Thursday, January 19, 2012

Homework and News

Thursday's Homework Coti Math: Pages 274 and 275 in CMJ 2 Houston Math: 30 min. on review sheet Reading: Read to agreed-upon page/chapter in novels. Write a short text-to-self, text-to-world or another reading response that highlights a passage of the book that had meaning for you. Remember to come prepared to discuss the book tomorrow. Half-Day. 12:15 Dismissal. We are postponing our vitamin play for next Tuesday after testing. Students should wear a white shirt that day (all the vitamins, that is). Isabella, John and Maggie did a fantastic job on their book project for Tuck Everlasting. Besides a media show, they performed three scenes from the book. John and Isabella switched genders for their roles. Bravi! I look forward to seeing the other projects as groups finish their novels. Photos will follow tomorrow as I left my camera on my desk, and I cannot access this blog from school. Happy Friday!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Homework -- Wednesday, January 18, 2011

Coti Math:  Study Links  9.1

Bring a white t-shirt for vitamin play and make sure you know your lines.

Photos of our school survey coming soon (measuring outside areas).

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

January News

Hello Parents!

The new semester is about to start next week after the PIA (Paced Interim Assessment) on Monday and Tuesday, January 23 and 24.  We worked on fractions/decimals/percents, rates and algebra in math along with summarizing, author viewpoint, cause and effect and genres in preparation for the test.  I think the students will do well.

I'd like to introduce Andres Lomeli, our new student teacher from GW.  Mr. Lomeli started today and will be a great asset to our fourth grade classroom.  I plan to have him work with small groups and help with administrative tasks to ensure a smooth-running program.  Mr. Lomeli is from California and has been in the master's program at GW since last May.  He will be with us until May 4.  Welcome Mr. Lomeli!

We are gearing up for a five-week nutrition and farming program on Feb. 6.  The students will learn farming and gardening methods, start seeds in the classroom for planting in the spring, start a worm farm and continue to learn about nutrition.  The students are currently rehearsing a nutrition play that willl be performed for the lower grades on Friday.  We are also continuing with the Be Water Wise DC program. The students counted faucets in the school and measured flow rates, counted toilets and urinals and looked for leaks.  They have also measured the impervious areas on school grounds, counted the gutters and drain spouts, observed where storm water pools in areas around the school and calculated how much water Eaton used in the past 12 months.  We also calculated how much water each person at Eaton used:  nearly 2,000 gallons each!  As we continue our studies, we will be thinking about how to save these resources (water and money) and make recommendations this Spring to the DC Council along with the other schools in the city who are participating in the study.

We will start a unit on the Revolutionary War in social studies next week and start a Geometry unit in Math.  In language arts, we will focus on non-fiction in both our reading and writing.  The students completed their fiction stories last week, and they are posted on the bulletin board outside the classroom.  Have a peek!

We also celebrated Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday with a trip to Cleveland Park Library last Friday.  The students sketched a picture with a freedom theme on paper that they transferred to fabric at the library.  The fabric squares will be sewn into two quilts, one for each 4th grade.  The drawings are beautiful and meaningful.  The students certainly demonstrated the theme with aplomb.  We also took a MLK quiz in the classroom from a Scholastic website and learned even more about this important American.

This is all for now.  I've attached some photos of our students at work:  writing stories, saying goodbye to Emily who moved back to Australia, working at Cleveland Park and acting as detectives to help solve the mystery of a cholera epidemic in London in the 1800s.   Their job was to find the source of the outbreak which they successfully accomplished in partnerships after being given lists of victims, a map of London and some clues.   Scroll down a bit at the end to view the photos.

Keep warm!

Susan K. Coti

Homework -- Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Coti Math:  Study Links 8.2
Vocab. workshop: next two pages

























Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Homework -- Tuesday, January 9, 2012

Coti Math:  Page 159, CM Study Links
Social Studies:  Finish chapter and questions started in class.
Study lines for Vitamin play!

Field Trip to Cleveland Park Library on Friday.  No permission slip needed.  You already signed a "Neighborhood Walk" field trip form at the beginning of the school year.  If you haven't, please email me at s_coti@hotmail.com and I'll send one home.  I do believe I have all on file though.

I'm having a bit of trouble posting photos from today, including a few pics of Emily and the class as we gave her an exuberant send off!   I'll try again tomorrow!

HAVE A GREAT EVENING!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Monday's Homework -- January 9, 2012

Coti Math:  CMJ 2, pages 214 and 215

Reading/Writing:  Rewrite paragraph on handout to include the strategies we learned today for strengthening sentences.

Make a card for Caleb if you haven't already!

Field Trip on Friday to Cleveland Park Library.  Permission slip coming tomorrow.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Homework -- Wednesday, February 4, 2012

Coti Math:  Study Links, page 157

Lit. Circles:  Six sentences with vocabulary words

Finish card for Caleb

Study lines for nutrition play

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year!
I hope everyone had a great break and are well rested for the work ahead.

Tonight's Homework:

Coti Math:  CMJ 2, pages 206 and 207
Houston Math:  Project due 1/13 plus complete 12 problems in decimal packet

Writing:  Write two ideas to advance the plot of your story.  Remember to consider the characters and what motivates them to do what they do and think what they think.  Write a brief outline that includes:
a.  plot
b. characters
c. setting
d. point of view
e. theme or meaning of the story
f. problem (and resolution if you have one)

Reading:  Finish King Canute story with story element handout if you did not finish in class.

Please click on "Older Post" at the bottom of the page if you did not read the December Newsletter.

Have a great evening!