can smell your lunch why you were walking.We had chicken nugget and mini cheese burgers.When we went outside on the black top there were people that played soccer, football, play ground and tennis on the wall.Ding,Ding,Ding the staff tells us to line up until we see our teachers.

Once we get into the classroom we have to get our science, we walk to Miss Moore classroom that is 45.We are learning about microorganisms and we took notes that were about other germs.

After we were done with science we had to do S.S. and take out our book and we did a S.S. video and we had to build one of the 21 missions and you can do a photostory, go to missions, build a mission, and type a missions. After Mr. Kootman told us it was due Dec. 8th and we were post to go up to the classroom and tell what your mission is about.

We filled up the marble jar so we got to watch a Brainpop video and we got to take notes on the brainpop viedo and it was our first.We were taking notes on test taking notes.
Lastly we had to go home and get payed tomorrow.

Images Credits: