What's Going On In Our Classroom? Weekly Update from Ms. Goldy: Week of 3/7-3/11

Hello!
This week has been great!
In Social Studies, we wrote postcards from the perspective of colonists from either Spanish colonies, Jamestown, or Plymouth. The kids showed their knowledge well and drew some creative pictures on the front of their postcards! We are now beginning our unit on the 13 Colonies, and so far we've been learning a lot of interesting things!

In Writing Workshop we are still working on our poetry unit. This week, we learned about similes and metaphors and came up with creative examples to describe our friends in the classroom! We also learned about personification and drew great (and often hilarious!) pictures of what a sentence using personification would look like if it was taken literally. Like our previous poems, each of these will eventually be compiled into individual book that the students will make and bring home in a few weeks.

On Tuesday, our class visited Beauvoir Elementary School to pair up with second graders and plant spinach and lettuce seeds. In the Spring we will return and make a salad with our own vegetables! The kids had a great time and the 2nd graders did too!!

That's all for now,
Have a great weekend!
Ms. Goldy

What’s Going On In our Classroom? Weekly Update from Ms. Goldy 3/1-3/4

Hello! It was so great to meet so many of you parents at parent-teacher conferences on Monday and I’m so happy to hear that so many of you look at this blog ☺

This has been quite a week! Despite the long weekend, your kids were hard at work from the day they returned to school. All of Tuesday and Wednesday mornings were taken up by our final DC-BAS test before the CAS in April. Although such testing is never fun, the kids worked through it and did very well.

In honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday, on Wednesday we began our poetry unit in writing workshop. So far we have learned about (and written our own!) acrostics, poems using alliteration, learned about palindromes, and we are in the process of working on poems using onomatopoeias! At the end of the unit, each student is going to “publish” their own book of poetry, which will highlight what we have learned throughout the unit. After celebrating our books in the classroom they will be sent home for you to enjoy with your child!

In Social Studies we learned about the Mayflower Compact and how its purpose was essentially to solve a problem for the Pilgrims (there was no government in their new colony). We then applied these problem-solving skills to a problem in our own classroom: talking while others are talking. After getting into groups to brainstorm solutions to this problem, each group presented their ideas to the class. We then voted on a solution and signed our own CotiSweets Compact! If you’re in our classroom, take a look at it—it’s hanging on the wall with all of our signatures at the bottom.

That’s it for now,
Have a great weekend,
Ms. Goldy

What’s Going On In our Classroom? Weekly Update from Ms. Goldy 2/22-2/25

(Left: exploring magnets with balances! How many washers does it take to break the magnetic force holding the balance down?)



(Middle row L-R: Water Cycles in a jar!, Black History Month Assembly's step team!, Sheppy's grandfather shows us the plans for a scale model.)
(Bottom Row: The science fair! Everyone did so well!!)



Hello again! I am going to try to keep this blog entry short because so much happened this week that I want to leave room for lots of pictures!

After the long weekend, we got started right away with a guest speaker—Sheppy’s grandfather, Alan, visited our classroom to share his knowledge about architecture and scaled models in order to help us begin building or scale model of an Incan city! He even brought in models of houses that he has designed to show us!

This has been a science-filled week!! With Ms. Coti, we continued to explore electromagnetism—extending our knowledge of magnets to how magnets react with iron shavings and balancing scales. Later in the week, our class split in half—one group going outside to our class garden to learn about watersheds, while the other group stayed inside and made water cycles in a jar! Ask your child how it works and if you get a chance, stop by our classroom and see them on the windowsill! Then on Friday, we had the 4^th grade science fair!! All of our students did an amazing job presenting their findings to the judges, and they were all very patient while waiting for their turn (despite the heat and the sometimes long wait).

Last but not least, on Friday afternoon we had our Black History Month assembly! We were so proud to see so many of our students participate—and they all did a GREAT job!! Way to go!

Have a great weekend and I hope to see many of you at conferences on Monday!!

Ms. Goldy

What's Going On In Our Classroom? Weekly Update from Ms. Goldy 2/14-2/18

(Top Row) The Chinese New Year Celebration!; (Bottom): the students explore magnets!




