December 20- by Kianna

Yesterday, Mr. Kootman called in sick. Everybody thought he made an excuse just to get away from us kids. So Mr. Kootman asked our student teacher ( Ms. Sarina) to take over for the day. Right now Mr. Kootman wants to see how fast I am by doing a blog in one day. I started taking notes yesterday.... and I think I'm going to succeed on it. Because we have a lot of fast typers in my class. But he chose me because he had pride in me. Let's stop talking about this and go into the real world.

In math we took a multiplication test. Some of the problems were: 9x4;9x9;5x3; and some other stuff. My class's average is 85%. last time we had 83%. After the test we opened our math book and we're on 11.5. The lesson was called Solving Simpler Problems. It was like: 96x31. Instead of doing 96x31... it's going' to be much harder with that math on your paper. We rounded the factors just did 100x30. We had to do those types of problems on our white boards.

Afterwards, we read Sewed up his Heart. Sewed up his Heart is about a man named Mr. Cornish getting stabbed in the heart. He went straight to the hospital to get sewed up. A Dr. named Dr. Dan decided he'll operate because he faced a challenge. Then, Ms Sarina picked a stick . My number is 24 when she said " Kianna, what is the story about?" And guess what I said? Murder. Where did I get the word murder from? No one was murdered.

After, Mr. Kootman & Ms. Sarina decided that we have to draw Dr. Dan out of words. He told us to draw him lightly and then on the lines write who Dr. Dan was about. When that was over we did apostrophes. For my class and I, apostrophes were like review to us. The two places we need to remember apostrophes are for contractions and for possessive nouns. We did apostrophes for at least 20 min.

Once we finished that, we went to lunch. Then, Ms. Sarina read By The Great Horn Spoon. We're on chapter 10 called The Rogue Out-Rouged. We didn't start it yet but we will after lunch.

On December 20 we will have a party, well.. Mr. Kootman wouldn't call it a party..... OK it's a party kind-of. HO! HO! HO! MERRY CHRISTMAS, JOYOUS KWANZAA & A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

December 13- by Demar

I did not know we were famous!!!!!! 1,2,3. HOW many people are gonna walk through the door! The superintendent of Fallbrook schools and two principals came to our room and a special person named Ms. Lucy. Today our class learned to multiply by 4 digit numbers; Mr. Kootman said I rocked it. I thought it was hard. Then we got ready to go to yoga. When we arrived some one told us that the kindergarteners were practicing their play. Then we tried to go out side but it was way to cold. Once we came back, the homework checkers checked our homework. Oh! did I mention that we had a math quiz? After that, we had reccess; I got beat up in football.

Once we came back from reccess we read The Milkmaid and Her Pail. We learned a lot about fables; we even made a circle map about it. I thought it was cool because fables have been passed on for years and years. Once we finished, we did vocabulary, we had a lot of words. We each choose our own words. My words were antibodies,microbes,plague and sterilize. Once we were done with our words we stepped right in to our C.L.A.S book. We were just doing review but I did not think so. Then we went to lunch.

At lunch they had hamburgers, pbj, and yogurt with graham crackers. After, we read our very new class chapter book The Great Horn Spoon. The chapter was about a kid named Jack and his butler, Praisworthy, searching for a thief on the boat who stole their money. So Praisworthy made an exellent idea to find the thief.

Next we did science and learned what is the pistol and what is the stamen,we even played a game of pictionary. Hunter figured out the most. When we were done we got ready for P.E. where we played a game of War Ball. You already know I got crushed. Then we packed up and went home.

December 17- by Mattison

WATCH OUT IT IS ALMOST CHRISTMAS! HOHOHO MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! On Wednesday we did a Review/test on chapter 10,then we moved on to Chapter 11, which is called Understand Multiplication. After math we went to yoga, but the kindergarteners were practicing a play for the parents so we went to class to finish up what we were doing. I was sad cause we couldn't go to yoga. Today we are learning Multiply by Multiples of 10. Before recess we did our Math Packet on lesson 1. When we came in from recess we started reading Medicine Past and Present. It is very long. It is about some diseases: cowpox,and smallpox. It is also about people getting really sick. A lot of people are getting sick from cowpox,and are having to go to the Hospital in the story.

After that we did a test on Medicine Past and Present.Then when we were done with that we went to lunch; it was good. I got ice cream. After lunch we read our class chapter book called By The Great Horn Spoon. Some of the characters are Praiseworthy,Captain Swain, Mr.Azariah Jones,Aunt Arabella and Jack. After that we did Science. Science was on lesson 4- What is an Adaption.

We did not do Social Studies today. After we did Science we were going to go to P.E,but we didn't because everyone was being too noisy and we didn't have enough time. We usually have Yoga on Tuesdays and Thursdays,but we did not go Tuesday and Thursday.

Some of us had to do vocab and clues chart for Homework; I was one of them. Vocab is is where you learn about some words out of the story you will be reading next,and then you write down the words that you learned and you look them up in the glossary. And a clues chart is where you trace your hand and then you write down the author, the genre, the title and the key vocab and,finally the picture clues.

December 4- by Arabelle

Today we were lucky to have some guests. One of them was Ms.D, a teacher from another school, the other was Ms.Sarina, our student teacher. They watched us do our morning work which was math. During math we did a review on chapter nine, which was on expressions using multiplication. After that, we took the real test!

After the test, we went to yoga and we were the first there so we got to be on the stage for yoga,witch was kind of cool. When yoga was over we had a little more time to finish the test because some people were not finished.

In reading and writing, Ms.Sarina read "Salt". The story "Salt" is about a man named Ivan who was not trusted by his father. But he found pure Russian salt and sold it to a king. Ivan also won the heart of the beautiful princess, the daughter of the king.

When we were done with the story we did an activity with it.The activity was where we give the character a bit of advice and it was really fun. After that activity, it was time for lunch. Reina, Sami and I played an animal game because we LOVE ANIMALS.

After lunch Ms.Sarina read Room One. In Room One, Ted found out how he could save April and her family.The next day Ted found them in an abandoned house next door to the Anderson's house. Ted and his mom planned to pick up April, Alexa, and Artie but they were not there!After Ms.Sarina was done reading everyone started whining, but Ms.Sarina could not read any more because it would be the end of the book. Mr.Kootman had to get the class quiet so we could move on with the day.

At the time that was done we moved on to science were we learned about ecosystems on and off of land and it was pretty fun learning that because we learned stuff we never knew. When we got done with all of our science we were all ready to go home. So everyone got there homework and backpacks said " I will see you later "and every one had to go home and took off.

December 3, 2007- by Skye

NEWS LISTEN UP!!!!! First, at about 9:35am we had a practice test on chapter 9 in math and we went over some of the problems from the trimester test. Then, we did our vocab+clues chart for our new story Salt; some of our words are: uncharted, merchandise, and procession. A procession is a neat line of people or cars.

Next,our student teacher, Mrs.Sarina, played with the Smart Board; she was crazy. After snack we worked in our spelling and vocab book and learned about Plot in our C.L.A.S book (which took a good hour maybe). Then, Mr.Kootman taught a comprehension review on the Oregon Trail.... it was kind of like a test.

At 12:15 we went to lunch and we had a chicken sandwich. At lunch recess most of the kids (including me) played handball. Once that was done, we read Room One where Ted was still helping April and her family. Ted thinks the family is on the run. Last, we did science and we learned about ecosystems. An ecosystem is the habitat around you. If you don't know what an ecosystem or a habitat is then listen. Well a habitat is a home. An ecosystem is the living or nonliving things around you (dun,dun,dun)!! Then, we packed up our homework, and went home.

November 26, 2007- by Hunter

Wow! Didn't see that coming. Mr.Kootman got a bloody nose while teaching science today. In science, we learned about microorganisms and Mr.Kootman said "there are more bacteria cells in you, then there is you in you". Next,we went on to math. I'm confused because we switched from lesson 9.5 to 9.4. The lesson was equations with variables. We were using varibles to write equations from word problems. Then we had our Trimester Writing assessment and Mr.Kootman is still grading them using a Rubric!

We read "Business is Looking Up." Mr.Kootman read all 14 pages, so his voice must have hurt! Our class chapter book is called Room One. Ted got in trouble by Mrs.Mitchell because he was at the Anderson's house and he says "I'm doing a boy scout project". Finally, we had p.e. where we played war ball rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I got out about 6 times but they always got me back in. I got Mr.Kootman out then Devin Diaz got Ms.Sarina out! That was the last thing we did today!

November 14, 2007- by Joey

The blog is getting away; catch it!!!! Today we ran on the basketball court. We did a math practice test and a real test.The test was on lesson 8.1-8.7, which was about using parentheses. Yoga was awesome; we did a shoulder stand and push ups. After yoga we did our vocabulary, our words are community,restoring,harvest,organic,vendor and explain.

After language arts, we went to lunch. Lunch was rib sandwich or a strange kind of pizza. My mom makes almost all the lunches because she works in the cafeteria. When lunch was over we read Room One. It was about a boy whose name is Ted who meets a girl whose name is April. She needed food for her family so Ted gets some food for the family. When our chapter book was finished, we did music. In music, we square danced to Lil Mary Jane and it was awesome. Finally we went home.

November 7, 2007- by Samantha

Have you been to the Marine Corps birthday celebration? We have. We started off our day doing A through I on our new math Excel worksheet. Megan and I were the first ones done.Then we moved to our math book where we learned to multiply three factors. It wasn't very hard for most of us. We didn't finish the entire lesson before Mrs. Cecil walked in and told us that recess was going to be at 9:15. A few minutes later, all of us got our snacks out. Some of us were still full from breakfast, so we weren't ready just yet. A number of us didn't get to eat all of our snacks because Mr. Kootman said it was field trip time.


As soon as room 40 was loaded and ready to leave with another class the bus took off. We were on our way to the soccer field,where the birthday celebration took place. It wasn't long before the bus stopped and almost all of the fourth grade classes started swarming towards the booth. Almost half the class nearly lost the other half until we noticed it was right behind us. Mr.K got us seated and we waited for a while. Then a person on a microphone asked us to stand for the Marine Corps song. We remained standing for a few other things.While they were talking we were actually also learning about how the uniforms changed over the years and about our nation's proud history. A lot of us thought it was just a speech you know with out presents. But we were proved wrong when a small little carrier car drove out on to the field carrying the biggest cake I have ever seen. None of us got a piece and we didn't think we would.The cake was cut with a sword. I guess just to seem more military like.We saw them serve two pieces of cake to the general and some one else. A boy said he wanted to be a general just to get a piece of that big cake.


Shortly after the cake was served we left for school again.It seemed like we were going in circles over and over again just to get out of traffic, if there was any.Some of us got a little frustrated with the driver. Soon we got back to school and finished our snacks.Surprisingly, we got back about half an hour before lunch.I bet a number of us thought it was going to be an all day field trip.A half an hour later we all went to lunch.

When we got back from lunch we read our class chapter book,Worth.In this chapter Nathaniel hears about how the two families that fight alot blame each other for tragedies that most likely were coincidental. Next we read Wells and William G. Fargo. Finally we wraped up our day playing kick ball basketball and went home.

November 6, by Christian F.

We had an assembly, and West Winds Brass played for us and they were awesome. For math we had a practice test on graphs. Then we were going to take the graded test. I think I`m going to do well on the test because I am really good at graphs. Ah yes! I did really well!
I only missed one. Yes! I love math it`s fun huh?

We jumped into reading and my class and I are did our vocab and clues chart. Don`t tell anyone but I`m not done yet. I think my table is done already. I am so behind in my table. I`m slow at writing. Are you slow at writing? Finally, I finished it. It took forever to finish my vocab and clues chart. I wish I was faster at writing.

Then, the paper passers handed out cursive sheets. I hate cursive. Do you hate cursive? I don`t like writing at all. I would rather do math but this is writing. Then we took the spelling practice test. I studied a lot and I got most of them right. Yes! We have twenty words. If you had my words, would you get most of them right?

All in all, today was a weird day! Everything was early because of the music assembly. It was kinda fun but I was ready to go home.

November 1, by Max

EAT HEALTHY, EAT HEALTHY!!!! Isn't it funny we had an assembly about eating healthy after a night of eating candy for dinner (ha-ha)? Today we attended an assembly about eating healthy and eating at least one of the foods from all five of the food groups (protein, grains, calcium, vegetables, and fruits). We played a game in which the students had to place the food in the right food group. In some cases students didn't get it right. But we all learned a lot of important things. Following the assembly, in math, we finished our Excel worksheet. This is the one which the answers to the problems add up to a certain number provided. Then we learned about line graphs, double bar graphs, and stem and leaf plots. We learned that line graphs progress over a period of time; that double bar graphs provide for two sets of data; and that stem and leaf plots show groups of data arranged by place value. Normally we would do yoga after math, but because of the assembly it was canceled. Miss Swanlund is our yoga teacher.

After snack, we read our class story for language arts. In the story, there are two main characters, Henry Wells and William G. Fargo, the founders of the American Express Company. It was neat to learn about one of the biggest banks in our country. During writing class we learned about "ou", "oi", "oy" and "ow" sounds. Finally the long morning was over and it was time for lunch. It was loud in the lunch room, as usual!!! Some things in my lunch were healthy and some were not. After eating we went out to the playground and I played with my friends.

When we came inside, we read our class chapter book called Worth. Nathaniel throws a book out of his window and John picks it up and tries to read, but he can't read it because he never went to school. Mr. Kootman reads the book to us. He is good at making us see the picture in our minds. Today we started science. I've been waiting all year for us to start science. It's one of my favorite subjects. We are learning about plants and how they grow. Plants make oxygen for us and we let off carbon dioxide for the plants to use.

Finally, we all packed our books in our backpacks. Everyone walked or got on the bus to go home - it was really crowded on my bus.

October 31, by Deisha

Guess what today is? Crazy hair day (and Halloween too); and Aiko's hair is so crazy! First of all for math we did our Excel sheet, then we went to a nutrition assembly and we learned so much. It was like something smacked us in the eye! We are not going to have yoga tomorrow because we have another nutrition assembly. After that, we went to recess to eat our snacks; it was a blast at recess. After recess, we did reading. The book was called Henry Wells and William G. Fargo. Those are interesting names aren't they? Next we did our practice spelling test on the oi sound and the o sound and I got a 20 out of 20,but everyone did a good job.

When the clock went on 12:15 we went to lunch. When we got to the cafeteria, it was like a jungle in there it was so loud me and my friends couldn't hear anything but screaming. But the meal was good. The food was "oishi" that means delicious in Japanese. After lunch we went to afternoon recess,it was so cool when I did a one hand cartwheel. Isn't that so cool?

Then when recess was over, we came in to do social studies. What we did was a review before we started our science. Best of all we got a science workbook,but we didn't start writing yet we just put them in our desks. Isn't that so cool ,to me it is. I cant wait till next week because we are having yoga.

When we were done with social studies the timer went off and it was time for us to get dismissed to go home. The way Mr.Kootman dismissed us was by how clean our desks were, not just on our desk but under our desk too. When Mr.Kootman called table 3(my table)we got out of the class room to go home, but most people don't go directly home. They might go to MCCS. I'm sure all of us had a great time at school.

October 21, by Diego

Tonight is the Fall Festival! I am going,are you? Next week we are starting science finally.Today,we started out with some quick review and some mixed review for math. I got it all right. Then, we started our math lesson on stem and leaf plots on our white boards. It was pretty fun .After that,we started our math test. It was on line plots and some other stuff. I think i did pretty good on it.

Next,we went to recess and when that was over we started on our spelling and vocab book where we practice our spelling words.Then,we started our spelling test which I think I did good on. After that, we started on our social studies. We learned a lot in that one book. It was about 12:20 so we were on our way out to lunch.

