Hour of Code

Student participated in the Hour of Code last week as part of Computer Science week.  This program was designed to give students an opportunity to explore computer science in a fun way.

We completed our study of Canada and Mexico.  We created Google presentations and created videos from the presentation using Animoto.  See examples below.

We had a visit from Pike and Officer Johnson.

Our trip to JA Skinner State Park

We had a beautiful day.  The Summit House porch was open for the first time in 4 years.  We enjoyed the view, played a game, completed an activity with Ms. Traub and took some time to write our thoughts about the day.  

 Ms. Gini Traub,  Regional Environmental Education Coordinator,  taught us about the formation of the park and had a great activity for us to do.  Thank you Ms. Traub!

Welcome to Grade 4! 2014-2015 School year. We started the year with the daily class routine and using our agenda for organization. In writing we have worked on using a graphic organizer, introduction including a lead and thesis statement, organize our story into paragraphs,and transition words to link our ideas and sentences to write a personal narrative. In reading we discussed just right books and monitoring our thinking while we read using stick on notes and making tracks. In science we started with our study of erosion and weathering and how the earth is constantly changing.

 Reminders: 
Tuesday, October 7: Recycling Plant trip
Thursday, October 9: JA Skinner State Park trip 

Great find at the beach!

Science experiment with erosion and weathering

Using Netbooks in the classroom

Math Problem solving

June

We wrote and created a play based on our immigration stories.  The play was inspired by the Chinese immigrants who came to America through Angel Island.  It was an amazing journey to complete this play which was part of our school wide Cultural Day at Coburn School.

Below is the play and our immigration stories.

Week of May 16

Students researched an animal and they collaborated to combine their  research to create a video.
 See the videos below.

“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”

 ― Toni Morrison


 We completed our books about "our toys come alive". This writing project included the use of Google Docs and Google presentation which enabled us to create, collaborate, share and publish our writing.

 

 


 








Also fourth grade teacher Mrs. Sullivan was interviewed on Connecting Point. She discussed her book she wrote, The Rag Doll.

"Do not fear death... only the unlived life. You don't have to live forever; You just have to live." --Natalie Babbitt In ELA, we started the novel Tuck Everlasting this week for reading. In writing we have worked on a book project. Students used a story we wrote about toys come to life. We will type, peered edit and then put story into Google presentation. We will then add pictures, change font, etc. Finally we will make a book cover and put the book together from the printed pages of Google presentation. We will share our books with other classes. In science we started research on an animal. The final project will be created in Glogster or Thinglink. In math we continued our study of measurement. (customary and metric)

" Don't cry that it's over. Smile because it happened."-- Dr. Seuss

Karen from the Zito and Karen in the morning on Mix 93.1 visited our class for Read Across America on Monday. Karen answered questions and read the story "All the Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss.

Karen presented with certificate.

Week of February 28 We met our loop goal of 25 loops in a month! We decided to have Stuffed Animal Day. Each of us brought in our favorite stuffed animal to share with the class for the day. It was an exciting day. We continued to work on answering open response questions in all areas. In writing, we worked on the introduction, adding details and a conclusion as we completed a writing prompt about finding a "trunk" in our neighborhood. In math we continued our study of fractions and decimals. We will finish our biographies next week. Featured book this week.

Our Stuffed Animals

Weeks of February 7 and February 14
“Each of us has a fire in our hearts for something. It’s our goal in life to find it and keep it lit.”                                        -- Mary Lou Retton, winner of gold medal at 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games
The past two weeks we have seen a lot of snow having 3 snow days in the past 10 school days.  We started a biography writing assignment on an Olympic athlete from the 2014 Sochi Olympics.  Everyone is excited about his/her athlete and how he/she will do in competition.   In science we continued our study of animals and in math we continued fractions.
Below is our new Symbaloo homepage for sites we use on a daily basis.

Week of January 17 and Week of January 24

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Martin Luther King Jr.

This week we started our study of fractions using the Model Curriculum Units from created by the Massachusetts Department of Education.  We used fraction strips, number lines, pictures, pattern blocks, etc. to show, compare, find equivalent fractions and order fractions.  In ELA, we completed poems about dancing and weather and drew pictures to visualize poems.  Also, we finished our opinion piece.  Students chose their topics for this assignment.  In science we created dichotomous keys to name animals using Google drawing and researched how scientists classify animals.  In addition,  we completed the District Writing prompt, Mid year math assessment and a reading practice MCAS assessment.
We had Black Out Bullying week.  Coburn school has a new pledge to stop bullying.  All classes signed the pledge.

Week of January 10

Welcome Back after a lengthy vacation! We reviewed division in math and started factors and multiples as we head towards a unit on fractions. In reading each group received a new book to read. Students will discuss the book in groups and write a recommendation on our wikispace. Also we looked at poems by Langston Hughes. We started our own "dreams" poems.  See below for examples.  In writing we continued an opinion writing piece. We will finish these by the middle of the month.  In science we started our study of organisms. In social studies we worked on the Great Lakes and a story about the ship the Edmund Fitzgerald. We watched a video and song by Gordon Lightfoot.  See video below.

The Way

Go on the way

For the path of dreams is far away

Go on, go on to the path

 

Go on the way

For your dreams await

Go on, go on to the path

                                --Caleb Curtis

 

 

 

 

Teach Me

 

Teach me how to

Accomplish my goals

And I’ll teach you

How to accomplish yours

Share your dreams

with me

And I’ll share

with you

                                 --Charles Christian IV