Mini swingset from math group.

Metaphor

Metaphor - a comparison between two things which are not literally connected.

Exp. - Mr. Berkey is a sleeping dog unable to move for anything but food.

I miss the kids AND we were shorted many dead animals in our dissection kit. An all-out investigation is currently underway. How are your times tables? Are you staying busy?

I'll check in again. Enjoy the solstice!

Mr. B

Catching Up The Blog

I've gotten behind in the blog lately. The kids have written some blog posts, and I will do my best to add them this weekend. Ever since conferences I feel like I'm running just to keep up with my sleep.

I never got last week's newsletter posted online. Since I had included instructions for the family project, I had kids all take home a paper copy so they would have instructions to keep. I will include last week's newsletter with this one so everyone has access to both.

I will send home electronic newsletters for those who receive them as soon as I am finished posting today's newsletter to the blog. The field trip was fantastic today. 100% of the kids went, and 100% of the kids did an excellent job of meeting every one of my expectations. We've come a long way, and I'm proud of this group.

Take Care Out There-

Mr. B

Arias and Emily N.'s blog post

Arias and Emily N.’s News

Math:

Today in Mr.Berkey’s math group, we all were working on the last parts of the playground equipment that we hot glued. We will also move on to division real soon. Hooray for quotients !

Reading:

During reading we went over our tall tales and Mr. Berkey took kids in the hall to go over their tall tales and how they can improve.

Georgie:

Mr. Berkey read George’s Cosmic Treasure Hunt while we, the class, made our new homework journals. In the book, George’s Cosmic Treasure Hunt, we discovered the reason that equations were made. We found out a man made an equation of the variable, N. What he was using it for was since N represents the amount of stars born each year in the milky way that’s why he used it. So that means equations in this example make things much easier.Thank you for that equations.Your a big help. Also this week on the blog me,Arias,has moved from D.L.E s to the blog for the first time ever ! Can you believe that ?

Dissecting:

And Mr. Berkey is going to be bringing in lots of animals to dissect, but we don’t quite know exactly when they will be coming in.
Next week news:

Next week December 9th we will be going to the Nutcracker. We will be watching our friend, Kate, perform.

Other that that it has been a great week!!

- Emily N. & Arias

Email Address

If you need my personal email for ANY reason, you can contact me at enterprisingberkey@yahoo.com!

Dissection Studies

Thanks to a generous donation from the Madrid family, and another donation from The Bank of Mrs. Berkey, we are awaiting the arrival of several dead animals to dissect.

Dissection can be a slippery subject, as the idea of death has different meanings for different families. To make a long story short, out of respect for those who wish to have no part of animal dissection, we will be holding a Saturday class for those families who are interested in dissection. There will be several choices for dissection, including, but not limited to, a perch, a squid, a shark, a big earthworm, a fetal pig, amongst other things. I also ordered us some scalpels and dissection pans so that we could do our studies correctly.

We finished making our homework journals, so look forward to those. Other big news: Mr. Berkey's class is taking a field trip before winter break. This is not usual behavior for me, but one of our student's will be performing in The Nutcracker, and there will be performances for school kids coming soon.

This class is an amazing group, and I look forward to seeing them impress general society as much as they impress me.

Take Care Out There-

Mr. B

Introducing the Independent Writers' Guild!

Following this text is "blogwork" from my Independent Writers' Guild who has been given the task of blogging daily classroom activities. There will be mistakes in this area, which I think is part of the process. The kids will see their mistakes, be able to go edit their mistakes, and learn about the writing process in a real way. I have not included all of the blogs (one wasn't finished), nor have I put the names of the students. The students and I will discuss how we want to deal with names. I hope you enjoy!

Cool Books!!

In the book we’re reading in class, George’s Cosmic Treasure Hunt, it has gotten SERIOUS. A character named Annie has gotten a message from an E.T.!!!! It was strange since it happened right after Annie’s family saw a robot touch down on Mars mysteriously after losing contact for several minutes. Why were they at a space station you ask? Well Annie’s dad Eric is a scientist that studies space so..... yeah. It’s an interesting book series and you should read. It is by Stephen Hawking. Check it out. The first book is George’s Secret Key to the Universe. There is a Stephen Hawking website, that is cool too!!

FINALLY!!! maybe....

In Math we finished our models of the play ground! They looked great in the end after all that hard work!! The people who worked on the swings got to use some mini chains that were so adorable!!! Although it was a lot of hard work it really paid off. Especially working in groups because people don’t always agree....... it was still fun though!

*****

Iliev Math

Yesterday in Ms.Iliev’s at math we did a chapter test for chapter 6 which was about adding and subtracting fractions in the McDougall Litell math book. Also we did a pretest for chapter 7 which was about multiplying and dividing fractions.

