First when we walked up to the classroom, we did lunch count, and talked quietly around the room while some people read.  After that we walked down to band class.

In band we played a few songs and then got to see what chair we had gotten from the day before when we had had a chair placement test.  (I got first.  “Yay!”) Then we played some mroe songs.  Then we walked back upstairs to music class.

When we came in Mrs. T. passed out some worksheets we have been working on lately.  Then when that part of class was over we practiced singing a song, and then sang it in Do, Re, Mi form.  After that we walked all the way back up the stairs for math.

In math we got a Habits of Mind bookmark fro the teacher.  Then we corrected our math lesson’s homework 88 odd.  Then we had a lesson out of our book about square roots.  After that we had a chance to do some of our homework on 89 odd, and an AM.  Then we transitioned over to Reading/Language Arts.

First we talked about the visualization worksheet we had done the day before.  Then we got another worksheet.  With a partner we had to re-read the story called The Search.  We then got out an older worksheet and watched some commercials to write notes about.  Then we lined up for lunch and recess. 

At recess everyone messed around and played, then went in for lunch, ate, messed around some more, , lined uo, and then walked upstairs for A.R. reading time. 

In A.R. we read.  Then a few people got called up to get paid for the week.  Once that was done we all lined up for social studies.

We walked into Miss B’s room, sat down, and waited for our assignment.  The teacher must have been in a good mood because when we walked in she announced there would be no social studies test, and instead we would be doing some “for fun” worksheets that we did not have to turn in.  Then we lined up to go back to Ms. Morris’s class for science class.

In science class we were given two worksheets, pennies, two silver tings, and a ruler with a half of a sticky note on each end.  Then we did an experiment.  When that was done we finally went to get planners, filled them out, put our stuff in our backpacks, played mum ball, went to get our intruments, and went home for the day.

by, Ashlee

The best day of the week – Friday!

For morning business we came in and wrote about Groundhog’s Day.  We got our chairs down and got everything all set that we may have needed.  We signed in for lunch count, said the Pledge of Allegiance, got in line for band and went down the never-ending stairs.

In band we practiced pages 14 & 15.  We had a test the day before – no one knew it was a chair test, which kind of stunk!  Then we practiced a new line in our books (on page 15).  After band we waited outside the band room door for our teacher to come and take us upstairs.

Band went by fast; it was already time for math.  When we got into the classroom everyone sat down and did their math transition – getting out their math book, white boards, markers, pens and red folders.  With our red pens we corrected our homework we got back.  After that we had a few long math tests, or at least they seemed long… Then we had to wait for everyone in the class to get done – it was a long wait, but the teacher wrote up on the board that we could read and take AR tests until everyone finished. 

In reading the teacher read us a story about a groundhog that couldn’t get to sleep.  She gave us a paper that we folded every time we wrote something on it about the story because we had to make predictions for every few pages.  That took up most of our language arts time.  It was sort of fun.  The story was very short but took a long time to make the predictions for every few pages.  It was finally done…

Then my favorite part of the day, lunch and recess.  Everybody went out and had a lot of fun at recess except a few people who decided to stay in.  Nikota and I were some of the few who decided to stay inside; we went through cards the entire time, so I don’t know what happened outside.  Then we ran downstairs for lunch.  Lunch is one of the very few times of the day where you have to talk besides recess.  Everyone talks a lot at lunch; some of the tables even get in trouble for talking too loud.  Then we walk back up the never ending stairway.
 
Upstairs Miss. Morris talked to us for a while and then everyone went downstairs again for extra recess – that is, except for the kids who were missing homework and had to stay inside to get it done (or the kids who choose not to go outside).  After extra recess there was an awards assembly.  A lot of people got awards; I and Juwan and Rachel got the character award for reliability!

Back on up the never ending stairway to put up chairs, write down assignments, and leave for the weekend (except me because I had conferences).

Party

For morning business everyone got their chairs and found their desks.  Everyone was really excited about the party coming up this afternoon.  There was a writing topic on the board so everyone wrote about it for homework.

Then, in band… everyone warmed up to get ready for the concert, for the entire school and for extra practice for that night.  Then, everyone got ready, got their instruments and music and went out to perform.  After we were done, we went back into the band room and everyone had done a really good job for the concert and had a lot of fun doing it!  It was just the fifth and forth grade doing it – so it was a challenge, but not that much because we already knew all the songs!

After that it was already time for math.  Everyone had a big surprise when we walked into the room, tests, retakes, and more tests – - a lot of fun.  NOT!  It was pretty boring and nobody liked it much.

It was time for reading…since the next day we were going to read to assigned buddies that were second graders, we had to get some practice in.  So the teacher pulled out sticks from a cup to assign partners in our class to read.  Once everyone had one partner (some people had two) we read out loud from our book.  Some people got done really early so we read the other persons book for their buddy – it was a lot of fun.

The day was sure flying by, it was already language arts.  Then, we had a challenge like the day before, we got our open court books out and tried to sum up just about each and every page in just 20 words – we had to get in all the main details… no one understood this.  But, we got it done.  The teacher tried to get us to do one page by yourself but no one understood this.  So, she had to assign one person that did get it and one person that didn’t so we could help each other out.  Some people still did not get it… so the teacher had to write up on the board an extra 20 word practice to help understand the directions.

