Emmy’s Blog

Today in L.A Mrs.Ekstrom had to talk to us about how the homework finish the Westing Game notebook and if you didn’t you would get a detention! She had to do this because 15 people were failing!! Anywayafter that we discused as a class what the connection between Sam Westing and Sandy was. That just about waps it up.

 Here is one of the covers for the book.

Even though it was special persons day on Friday we had classes. In Social Studies we went over the homework from the night before. Afterwards we watched the end of a movie. It was about the Ancient Myans. They lived Central America on the Yucatan Peninsula. They were great astronomers but they also belived that the king could talk to the gods so they sacreficing people so they could give their blood to the gods. They also build many great pyramids. They were a very interesting civilzation.

 This is one of their many great buildings.

Well tomorrow is the End-Of-Year test! In class since it was the last day to review we spent the entire period reviewing for the test. We reviewed all of our skills like angle puzzles, converting decimals to precents and so much more. I bet that I will do my hardest.

Today in S.S. we had a map quiz on all of Asia! At first it seemed hard, but if you studied hard you would probably do ok on it. After that when you were done we read our silent reading book. Now after everyone was done we started to look at Japan. I learned that Japan is made up of many islands so Japan is an archipelago. The four main and largest islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. This country is also located on the ring of fire or an area where earthquakes happen often. That is about all we got to today but tomorrow is another day.

Today in math class, actually not much happened today. We mostly reviewed for tomorrows quiz on adding and subtracting negative numbers. But first we did a homework check for the night before. Then we did a couple warm-up problems. One of them was 4 to the 4 power. After a couple of those we did study link 6.3 which was all on adding and subtracting negative numbers. The homework was to study foe tomorrows quiz and finish study link 6.3. It was a somewhat easy class, but I need to work on these kinds of problems.

Today in social studies we kept going on our studies on China. First we went over our homework. It was to choose our favorite Confucius quotes. My favorite quotes were “respect yourself and others will respect you” “Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it” “Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart”. We talked about what they meant and how it applies to every day life. After that discussion Mr.Hetherington taught us a way how to remember what inventions the Chinese made. They were compass, silk, clock, gunpowder, fireworks, paper and ink. We remember them by a story that he told us. Here is the story: One day Nichole was lost in the woods so she took out her compass and it was made out of silk. After she found where north was she flipped it over and looked at her clock, but when she opened it gun powder came out and went into her eyes. Then all of a sudden fireworks came out of her eyes and the smoke-streams turned into books. Then paper fell out of the books and one of the pieces cut Nichole in the arm. Insted of blood ink came out. Luckely she found a town and had tea with a nice family. That is how we remember the invetions that China made. We also learned a story for remembering the main dynasties of China. Here is the name of the dynasties: Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qhing. That is what we did that class.

This is Confucius.

After getting back from vacation it was hard to start up, but when we were settled we started working with compass. The kind of compass i’m talking about is one that architects and graphic artists use. We use them to make circles and even to copy a line segment. Let me explain how to use on. A compass has on sharp point and a pencil. What you do is put the sharp point on the paper and make sure that it does not move. Then you turn the compass so the pencil part is moving not the sharp point and make a circle. You can also turn the paper around so you make a circle. I prefer tyning the paper[leave me a commet telling me how you make a circle with a compass]. So after we read a page in our student reference book about how to use it we exparemented with the compass. We made good and some of us made concentric circles[they look like a bulsie or circles that have the same center].  After that we did a journal page in which we had to copy a line segment only using a compass. Then we read until the class was over. It was a fun class.

    This is a compass.                     These are concentric circles.         

Today during math class we did mostly reviews on fractions for the test tomorrow. Actually we did a self assessment sheet that we do to see what we need to improve on and what we do good at. Then we did some warm-ups. Here is one of then: write 14 over 35 in simplest form. The answer would be 2 over 5[the greatest common factor is 7]. After that we did a word problem sheet and they were easy. Here is one of them: the Urbens had three-fourth gallon of milk. One-half of this was used for dinner. How much milk was used for dinner? The answer would be 3 over 8[you just multiply 1 over 2 and 3 over 4 to get 3 over 8. Afterwords we did p.205 and #4-18. They were just multiplying fractions problems. It was a easy review math class. 

What is the product of this problem? Leave me a commet telling me the answer.

On Thurs. we had a sub named Mrs.Mann. We talked about some words that have to do with the Respirtory System like circulatory and nutrians. We also talked about what the Respiratory sysyem helps us do. Well it helps us breath so we can get oxygen to our cells and organs. Then she had us do pg.1 and 2. Here are some facts from that page. We can survive a week without food, a few days without drinking, but we can only last a few minutes without breathing. That’s because we need a freash supply of oxygen all the time. The respirtory system does 2 jobs. One is that it provides oxygen for our body. The second job is that it removes gaseous wastes from our body. Afterword, if we finished thoes pages she had us do a crossword puzzle. That is what we did that day.

Today in math class we started on multiplying fractions. But first we got our quizzes back that we did on Friday. Everyones test scores were good. Then we learned the formula so that we could multiply fractions. Here it is, a over b times c over d. In other words would multiply the numerators together and the denominators together. Here is an example, to do 3 over 5 times 2 over 3. First you would multiply 3 and 2 which equals 6, then multiply 5 and 3 which equals 15. So the fraction would be 6 over 15.Here is another hint when you multiply a whole number with a fraction you make the whole number a fraction. Here is an example, to love the problem 6 times 3 over 5 we make 6 a fraction by making it 6 over 1 so we still keep the same value. So we multiply 6 times 3 which equals 18 and 1 times 5 which equals 5 so that our answer is 18 over 5. Anyway after doing some examples on the board we worked on correcting any mistakes on our quiz, then finished our practice CMT packets we started on Friday, then finally did pages 140-141 in J1. So that is what we did today in math class today. 

  Try and figure this one out. Send me your answer as a comment.  I will post the first 10 people who got the right answer.

That day in math class after a lot of hard testing[ and a very long wait] we got our mid-years back. Mostly every one did a good job. After going over the homework Ms.V tought us how to reduce fractions. Here’s how, lets use the fraction 3 over 12. First you would list the factors of 3 and 12, then see what the greatest common factor is[list the factors in a factor rainbow]. For 3 over 12 it’s 3. Then you would divide the numerator and the denominator by 3 to get 1 over 4. After we got good at those we reduced the fractions on p.149. I learned alot that day.   

The date is 1/4/07 and today we have a substitute teacher named Mrs.Jones. She is nice. When we got settled in we corrected the homework from the night before. It was about Turkey. One of the answers to the homework was that the Ottoman Empire fell apart because of WWI. They were on Germany’s side, so since they lost, now all that is left of the Empire is Turkey. After we discussed that, we labeled a map of South West Asia and colored the borders of each country. It was a fun class, but I wonder what we we’ll do tomorrow? 

Today in L.A. we talked about dialogue. First Ms.Esktrom gave us a paper called “Guidelines for Writing Dialogue .”  One of the guidelines is to begin a new paragraph each time the speaker changes. She also said that some authors don’t do it! Then she read us the article from the book that she read to us the day before called “The Case Of The Missing Socks.” Ms.Esktrom had us underline 5 examples of dialogue. A example of dialogue is “I just saw Harold running toward the park!” she reported. The last part of the class was funny. Ms.Esktrom read some of the notes that we wrote yesterday. Some she didn’t read because she taught that they were rude. Todays class was fun. I wonder what we’ll do tomorrow?