Welcome to 2009!

Who is this strange looking 2-faced guy, and why is he the picture accompanying the first post of the year 2009?  Why it’s Janus of course, the Roman god of gates, doors, beginnings, and endings.  Today in class we spent a little time learning about Janus and how his name eventually came to mark the new year, resolutions, and the month January.  We also spoke some about making New Year’s resolutions and began a writing project based on incorporating resolutions into an essay in the form of an extended metaphor.  We will be working on developing the essay over the course of this week in writing.

In Math today we began our unit on fractions with an activity documenting what people did over vacation by creating three circle venn diagrams and identifying different fractions within them.  Over the next couple weeks, we will delve into fractions, decimals, and percents.  A unit-opening family letter will be sent home tomorrow.

Reading homework for students with an active reading book in Literature Circles is to skim through their books to refresh themselves on what they have read so far.  In class we discussed strategies for quick and successful skimming, and I sent home a page with a few pointers to help them out.

Homework:

1. Language Arts: Lit Circle Groups – skim through what you have read so far in your group, complete a timeline or character description to bring to group tomorrow.
2. Mathematics: Practice Set 28.  Don’t forget to show your work and attach any extra paper you used.
3. Other: Finish writing rules for the resolution pre-writing if it was not finished in class.
4. Reading: Read for 20 minutes and fill out pink reading log.

Mr. Weis

(Edit: It appears that I forgot to hit the submit button last night and when I went to check if I had any messages on the blog this morning I realized I didn’t publish the post.)

Good Wodensday to you

Did you know that the word Wednesday has roots of its etymology that date back to the Norse god Odin?  After the Roman emperor Constantine set a 7 day calendar with names based on Roman gods, some of the names were changed by Germanic tribes.  Among those changed was Diēs Mercuriī, or Mercury’s Day, to Wodensday.  If you speak Spanish you will notice the similarity of the Roman name to Miercoles.  Many students in the class are quite enthusiastic about learning Mythology, and might be interested to check out a brief explanation of the English names for the days of the week on Encyclopedia Mythica.

Today the students continued on their Limericks and began working on illustrations while I conferenced with individual students to help with revisions.  After we finish the limericks, we will be putting the poems together in a collection, and each student will get a copy to keep.

In Mathematics, we worked through some word problems involving long division.  We rewrote problems as open number sentences with variables, created graphical representations of the problems, applied division algorithms to find solutions, and then interpreted the remainder in relation to its meaning in the actual problem.  For homework tonight, students will evaluate two more problems.  Please make sure they follow each step and show their work on an additional paper or on the back.

Homework:

1. Language Arts: Vocabulary Sentences/ Stories with 6 words from the week’s vocabulary list.  Focus on silent and sounded consonants.
2. Mathematics: Study Link  – Division Number Stories with Remainders.
3. Reading: Read for 20 minutes and write in Pink Reading Log.

Mr. Weis