When we came back from lunch, we started handing off, which is where you ask a question and you throw a paper ball and someone else answers the question that you pick. When that was over we started the reading test. I was pretty sure I got a good grade on the test. It didn't take me to long to do the test but I did well.

Today we got the marbles over the line so when we went to HOT time I played tag with my friends and it was very fun. When the bell rang we all went to our classrooms and then I went to daycare waiting to go to the fall festival tonight!

October 17, 2007, by Kianna

Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert! Hey six graders, come closer, closer ,closer ok, stop. I bet you can't do this problem: 100-2+5-1=y. Now six graders, do that problem. Tick, tock, tick, tock, you people are slow. My fourth grade class is faster then you guys. In the meantime, I will be typing my student blog.

Today we started QR, MR. QR stands for Quick Review. Quick Review means the stuff we already know...but Mr Kootman would like us to remember the math. MR stands for Mixed Review. Mixed Review is almost like quick review but it has more problems than quick review,because quick review has five questions more than mixed review. Today's lesson is Analyze Graph and Data. Analyze Graph and Data is like two things 1. it's like a bar graph. 2.it's also like connect the dots, when you use a line graph.

When that was over, we finished our story board. A story board is an organizer the helps you understand social studies or whatever project you will be creating. My table (table six) is doing urban & rural. An urban area is a city. And a rural area is communities that usually have lots of open land & low population density. Each table in my class got to do a different term. One table did compass rose, so we combined it all together and put it on Photo Story three. Photo Story three is when you put anything together and turn it in like a movie. You get to create your own music, & a whole lot of stuff.

Once that was done, we did reading. The book we read was Starting A Business. Starting a Business discusses supplies or a list to start a business. Today, we are taking a test on the story. The questions are mainly going to ask you what you did to start a business, and so on.

Afterwards, we did CLAS (it's not spelled class) this CLAS stands for Comprehension and Language Arts Skills. Today's lesson is Sentence Combining. Sentence combining means when you have 2 sentence, and you try to put the together. Sometimes, when we do CLAS, our topic depends on what lesson we are doing, like Sentence Combining. We did sentence combining because it's in our homework packet.

Yesterday we did yoga. Only 4th graders do yoga. The reason why we do yoga is to relax our brains & and our body. At 9:30 we leave to go to yoga. Mrs. Swanland is the main teacher that does it. My teacher(Mr.Kootman) does yoga sometimes. The thing that Mr. Kootman is really good at is push-ups. He might be the fastest push-up champion in the whole school. At least I think so. I bet you a lot of people would like to see Mr.Kootman do a one hand push-up.

Finally,the worst thing happened to Mr.Kootman. When everybody came in, he lost his voice. So we had to get very quite to earn marbles and to help Mr. Kootman. The marbles are for H.O.T. HOT stands for Homework On Time. If we get over the red line then we get H.O.T. time. If we don't get over the red line then we have to do more work. I hoped you enjoyed reading my student blog. I won't forget the math problem six graders!

October 9, 2007- by Devin D.

The class started a wonderful day on page 81 in our math book. On page 81, Mr.Kootman had to remember tables in our math book. Mr.Kootman's class did some whiteboard showups (this is where we write the answer on our whitebords),to find the correct answer. Sometimes, we write the problem too like: 24+(72-9)=87.

When Mr.Kootman's class was in yoga all of the kids (exept Mr.Kootman 's class) were loud. Most kids did not like putting their legs up in the air, with only their elbow's touching the ground. Mr.Kootman's class was in a strait line from yoga back to the classroom.

When Mr.Kootman's class got to reading, it was our first time reading "Daedalus and Icarus". The story "Deadalus and Icarus" is about two prisoners who work for King Minos the king of Crete. "Deadalus and Icarus" live in the tallest part of the palace, with splendid view's across the island of Crete. Deadalus did not like being prisoners to King Minos so he made his greatest invention of all. Deadalus finally finished, after one YEAR, making wings to escape and go to their home land. Icarus died by not listening to Deadalus's words. These were the words Deadalus said "Don't fly to close to the sun."

In writing, Devin Diaz did a class blog for the class. Devin D. class blog is for what Mr.Kootman's class did on October 9,2007.You have to get it done at least in one week. If you don't Mr.Kootman well publish it early (no efens Mr.Kootman).

So, the day went on wonderfully, and pretty smooth. Mr.Kootman did the drawing's of the day with Popsicle's sticks. The kids got their prizes and put it in their backpack. I didn't win anything.

Finally, Mr.Kootman's class left in a hurry to catch their bus.

September 27, by room 40

Do you know how to subtract across zeros? Today we had a quiz on subtracting across zeros. Mr. Kootman felt that the class needed extra practice with this concept. People sometimes have difficulty regrouping and crossing out other numbers. It is easiest when you take it one step at a time!
For our new math lesson, we reviewed fact families and learned about how to use parentheses in expressions. When we see parentheses, we always do them first!
When it was language arts time, we read Mae Jemison- Space Scientist for the second time. Mae was famous because she was the first African American women to go into space. After reading the story, we did our first quick write.
We were all very excited because Megan wrote our second student blog! Our blogs have received so many comments so far, including comments from Guam and The Philippines.
After lunch, we read about how Zoe’s dad helped the girls negotiate contracts in The School Story. Then we went to the library, where we all got some great books for our daily reading logs.
Lastly, we took a social studies quiz on the different regions of California. The four regions of California are the valley, the coast, the desert and the mountains.

September 25, by Curtis

Danger!!! Danger!!! Beep!!! Earthquake!!! Just kidding it was cramped under our desk for our earthquake drill. It all started in the monring when it started from the intercom. It was the principle saying for every kid to get in their class for an earthquake drill and get under their desks. We waited and waited and then the siren came and it went beep!!! We hid under our desks and it hurt really badly.

We did a weird math test which took about five minutes. After that we started our Open Court reading about Mae Jamison the famous astronaut . She trained to go in space and I think it took her five years. No one believed her to be a scientist but she still followed her dream and did not care what people said. She had to go through tons of training. And she was 26 when she was a doctor. then Then we got our yoga mats and we went to the cafeteria to do yoga. It is really fun when we do yoga; well some times not all the time. All we're doing is stretching for 30 minutes and then we went to the first recces. After recess, we did vocab and the vocab was about Mae Jemison. One of the words was astrounat and then we did a computer activity where we were playing with the Smart Board. A Smart Board is a board that is hooked up to the cumputer so you can use your finger to draw.

After that, we went to lunch. When lunch was over, we went to class and we read School Story where Natalie finally got her book publised. After that we did social studies then we went to play steal the bacon!!! It is where the marker is in the middle there is what 18 players on each side and the teacher calls out 2 or 4 or what every and some one gets it and they run back to their team and the day was over. Thank you for reading.

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!!!

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!

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.

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!

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!

August 31, by Room 40

I can’t believe the first week of school is over. It went by so fast! We started the day by taking out our green homework folders. While the homework checkers looked at our homework, we began some review in our math book. Today’s math lesson was about graphs. We learned that we use graphs in many different ways, including how Mr. Kootman keeps track of how many people visit our website. We also learned that a pictograph uses pictures to represent a certain number of things. Right before recess, we received our writing folders. This is also where we will keep track of our grades.

After recess, we took our first spelling test of the year. About nine people got 100%! After that, we did handing off. During handing off, we answered questions to help us remember our story. It was cool to sit on top of our desks and throw a ball of paper too!

Then we went to lunch where we ate nachos or burritos. When lunch was over, we learned about nouns in our CLAS book. Concrete and abstract nouns were the focus for today. Next, we read School Story , where Natalie, the main character, learns how publishers choose which books to print.

Lastly, we continued our Daily Blog and then got to have a few minutes of PAT Time before HOT Time. Isn’t it cool that we have a three day weekend for Labor Day? Some people are upset that there will be no school on Monday, while others are thrilled.

