August 27, 2009
Mrs. Miller

Today began with our first Self-Start test. Every Friday during the school year (or last day of the week) we will have a Self-Start quiz. The students, for 2 extra credit points, write down the week’s Mystery State. This week’s Mystery State was California. Many of the students received an extra 2 points. Way to go!

Guess what? We are going to Mars!! Well our names are going anyway. Today we visited a NASA wesite. It said that they are sending a new rover to Mars next year. It will be taking a special microchip with our names on it. We went onto their website and filled out the form. It gave us a special number and made us a certificate of participation saying we were part of history. We printed our certificates to take home.

At 9:20, the class took out their ADD books and I gave them the three mental math questions. I also told the students that we would be taking an Acuity test. I reassured the students that this test score was not going on their grade, but would help me know what to teach them this year.

Half way through the test and ADD assignment, I could tell the students needed a few minutes break. We did some stretches, ran in place, and walked around the room, and talked to each other.

When the majorityof the class was finished, I told them about an art project called Symmetrical Name Creatures. I passed out to each student a piece of white paper and told them to fold it in half. The students wrote their names on the fold of one half of the paper in pencil. They traced over their name with the crayon, making sure to press hard and leave a lot of crayon on the paper. Then they folded the paper so it covered up their name. By rubbing the paper with the flat side of a pencil, students produced a mirror image of their name on the opposite side of the paper. Then they colored the name and it's reflection with crayons so that it looked like a creature from outer space.

Many of the students completed the assigment. I put the completed ones out in the hall. They look great!

Upon returning to class from recess, I told the students it was time for math and that we were going to the lab for our math class. Many smiles instantly appeared on 29 faces.

When all the students had logged onto the computers, I showed them how to get to our class's math site. I gave each student a Task Card. On the Task Card, were five sites that they needed to visited to complete the problems. Some examples of the sites and activities are: Fun Brain - writing numbers on checks from 0 - 10,000; AAA Math - Comparing and ordering 4 digit numbers; Mathematical Activites - guessing a number by clicking on a high or low arrow; and Math Millionaire. The class was extremely excited to complete their math on the computers with such fun activities. I can't wait to see if anyone won $1,000,000.

After lunch, students quickly got their backpacks ready and help straighten the classroom. With that, the first week of the 2010/2011 school year was over. It was an enjoyable and productive five days, but I know we’re all ready for a break. Bring on the weekend!