The Golden Gazette

Scholastic and more

Don't forget that all Scholastic orders are due by Saturday morning. If you plan to send in an order form and check (made out to Scholastic), please send it by Friday. On-line orders can be input through Saturday at midnight.

A huge thanks to Katie's dad for lending us 4 barstools for the classroom. They are awesome! I don't know who is enjoying them more, me or the kids.

I'd also like to thank everyone who has sent in candy kisses and treasure box items. Everything you do helps our class to run more smoothly.

I will purchase a lamp over the holiday weekend, so every table will have a light shining on it by next Tuesday.

Enjoy your Labor Day holiday on Monday! I'm looking forward to the long weekend and I'm sure your children are excited about the extra day off too.

Thanks,

Mrs. G

 

Open House PowerPoint

 

Here is the link to the Open House PowerPoint presentation:

Download 2011 - 2012 open house

Enjoy,

Mrs. G

 

Mission Impossible: Measuring Our Weather

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: MEASURING OUR WEATHER

 

PROBLEM: The evil Dr. Noah Taul has developed a device that can control the weather.  He can make it rain in the desert, snow in Hawaii, or have a heat wave in Alaska.  He is demanding that every nation in the world pay him a fair weather fee of 1 billion dollars a year to make sure they don’t have really yucky weather all the time. The United States has already said that they will not give in to terrorists, and will not pay.  This could mean certain disaster to our country, and no fun for the children of the U.S.A. who want to play outside.

 

YOUR MISSION: Should you choose to accept it, (no it’s not an option) is to help our own scientist gather necessary information about our own weather, by providing them with background information about wind speed, wind direction, barometric pressure, and air temperature.  If successful, U.S. scientists will make their own Weather Machine to foil Dr. Taul’s evil plans.

 

By using the latest technology (or what ever you have laying around the house, Don’t Spend A Penny!!!) and the plans on our top-secret web pages,

http://www.ehow.com/how_4867474_make-thermometer-kids.html

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/wwatch/gather_data/anemometer.htm

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/wwatch/gather_data/barometer.htm

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/wwatch/gather_data/raingauge.htm

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/wwatch/gather_data/windvane.htm

http://www.ehow.com/how_4962549_make-elementary-school-weather-instruments.html

http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/projects/anemometer.html

http://www.fi.edu/weather/todo/barometer.html

http://starryskies.com/try_this/baro1.html

http://sln.fi.edu/weather/todo/hygrometer.html

http://www.miamisci.org/hurricane/barometer.html

http://www.fi.edu/weather/todo/dixie.html

you will construct ONE weather device. (With a parents permission, you may google other sites.) You may get input from your parents, but they may not actually touch your project. If your parents say you cannot do something, then you cannot do it. You must get parent permission before operating power tools, remember, they cannot touch your project or help you. You must complete the project on your own.  If a parent helps, points will be deducted from your final grade. The deadline for the completion of this project is Monday, September 12, 2011.

On the morning of Monday, September 12^th, the Mission Impossible Team will bring their Weather Instruments to school and gather in a top secret location.  There students will demonstrate and use their weather instruments, gather weather data, and save the world.

 

Mission Parameters: Below is a list of approved Weather Instruments.  Please note that some of these experiments are more involved, and or more difficult than others, please read them all carefully.

 

Approved: Thermometer, anemometer, barometer, hygrometer.  With permission only, or can be added to project for extra credit: Weather vane, windsock rain gauge.

 

Go Steelers!

If you haven't guessed, I'm sitting here writing my blog as I watch the game. Pittsburgh scored on their first possesion. They may not win, but so far, so good!

I just want to say that we have a wonderful class this year. I want to start by saying THANK YOU for allowing me to spend so much time with them every day! They are almost as excited about learning as I am about teaching them! It is going to be an AWESOME year!!!

I know that many parents are already worried about their children's grades, but I hope this explanation helps. Many of the students in my class received 3's last year...but that does not always translate into an A in 4th grade. A 3 meant that they mastered the standard...by the time the report cards came out. They may not have mastered it the 1st, 2nd, or even 10th time it was presented...but they did before the grading period ended. Students were tested and retested until they mastered standards. In 4th grade, we continue to test and retest until standards are mastered, BUT all of the attempts before final mastery are averaged to create the overall report card grade. So that 75 or 60 is averaged with the 90 or 100 they receive later. I will try to make you feel a little better about a possible low score by letting you know that I always drop the lowest score in every subject when I average grades. If this explanation confused you instead of helping you to understand, please email me and I will try to explain it better.

Here's what's happening in our class over the next few weeks:

Science: We will review and retest on the water cycle. The students who mastered that standard will have an alternate assignment. We will begin our study of weather; which will include clouds, types of precipitation, weather maps, weather instruments, and forcasting. Information about our 1st science project will be sent home Monday. It will be due on Monday, Sept. 12th.

Social Studies: We will complete our study of the physical features in the U.S. this week and we will have a map quiz on Friday. We will then begin our study of Native Americans.

Math: We will continue our review of place value this week. We will test on place value on Thursday. Next week we will work on rounding numbers to 1,000,000.

Reading: Most of the class took SRI's (an online reading assessment) last week. Target students and students who need to retake the test will do that on Monday. We will begin reading groups on Wednesday. We will be discussing comprehension strategies for the next 2 weeks. On Friday, we discussed genres and we made "notebooks" to list the books we read. Students will be expected to read at least one book from each genre this year. These books are included in the 6 books they must read each grading period. Students are also able to begin taking AR tests and many have already taken advantage of that. Next week, they will be expected to take an AR and a Literacy test on "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing." This was a class novel, and is not included in their 6 books.