End of the Year, by Seth

June 11, 2007

This is urgent and impossible!!!! This is the last 3 and a half days of school!!! ERROR!!! ERROR!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man!! I can’t believe it, this is the last 3 and a half days of school! I’m coming summer!!! Well, I’ll tell you about what happened today; we got fifteen drawings for making it over the red line in the marble jar!!!! We did a math Quick Review and a math Mixed Review to start things off.

Later after snack recess, we read a poem called Prophecy in Flame in Our Open Court Reading book. Then we reviewed the vocabulary words which are plodding, parched, sturdy, jolted, and sentries. Mr. Kootman gave us plenty of time to do our vocabulary logs (definitions, synonyms, pictures and parts of speech) and our clues chart and as I said on January 29th , which was my last blog. For my clues chart I traced my hand like a gorilla’s hand. We read a book after lunch that was a tall tale. John Henry was the title and it was given the Caldecott picture-book award! You know the story about the man who used two iron hammers to plow through a mountain and beat a machine to the center of the mountain? Oh well, I only had heard of that book when I was 5 anyways and just today.

We did some social studies in our social studies book. In social studies, we read about the entertainment companies in Hollywood and other places in California. Later we finished our cityscapes. One side of the picture is strait, and the other is curvy and twisted. This art project was supposed to show how different colors and lines change the viewers idea of the picture. To wrap our day up, we went out to P.E to play basketball and then went home.

May 30-take 2, by Breeze

Today in room 40 we hade an auction!!!!!! I did not win anything at the auction. We had two students that moved. Don’t want to say names but it is Jake that is moving to Japan. And Chase is moving to Virginia.

Today we started off by doing our morning work. For our morning work, we did Tuesday’s lesson for review. Our lesson for today was how to subtract like fractions. It was so much fun; to some students it was easy. We went to recess. We hade 5 minutes took in from our recess because we had to go back outside because we were too loud. When we came back from recess, we started to read “Pocahontas”.

After that we talked about how Pocahontas may have lived her life. We went to lunch and when we got back, we were stuck to find out that we are going to .Well you are probably wondering what we are about to do ,we are going to make a portrait of Pocahontas. The thing about making the picture is that we are going to make the picture out of words!!! After we finished doing the picture we had a gallery walk to look at each others pictures. WE HAD A BLASTTTT!!!! Then we read our class chapter book.

The name of our class chapter book is The Orphan Run Away, this chapter was so good. The chapter was called The Epidemic At Home. The epidemic is a disease that kills many people. Well back to the story, there is this two boys, there brothers. Their names are Dannie, and Judd. They used to be orphans but they ran away. Now they live with their uncle and new aunt. The young boy Judd was at school and he all of a sudden got pneumonia. Dannie got really worried so he grabbed Judd up and took him home. Luckily their uncle married a Chinese woman, that’s good at heeling. You have to read the book to find out the rest.

Finally we went to P.E where we played freeze tag. We had a lot to do today. Well I’m finally done.

May 30- take 1, by Sparrow

Today Mr. Kootman was crazy about telegraphs! All he could say was “beep, beep, beep, beeeeep.”

In the morning, Mr. Kootman gave us work on the whiteboard, but this time instead of him giving us one mixed review and one quick review, he gave us two mixed reviews and quick reviews. After we were done checking our work, Mr. Kootman taught the class Chapter 18 lesson 2 in math. We learned how to subtract like fractions. Subtracting like fractions is just like when you subtract regular numbers, but sometimes you can reduce it. Then, the class worked on their math packets. Once we finished, Mr. Kootman told us to read our new Open Court story book “Pocahontas”, because we owed 5 minutes of recess. After our five minute punishment was up everyone ran out the door like a group of rhinos trying to get to recess.

After recess, Mr. Kootman read us the story “Pocahontas”. Did you know that Mr. Kootman has never seen the movie of “Pocahontas”! When that was over, the class had to work on bullets. Bullets are questions that we have to answer from the story. Next, Mr. Kootman threw some vocab words at the class. (Well not literally).This may sound like the day went quickly but then…….It was lunch! I told you the day went quickly!


After lunch, Mr. Kootman read two chapters of our class book, Orphan Runaways. The two chapters were called Home and Epidemic. The chapter Epidemic was about a strange disease spreading all over the city! So two little kids had to keep themselves warm. A couple minutes later, the class took out their C.L.A.S book. C.L.A.S stands for Comprehension and Language Arts Skills. I was so happy what was coming up next. An auction, yeah! After doing a couple of auctions we went out to P.E! Wasn’t today a good day? I thought it was, don’t you?

May 24, by Jake

The class didn’t have “p.a.t” time for the 5th time this month!!!!!! Today we started out with a math test on chapter 29, which is about fairness and probability. After that, we moved on to language arts. Some people are still working on their Early America summary, but most of the class got through it in a snap. Then we had a reading test on “Early America” That was easy! I took it and got a 100%.

Finally, the class read “Orphan Runaways” after lunch. Uncle Hank took Danny to the lake and told him to wash their clothes. After that Danny rested for three hours. Uncle Hank was going to get marred to the Chinese woman. Danny was shocked!

After we read, most of us went out to H.O.T time (homework on time).And that’s our day!!

May 22, by Eric W.

Today we got to play with dice in math it was fun! We were learning about probability. The whole class took the school district test for math. It was easy for some people because the test was about math that Mr. Kootman taught us. We had yoga. It was really loud so Mr.K had to use his loud whistle so people had to be quiet or they have to sit on the bench at recess if they were still talking. You should hear it when Mr.Kootman whistles with his hands.
The class book that we are reading is The Voyage of the May Flower. I think it will be a good story. The class writing assignment was on Early America. A lot of people got benched because they didn’t bring in their assignment today.
The class chapter book that we are reading is Orphan Runaways. Smokey Joe is a boy that smokes cigars and Dannie and Judd are brothers. They came a long way from an orphanage because their sister was getting adopted so they didn’t want her to leave. They go to a town where people are acting crazy and shooting muskets but it’s a party that they have every year.


Lastly, we went to the PAWS shop to get prizes and you have to win a drawing to get PAWS tickets or you can do something good to get one.

May 17, by Nick

Today the class was as loud as a fire siren so we lost a train full of marbles. We started with math and we learned how to estimate probability. Afterwards we did yoga and we didn’t learn any special poses. When everyone got back we started working on the math packet which is math problems based on what we learned in math. Everyone in the Fallbrook school district is doing a writing prompt this week, so we practiced by doing a summary based “Early America”. Then we went to recess for fifteen minutes; in my opinion it goes by very quickly.

Afterwards we came back into the class and Mr.Kootman read Early America, our Open Court Story. It is about when the colonists arrived from Europe and take land from the Native Americans. Then we went to lunch, everyday it’s the same, its always yelling until Mrs.Gilstrap comes in and starts yelling at us telling us to be quiet. I wish it would change to where people stay quiet.

Like always, when we came back from lunch Mr.Kootman read us our class book Runaway Orphans. It is about brothers who run away from an orphanage and try to get their uncle which they’ve already done, but the story isn’t over yet! It is like another social studies book because it tells about California so we learn a little. Afterward we did social studies and we’re just getting into a new unit and it’s about California’s environment. Then we got dismissed to go home which I was obviously happy about.

May 15, by Perri

Today, 5th and 6th grade had to take STAR tests. We’re lucky because we didn’t have to take them! In the morning when I got to school, I looked on the board and we had 3 pages in arithmetic! We had a lot of number sentences to solve. We learned how to make tree diagrams. They are a way to find possible combinations of variables.

After that, we started a new unit in our Open Court books and began a new story called “Early America”. The story is about colonists beginning a new life in the Americas. Next, we had to go to Yoga. In the beginning, it was VERY loud, but once everyone got settled down it was quiet.

After that, we had recess and snack. When we got back, we started a practice summary for the Fallbrook Union Writing Assessment. We have about a week to do that. Pretty soon, we had to go to lunch, and then outside, so the teachers could finish their lunch. When we came back inside, we read the class chapter book, called
“Orphan Runaways”. Then, we had to go to Library. But then, it was time to go home!

