Homework. Let's review what constitutes homework for Room 17. All students should read at home for at least fifteen minutes. Even though we read a lot at school, a large volume of reading is required in order to become an independent reader, which more than anything else, will make future success in school. Any assignments not finished at school can be taken home for finishing or checking over. Assignments are always due the next day before 8:10 AM. Current events or news items, which are short summaries written on cards obtained from the classroom, are encouraged but not required. We discuss them in class each day and the students bringing them in receive a "prize."
Next month the 'Family History Report Project' assignment will be given. It will require some additional homework, mostly in the form of interviews of family members, possibly over the holidays. The students do not need to finish the whole report over the holidays, but often it is a good time to visit (interview) with relatives. Students will receive instruction on conducting the interviews and a sheet with assignment details on December 19th.

 

Parent/Teacher conferences start next week on Thursday and Friday.

Below is the revised draft of our personal narrative with revision and proofreading help from the fourth-graders. We hope you like it!

Jake

His name was Jake. I'm pretty sure that was his name although I didn't know his owners. He was the neighborhood dog from across the street. We had lots of fun together, but there was one adventure I'll never forget.

I used to run a three mile route around the neighborhood about three or four times a week. One day Jake started following me as I left the driveway.  Thinking he would soon turn around and go home, I kept running. Every time I turned, expecting him to be gone, there he was running right behind me.

After a few blocks I noticed we were approaching a dangerous situation. Two boys in Halloween masks glared at us from the street corner. I could tell they were the neighborhood troublemakers, Roscoe and Jed. Jed had a BB gun and demanded I give him two dollars. Meanwhile, Jake let out a deep growl.

As Jake's growl grew louder and more threatening, Roscoe and Jed were so scared they began to shake. Then Jake snarled and bared his large teeth. That caused both Roscoe and Jed to pee their pants and run off screaming in high-pitched voices. In fact, Jed was so terrified that he dropped the BB gun before running off like a scared rabbit. I picked it up and smashed it in two against a telephone pole.

After that, Jake and I went on many more runs together through the neighborhood. I suppose he was my bodyguard as well as my running companion, but I still don’t know who he belonged to. A few years ago he passed away. I will never forget Jake.

 

                                                          Mr. Burnett and Room 17

The following shows the rest of the story we worked on in class this week with some revisions as we learn more about the Writing process:

                         Jake

  His name was Jake. I'm pretty sure that was his name although I didn't know his owners. He was teh neighborhood dog from across the street.  We had lots of fun together, but there was one adventure I'll never forget.

  I used to run a three mile route around the neighborhood about three or four times a week. One day jake started following me as I started out.(left the driveway)  Thinking he would soon turn around and go home, I kept running. Every time I turned, expecting him to be gone, there he was running right behind me.

  After a few blocks I noticed we were approaching a problem.(a dangerous situation)  Two boys in Halloween masks glared at us from the street corner. I could tell they were the neighborhood troublemakers, Roscoe and Jed. Jed had a BB gun and demanded I give him two dollars. Meahwhile, Jake let out a deep growl.

  As Jake's growl grew louder and more threatening, Roscoe and Jed were so scared they began to shake. Then Jake snarled and bared his large teeth. That caused both Roscoe and Jed to pee their pants and run off screaming in high-pitched voices. Jed was so terrified that he dropped the BB gun before running off like a scared rabbit. I picked it up and smashed it in two against a telephone pole.
 
  After that, Jake and I went on many more funs together through the neighborhood. I suppose he was my bodyguard as well as my running companion. I won't forget him.


It's not the best it can be yet. So, read it through a few times and look for ways to improve it.

Maybe it's not quite Halloween yet, but the spiders are out there in all their scariness.

This week the fourth graders started working on their first personal narrative. They are writing about a pet dog that helps them or someone in some way. Here's one way the story could begin:

  His name was Jake. I'm pretty sure that was his real name although I never met his owners. He was the neighborhood dog that lived across the street. We had lots of fun together, but there was one adventure I'll never forget.

After finishing their rough drafts, the students will learn how to revise and edit their work until they have a final draft of their best writing so far this year. Stay tuned for more examples!

We are finished with Topic 2 in Math and about to start a unit on place value which should be mostly review. We'll see about that!

 Not as big as the fake spider in Room 17, but still spider season has arrived. Did you know you're never more than three feet from spider? Most are harmless!

We have been working on writing sentences of different types. For example, in the paragraph above you will notice a statement, question, and and exclamation. There is a fourth kind of sentence. Do you know it?

 In Math we are learning about factors and using tables to find patterns in groups of numbers. For example: See if you can answer the following correctly:

 

Ivan counted all the beans in a jar. If he counted the

beans in groups of 7, which list shows the numbers

Ivan could have named?

A

7, 14, 21, 24

B

7, 14, 28, 54

C

7, 14, 21, 28

D
14, 24, 34, 44

Tea on Friday, a long tradition for Room 17, warms and refreshes the young scholars of the fourth grade. Division dominates the Math lessons this week and next as we move forward, while continuing to review multiplication facts and learn to subtract with renaming or borrowing.

Join us for "Back to School" Night next Tuesday, September 24th, from 6 to 7 PM here in Room 17. We'll talk about a few projects and curriculum pieces, but mostly it is a chance for us to meet and check out the classroom.

In the meantime, have a good weekend!

Off to a great start, Room 17 fourth graders began the second of week of school yesterday. Right at the moment they are working hard on Math facts and subtraction with borrowing. While a lot of the first days is filled with review work in Reading and Math, it won't be long until the more challenging work begins. In fact, the kids are already learning to write and essay on their favorite dessert, and there will be more information and an example of such an essay soon. In the meantime keep doing the daily homework Reading assignment, and try to bring in a few current events from the newspaper, radio/television, or internet.