Estimating Game Winners

There were more fantastic guesses and some history was made. In the math/homeroom category we had a great guess to crown a new champion who is seen holding the jar, and a previous champ (seen below working hard) won a homework pass with a perfect guess. In the Anyone in the World category, the two time defending champion has successfully defended her crown and has completed the three-peat. Her perfect guess was one better than a few other estimators. Who knows what next week will bring? Here are the pictures of the contestants:

The 9-2 Superbowl Game

We are playing a game in conjunction with the Superbowl scores. The boys know all of the rules. They also know that they will need to abide by bedtime rules set by the parents. I will post all of the scores and the winners on Monday. They should have their gamesheet with them today. The prizes should be fun for the boys. Up for grabs are: my ice cream on Friday, giving the Spelling Test to the class on Friday, being line leader for the week, and trading desks with me for a day.

Happy Chinese New Year

One of the students (the first one in the video) was kind enough to bring in chopsticks, fortune cookies, and red envelopes which contained treats. We watched a video which gave instructions on the proper use of chopsticks and then tried stacking small blocks and eating treats. The boys did very well.

Estimating Jar

Here is the estimating activity for this week. Good luck and keep the guesses coming!!

Topic Sentences

In class today we studied topic sentences. Normally we discuss topic sentences together but as the year progresses I encourage the boys to start doing them on their own. Yesterday the boys started a composition in which the only thing they were given was a choice of titles. The four title choices were, "I Think My Parents Are Aliens," "My Pet Dragon," "When I Grow Up," and "What I Have Learned So Far This Year." The first three choices were the only ones chosen...I'm not sure what that says about my future teaching career here at Calvert :)

We started off looking at famous topic sentences which can be seen here http://people.cornell.edu/pages/jad22/english.html After that we looked a the boys topic sentences (which are included below) and talked through what we liked about them and how they might be improved. It was a fantastic learning experience that will benefit the boys as we move on from here. We will continue to engage in activities like this looking at the rest of the elements in a composition. The boys can take the following quizes to see if they recognize any of these famous first lines. To see the quizzes click here http://people.cornell.edu/pages/jad22/story.html or here http://people.cornell.edu/pages/jad22/recess.html.

Here are the topic sentences we looked at in class (the composition title is written in bold print):

I Think My Parents Are Aliens

I think my parents are aliens because they always stick their tongues out.

My parents act very strange in many different ways.

My parents could actually be aliens, and I am very frightened.

I don’t believe it myself, but my parents could actually be aliens.

My Pet Dragon

My pet dragon’s name is Dragon.

My pet dragon’s name is Rocky.

I have a pet dragon named Chat Chat.

This might seem strange but my pet is a dragon.

I love my dragon.

Once upon a medieval time in 1010 AD, a wizard named Mallion and a dragon named Nogard were at opposite ends getting ready to fight.

When I Grow Up

When I grow up I will be more mature and smart.

There are many things I would like to be when I grow up.

When I grow up I will do something historic.


My Space Ship

It was January 1st, 2009 when it landed.

Silly Mr. Howe

I completely forgot to post a picture of the estimating jar this week. I will try my best to remember to post the new picture on Monday. This week's winners made fantastic guesses. The math/homeroom winner got it exactly right and the everyone else in the world winner was one away. You may recognize the girl as last week's winner. Way to go!!

Our Inaugural Visit to the Middle School

We had a great time going to the Middle School to watch the Inauguration on Tuesday. We started our time there with a fabulous lunch that was a real treat for the boys. The highlights of the menu were hot dogs, italian sausages, and all the lemonade the boys wanted. After that we watched the inauguration in one of the Middle School classrooms. When it was finished we looked around at the things in the room to see what the boys may be doing a few years from now. I was impressed that the boys already knew a few of the vocabulary words on a word chart from A Tale of Two Cities.

Word of the Week

Our word this week is inauguration which comes from 1569, from Fr. inauguration "installation, consecration," from L. inaugurationem (nom. inauguratio) "consecration, installment under good omens," from inaugurare "take omens from the flight of birds, consecrate or install when such omens are favorable," from in- "on, in" + augurare "to act as an augur, predict" (see augur).

A Letter to the New President

This week each boy wrote a letter to the incoming President which have been mailed off to the White House. The boys did a great job welcoming President-elect Obama and letting him know what they think he should be focusing on during his time in Washington. One of the letters is below.

Dear President Obama,
Congratulations on the election. This is the first election that I remember and I will remember it for the rest of my life. I wish you all the best in your presidency. I hope you and your family have a good time in the White House. Over the next four years I realize you will have many jobs, but I think your most important job is ending the war in Iraq. This is important because it would bring back people to America and let Iraq run itself. I know that this will not be the only problem, but it is important to me.
In addition to working on ending the war in Iraq I would also like you to ban guns. It is important because it would save many lives for a lot of people. It would also help end the war in Iraq and you could make a peace treaty. These two jobs will require hard work, but I think you can do it! I hope you enjoy the White House a lot. If you and your family visit Baltimore, come to my house!

Estimating Game

Two girls were victorious this week with guesses that were only three and four away from the actual total of 304. Way to go girls!!!!

Braving the Chill

Miss Strom and I offered an optional outdoor recess after lunch on Friday that nearly every boy took us up on. The temperature at the time was an Arctic 16 degrees but the lack of wind and bright sun made it feel like a balmy 17. They had a great time!!