May 14, by Sam

Last week was the STAR testing. It was the hardest test I have taken! For today, we did math morning work first. This was a review of outcomes and probability. Once we finished, we corrected our morning work. Then we learned about tree diagrams and outcomes. The outcomes in our book mostly require a spinner, some dice, and a sack of marbles. Mr. Kootman assigned our math practice sheets. But he got our math packet mixed up with our math homework. After the mix up was corrected we went to recess.

When we got back we reviewed our vocabulary and clues chart for Early America. Then we did classifying and categorizing in our c.l.a.s book. After that we went to lunch.

At 1:00 we came back and we read Orphan Runaways. Then we reviewed social studies. In the social studies review we learned 5 new vocabulary words such as delegate. When we were done with that we went to play kickball for p.e. Finally, we got paid, we packed and parted.

May 1, by Sabrina

Today was a sunny and chilly morning, but I wasn’t cold. After the bell rang we had to do math as usual. During math time we learned about negative numbers. We learned about the heat and cold too. Math was fun until 9:30am. That is the time we have to go to yoga.

Yoga was the same too. But Mr. Kootman was mad at us because the noise in yoga was from us. We don’t usually make the noise, the other forth graders make the noise. So when we went back to the class Mr. Kootman said, ”Don’t do that again” and than we went back to math. So we went on and then recess came.

When we went back in we started to do some mission projects. This is when people present their oral reports on California Missions. We did like two or three mission projects. When we started to do social studies we learned about the gold rush. We were about to learn about Sutter’s Mill but it was lunch time. After lunch and recess we went back in to do social studies. We learned a little about Sutter’s Mill, which is where gold was found, and Sutter’s Fort and than it was time to go to the library.

In the library we went to look for books but I didn’t get any. I was just sitting in a chair reading a book as usual. When Mr. Kootman said it was time to go we walked down to the classroom and Scott passed down the money. Then everybody got ready to go. But I didn’t want to leave cause I love school but I had to.

April 30, by Torrian

It was chilly out side and people come out side with a spoon saying “Chili! Chili! In math we are doing three dimensional shapes. We learned the difference between a triangular pyramid and a square pyramid. One has a base shaped like a square and the other has a base shaped like a triangle. It is pretty easy. It has a lot of steps.

In yoga we went back to class early because we were being loud. After yoga, we read Koko’s Kitten. It was sad because one of the cats died. We did a CD reed for it.

The chapter book we read today was Island of the Blue Dolphins. We finished it today. It ended with Karana leaving the island on a ship. It was a good book. Today was also because Mrs. Seals leaves the next day. Now I’m going to go eat some chili.

April 23, by Victoria

Today was an exciting day because we read an emotional book. First we did our morning work, but we were really loud so we didn’t get many marbles. We learned that we have to multiply the perimeter by two to double it and you multiply the area by two to quadruple it. The problem solving strategy is easy for me. All you have to do is find a pattern. After that we did math again to learn it better and make sure it stays in your brain.

For reading we did a vocabulary log. When you do this you use all of your vocabulary words and write the definition, a picture and a sentence or an example. We also did a clues chart. A clues chart is where you put the authors name, the genre, title, key vocabulary, picture clues and what the story could be about. The story we read this week was Koko’s Kitten.

Lunch was really loud, the ladies had to stand up front of the cafeteria and tell us to be quiet. So we lost about five or ten minutes recess. After that everybody started to be quiet, but it did not last long.

After lunch and recess we came in and got out our class chapter book. I warn you this is a sad chapter. Karana is happy that the Aleuts never came to the island again. However, she is sad because her dog Rontu died. I felt sad, but was not shocked because I had read the book before. Then we showed pictures of Karana’s skirt that we created.

In social studies, we showed some of the mission projects. All of the projects were good I think. We learned why so many people wanted to come to California. One of the reasons is that they just wanted to explore and have their own land.

April 18, by Alex

Today we got a new student named Perri. During math time, we did the quick review and the mixed review. Once the timer stopped, Mrs. Seals taught our class while Mr. Kootman taught in another classroom because one of the other teachers was at a meeting. After we were done reviewing the math we went to yoga. Once all the classes were in the cafeteria, every one started talking and Mrs. Swanlund had to stop the yoga lesson to tell every body to be quiet.
Once yoga was over, we got back in the classroom and started our new book, Breaking Into Print. It was an okay book but it was only four pages, so it seemed like a really short book. After we were done, we went in to spelling and vocab on page 118 and 120 which was the review for our spelling words. Once we finished we went to lunch, and we also lost seven minutes of our lunch recess. It was the shortest recess we have ever had, except the recess back in second grade.

Then the recess bell rang and we got out our Island Of The Blue Dolphins. In chapter 21 Karana got a new friend called Tutok. What we did in social studies was the changes of the gold rush. Once that was done, it was already 2:00, and most of the class did Don Doran games, while the rest of the class played freeze tag. The people who qualified for the Don Doran games were: Eric W., Isaiah, Aileen, Devyn, Chase, Michaela and Michael. And so Mr. Kootman is back from substituting. Finally the day is over, and its time to go home.

April 17, by Alondra

Today we got a new student in room 40. Her name is Perri and she moved here from Alabama. First, in math we did a times test and learned perimeter of polygons. The perimeter is the distance around the outside of a polygon.

Subsequently, we went to recess. Once that was done, we read “Breaking into Print” in our Open Court books. And also we did vocabulary. Then we went to lunch where we ate Taco salad or a toasted ham and cheese sandwich. A bunch of people got hot lunch.

Afterwards, we came back to class and we read “Island of the Blue Dolphins’’ chapter 21. Next we did social studies and also watched a Brain Pop movie about taxes because that was the day that the taxes were due. There were a lot of things we did not know, like if you don’t pay your taxes for months you will go to jail. Because I was afraid that the school did not have enough

At 2:00 we went to P.E where some of the boys and girls like Eric W, Chase, and Aileen were running for Don Dornan games and the rest of the people were playing freeze tag. Then it was 2:30 and we got our bags and stuff and went home. And that’s our extraordinary Wednesday afternoon.

April 5, by Will

Today we did not have a lot of work because of Spring break. We had a lot of math though. We had division, triangles, a quiz, and quadrilaterals. (Whew!) There are three types of triangles: equilateral, isosceles, and scalene.

After math, we read “We’ll Be Right Back after These Messages.” It’s about the public television rules to view commercials. Following that, we answered the red bullets at the end of the story. When that was over, we went to recess. For some strange reason, recess was boring.

When we got back, we got our recorders out and went to music. During music, we reviewed all the notes we know, such as G, A, and B. When we got back, we continued with our red bullets. Then we took out our CLAS book and did clauses. After that, we went to lunch.

In 24 hours we would be kite flying because the next day is Kite day! When we got back we celebrated Jannelys birthday. Happy Birthday! Then we read “Island Of The Blue Dolphins”. In this chapter the Aleuts come to the Island, and Karana has to leave. And that wraps it up for our proficient, dazzling, and great day.

Kootman's Class #3

Gabcast! Kootman's Class #3

March 27, by Michaela

Today was a very good day because a lot of kids were on the ball. So we came in and started on math, we did a lot of QR’s and MR’s. (QR means quick review and MR means mixed review). Next we went into our math books and we did line symmetry and rotational symmetry. Rotational symmetry is when you turn a shape around and it still looks the same. Line symmetry is when you fold a shape and it matches.

After that we went to yoga, for yoga we did the same old same old stretches. When we came back to the class we did a quick write. A quick write is when we’re writing about something and we have a short time to do it. What we had to write was four facts we learned in the story Messages by the Mile. Then we went to recess. After recess when we entered the class there was a lot of hullabaloo. The reason why is because we get really energetic when we’re outside.
Right after recess we went straight to music class where we learned new notes and new songs. After that we went into reading where we are reading our new story Messages by the Mile. It’s really exciting because it’s about elephants and whales and their communicating the infrasonic way.

