Tlingit Masks Slideshow

This is a slideshow with pictures of all of the Tlingit mask projects that have been turned in!  I'm so impressed with our class's work!

Tlingit Masks - May 2010

The 4th graders have been studying regions of the U.S. this year.  For each of the 5 regions that we study, we also focus on Native Americans that have lived/currently live in that region.  Right now we are just finishing the West, and we have been studying the Tlingit tribe.  This tribe is famous for carving totem poles, having potlatches (the beginning of our "potlucks") and making animal masks.  Our classes made "masks" the other day on the computer.  Each student chose an animal that he/she felt they were similar to.  Each student took a photo of himself/herself on the computer's camera, found an image of his/her animal online, and layered the animal's face over his/her own face.  They then wrote poems describing their animal and comparing themselves to their animals.  It was so fun - their masks and poems are amazing!
Mrs. Goertzen

Upcoming Field Trips - SACK LUNCH ALERT!

Parents,
We have several exciting things happening in 4th grade!
First and foremost,  your child is bringing home a sheet of paper today that has his/her scores from all 3 of the state assessments.  This paper shows you your child’s score as well as the category into which each of those scores fall.
Also, we have a couple of field trips coming up.  On Tuesday, May 18th, we will be going to the Cosmosphere first thing in the morning.  We’ll be watching an IMAX show that the Cosmosphere has specially ordered to support our Social Studies curriculum, a planetarium show, and a Dr. Goddard’s Lab show!  Each student will need to bring a sack lunch and we will be eating at a park or at the Cosmosphere before we come back to school.
On Wednesday, May 19th, we will be needing sack lunches again.  We will be walking to the Buhler Park in the late morning and spending some time playing - soccer, softball, possibly even fishing.  We will be eating our sack lunches and then having some fun activities… a hula-hoop contest, a limbo contest, and a talent show!  We will need a few parent volunteers that day to help supervise games at the park, handle any worms/fish/hooks for fishing, and help carry supplies there and back.  Please let me know if you’d be able to help that day - I think we’ll be at the park from 10:30 to around 1:00.
Have a great weekend!

Carla Goertzen
cgoertzen@buhlerschools.org

Music Program

Hello everyone,
Just a reminder that we have our 3rd and 4th grade musical program tomorrow (Thursday) night.  The program begins at 7:00, and the kids need to be here by 6:45.  The kids will come to the classroom where they have been assigned to line up (not necessarily their own classroom). The kids have special t-shirts to wear for the program.  They have brought those shirts home tonight.  Mrs. Walker is asking that you iron them and then send them to school with your child tomorrow.  He/she will change into that shirt before the Grandparents' Matinee program in the morning, and then change back into his/her regular shirt afterward for the rest of the school day.  Your child will then bring their shirt home and needs to wear it to school in the evening for the performance.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me!

Bead Graphing

Every day that our class takes a session of the state test, I try to schedule an art project for the afternoon - a kind of balance, to give the kids a chance to focus with each side of the brain for part of the day.  Yesterday we made designs on graph paper, and today we used beads, string and twigs to string those designs.  It was much more time-consuming than the class had guessed it would be.  Most of you will be seeing partially-completed art projects coming home tonight!

State Math Testing Tomorrow!

Hello everyone,
Just a reminder that we begin the KS State Math Assessment tomorrow.  We are pumped full of information, we've reviewed until our brains are full, and we are ready to go!  Our class has chosen to wear "team" colors to keep us pumped up during testing again this week.  They voted to wear red on Tuesday, black or grey on Wednesday, and blue on Thursday.
Please make sure that your kiddo is getting plenty of sleep this week, eating a healthy breakfast, and starting the day on a positive note- so much of our testing is affected by how positively we think about it!
Have a great week!
Carla Goertzen

Trees and testing!

Hello everyone,
Just a few notes about the upcoming 4th grade events:
*Your child is bringing home a small tree today.  We had a speaker from the Dillon Nature Center come visit us today and teach about Arbor Day.  As part of that presentation, each student received a small tree to plant.  If by any chance you do not have room in your yard for the tree, please send it back to school.  We donate them to the city to plant in the parks.  There were several different kinds of trees, and they were of varying sizes - I know that some of the oak trees given out today can grow up to 60' tall and 60' wide!

*Next week is our State Math Assessment week.  We will begin our assessment on Tuesday morning.  It is a 3-session test, just like our reading was, but each session tends to take a little longer than the reading sessions did.  Please continue to practice a 2x2 digit division problem and a long division problem each day, to keep those math skills fresh in your child's mind for the test!

*Next week we are going to begin studying Forces and Motion in science.  On Monday and Tuesday, we will be creating marble ramps, and the students will each need a marble.  If your child has a marble that he/she can bring for science for those 2 days, that would be great!

Let me know if you have any questions!
Carla Goertzen