Today in Ms. Iliev’s class we learned how to multiply fractions by whole numbers, while
Nyah did home design. Home design is our little class project this year, in other words, we’re building little cardboard models of houses.

Ileiv Reading

Yesterday we read a story from our Jr. great books. This story was called The Devoted Friend. In the story there’s a miller and a gardener. The miller is the gardener’s best friend. The miller promises his friend a wheel barrow. Then he makes the gardener do his dirty work based on that. During running the miller’s errands the gardener dies. He never even got the wheelbarrow.
Today in Ms.Iliev’s reading we reread The Devoted Friend, and marked vocabulary words. Then we looked up the definitions of the words we marked, and wrote them in our booklets.

Mad Rush

Today begins the mad dash toward winter break. My math groups will be zipping through long division in these upcoming weeks, and playing around with geometry also. If we dedicate all of our time to division, the kids will turn on me.

We made the covers for our new homework journals today. The covers are green and will most likely show up tomorrow.

I thoroughly enjoyed conferences, and feel great about the rest of the year. Thank you to all who attended conferences.

I assure you, I am frantically working to keep the kiddos busy up until the break. I'll check in soon. Look forward to student posted blog entries in the upcoming days.

Mr. B

P.S. Sorry if my emails bounced lately. I was getting tons of emails during conferences. I've cleared out my emails. If there's any loose ties I'm neglecting, please help me remember.

Reflectivesaurs visits us!

Today the best thing happened, THE NEWS THAT IS AS BIG AS EVAN RETURNING........ Hannah Harvey is ALIVE (yay!!!) and back at school after her long three week (I think) vacation. We all missed her dearly (along with Evan as i said in a previous post) and are glad she is back. WE MISSED YOU HANNAH ( in case you didn't know)

REMINDER: our homework for tonight is to do ANOTHER good deed and write a paragraph about what you did in your journal. It is Double deed week in case you're wondering as to why we did two good deeds (not that theres anything wrong with that).

ALSO: tomarrow is crazy hair day (in case you didn't know) so have crazy hair! DON'T FORGET!!

- posted by Katester >=]

With conferences coming right around the corner we have all been doing our best to get everything ready and organized. So Mr. B. and his super awesome class have been busy with that. BUT not too busy.

Also certain classmate has just arrived just in time for conferences. It is THE BIGGEST NEWS OF ALL, our lovely Evan Oien has finally returned to snowy Juneau from warm, sunny, Hawaii. We missed you dearly Evan!!!

REMINDER: our homework for tonight is to do a good deed. Then write a paragraph about it in your journal (your homework one obviously). Again, don't forget! Wedsnday good deeds.

-posted by Katester =)

Tuesday, November 15th

In math groups, our minuture playground scluptures are coming along nicely and are looking great! It has been a lot of work with measuring the actual life size playground and getting the right measurements but it has been a great learning experience and has helped us alot with teamwork(as to we are working in groups). We aren't done yet, but we are close. I, as a student am having fun with this project even if it is a challenge. It's definitely helped us all understand measuring a whole lot better.

REMINDER: homework tonight is to respond to what Mr. B. wrote in our journals over the weekend. don't forget! (hence the REMINDER in BOLD letters)

- posted by Kate "Katester" Bergey =)

Thursday's Newsletter

Running In Circles

I went to the class today and caught up some more grading. I'm just about to grade a few last things and put them in the computer.

I'll be frantically organizing work tomorrow. The kids will lend a hand, and I'm guessing by the end of the day, we'll have their work together.

You are going to receive a folder of work by the end of this week. I'll try for earlier, but this is going to be a busy week.

My math group is now building their playground models, and we're hopefully going to have a display ready for the conferences. They might not be fully completed at that time, but you'll get the overall gist.

My reading group is going to take their understanding of Tall Tales and try to create one of their own. Their areas of focus are going to be in the areas of 'origin' and 'exaggeration.' These will be closed to finished by conferences also, but I doubt we'll be fully finished with the final product during conferences.

I'm going to have some of the kids start to blog for the class soon. Those kids who have full understanding of the rules of grammar AND are currently implementing those rules in their daily writing will have a chance to blog. Hopefully, this will be one more motivator to write.

Take Care-

Mr. B

What have you learned?

The sun is out and homework journals are ready for comments!

I hope that if you're not studying, you are honoring veterans. No, Call of Duty dies not count as honoring vets.

I'll write more soon.

Mr. B

Oh Noes!

I forgot to mention that Emily N. is in our math club in the last newsletter home. I am so sorry, MnM!