Finally it was time for recess and lunch – everyone couldn’t wait!  Everyone went outside to play in the snow-covered white stuff.  Then it was lunch – everyone had a plan, barely bring anything for lunch or don’t eat that much off the tray with food that was ordered just so at the party we could shove ourselves full of junk food.  Everyone I asked had the same idea – I’m pretty sure there wasn’t that much to go home after the sweets and treats.

Finally we walked up the never ending stairs and we were to the party.  At the party everyone went to different stations that my mom Amy made for different crafts.  Everyone went in different directions trying to get into all the different crafts that they thought were the best.  Mrs. Morris’s hot glue guns were really annoying – they kept getting really hot and if you tried to get the glue to come out, you’d get burned!  It really stunk.  I think everyone got almost all the crafts done.  Plus there were no social studies and no science – it was a blast – party minus school equals perfect.  The teacher didn’t know it, but everyone went over to make part of piece of jewelry for her – the next day she opened a bag full of jewelry from the class and she loved it.  Then finally when everyone did almost all the crafts the teacher helpers went over to try and open the food and try to set it up.  There was a lot of food – so much I can’t believe we ate as much as we did.  Everyone in the class brought Miss Morris a gift or helped make the bracelets and necklaces.

The teacher surprised us with writing awards.  No one knew about it except her.  Only two people met their goals out of the class for writing in our novels and a lot of people are still writing in theirs that they already got back.

The teacher passed out presents to the class, you got to choose a book and she gave us all a card with a class picture in it – especially for us, with a homemade snow flake.  The day was finally over!  But everyone had to come back for the band concert that night.  Most of us were in it anyway.  It started at 7:00 PM so we had to go back to the school; it was the best part of school that day.  Exciting and stressful because so many people were nervous about being up on stage – BUT WE ALL DID GREAT!

THE END!

Roving Reporter for November 2

For morning business, everyone cleaned out their desk and some people really, really needed it!  Then, it was time for band.

Everyone that played instruments went downstairs to the band room.  We all got out our instruments and got seated. We learned two new songs.  One was London Bridges and the other was Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.  We also did some exercises.  Everyone was starting to get the hang of all the songs we’ve been learning.  Over all, everyone sounded pretty good, in fact, they sounded great!  It was time for computer class; time was really flying by…

Our class got to go on the internet if they had a note signed from home.  On the internet, the first thing we did was go to the Crossroads Charter Academy school web page.  We looked at the roving reporter blog online, and had to leave a note for at least one roving reporter notes that we read.  After that we had to Google “periodic table table”.  It sounds weird but that’s what the teacher told us to type and Google.  After we did that, we had to find the periodical table of elements.  While we were on it, we got to look around at all the periodic table samples of all the things on the periodic table, some of them even had movies but we were not aloud to watch them.  Afterwards, we climbed all the way up the stairs and went to our classroom. 

Next, it was time for math, but the first thing we did was pull out our whiteboards and markers and do some fraction problems – drawing pictures mostly, then we did the math lesson.  During math we did investigation number 3, but did not finish it completely.  Instead we’re going to finish it Monday (instead of having homework for the weekend).  All throughout math we ate our snack.  Most of us finished snack while we were on our whiteboards. Finally… it was time to switch for reading.

In reading, we finished reading with our partners, one of the stories in our Open Court Reading book.  When we were done with that, we had questions to answer with our partner, but we just read them out loud.  It was a lot quicker than writing them down on paper, I liked this way more than having to write them down and turn them in – it’s a lot harder than when we have to write it down and turn it in because usually that means homework, and no one likes homework.  After that we went back to our seats for English Language Arts, since we had to move to sit by our partners.

English Language Arts started by doing a two-sided sheet.  One sheet had things that we had to fill in that we liked about a book and the other side had things we had to fill in about what we disliked about a book.  Then we had to write in our novel journals.  We’ve been writing in these journals for only a few days.  These journals contain a story that we have to make up and write by ourselves.  That was part of our homework over the weekend.  Make sure you’re writing in them because by the end of the month we all have to have 10,000 words, which is pretty hard but many people think they can have more than that.  I hope everyone is writing!!!  Fiiinnaalllyyy… it was time to go out for recess.

During recess everybody was playing games, having fun, or just sitting around being bored.  It’s pretty hard to believe, but some people can’t find anything to do.  Over at the far side of the playground some of the girls got together to write in their notebooks, not really a club, but they were having fun reading and writing – they even give tips to each other sometimes.  They have a lot of fun.  Oops!  It’s time for lunch…

At lunch everyone went to their assigned tables except for a few kids that were working on an Egyptian report – they went off to the other side of the lunch room to work with a little bit of silence. For lunch the two choices were chicken patties or nachos, or the usual salad bar, PBJ, cold, and cold with milk.  The second everyone walked up from recess, almost everyone looked really hungry; it smelled good – warm food!  Oh my Gosh, lunch is already over!!!  Now it is time for bonus recess.

