Today I introduced our Word Study projects that students will be working on over the next few months. Each student has two different word roots (a prefix and/or a suffix). They will make a slideshow about each word root and present this slideshow to the class. Look for a more detailed post about this project soon.

Here are our notes from today’s class: (Download the notes here.)

Etymology: the study of words

“Etym” = true meaning; “ology” = study of, science of

Word Roots

Prefix: Comes before the root word. “Pre” means before.

Suffix: Comes at the end of the root word.

Prefixes and suffixes are small parts of words that come from Greek and Latin. Knowing prefixes and suffixes helps you understand the meanings of words.

Example 1:

“bio-” = life, “-ology” = science of or study of

Biology is the study of life.

Example 2:

“mis-” = bad

To misbehave is to act or behave poorly.

Below are some things reflections from our field trip to the Fremont Transfer Station. Learn more about this facility and the 4 Rs at www.stopwaste.org

Things we learned on our field trip:

• How to recycle things like bottles and cans.
• What to put into the green bin and what not to put in the green bin.
• How bottles get crushed and made into new bottles.
• Rot involves F.B.I. (Fungi, Bacteria, Invertebrates)
• FBI can make compost in about two months.
• How to sort out cans, bottles, glass, and plastic.
• Aluminum comes from bauxite.
• The M.R.F. (Material Recovery Facility)
• Glass is made out of sand.
• Plastic is made out of crude oil.
• The four R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot.
• Our trash goes into the landfill in Fremont. This Fremont landfill is almost full. At the end of the summer, our trash will now go to a landfill in Livermore.

Why is this important? Why should we care?

• We can help the earth and this is our home.
• We need to take care of it.
• We need to help the environment so we don’t die.
• We need to recycle so our earth does not become a giant landfill.

Download these notes here.

Here are the examples, guidelines, and rubric from class. Use this information as you work at becoming a better reader and writer! Please print these materials out and glue them into your HRL for reference!

Reading Response Guidelines.pdf

Reading Response Example.pdf

Reading Response Sentence Helpers.pdf

Reading Response Rubric.pdf

The plot is the sequence of events in the story from the beginning to the end (timeline). Usually the order of events is: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement.

Exposition:
The beginning of the story where the author introduces the setting, characters, and other important information the readers needs to know.

Rising Action:
A series of events that builds from the beginning of the story. Rising action is where the author builds interest and tension in the story.

Climax:
Also can be called the “turning point”. This is the highest point of tension or action in the story. The climax often leads the reader to wonder, “What will happen? How is everything going to turn out?” The climax is an important turning point for the characters or the story.

Falling Action:
The events of the story after the climax or turning point. The events are leading to the end of the story and the resolution.

Denouement:
The resolution. This is the final outcome or “untangling” of the events of the story.

Download a copy of the Literary Elements of Plot here.

Use this information for your notes and test on the Literary Elements of a Story. Remember, these elements are important things you will find in stories in all their forms (book, comic, tv show, movie).

When you are reading or watching TV, can you identify these elements?

Plot:
The sequence of events that happen in a story. The plot
usually happens in the order of: Exposition, Rising Action,
Climax, Falling Action, and Denouement.

Setting:
Where and when the story takes place. The setting is the
geographic location of the story. When a character walks
from one part of a neighborhood to the other, the scene
changes, but the setting always stays the same.

Characters:
The people, animals, or creatures in the story.

Protagonist:
One character who is central to the story and all the
major events in the story.

Antagonist:
The character who opposes, or goes against the main
character or protagonist. The antagonist tries to
prevent the main character (protagonist) from
succeeding or being happy.

Conflict:
Conflict is a problem that happens in the story. Usually, the
conflict happens toward the beginning of the story, at the
beginning of the Rising Action. There are different types of
conflicts:
(1) Person versus Person
(2) Person versus Self
(3) Person versus Nature
(4) Person versus Society
(5) Person versus Circumstance

Theme:
The message that is in the story. Common themes are love, friendship, loyalty, faith, hope, forgiveness, sacrifice, honor, justice, truth, freedom.

Download the Literary Elements of a Story here.

Today Mrs. S. led the class in an Internet Safety activity.  In groups, students created Internet Safety charts.  When the students were finished the students and Mrs. S. combined all the group charts to create one class chart.  I am pasting the contents of the chart here as well as posting a PDF file of the chart.

Internet Safety

Things We Should Do:

• Always ask a parent to use the computer.
• Say nice things to people using the same website.
• Once we read something bad on the computer tell a parent.
• Keep user names and passwords secret.
• Ask your parents to make an online accounts for you.
• If someone sends you a bad message don’t reply.
• Make sure you tell your parents about an email in case there are virus.
• Tell parent if someone wrote something bad.
• Don’t write bad things on other people’s accounts.
• Log off when finished.
• Ask a parent before you go online.
• Ask mom or dad before singing up for something.
• Be polite to others’ online.
• Tell your parent if someone wrote something bad.

Things We Shouldn’t Do:

• Don’t use other people’s accounts.
• Don’t go to “over rated” website- ones that aren’t for kids.
• Don’t give your user name and password.
• Don’t ask your parents to sign up for an unknown account. (Find out what the account is for)
• Buy something without telling parents.
• Do not give out personal information about yourself on the internet.
• Don’t watch bad things on the internet.
• Don’t give out your user names and passwords for your accounts.
• Don’t hack on an account
• Don’t send bad stuff or viruses to other people.
• Don’t log in someone else’s account
• Don’t say bad words online.
• Don’t write email addresses with a bad  word.
• Don’t type mean things on other peoples websites.
• Don’t make your own email account without permission.