Some of the outdoor artwork

Weekend Randomness

I didn't get work samples sent out. I sent out progress reports. I did the best I could to give you a head's up as to where your child is "gradewise" a few weeks before conferences.

I went to the school today and read all of the homework journals. Thank you so much for your wonderful writing, my lovely students. Tomorrow I'll be back at the school getting conference information ready for Monday.

I am very protective of work samples, but I will get them out to you well before conferences. I'd like you to go through the work your child has and discuss areas to improve. You will have the work samples over the weekend. The work samples and the homework journal will be a large aspect of conferences.

While reading the work samples I realized that I had missed a promise to my young friend Arias. Arias wanted Evan to know that Arias has been missing his friend Evan while Evan is away. Arias is looking forward to working with Evan on Khan Academy again.

I'll try to take a picture and link it to the blog tomorrow of the gross weather that traveling students are missing.

It's almost 7 pm and I am officially hanging up my Mr. Berkey hat for the night and try to remember who this lady named Tristan Berkey is.

I Hope You All Have a Great Weekend!

Adam Berkey

Page 2

Friday, November 4

Progress reports look like they will be ready to go home today. I'm running around like crazy trying to get grades from other teachers. Again, if there are some grades missing it might be due to walk-to-read, math groups, or spec. ed. services. I got together everything that I could, and if there's gaps I'll be fixing them on Monday.

Here is the new newsletter for our class! I hope all is well for all of our students.

Take Care Out There-

Mr. B

Thursday, November 3rd

Here are a couple of pictures of the order of planets. One is the unlabeled picture that I use in class. We have started the second book of the George's Secret Key series, and during these read-alouds we practice our planet identification. We are also trying to learn the distances of the planets from the sun.

In my math group we have been doing measurements of playground equipment in an attempt to model a scaled-down version of the playground. It's been a lot of work, but the practice has been giving students access to a wide variety of math activities. We have gotten to do work with fractions, measuring, and a little bit of decimal work. It's been great practice for the kids.

I've been running like crazy, which is why I haven't gotten to the blog for a few days. I'm sorry to those students who are traveling, but I also imagine there are much better things going on for our travelers than looking at this blog. I'm going to send out progress reports tomorrow. They will be rough for reading and math, as some of my students go to Ms. Wells during that time. I will try to get a good idea of what is going on with grades.

Conferences will occur during the 22nd and 23rd. I will be sending out conference slips next week.

Take Care Out There-

Mr. B

Monday, October 31st

It was a quick day! We had hearing tests and made-up Reader Buddies from my absence on Friday. Mrs. B had her students and my students make a Halloween treat for themselves. It was a nice surprise for the kids. The students were able to sneak in a little shenanigans under Mr. Berkey's nose after all.

My math group went outside today and practiced measuring the perimeter of the covered play area, after we corrected some of our mistakes. The kids did pretty well measuring, after some initial goofing off. Tomorrow, with Mrs. Wright's students back in class, we will be able to move on in our lesson. Our objective tomorrow is to get preliminary measurements of all of the equipment.

In my reading group today we began reading about Volcanoes through a Seymour Simon story. The theme of our reading now is "Nature's Fury" and we're reading a lot about natural occurrences, like earthquakes, and lightning storms, and this week, volcanoes. Our reading strategies for the week are to monitor and clarify. We have been monitoring ourselves by reading aloud, and re-reading things that we make mistakes on. We have been clarifying our understanding every few paragraphs and making sure that everyone comprehends what we are reading.

As always, I hope that everyone missing from class is enjoying themselves. You are missed!

Take Care,

Mr. B

Newsletter Test

Friday, October 28th

On Friday I took a day off to run my dad to some doctors. My substitute reported an excellent day in almost all areas. The guest teacher said she loved teaching my class, and was grateful to the students who did their best to welcome her.

I did not get a newsletter in for the Friday deadline, so I am now writing frantically on Sunday night to get everyone updated. When I finish my newsletter (hopefully this evening) I will save a .pdf version and add it to the blog.

The weather in Juneau continues to be drizzly on good days, and hurricane-like on bad days. I bet that two kids are so very jealous that they are not here with us!

We continue to notice the absence of our traveling students, but look forward to news from other parts of the world. If those students who are traveling choose to take a lot of digital pictures, and want to do a slide show, I bet we could make that happen.

Take Care Out There!

Mr. B

More Sheets

Worksheets From The Week

Wednesday, October 26th

Today was a very strange day, indeed...

Simon's aunt, Debbie Dunn, an Olympic hopeful and world-class runner (with the medals to prove it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Dunn) came by the classroom. Simon's mom told me that this would be happening, but to be honest I thought I misunderstood what was going to occur in the classroom. Had I been a little bit more intelligent, I would have snapped a picture of the whole thing. I've still got some learning to do with this blog thing.

