February 21, 2008- by Jackson

PARTY IN THE HOUSE SAY WHAT? WOO THERE IT IS!! today we had a band named the Crew coming to our school. Before school started we got to see them see them set up on stage.

We started the day with a math page on division and averaging. That was sort of a warm up for the test later that was on the same thing. We couldn't finish the test all in one though, we had to split it up between our assembly. The test seemed very long compared to any other math test we took.

After our math page we did two pages on hyphenated compound words. We learned how you would say them with out them being compound at all. The meanings had to be small but detailed, for example a goldfish is a fish that is gold.

At 9:45 we had an assembly. A band named the Crew came to our school. During the assembly they played music on trash cans and brooms. They did a really cool performance while drumming on a metal pole and a metal can.They also played games with us. There was a basketball game on who could get more hoops. If the boys won, the girls would have to do the chicken dance. If the girls won, which they did, the boys would have to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. They told us to be drug free too.

Lunch was good because of pizza. Every body likes pizza so that made us happy. After a great lunch, we went out for recess. The grass was muddy and slippery. If you ran on it you would find yourself slipping in mud.

After recess it was time for social studies. We had a video based on a quiz. After we saw the video we realized that it was the wrong one. We just had to assume most the were right and wrong. Some answers were given though.

Our class chapter book is called; The Good Dog. The author of this book is Avi. Right now McKinley knows that Lupin the wolf's pack is dying out. Even Lupin herself is injured. So McKinley explained that to the other dogs. One dog named Redburn was the cause of this trouble. It started when a mistreated dog named Dutchess wanted to be free. Redburn tracked her down, putting her back into her old life. Dutchess was staying with the wolf which made the humans hunt her. The dogs thought of Redburn poorly now. That was how the book ended.

Before we went home we had HOT time. HOT time is when you get to play outside if you finish your work. When the kids in our class went out we had to go in and watch a movie because it rained. Then we went home.

February 12, 2008- by Samantha

Love is in the air! Valentines day will raise your hair! Thursday through Monday no school! But before we can talk about that we have to start from the beginning. So let's start with math. First we did a couple quick review and mixed review problems. Quick review is 5 math problems that you might have learned in the last few chapters. Usually its easy. Mixed review is when you take all that you've learned from that chapter and review it all. During that time the pink group,a group of people on the bottom of the name list,went onto the computer. We had sub with a really long name so that made things a bit more difficult. But we found a solution! We just called her Mrs.V.

At about 8:45 am Mrs.V took lunch count. Lunch count is important. For example, if you forget to raise your hand when you want to buy a lunch you'll probably end up with one of those small weak peanut butter jelly and gram cracker bars. OK,enough of the lunch in the morning and back to math. After correcting the Quick and mixed review Mrs.V handed out a rounding quiz. It was easy for a lot of us, but for others just the opposite. We're almost through math. Next we did a rounding quiz. It wasn't too hard,but still difficult. Next we did our chapter 16.3 math packet. As you can guess, it was on rounding. Now math is out of the way it is recess time! At recess Arabelle, Reina, and I played an animal game.

After recess, Mrs.V asked us to get out our language arts book. Our Language arts book is a big book with a bunch of stories in it. Sometimes the stories are chapters from other books. For example, Escape, was a story from Charlotte's Web written by the the author of Stuart little and Mouse on the Motorcycle.As good as E.B White's books are, we were reading Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O' Dell.This story was about a young girl abandoned on a deserted island when her family was escaping the Aluets, who were trying to make slaves out of them. She took a canoe and almost made it to the country in the east,where her family was. Then her canoe sprung a leak and she couldn't make it to the land. She turned around and when she got to the deserted, savage island she hugged the sand like it was the feet of her father. We went outside to read the story. I'd say it was probably the second or third longest story in language arts. When we finished the story, Mrs.V reviewed and discussed the story.That was fast! And now it was time for lunch. For lunch we ate pizza bread sticks which are just a couple of long strips of bread with cheese in the middle.

After lunch Mrs.V read our class chapter book. Our class chapter book is a book that the teacher reads to us. In this case the book is The Good Dog.The book is about a malamute husky,McKinley,and his golden Retriever and Greyhound friends Aspen and Dutchess. Dutchess is a dog that has been mistreated By her owner, Pycraft, and wants to run away and join Lupin, the wolf. In this chapter, Dutchess was trapped in her dog house and McKinley set her free, but then got himself trapped.

During social studies, we reviewed our vocab words, which related to Spanish settlements in early California. Finally, we went outside and played warball for PE. Three kids said that their knees got hurt, so they didn't play. IF Mr. Kootman was here, he would have made them play anyway. Lastly, we went back to Room 40 and gathered our things to go home.

February 6, 2008- by Isabella

If you like school come read this. We had miss Metcalfe with us today. She is a student teacher, which means Mister Kootman teaches her. I love student teachers because they are nice to me. If I'm stuck or one of my friends are stuck she well help us.

To start things off today we did morning work, chapter 13 "Understanding Division." This is how to do problems step by step. I think it is fun to do division. Do you think it is fun to do division?

Today we are reading "Susan La Flesche Picotte." She is the first native American doctor who earned a medical degree. We did a circle map and clues chart on what we learned about her from the story.

How did early Europeans effected Indians ways of living? I'll tell you how early Europeans affected the way they lived.They encouraged them to be Catholic,they made some of them slaves,and they told the slaves what to do. But some of them did not wont to go so they just stayed where they had been living.

After lunch we read a class chapter book. We are reading The Good Dog. It is about a dog who's name is McKinley. He is the leader of his pack of dogs. He found a wolf named Lupin. He wants to help her but she is picky. He thinks and thinks and he said "you have to be in a house or the hunters will find you."