Then we went to lunch and I will tell you this: it was good yummy for my tummy. After lunch we started to read our chapter book, now we’re on chapter14 and this is what is happening in the story. Karana finds a cave where her ancestors used to be. Once we finished that part of the chapter Mr.Kootman told us the winner of the research challenge and it was Sparrow. Congrats Sparrow and that’s my fabulous blog!!!

March 26, by Josh

Today was so awesome because it was my second time getting the blog. In math today we learned about line relationships. We used vocabulary such as angles, line segments, and just plain lines. That math was so easy a caveman can do it. After we were done with that we did our math packet. We did not have yoga today because it was not Tuesday or Thursday. Next we got ready for recess and went outside to play.

When we got back, we took out our Open Court book and read The Diary of Anne Frank. When we were done with our book we went to go to lunch. We read Island of The Blue Dolphins when we returned from lunch. When that was over we read our book for social studies. What we learned is about is how the Mexican war for independence affected California.

I forgot to take better notes for the blog, but I will learn from my mistake next time by writing down more information.

March 20, by Lovelynne

Have you ever gotten hit with a ball while playing hopscotch? Well, today that happened to one of my friends in my class. She fell down and was smiling at us because she thought it was really funny. We started the day by practicing for a math test tomorrow. We also did a times test just so that we won’t forget our multiplication facts.

When math was over we went to yoga. At yoga it was so loud that some kids got benched at recess, well about 1-4 kids. My friends and I were so happy that it wasn’t us.

After yoga we went to recess, at recess it was kind of boring for the first time. But, it was also kind of funny because we heard one of my friends scream when she got hit with a ball while playing hopscotch.

When recess was over we went back to the classroom and started to read Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. It’s about a family trying to hide so that they don’t get sent to a concentration camp. At the end it was so sad because Anne Frank died in a concentration camp.

When we were done reading we discussed the story. When we were done with that we went to lunch. It was pretty noisy, but not so loud that your ears are going to bleed. After lunch we went to lunch recess, this is another opinion but it was better than the snack recess for some reason.

When recess was over we went into the classroom and read our class chapter book, Island of the Blue Dolphins. After we were done reading we went to the library. It was pretty noisy but not as noisy in the cafeteria. So that’s our kind of boring, really noisy day of school.

March 16,by Megan

Today was Eric Wilson’s birthday, he is turning… well can you guess? Well he is turning 10. There are ten people in our class that are ten- cool! He brought cupcakes which I thought were really good. They had green frosting and sprinkles yum, yum. Then we sang Happy Birthday after we went on Brain Pop. One Brain Pop movie was about Rise of the Roman Empire and one was about Jane Goodall! Jane Goodall studied gorillas in the jungle.

Afterwards we went to math mode. Today we learned how to use equations, y = 4x+1 is one of the equations we had to do in our Math book. Then we did some more on our white boards, we had to go to the next page because we did not have any more problems to do. Then we got out our Math packet on page 24.3, I thought 1 through 12 were hard for me.

Then we went to reading mode; we are reading The Big Wave on the C. D. It was about a boy who loses his parents in a tsunami in Japan! After that we got out our Class work book, if you don’t know what that means already it is a short word for Comprehension and Language Arts Skills. The lesson was Prepositions!

Next we got out our spiral note book for a Quick write about our grades on what we thought we needed to work on and and what we were proud of! Then Evan brought a magic thing every body was thinking it was cool!

March 9, 2007 by Kenya

We had a bike assembly today! They taught us bike safety and how to check our bike. At the end Dustin flipped over the ramp, a full 360! After, we went into math.
We learned about evaluating reasonableness of answers. You have to figure out if the answer is reasonable enough to be true.

Next, we read “McBroom and the Big Wind”, this story is about a family of thirteen trying to fight the wind, but they find that the wind can be beneficial to them. Then the wind pulls a hole in front of McBrooms’ door, that’s the howl’ in, scowl’ in wind that broke Mr. McBroom’s leg. The story’s genre is a tall tale. Maybe that’s why it does not make a lot of sense, like when it says the wind reshingled every gopher hole in the next county!

Next, we had lunch. For lunch we had the choice of shrimp tacos or toasted cheese on a wheat bun. Most people got shrimp tacos.

After, lunch we read Island of the Blue Dolphins. It is about a girl named Karana who was left on an island in the haste of fleeing from the enemies, the Aleuts. She has to survive about 18 years on a deserted island by herself!

Then we went to social studies mode, we learned about how The Indians Help the Priests, we were snappy about that and finished quickly! Then we went into P.E., for P.E. we played racket ball. That’s a day in the life of room 40! Bye!

March 8, 2007, by Jannely

Today we had our first singing class with Mrs. Stephan and we rocked even though we only learned notes! Before we did anything we worked on our fractions packet and we focused on adding decimals. In math, instead of adding decimals we learned how to subtract decimals and whether it’s adding or subtracting decimals, we always line up our decimals first. In math we also learned that Monaco is one of the smallest countries. Then we went off to recess where we can rest our brains and can have a little exercise and fun.

When we got back we read a humorous story called Mc Broom and the Big Wind
and when we read it, we laughed until we exploded! We were about to have a multiplication test, but then Mr. Kootman did a brief lesson on computers and he taught us how to search things on Google.com like putting quotation marks on some things we wanted to search for. Once he was done we went on our 5 minute multiplication test and WOW everyone did awesome! Then we went to lunch because we were hungry and because we had to.

When we got back from lunch we started on our new class chapter book. Every one got the book and it was called Island of the Blue Dolphins. When we were done with that we went to P.E. and we played racket ball. The point of the game is to hit the tennis ball with the racket and try to hit as many cones you can get so you can get some points. Once that was done we all got our backpacks and went home.

March 6, 2007, by Devyn

Today we took a state writing test about writing narratives. Because the test took so much time, we didn’t have yoga and didn’t have Social Studies. In math we learned to add and subtract decimals in our math book. In our Open Court Reading Books we read a story called Mc Broom and the Big Wind. Mc Broom and the Big Wind is about a man who tells how he broke his leg. He has 11 children and a wife named Melissa. This story is a tall tale because Josh McBroom exaggerates and makes up things.

The class all got a new chapter book called Island of the Blue Dolphins. We also went to the library. I didn’t get a book because I forgot my old books at home. For P.E. we played racket ball; it was fun. It was odd verses evens based on our class numbers. The day felt blank because the day went by fast.

February 27, by Kiana

Did you know that Greenland is one of the largest islands in the world! Today we got started on a math test review then we got the real test. We did estimate sums and differences. It was kind of hard.

In reading we did vocabulary, clues chart, spelling, and summary. All of these assignments were for Arctic Explorer, which was about Mathew Henson- the first African American to explore the arctic in Greenland. In social studies we learned about Junipero Serra. He was a Spanish priest who established the California missions. After social studies, we finished our chapter book The Week in the Woods; it was great. After social studies we went to P.E. and we played racket ball. It was difficult hitting the ball the first few times but later I got the hang of it. And that is the summary of our day.

February 28, by Cassidy

Today we had a soggy and disgusting day. Some people got the bottom of their pants drenched! Other people got their shoes all filthy and had to walk around the classroom in their socks!

For math today we did our fraction packet on comparing fractions. We also watched a math video and worked on how to compare whole numbers and where to put the numbers in the right place value.

This morning we did a practice test for a VERY IMPORTANT TEST!!!!! This test is called the State Test. If you don’t do well on it will show on your report card and it wouldn’t be very good if someone got an F on it because I know I would be really depressed. The class read Arctic Explorer in cloze reading and then we read in partners. A cloze reading is when someone is the reader and when the reader stops you say the word that is next. It just lets the reader know that you’re paying attention. My favorite way is to read in partners but some times it can get a little noisy.

Before we went to the Paws Shop we got a Social Studies paper. The worksheet is called “Missions in California”. The worksheet is about the 21 missions in El Camino Real.You have to look up the answers on the computer. After you find all the answers then you turn it in just like any other worksheet. When we went to the Paws Shop people crowded around everything. Everyone was going CRAZY!!!! There were eyeballs, bouncy balls, pens with different colors in them and many other cool and unique things to buy from the Paws Shop.