Ni Hao from the CotiSweets classroom! I hope that you are all able to access this blog by now so that you can hear about (and see) what's going on in our classroom! I want to especially thank Sheri Carline (James' mom) for emailing everyone about the blog--I really appreciate it!
This week has been very eventful for our fourth graders. Over the weekend some of our classmates competed (and came in FIRST place!) in an important cheerleading competition. Way to go-we're so proud! In other athletic news, our basketball players got to meet the famous Kareem Abdul-Jabbar this week! Many got his autograph and they all got a sneak peak of his upcoming movie.
On Monday we were all very excited to celebrate Valentine's Day as well as Charlotte's birthday--we all sure had a lot of sugar! Appropriately, that day we also began reading our new Reading Workshop book, "The Valentine That Ate My Teacher."
On Tuesday, we (belatedly) celebrated the Chinese New Year! Ms. Coti and I were so proud to see so many of our students participate. Everyone did a great job with the 4th grade song, Cheyenne and Shalom danced the fan dance, and Jerus and Emry played the drums for many of the performances!
In Science with Ms. Coti, we've started a new unit on electromagnetism and did a fun activity where we explored what types of objects stick to magnets and how magnets behave in various situations. Everyone came up with great hypotheses, observations, and conclusions!
In Social Studies, we have started a unit on colonies and have so far explored the Spanish colonists and will continue on (in the next week) to explore the British colonies in Jamestown and Plymouth.
Pat your child on the back!! On Thursday our class participated in the National Assessment of Educational Progress-a standardized test given to fourth graders across the country to see how they compare with one another. Our class did an excellent job following directions and not getting too antsy after sitting still for an hour and a half straight!!
Well that's it for now, have a great long weekend!!
Ms. Goldy

Homework

Monday: Coti Math -- CMJ, pages 144, 145, 146

Wordly Wise, 18 A

Science Project due on Wednesday. Be ready to present. First round
of judging takes place that day. Mr. Bergfalk and I will judge. Practice
your oral report!

Tuesday: Coti Math: long division handout

Wordly Wise, 18B

Science Project due tomorrow!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

What’s Going On In Our Classroom? Weekly Update from Ms. Goldy 2/7-2/11

Lit Circle Presentations! (Top L-R) "The Kid Who Ran For President" has a debate, "Tuck Everlasting" shows off their immortality spring, "Al Capone Does My Shirts" takes a bow after a skit. (Bottom) Cyrus and Max arrest the bad guys (left) who knocked out the jail keeper, Kayla (right), before escaping!



Hello again! I hope that you have all been able to access this blog—Ms. Coti and I saw some problems, but hopefully they are all worked out. This week has been pretty great in our classroom!
This has been a book-filled week! On Tuesday we had RIF (Reading is Fundamental) in the library, where each student chooses one book to take home! Then on Friday we will be visiting the Cleveland Park Library.
In writing workshop we practiced using the “4-square method” of organizing and planning a cohesive essay with an introduction, three paragraphs, and a conclusion. Looking at their drafts Ms. Coti and I have seen a HUGE improvement! Ask your child to see his/her essay!
Almost all of the Lit Circle groups have presented their book to the class now, and the presentations were really good! As an audience we were treated to a play about Al Capone (Al Capone Does My Shirts), a presidential debate (The Kid Who Ran For President), a discussion of whether eternal life is a blessing or a curse (Tuck Everlasting), and much more!
Have a great weekend!
Ms. Goldy

Homework and Message

Homework -- Monday, February 7, 2011

W.W. 17A
Coti Math: CMJ, pages 135 and 136
Work on science project

Dear Parents,

Our new student intern, Rachel Goldy, will post a weekly update on the blog. I hope you received her letter last week introducing herself. She's a wonderful addition to our classroom community and has jumped in with lots of great ideas. She has been working with small groups and will teach the next social studies unit on the colonies.

Please let us know if you've read the first blog. It was posted last Friday. I had trouble finding it and wondered if anyone else has.

Thanks,

Susan