It is Wednesday so we went to the library for our last activity of the day.

February 12, 2008- by Hunter

YES!! I got an INTERCEPTION at morning recess. I played football. It is very exciting when someone gets an interception because it gives them a chance to get a touchdown. To start the day we came in and sat down. Next, we did a page in our math packets: 14.2 Divide Three Digit Numbers. We also did some morning work; it was pretty easy like 49 divided by 7 equals 7. Then, we did a vocabulary and clues chart on the Island Of The Blue Dolphins. We did not read the story yet but we will tomorrow. I hope it's good! Then, we had lunch; I thought it looked pretty good but unfortunately I brought lunch!

After that, we read The Good Dog by Avi. Lupin (a wolf) has been shot and she needs help she needs water and shelter then they found an abandoned house that lopin could heal in but she needs food and water. Afterwords, we did social studies. We did a quiz about California when it was ruled by Spain. We also did a project about our vocabulary words; we had to write a synonym for the words or a definition and a picture. Then, we did some biographies about important people like Juan Cabrillo and Mr.Kootman did some funny voices and told us some history about them. Then we got ready to go home. I'm the custodian so I have to see who's desk is dirty and make them pay 20$ in class money. After that, we all went home and did our homework and got to go outside... well I did! I can't wait until tomorrow.

February 5, 2008 by Lauryn

My class couldn't believe it! This morning when everyone went to go inside the bells didn't ring, the class still thought it was time to play. The bells have already been off for a week. Ms. Betty, a teacher that watches us so we don't get hurt, blew her whistle to let us know it was time to go in but, not everyone heard the whistle, some people were talking to their friends and some people were playing with their footballs instead of lining up.

After we got in, we did our morning math review and it was about estimating quotients and the quotient to a division problem which is your answer,but not everyone finished in time. Some people were playing but most people finished and people who didn't finish in class have to do it outside for recess. The people that didn't finish didn't think that was fun at all. Everyone had to get ready for our test on Thursday.

Afterwards, we read a story called "Shadow of a Bull", it's a story about El Magifico, he was Spain's most famous bullfighter and he died and he had a son and everyone wanted him to be a bullfighter like his dad. But he wanted to be a doctor. Maia Wojciechowska the author of this book had 72 jobs in one year. Some of the jobs were bullfighting, and race car driving. She was born in Europe.

In yoga we were doing a lot of exercises like the shoulder stand, push-ups,and crunches. After lunch our teacher, Mr. Kootman, read us a story called The Good Dog and it's about a dog named Dutchess, who met a wolf. Dutchess's friend McKinley tries to help her out of trouble and the wolf gets shot. Last, we did Social Studies, and we learned that there are 21 mission's in California. I really enjoyed today because our class learned a lot.

January 31, 2008- by Devin P.

Wow!!!!!! We actually had time today to do social studies!!!

We started our day with a math mixed review, quick review and another mixed review. Mixed review is where multiplication and division problems are mixed up. Quick review is just problems that you multiply like 8 X 2=16, those are the easy problems. After we did our morning work we did our regular math. The lesson that we did was division with remainders. The first time I saw the lesson I thought it looked easy and I was right.

The first thing Mr. Kootman let us do for that lesson was get our white boards, markers and erasers out. On our boards Mr. Kootman told us to write down a division problem. It was 73 divided by 6; the answer was 12 remainder of 1. Then Mr. Kootman thought that we were good at it so Mr. Kootman let us do our math packet for division with remainders. That math packet was so easy that I finished like a snap. During the time we were doing our math packets Mr. Kootman took us for a jog around the play ground and back. I thought it was a fun course.

After math we read our comprehension story for the third time this week. The story this week was a biography on Susan La Fleche Piccote, it is based on her life and the medicine she used. First before we read the story Mr. Kootman went over the vocabulary for the story, they were physician, ominous, reservation, desolately and maneuvered. Physician means doctor, ominous is threatening, reservation means a land set aside for Native Americans, desolately means in a hopeless or lonely way and maneuvered means that you move. We did not just read the story we listen to the CD for the story. Then Mr. Kootman asked a couple of questions.

Soon it was recess time; I played basketball. My classroom was the first one out on the playground. I played with Curtis, Demar and Jody. We played knock. How the game works you get in a line then the first person shots the ball and if they miss they keep shooting until you make it. Then if the first person is still shooting then the second person shoots the ball if the second person ball goes in first, the first person is knocked out.

After we had recess we did our spelling and vocabulary. What we learned in that book was time and order words. The main time and order words are today, one month, before and last week. Then Mr. Kootman usually has us stand up and act like parrots where we reapeat everything he says, so it will sink in our brains.

Then we went to lunch. Today was popcorn shrimp day, but I had brought my lunch and I had pizza rolls. Pizza rolls is pizza just wrapped with the cheese, sauce and the crust but the cheese and the sauce are inside and the crust is outside holding the cheese and sauce. We were the second table to leave the cafeteria to go play outside. I played handball but Devin D. kept calling my name to help him because he was getting chased by the girls. But, then the bell rang so we had to stand in line for class.

All that was left to do for the day was social studies. But before social studies Mr. Kootman had a surprise for us; he had biography cards for us. Then after we went over the biography cards Mr. Kootman went over social studies vocabulary. Our vocabulary was mission and missionary. Mission is a place were missionary’s teach about their religion and missionary is a teacher who teaches about thier religion. So that was the end of social studies.

Then we watched our movie that is called Bullwhip Griffin. The movie is based on a book we read called By the Great Horn Spoon. It is about when this butler and this boy end up on a boat that had a bad guy aboard but that’s how far got. We ran out of time and packed up to go home.