For P.E we played Racket Ball and it’s really hard to stay in the game! If someone catches the ball then the person that hit the ball is out and if someone grabs the ball and taps it on the cone before you do then you are out. I had a really fun day and I have to admit even though it was disgusting outside it was one of the best days I ever had!

March 1, by Mr. Kootman

Hi everyone! I figured I would do my own blog post while I was gone. Today I woke up earlier than usual because I had to pack my car for a trip to Palm Springs, California. Palm Springs is really just a nice town in the middle of the desert. I gets really really hot in the summer, but this time of year the weather is perfect. The humidity is very low though, so it feels extremely dry.

So I set off for what should have been a two hour drive, but it took almost three hours due to road construction. Watch out for traffic! When I arrived I had to go register for the conference I will be attending and speaking at. The conference is for a group I belong to called Computer Using Educators or CUE for short. Cue has several thousand members across all of California and our goal is to use computers in schools to help our students learn. Needless to say, there’s some pretty cool things here! It’s great being around other teachers who also love to integrate technology in their classrooms. I wish you could see all the cool things that are available, like smart boards (white boards that a computer can interact with) or student response systems (every students get a remote control to answer questions with). Maybe someday we’ll get these things too!

The conference is broken down into short sessions, or hour long classes, each about a different topic. I attended many sessions today and learned some new things, like how to use Google Earth in the classroom. I hope to learn a lot more in the next few days. I’m even giving a session of my own on Saturday! I’ll let you know how it goes. I hope everyone is enjoying having Mrs. Witt as a substitute; I’m looking forward to a good note from her when I return ;) Have a great weekend and get outside in the gorgeous weather! By the way, if you get this early enough, could someone tell Devyn that today is his day to do the blog; happy writing Devyn!

Take a look at the photo and notice the windmills and the mountains in the background. What do you think the windmills are for?

February 23, by Aileen

Today Mr.Kootman said he was proud of us because we only had two kids missing their home work! First, we did review in our math book to prepare us for the test on Monday. If you have heard of the classic card game ‘War’ or ‘High card wins’ then you’ll know what I’m talking about. The whole class got to play war during math time but this wasn’t the regular card game, it was decimal war.

After math we took the spelling test witch was very hard. Next, we all went out for a refreshing and delightful recess. When recess was over we all almost ran through the door like little puppies rushing to get food! To prepare us for comprehension and language arts test, Island of the Blue Dolphins we did handing off. This is where we sit on our desks and discuss our story. After handing off we did the comprehension and language arts test. It took at least a few minutes to finish, because the page we had for home work we didn’t have the page!

Since we were working so quietly, Mr.Kootman did auctions. Most kids started acting like all sorts of monkeys! Next, we walked to lunch but, when we were in the lunch room it was so loud. After that craziness in lunch, we had a calm read aloud of A Week In The Woods. We were almost finished with the book but we had to stop to get other work done. When that was over, we started making our final draft Island of the Blue Dolphins. Then we estimated on how much marbles we had in the jar. It was like Mr.Kootman did all the math though because we didn’t really get it. We all looked like we had no idea what he was doing because it wasn’t a fourth grade standard. There were about 100 marbles! Finally, we all went out to HOT time when it was actually cold!

February 22 and a half, by Torrian

Today it was so cold I was sneezing icicles. I could have sworn people were having sword fights with them. We are reading Island of the Blue Dolphins in our Open court book. It is pretty interesting. In yoga, Isaiah sprained his thumb. He was being clumsy and fell of the stage.

We are reading A Week in the Woods by Andrew Clements for our chapter book after lunch. We also got cool Chinese New Year bookmarks with dragons on them because it was Chinese New Year. It means it is the year of the pig. Even though it is warmer now, I think people are still sneezing icicles. Perhaps tomorrow will be warmer and our icicles will melt.

February 22, by Mikey C.

Can you believe we got 2 new students to fill in Nick S. and Angel’s spots? The student’s names are, Sabrina and Victoria.

This morning we did mixed review and quick review pages 369 and 370 like we always do. Some people are veterans at math and some people still have trouble with it.
We are learning how to compare and order decimals. Comparing and ordering decimals is when you choose the highest decimal. Next, we took a short math test on converting improper fractions to a mixed number. A lot of people got A+’s. Then, we did our math packets on word problems.

Once that was done, we read Island Of The blue Dolphins. This story is about a girl that gets left alone because her family was getting pursued by their enemies. She was very sad because the island was deserted and she wanted to talk to someone. Luckily there was a canoe with dry food to eat and a canoe to go back home. The canoe had a leak the next day. She used fiber from her skirt to cover the hole. Then, she woke up and had to turn around because there was a hole. “Aw man!”

When that was over Mr.Kootman was telling us how to do a summary for our state test in March. He wanted us to find something that has summaries on or in it. “Mr.Kootman really wants us to pass huh!”

Afterwards we had lunch. A lot of people jump rope now, but nobody does double Dutch. Also, 4th graders beat the 6th graders finally at flag football. Isn’t that cool?
Finally, Mr.Kootman read us a Week in the Woods. In Week in the Woods Marc is trying to make a fire signal to find Mr.Maxwell. Mr.Maxwell kept yelling at Marc because he heard him. Now you can tell that today was entertaining. I hope everybody had a great teacher like Mr.Kootman.

February 20, by Jake

Today we got not one new student, but two! In math we did some easy problems in our math packet and page 322 in our math book! We worked on turning fractions in to decimals. At about 11:30 we went into a new unit called “Survival” and a new story called Island of the Blue Dolphins (dolphins are blue anyway.) Well, in yoga, we didn’t have an instructor because Ms.Moore was pregnant and Mrs. Swanlund went on a field trip with her class. I didn’t feel like doing yoga today.

In our chapter book, A Week in the Woods, Mark is trying to find Mr. Maxwell but it was dark at night and he can’t see the moon or stars! So he has a flash light on and now he says to himself that he is not going to find Mr. Maxwell!!(We’re now in a chapter called “Here”) The next chapter is called “Camp." Today was a pretty wacky day!

The Ides of February, by Evan

Today the entire fourth grade got held in again during lunch so we only got 5 minutes for recess! At the beginning of the day we had a quick review in math. Next we learned about mixed numbers, if the numerator is higher than the denominator it is called an improper fraction, and you have to put whole numbers in.

Then in reading we finally read Susan La Flesch Picotte today, on a Wednesday! The story is about a doctor who gets caught up in a storm and finds a child and gets him to safety. Susan La Flesch Picotte was the first female Native-American doctor.

After lunch, we did a quick write on “how to stop a disease from spreading” Soon after, we did social studies. In that we learned about California’s early history and the explorers who settled here.

February 13, by Isaiah

WE DON’T HAVE SCHOOL ON THURSDAY, FRIDAY AND NEXT MONDAY!!!!!! The first thing we did when we got in the room is we put our stuff away and did the math assignment on the board. After that we checked it and we put them in our backpacks. Then we went into math mode and learned related fractions and decimals. Those are where if I say 5 it could be 5.0 is 5.

We did not read a book but we did do a clues chart and we did do our vocabulary. For some reason, we did our spelling between 12:00-12:30. We usually do them after we are done with our morning work. We also did not do science. I thought it was cool. In social studies we learned about special people such as James Cook, Frances Drake, Gaspar De Portola, and Juan Bautitsta de Anza. After lunch (we had chicken fajitas and corn dogs) we read A Week in the Woods. Chapter seventeen is called “Tracks”. After that we went out for P.E. then finally we went to the line and we went to the bus or people walked home.

February 12, by Jeffrey

Today we had a shocking fire drill. The siren was so loud it hurt people’s ears.Mr. Kootman was proud of the class because we had a nice quiet line. After that, we did make a model for division in math. It is a way to see and help you and divide. Then we went to yoga where we listened to a different tape that Mr. Kootman and Mrs. Swanlund made. When that was over we went out to recess.