Today we finally watched President Obama’s “Back to School” speech.  The kids were very excited and listened carefully to Obama’s words.  As they listened to Obama, each student took notes on things they heard that seemed important.  As part of our conversation afterwards, we made a list of some of the ideas students deemed powerful.

Notes from President Obama’s Speech:

1. Failures teach you.
2. Put your best effort in school so that you can learn more and more things.
3. Don’t ever give up on yourself.
4. Don’t give up.
5. You need education for a (good) job.
6. You can’t drop out of school and then get a good job.
7. Don’t be afraid of asking questions, so that you can learn more.
8. Spend time doing extra time doing extra curricular.
9. You won’t always succeed at first, so keep trying.
10. Here in America, you choose your own destiny.
11. Don’t cut class.
12. Do your homework even if you don’t feel like it.
13. Don’t let anyone down, especially yourself.
14. Don’t let your country down.
15. There is no excuse for not doing anything.
16. Set your own goals.
17. It’s important to learn to help your life.
18. You are never too old (too young) to have a dream.
19. Do your best at everything.
20. Listen to your parents.

Notes from President Barack Obama’s “Back to School” speech.pdf

Hello readers! I’m at school right now. I’m using Mr. C’s computer. This is awesome! Well I’m doing Social Studies and I’m taking notes and doing my summary. It’s recess but I’m writing. I just got back from P.E. Mr. C is right next to me. We have a modified day today so  12:05 I go home. I’ll write when I get home. Right now I’m signing off. See ya! UPDATE: ALL WE DID WAS SOCIAL STUDIES TODAY AND WE HAD TO CLEAN THE CLASS

RANDOM PICTURE OF THE DAY“The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.”

First things first, Wednesday is Doom Day for me because I have a class that just messes up my daily schedule because my class starts at 6:00 which means I have to have dinner at 5:00 which doesn’t make sense to me. Second, if you leave comments for me that have questions I will try to answer them. Okay. Now about Doom- I mean Wednesday. It’s kinda late right now so I’ll try as best as I can to say what we did. We did math, science, and social studies. Social studies we learned about Where Californians live. We did the same thing as we did yesterday which was take notes, write summaries, and in the morning take a quiz on what we learned yesterday. For science all I did was film my group in a video. I don’t really know what happened in math but what I do know is that we learned about lines of symmetry. Today was a very bad day for some students. They had to have something that starts with a “R” now I’m not saying what it is but if you do know DON’T DARE COMMENT WHAT IT IS. I CAN DELETE THEM BUT IT WILL MAKE THE STUDENT LIFE A WHOLE LOT EASIER IF YOU DON’T LEAVE COMMENTS AT ALL. If you do I can delete it but it would make mine and the students lives way easier. Cross my heart. Our homeowork was science (work on it), social studies (finish what you didn’t today), and math (worsheet on lines of symmetry).

RANDOM PICTURE OF THE DAY:

picture from http://school.discoveryeducation.com/clipart/images/raincld.gif

“Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of gifts he does not give” from the Bible.

Hello readers! I apologize for not posting yesterday! I couldn’t get on the blog! ARRRGGGGG! That’s not pirate by the way. So today I will be talking about Monday and Tuesday. Its a two for one celebration yay!!!!!

Anyways, what we did yesterday was social studies, science, and like 30 minutes of reading. What we did for social studies was we had to read chapter or unit one, lesson one. We had to do summaries for every paragraph that we read and in my opinion (don’t take this personally people) it took a long time and at the end I had two dull pencils and tons of hand cramps. BUT at the end it was worth it because it helped us learn more. We also had to do work in our new workbooks and make a map of California with the central valley region, the coastal region, the mountain region, the desert region, the San Francisco Bay Area, Union City, Los Angles, and Sacramento. All of that took up 2 thirds of our day (We had homework involving that too).

During science, we had to practice in front of the class what we were saying for our photosynthesis presentation and poster. I had to present my group and I personally think that I was like a wind-up toy. Start, stop, start, stop, start and you get the picture. It wasn’t pretty either. And for reading we just did well, reading.

What we did today was social studies (again), math, and science. For social studies we did unit one, chapter two. We had to make summaries, but this time I didn’t get cramps. I don’t know why. For math we learned about… CONGRUENT FIGURES!! DUNH DUNH DUNH!!!!!!! Congruent figures are figures that are the same size and shape. For science all our group did was film part of our photosynthesis video. I don’t know what in the name of Mr. C the other groups did. So thats all we did.

Oh and we cleaned the classroom like crazy because Mr. C said that if we didn’t we couldn’t go to last recess. We didn’t get to go anyway. I agree with what Mr. C said about the class not listening and not doing anything but have fun, talk and play. DON’T SPAM ME IF YOU KNOW MY EMAIL FOR SAYING THAT. Our homework was social studies (finish summaries if didn’t), a math worksheet on congruent figures, and science (work on it).

RANDOM PICTURES OF THE DAY:

“I like all the chairs to talk to one another and to the sofas and not those parlor-car arrangements that create two Siberias.” from Mario Buatta. I know it doesn’t look like a chair, but it is. Trust me.