Writing: We are currently writing "Drop" stories, based on a water cycle activity we completed in Science. Next week, we will discuss peer editing. Students will begin conferencing with peers to improve their writing, revising, conferencing with me, editing, and writing their final presentations. One of our school goals is to improve writing and we will work hard to do that in our class this year.

Language Arts/Spelling: We will complete our study of verbs this week and begin a unit on types of sentences and sentences/fragments. We will begin lesson 2 of our Words Their Way and test on those words Friday. Last week we made flash cards for our vocabulary words and I hope that everyone has been studying them. We will do many activities this week to practice the words and definitions. Our Wordly Wise test will be Friday.

Friday will be a busy day because we will also continue reading with our book buddies and take a timed test of choice on that day. Many students passed their timed test this week and I hope that your child does well this week. I know they are already tired of having to do it as homework, so maybe that will work as an incentive to pass them all quickly.

Walkfit starts on Wednesday! All of the students in my class are expected to take part in Walkfit on Wednesdays and Fridays. It is from 7:20 to 7:45. Students will drop off their bookbags in the room, then join the fun as soon as they arrive at school. The physical activity really gets their blood flowing and allows them to be at their best in the classroom.

I promised some of you that I would include a link to my Open House presentation on my blog. I'm having trouble accessing it from home, so I will send another blog on Monday morning with the link.

Performing Arts permission slips: I only have these from 1/2 of the class. Our school uses Performing Arts money for many assembly programs that benefit the entire school. CCSD has let us know that students without permission slips should not be allowed to attend the performances. I'm sure that you want your child to be a part of these valuable experiences, so please sign and return it as soon as possible.

High Touch/High Tech: Please return these permission slips ASAP.

Scholastic: I will be sending in the 1st Scholastic order of the year on Saturday. Instructions for ordering online were sent home on Thursday. If you would rather send in an order form and check, please make sure I have it by Friday. Our classroom receives a free book for every online order.

We've had a great 2 weeks to start the school year. We've already gotten a number of compliments and our marble "stash" is growing steadily. We may get that "celebration" sooner than expected.

A huge thanks to all who helped Relay For Life by allowing your students to wear hats and/or stickers on Friday. It was fun seeing all the different hats and I enjoyed having the chance to wear my Steelers cap to school. There was no school prize this month, but from now on their will be a classroom competition. I really like winning, so I will continue to encourage all of my students to bring a dollar for Relay For Life and to participate in our RFL cap days.

Finally, I'd really like to thank all of you that have donated items to help our classroom operate just a little bit smoother. If you are wondering what we might still need, here you go: I am still in need of another floor lamp ($12.97 at Walmart), candy kisses or smarties (for those students who have braces and can't have Jolly Ranchers), items for our treasure chest (we've received a lot, but I know that we always run out about mid-year, so I'd like to keep receiving items all year), and then I have one more request. If you happen to have a bar stool in your basement or attic, and you could let me borrow it for the year, it would be deeply appreciated. I'd love to be able to strategically place a few barstools around the room so that I have something to lean against as I teach. I know that I told your children I was only 29, but these almost 51 year old legs/feet aren't what they used to be and they get very tired standing all day.

OK, I've been typing for almost 2 quarters now. My Steelers are still in the lead (17 - 10), so I'm going to stop now. I hope you have a great week!

If you want to contact me, please do not respond to this email. Responses to this blog post go to Lori Schulman instead of me. You can contact me at sharon.golden@cobbk12.org 

Thanks,

Mrs. G

Welcome to 4th Grade!

I'm very excited to be starting a new year with your child in my classroom! Every year, I get the BEST students and this year is no exception!

I am looking forward to meeting everyone again on Tuesday evening, at Open House. I can't wait to tell you what you and your child can expect this year!

We will start the year out with some fun team building activities, but will also begin the curriculum this week.

In science, we will begin our study of water before we move on to weather. In social studies, we will begin with maps and globes. Our first test will be this Friday and will cover the continents and oceans, as well as the compass rose.

We will be reviewing place value in math this week. This will include reading and writing numbers to a million. We will also take our first timed tests of the year in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. A letter will come home on Tuesday explaining the goals for 4th grade and how you and I can help your child succeed in math this year.

We will start our spelling and vocabulary (Wordly Wise) lessons this week, but will not test until next Friday. In Writing Workshop, we will work on the components of a narrative and will begin our 1st narrative assignment this week.

In reading, we will begin with a class novel by Judy Blume, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. As soon as we are able to take SRI's, we will begin our guided reading groups. We will also meet with our 1st grade book buddies this week. Mrs. Hanna's class will be our book buddies and we will get to see them every Friday morning.

My classroom philosophy is: "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." This is a quote by Confucius and the basis for everything we do in our classroom.

Please don't hesitate to contact me with questions or to let me know what's going on in your child's life. The best way to contact me is by email. That address is: sharon.golden@cobbk12.org . I check my email as often as possible, but many times that is in the morning and again when the students leave in the afternoon. I will get back to you as soon as possible if you email me. If it is an urgent email, I will respond as soon as I see it, so that you will know it was received.

Here's to a great year,

Mrs. G