The First Week of School

Homework - Thursday 9/10/09

Since this is the first week of school, homework this week is most an introduction to the types of work that we'll be doing. Real homework will start next week.

Tonight's homework is to read for 15 minutes or longer, complete the entry for 9/10 on your reading log, and do one entry in your RRJ.  For your entry, please write today's date, the title and author of your book. Your entry can be about any of the things we discussed on the RRJ sheet. Some examples might be to make a prediction about what will happen next in your story,  write down some questions you would like to ask the author or one of the characters, draw an illustration of what you imagine the scene in the book looks like, write down any vocabulary words you didn't know, describe your favorite part of the book, explain whether you like or dislike any of the characters.

If you're still confused, don't worry. This will become much more clear as you get used to working on your journal.

Also - you don't have to do all of the thigns I listed. Just choose one or two that seem to fit with what you're reading.

Don't forget to glue or staple the RRJ sheet onto the first page of your RRJ.

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Welcome back!  It was so wonderful to meet everyone this morning. I think we're going to have a fabulous year together.

Homework - Wednesday 09/09/09

Reading - the homework for reading is going to be to read for at least 15 minutes every night. The time will increase as the year goes on, but we start at 15 minutes. Of course you're welcome to read much much more. :)

Reading for tonight is optional as I know the first night can be pretty hectic. I'll hand out and explain reading logs tomorrow.

Math - the math homework tonight is very simple. Figure out how many toes there are in your family. Parents, please don't be concerned about the simplicity of the problem. The purpose of this problem is to focus on all the different strategies people might use to figure out the answer. We'll be discussing those various strategies in class tomorrow. So, for this problem (as with many in 4th grade) HOW you solved the problem is as important as what your answer is.

THINK about Henry Hudson and the anniversary of his arrival in NYC 400 years ago this week. If you find any information or see anything in books or newspapers, please bring it in to share.