Word War 3

So for the past month, our class has been participating in Word War 3 with the other 4th grade class. We began on the first day of state assessments, and decided to have a little friendly competition to see which class could read the highest number of words in AR books for the next month. Each Friday afternoon for the past month, we have had whole-grade meetings to update our current totals and encourage reading. Our "war" officially ended this past Friday afternoon, and yesterday Ms. Jameson and I shared the final word counts with our very excited 4th graders. Ms. Jameson's class read more words than our class, but we're so proud of all of our students for their love of reading and for how fantastic they have been about encouraging each other to read fabulous books. Few things make me feel more warm-and-fuzzy than to hear one of our students recommending a book that "you've gotta read" to another student! Our final official combined 4th grade word count for the past four weeks is astonishing - I would NEVER have guessed that this would be our total: 3,351,010 words Amazing! Mrs. Goertzen

Friday, 4/20/2012

We have been doing all sorts of work with fractions this week, and this afternoon we are creating art with fraction tiles! I can't wait to post pictures of the artwork later today!
Yesterday afternoon, after spending about an hour working with comparing fractions that have unlike denominators, our brains were a little fried. So we made big paper airplanes and went onto the playground to fly them in the wind. Check out our fun:

Newsletter 3/12/12

Hello all!
It's been ages since we've updated our class blog - I've only been at school for a day or two here and there, and blogging always seems to get pushed to the side! I'm at school almost every single day for the next month - I think I'm only gone 4 days - so hopefully we'll get back on track!
I am attaching a copy of the newsletter that is going to go home with students tomorrow (Monday, 3/12/12). The newsletter has information about school picture day this week and also about assessments. We begin our first round of assessments next week. The following week is Spring Break, then we have math assessments the week after Spring Break. Then we have a week of down time, and then we take the science assessments. And then we are jumping right into my two favorite projects of the whole 4th grade year: Native American tribe studies, and The 50 States (where each child gets to focus on a specific state). I love our end of the year time and can't wait to get through assessments to jump into some longer-term projects.

Mrs. Goertzen

Mrs. Goertzen's Trip to Topeka

Hi Class! I've missed you all so much while I've been gone, but I've been taking pictures of the interesting things I'm seeing here in Topeka so that I can show you! I'm going to attach some pictures of the Senate (inside of the Capitol building in Topeka). I even got to have my picture taken sitting at the Governor's desk!
I can't wait to see you on Thursday!
Mrs. Goertzen

Tuesday, 1/10/2012

Today we looked at Native American pictures that came in the trunk from the Kansas State Historical Society. They showed things like tipis, chiefs, homes, prairie sleds, etc. We also got to pass around a buffalo shoulder blade, a buffalo skin-scraper made from a deer leg bone, a pipe, and a mat made of woven pumpkin.

Today we started writing about if we were featured on the front of TIME magazine in the future.

We took a short test in math about shapes.

We improved our class average on our addition timed test up to 94%. When we get to 95%, we get a class CELEBRATION! We are so close!

Monday 1/9/2012

Today we got to open one of the Traveling Trunks from the KS State Historical Society. We got to pass around a buffalo bladder, a moccasin, a leather shield, a Bone Whizzer game, porcupine quills, and a parfleche (like a purse made of buffalo hide). It was awesome and stinky!

Math - Lattice Multiplication Instruction Videos!

Today in class we were reviewing 2 digit multiplication, and talking about the different methods of finding the answers. One method that we've learned is called lattice multiplication. The kids were telling me today that their parents didn't know how to do lattice multiplication, so... we MADE instructional videos!
They are posted on our class wiki at www.goertzensguidebook.wikispaces.com. Just click on "Math".