Mr. Erlewine had a substitute this week and none of his class got to go out for recess, instead they had to stay in and work.  Unfortunately, today I had one late paper that wasn’t really late – it was in another class’s front page.  It was pretty funny but I stayed in to read anyway.  Recess is over and time for AR.

In AR, everyone read and read and read, went to the library and read, and took tests.  This semester for AR is already over – that is one forth of the year down and most of it left to go.  Everyone tried to get in as much reading as possible even if it was puny and boring, everyone read so much I thought their heads were going to explode!  The library cleaners had their work cut out for them, it was so messy I bet they had to stay after school, unless they forgot.  Already time for spelling, it’s getting close to the end of the day.

We took our spelling tests, I hope everyone did good.  They were pretty easy words so I’m sure they did not get too many wrong.  There were only 10 words so, it’s better than the 20 words we had last year.  I thought we would have like 30 words or something this year!  Uh Oh… ASSEMBLY!

First at the assembly, the choir sung to us – a few different grades.  They sound really pretty.  Every time we have an assembly they sing a few different songs.  I’m not sure if they did it last year, but…it’s really entertaining.  So far, my favorite song was “Chocolate.”  That song really made me hungry!  The song was about all different kinds of chocolate.  To top it off, I did have a small candy bar in my lunch box left over from lunch and I could not go up and eat it!  I’m not going to say it was a rip-off, but, “it was a rip off.”  Then, there was a play and the assembly was over – we went back to class.

It’s time for planners and only fifteen minutes left of school, I just can’t wait.  It’s going to be the weekend!!!!!! Planners were quick, we cleaned up, grabbed the stuff out of our lockers, those who had instruments picked them up.  That’s pretty much it!  GGGooodddd byeee…

Thank-you for taking time to read about our day!

                                                                           By:  Ashlee

October 5, 2007

Andrea read morning notes off of the computer; then we cleaned our desks out, like we do e very Friday.  Then our teacher checked everyone’s desks.  WOW, it’s already time for band.  Then everyone lined up for band, after they grabbed their band book that is.  After we were there, we got out our instruments down off the shelf and sat down in our assigned seats.  Then the band teacher had a handful of kids play their instruments.  We started to learn two new notes on Friday.  Because of the fact that we are just learning these new notes, it sounded like, well, let’s just say playing the notes in our band books are about as hard they look in it. 

          Man!  This day is really flying by, next thing we knew; it was already time for computer class.  At computer class we started to type out the beginning of one of our stories that we had written out of our journals (we can’t bring our writing journals home, even though our parents just might want to se them – it’s a RULE!). 

          Now it’s time for math.  For a change we didn’t do a single math problem. Instead, Ms. L and her friend came in and talked about the meap testing.  There are three parts to it: math, science, and language arts, I think.  After Mrs. L and her friend were done talking, they both taught us a chant! “I will do my best on the meap test” is how the chant went.

          After math, we went to reading.  Then we read out of our open court reading books and did a few very long work sheets about the stories that we’ve been reading. The work sheets seemed harder then they were because we had to write so much.  In fact, it gave almost everyone a big fat headache!! 

          In Language Arts we all did even more work sheets and finished up some old ones too.  Finally it was time for recess!!!  When we went outside, some kids did the mileage club, some kids played football, some kids played basket ball, and some kids even made up their own games.  It seemed like a pretty quick recess. Then we went to lunch, and like always, ate our lunches (no surprise there!!).

          Lunch is already over and the day is just flying by!!  We went up to the room and the teacher told us about extra recess.  (If you have all your work turned in on time, then you get to go out.  If you didn’t, you have no choice but to stay in and work). So, a few students from our class went out for a second bonus recess and everyone else had to stay in.  It was a pretty good recess over all good. 

          Wow, the day is just about through, but first we have an assembly.  So, we all lined up and went down to the assembly.  First one of the classes did a bunch of skits, and then Mr. Erlewine came up and did a good, but funny skit.  It was about some flowers down in the dumps. 

          In the skit, there were some sad flowers and some happy flowers, a tree, and some bees.  The flowers that were down in the dumps weren’t too excited about the rain because it got their pedals wet, but the cheery flowers exclaimed that the rain gave them nutrients and helped them be strong.  The down in the dumps flowers didn’t like the wind either; they complained it made them cold.  But once again the cheerful flowers told them that the wind helped them spread their seeds far and wide to give them a very large family.  One day, the tree fell and crushed one of the down in the dumps flowers.  After that, the down in the dumps flowers all tried to be cheery and happy flowers.  It was a very good skit… aww, it’s already over!

          Wow!!! This day is sure flying, it’s already time to go up and do our chores.  So everyone went up the stairs to do chores, like:    water the plants, pick up the room, pick up the things on the tables, make sure the floor is picked up, and everything else.  Everyone had a little bit of trouble getting in and out of the room because there were so many people standing around by the door, but we managed to get out of the class and down the stairs.  The kids with instruments had to go in the band room to grab them and their band books before going out to watch for their parents.

           The day was over and I think everyone was picked up by their parents or whoever picks them up.  So on, and so forth… I hope everyone had a good weekend.