The Sneetches

I have encouraged the boys to look over the play this weekend and practice their lines. They do not need to memorize their lines but they should try to say them loudly, slowly, and clearly. I asked the boys to take their scripts home with them, but in case they forgot, the script can be seen by clicking here.

Which One of These is Not Like the Other

Here are all of the fellows who made it to school for Ravens Day. We have one boy who is home sick, who we are missing very much, and one boy who is travelling.

Cool YouTube Video - 44 Presidents

Cyber Bullying

Yesterday Mrs. McGraw, our technology coordinator, and Mrs. Schmidt, our Lower School counselor, talked with the entire Ninth Age about cyber bullying since many students are already engaging in Internet and cell phone usage, and in two years will have their own laptop. They discussed the following issues which were very informative and valuable:

1.)What is cyber bullying?

2.)How is cyber bullying similar to face-to-face bullying?

3.)How can a student prevent cyber bullying?

4.)How can we keep ourselves safe in the world of technology?

5.)When should we get an adult involved?

This is the first in a series of Internet safety discussions.

Thank you, Mrs. McGraw and Mrs. Schmidt!

Giant Pandas

Last week we wrote about pandas and there were a number of fantastic compositions. This was a challenge for the boys to see if they could read information, pull facts out, summarize the information, and write a composition using what they had learned. One great effort is listed below.

There are many interesting facts about panda bears. The parts of the panda that are black are the ears, eye patches, muzzle, legs, and shoulders. The rest of the body is white. The males tend to be larger than the females weighing up to 250 pounds in the wild. The pandas live in a few mountain locations in central and western China mainly n the Sichuan, Shaax, and Gansu provinces.

There are currently three panda bears at the National Zoo in Washington DC. The names of the panda bears are Tian Tian (t-Yen t-Yen), Mei Xiang (may-SHONG), and Tai Shan (tie-SHON). In the wild the pandas eat lots of bamboo. At the National Zoo they eat bamboo, biscuits, carrots, and apples. I hope to see the pandas soon.

Estimating Jar

This week we are estimating the number of Runts. Best of luck!!!

Word of the Week

In honor of the Ravens stunning victory (and what we hope will happen next Sunday) the word this week is intercept which comes from c.1540, from L. interceptus, pp. of intercipere "take or seize between," from inter- "between" + -cipere, comb. form of capere "to take, catch" (see capable).

An Estimating Trifecta

This week we had three winners!! The boy pictured below holding the estimating jar was one number away from the correct answer, and he will be taking the jar home to fill up and bring back for next week. The next boy pictured had the same guess as the first boy, but he had already won so he won a homework pass. The third person to win was the mother of one of my students. I did my best to get a picture of her...you be the judge.

Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head

I stopped into science class today and learned a fascinating fact. I had always assumed that a raindrop was round at the bottom and tapered to a small point near the top, the classic teardrop shape. I discovered that the actual shape more closely resembles the top half of a hamburger bun. The picture below was shot with a high speed camera as a water droplet plunged eight stories down an elevator shaft. Simply fascinating!! (No protozoa were harmed in the filming of this event.)

Hard at Work

Here are two pictures from class today. In the first picture the boys are playing latitude battleship with all four quadrants of the map. Finding places on a map using longitude and latitude is the most difficult part of our geography curriculum this year. I am extremely impressed with how quickly the boys have grasped this difficult concept. In the second picture the boys are working on their panda compositions with a little encouragement from the zoos in Washington and San Diego. I can't wait to read what they have written.

Panda Bears!!!

In preparation for our land animal project that we will be doing in the spring we are writing about panda bears this week. To get us in the spirit I put some panda webcams up on the big screen. To see the webcams click here. Scroll down when the page loads, and you should be able to see two National Zoo cams and one San Diego zoo cam.

Estimating Jar

This week we are estimating Match Box cars. Best of luck to all who choose to guess.

Word of the Week

In honor of the new year our word of the week is something too often broken. The word is resolution which comes from 1412, "a breaking into parts," from L. resolutionem (nom. resolutio) "process of reducing things into simpler forms," from pp. stem of resolvere "loosen" (see resolve). Originally sense of "solving" (as of mathematical problems) first recorded 1548, that of "holding firmly" (in resolute) 1533, and that of "decision or expression of a meeting" is from 1604.

Last year my New Year's resolution was not to make any resolutions, but in formulating it, alas it was already broken. This year I have resolved to eat more healthfully (is that a word?) and drink only water. My wife has made the same resolution and we have a wager on who can last longer. Our only exceptions are she gets milk on her cereal and I can have orange juice at school during snack since OJ is good for you.

Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone had a great break and a happy New Year. I rang in the new year in Williamsburg, Virginia which was a lot of fun. One of the highlights was a daytrip to Jamestown which was the first permanent English settlement in North America. (For those of you wondering about the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, they came thirteen years later) Usually we stop our study of World History with Columbus, but this year I am going to try to get to Jamestown to incorporate what I learned on the trip. My family and I toured a replica of the original fort and the three ships that brought the settlers over. We got to participate in some of the activities that the settlers would have done like scraping the fur from animal hides and making corn meal from kernels of corn. We also saw people engaged in daily activities like baking bread, making soup and firing muskets. The picture below is the luckiest shot I've ever taken. I had my left hand covering my left ear and my right hand was holding the camera against my right ear because of the impending noise of the musket fire. I held the shutter release down and hoped for the best. I will share more pictures later in the year when we get there in the history book.