After recess, we read A Week In The Woods. The “Field Trip Begins” was the name of the chapter. Mark gets sent home by a teacher for having a pocket knife. After that we did social studies. We were going to go out for P.E. but we couldn’t because people were talking and waking around.

At the end of the day we got our progress report, which had our trimester grades on it. Mr. Kootman was saying that if you got a two out of 4 on it you got a 50%. So if you got that your grades were bad . We’re supposed to show them to our parents so they can sign an orange slip. So that was our February 12, 2007!

January 31, by Dannie

We are lucky it doesn’t rain a lot around here because we don’t have as much fun playing inside as we do outside. The first thing we did on this rainy day when we came in to the classroom was fractions on page 315 in math. After we finished, we switched papers to check them. Sometimes when we are quiet we get classroom money and get marbles in the jar. Next we took our open court books out so we could read The New Doctor which is 21 pages long! Afterwards, we made a huge class flow chart. This helped us review for our comprehension test on Friday.

Then it was time for recess, where I played on the black top. When it was raining it looked like everyone was melting. After recess, we finished our flow charts and then shared them. The pizza at lunch was extra hot. After lunch we listened to A Week in the Woods while Mr. Kootman read out loud. After that, we watched Jannely’s trip to Mexico. She made this while she was on vacation. Finally, we did our social studies book to learn about the native American Indians in California.

January 26, by Seth

This is what Ms.Betty says about room 40’s line,”Mr.Kootman’s class has one of the greatest lines in the whole school.” That takes a lot of work putting 35 kids together in one huge line!

Well at the beginning of the day, we did a Quick Review (it’s a small review on what we’ve done so far). After that we did a math lesson on the mean of a number. Let me explain it to you, the mean, or average, is the number found by dividing the sum of a set of numbers by the number of addends. Don’t worry, I had troubles with this at first too, if you didn’t get it that quickly. Next we did a spelling pretest on the /ch/ sound. Most kids thought it was easy as pie, but some thought it was as hard as Mr.Kootman’s rules!

Afterwards, we did a clues chart on the story The New Doctor. I accidentally traced my hand (where we write stuff down on what the story could be about) like a Gorilla’s hand! When we finished that, we did some vocabulary words. On my side of vocabulary, it’s a little boring.

In Social Studies, we learned about how people lived in early California. Then we all rushed to line up for lunch and lunchtime recess. When we got back from lunch, we read A Week in the Woods. In A Week in the Woods, Mark is trying to be nicer, but that is not working out for him. Right after Mark tries being nice, his parents leave for a few weeks. Wow, he may be rich, but very lonely. When it was almost time to go, Mr. Kootman was nice enough to give us all Social Studies activity books to keep. Then we all went home.

January 23, by Briana

I’m 50 dollars richer then I was when I walked in the door! Almost every body got extra money, at least ten dollars!!! First we did math, like we always do. In math, we learned about placing zeros in Division Lesson three. That means how to do a math problem with a zero in it. Then we read Emily’s hands on science experiment in our Open Court book. It’s about Therapeutic Touch. For example; put some bodies hands facing palm up under your hands facing palm down. Every body in class tried it, even Mr.Kootman!!! And at the end Emily made up a new experiment using magnets. Next we did writing. In writing we had to write our spelling words five times each. I’m sure every body’s hands were hurting because I know mine were. It was actually for our homework but some people did it before we went home.

After lunch, we read our class chapter book called A Week in the Woods. When we left off Mark was trying to make new friends. He made a group of friends and tried to make friends with his teachers too. He also learned how to snow shoe and he wanted to show his parents but they weren’t there to see it (Poor Mark). That was our super perfect exciting day in room 40!!!

January 22, by Sparrow

Today, some people took a one hundred word spelling test for the Spelling
Bee tomorrow! In the morning, we did a quiz on multiples. Then we learned dividing by one digit numbers. After, the class did their math packets and then went outside to recess wild as monkeys. Right after recess, most kids were getting ready for the spelling bee. Mr.Kootman had to say one hundred words, sentences, and how to spell them one hundred times. Mr. Kootman was very worn out after that. Only eleven people got 95% and up. When we were done, my hand was hurting so badly. Finally, when it was over, it was time for lunch. “HOORAY!!!”

Once lunch was over, Mr.Kootman read A Week in the Woods. Right after Mr. Kootman read that, he told the eleven people from the spelling bee to come in front of the classroom. Mr. Kootman had to test the eleven people and get some out for the spelling bee. Mr.Kootman didn’t really want to get some people out, but we couldn’t have eleven people from the same class on stage for the spelling bee. Then, we had to stop the spelling bee during class because people in choir had to go. While choir was going everyone did their clues chart and their C.L.A.S book, and learned about facts and opinions. Then the bell rung at exactly two thirty, and that’s the end of our day folks.

January 18, by Sam

Today, it was so cold people were going to freeze. In the morning, we came in the class room and we did our morning work, which was math. After that we corrected it. Then in our new math lesson we learned about mental math division. This involved rounding and estimating. Then Mr. Kootman went on a website called AAA Math where we reviewed the terms divisor, dividend, quotient and remainder; then we worked on our math packet.

Later we read The Bridge Dancers, which was about two girls, Callie and Masie. Then we did a tree map on it. We also did a summary on it. Then we went to lunch.

When we came back we finished chapter 4 in A Week In the Woods. Then we reviewed our flow maps. Next we did an experiment in science. The experiment was on layers of soil. Mr. Kootman had got some soil and put them in a cup. Then he got them wet then you could see all three layers. Finally every one got paid. After that our crew packed up and we went home.

January 9, 2007, by NIck S.

Today we watched a movie about Elvis Presley! Elvis Presley was famous for being a rock singer. Did you know that Elvis died by getting overdosed by medicine? First we reviewed for our math test on factors and multiples. For writing, we did analogies. After that, we did yoga in the cafeteria, we learned a new pose called tree pose. In yoga Mr. Kootman and other teachers thought we were loud. In language arts we learned idioms. In a book called More Parts the neighbor said this joke will crack you up. This book had very funny examples of idioms.

For reading, we read a long story called Sewed up His Heart. Sewed up His Heart was about Dr. Dan doing heart surgery. In our class chapter book, A Week in the Woods, there is a kid that moves a whole bunch of times. In this part of the book he moved to New Hampshire.

After lunch, we had a fire drill and no one new about it! All in all we made some marbles in the jar, but a lot of kids were talking so we lost some also.

January 5, by Alex

Today it was so windy, it looked like everybody was going to fall down. Mr. Kootman taught us how to find prime factors, and man it was so hard. Then we did a math page called Finding Prime Factors.

After that we did a quick write called… “What is the difference between a muffin and a cupcake?” That was sort of fun once it got to the writing part. Then we went to morning recess and guess what? It was so windy, almost every body fell down.

After all that we went to yoga, and everybody got their mats. There were a lot of mats there because there were so many kids absent; maybe because they were just sick, or they thought that its still holiday break.

Now you are going to laugh, during when everybody was doing the math packet
Mr. Kootman just jumped out a window because there were four first graders beating each other up!

Our class chapter book that we read was called A Week in the Forest.
We didn’t really do science because Mr. Kootman wanted to go outside instead of doing science, and I was thinking, man Mr. Kootman you read my mind.
And this was a cool day because this was the first time for me to do the class blog.

December 15, by Nick F.

Today almost everybody in class moved to a new seat. We only do this three times a year. First we did a four questioned science quiz. Next our class practiced doing awesome multiplication facts. Then we did all the usual poses for yoga and when it was time for pushups everybody exploded with talking. We then did the definitions of our vocabulary words and a clues chart for the Milkmaid and Her Pail.

Next, we went to recess and one round of handball lasted for the whole recess! Everybody then read our class book fable The Milkmaid and her Pail. After reading it we made a flowchart of it. In the flowchart we put the order of the Milkmaid’s ideas.