My math group did a bunch of work with measuring tapes today. We are gearing up to measure a bunch of the playground equipment and attempt to make a model of the playground. This exercise should hit a lot of areas in math that kids will enjoy. They had a lot of fun with the tape measures, and so far no one has gotten hurt. I can't make this one up for you Evan, but I bet if you asked Arias, he and I would gladly reproduce the lesson during recesses. We're pretty big fans of Evan.

My reading group did work in their Houghton Mifflin books today. We read about lightning storms from a story by Warren Faidley. We will continue this reading tomorrow in class, and will be doing questions at the end to strengthen our comprehension skills.

The weather has been terrible, and the kids are starting to show the signs of winter. Our traveling students missed some insane winds last night. The power didn't go out, but planes weren't flying and I watched one of those big green trash cans with a bear lid fly across the road around 8pm. Enjoy your beautiful weather, and your swimming!

We continued working in our writing journals today, and I swear that I will get our Daily Language Exercises up on here soon.

I'll write to you tomorrow!

Mr. B

Tuesday, October 25th

Today I quickly showed the students how easy it could be for us to snap a picture of something and put it up to the blog. I'm going to look into how other teachers use blogs and the way that they use the blogs within the class. If anyone is terrified of the idea of their child being put up, let me know right away. If you're open to the idea, I'll send information along soon regarding this issue. I know the school has sent home slips, but I don't imagine anyone had a blog in mind for classroom information. The short of it is, you won't see any pictures of your kids on here unless you specifically choose to opt-in to such a decision.

Today's Areas of Study:

We didn't have a "special" (gym, music, counseling, library) today, so we spent that forty-five minutes focusing on science. I showed the class a documentary (Cosmic Voyage - narrated by the fantastic Morgan Freeman) that I show every year to give the kids a full view of how far out we've seen with telescopes, and how far in we've gone with microscopes.

We currently live in a time in which we know that electrons are not the smallest bits of matter in the universe. We know about quarks now! We theorize about strings, which are smaller than quarks. When I went to middle school, nothing was smaller than an electron.

Then, telescoping out, the documentary takes us to Venice, Italy, birthplace of the telescope, and then shoots us out to the farthest known reaches of space.

The video is part of the Imax Space set that IMax did with Nasa. It's a really fascinating documentary. If you're hooked up with Netflix, Cosmic Voyage is the name.

My Readers' Theatre group performed in front of (nearly) the entire fourth grade today, and a few parents who were able to make it. Everyone did a great job, and had an opportunity to perform and speak in front of an audience. It was a good day.

My math group continued on with the x8 and x9 work and reviewed our quiz from the previous day. The quiz was five questions, and neither of my students who are out of town missed anything in the quiz.

We read more from George's Secret Key to the Universe, and looked at our poster of the planets on the Smart Board.

In writing we did our Daily Language Exercises, and then worked in our writer's journals on one of the student's current writing pieces. I let the students know that I would be asking for them to edit a piece to final draft form.

Our big technology discovery of the day was to finally implement Google Docs into the classroom, which allows me to look at something online that a child has written through my Google account. It's not accessible by anyone other than myself, but allows me instant access to student work digitally.

I miss my vacation students, but understand the need for a different environment. Enjoy yourselves Evan and Hannah.

Take Care,

Mr. B

Test

This is to test publishing from my iPhone.

Monday's Class

Monday, 10/24/11

Today we went over the following things in Mr. Berkey's Class:

Reading: Practiced Readers Theatre (My Group)
Math: x8 and x9 rules. Quick quiz. (My Group)
x8 - Double-Quadruple. So 8x8=2x(8x4)
x9 - Just like in addition and subtraction, if you see 9 think 10. 14x9=(14x10)-14.
Writing:DLE
Social Studies: We began talking about laws of the constitution vs. state, city laws.
Science: Georgie Reading - Reviewed planets from The Sun to Neptune - no Pluto :(
Order Of Planets (from sun) - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.

Enjoy your trips! I'll try to get pictures of work up very soon.

Mr. B

Another Test

This is a continued test to look at the blog when it has multiple messages posted on the same day.

This is a test for Hannah and Evan

Dear Hannah and Evan:

If I am successful, this will be a daily view of what occurred within our classroom each day. I don't want you to feel like you missed out on anything, and in this day-and-age there is nothing keeping me from scanning our work and publishing it online.

Tomorrow I will try to scan our work on our work copier and email the scans to me, then publish them here for you.

Enjoy your vacation, but ready yourself for learning at any moment you're bored.

Take Care Out There!

Mr. B