Yesterday we continued our study of celebrations in December. We learned about Christmas. Some interesting facts we learned were:
- Christmas is celebrated on December 25
- People in North America started giving each other gifts in the 1800s
- In Germany, Santa is known as St. Nicholas and in Britain he is known as Father Christmas
- Christmas trees were started in Germany
- Electric lights on trees replaced candles because of how risky it was to have lit candles
Today we did some math around the song "The 12 Days of Christmas". We had questions like:
- How many items in total did your true love give you?
- If the cows the maids are milking have cold feet and you need to give each cow slippers, how many slippers will you need?
- How many birds did you get?
- If you feed each of the birds 3 worms a day, how many worms will you need?
We will be bringing these math questions home tomorrow along with some other items.
Today Mrs. Ball read us a story from India about a turtle who would never stop talking. His home was in danger and his two closest friends, who were birds, wanted to fly away. They told him that they could carry him if he bit onto a stick, but if he talked he could fall. The turtle agreed and clamped onto the stick. The birds carried him over a town where the townspeople started to yell and make fun of the sight of a flying turtle. The turtle became very angered and opened his mouth to yell at the people. He then fell never to be heard from again...
We talked about how this story has a moral or a lesson. Some of our ideas about the moral of this story were:
- There is a time to talk and a time to listen
- You shouldn't always do want you want when you want to do it
- You shouldn't pay attention when people make fun of you
We then started to create our own comics that had a moral or lesson. We used animals, people and even Christmas themes to help us with our comics. Ask me about what my moral was.
Today was Mrs. Ball's last day with us. We will miss her very much and have really enjoyed her time in room 9. She has promised to keep in touch and maybe stop by for a visit when time allows!
Reminders:
- Pillars of Care assembly tomorrow at 8:15
- Early dismissal tomorrow at 11:00. Please remember to still pack a snack!
- Winter break starts tomorrow at 11:01! Classes resume January 3
Thursday, 15 December 2016
Tuesday, 13 December 2016
Dreidel dreidel dreidel
We learned about another holiday that is celebrated in December called Hanukkah. Hanukkah is celebrated by Jewish people to remember when the Maccabees reclaimed their temple. They only had enough oil for their menorah to last one day but it ended up lasting for 8 days. Hanukkah lasts for 8 days. Children get gifts including a toy called a dreidel. We created our own dreidels out of paper. Each side of the dreidel has a letter in Hebrew on it. We were able to play the traditional game with our dreidels when they were finished. Here is how you play...
Today we continued to build our observing, inferencing and questioning skills only this time as scientists. We recalled how water can damage rocks and soil through freezing, currents, floods, rain and erosion. We then looked at pictures from the Alberta floods and had to come up with observations, inferences and questions about what we saw. Lots of us had many questions about the flood. One way we decided we could answer some of these questions were to ask people who experienced the floods (hint hint parents) to talk about it with us!
Here is the link to the website we looked at today...
Alberta Floods: then and now
We had our rocks and minerals review today! We had to make sure we took our time and showed all of our thinking and understandings on the test. Mrs. Ball will be looking over them and Ms. Binks will return them soon!
We learned about 3 other regions in India today: plains, mountains and desert. Some facts we learned was that the plains are very green and fertile, most of the Indian people live in this region and there are rainforests along the coastline. The mountain region includes the Himalayas which are the tallest mountain range in the world and the tallest mountain in India is 8586 meters high. The desert region can only get 5 cm of rain in a year and the people who live in this region need to drink at least 4 L of water every day because of how hot it is!
We had caroling today! We sang songs lots of Christmas songs and listened to some great jokes! We will be having caroling again on Thursday morning.
Reminders:
- Pillars of Care assembly on Friday at 8:15. Students who won awards will have a sheet coming home with them
- Half day on Friday. Dismissal at 11:00
- Please ensure all library books are returned this week. Students who wish to renew a book for over the break need to speak with Ms. Binks
- Mrs. Ball's last day is Thursday :(
Today we continued to build our observing, inferencing and questioning skills only this time as scientists. We recalled how water can damage rocks and soil through freezing, currents, floods, rain and erosion. We then looked at pictures from the Alberta floods and had to come up with observations, inferences and questions about what we saw. Lots of us had many questions about the flood. One way we decided we could answer some of these questions were to ask people who experienced the floods (hint hint parents) to talk about it with us!
Here is the link to the website we looked at today...
Alberta Floods: then and now
We had our rocks and minerals review today! We had to make sure we took our time and showed all of our thinking and understandings on the test. Mrs. Ball will be looking over them and Ms. Binks will return them soon!
We learned about 3 other regions in India today: plains, mountains and desert. Some facts we learned was that the plains are very green and fertile, most of the Indian people live in this region and there are rainforests along the coastline. The mountain region includes the Himalayas which are the tallest mountain range in the world and the tallest mountain in India is 8586 meters high. The desert region can only get 5 cm of rain in a year and the people who live in this region need to drink at least 4 L of water every day because of how hot it is!
We had caroling today! We sang songs lots of Christmas songs and listened to some great jokes! We will be having caroling again on Thursday morning.
Reminders:
- Pillars of Care assembly on Friday at 8:15. Students who won awards will have a sheet coming home with them
- Half day on Friday. Dismissal at 11:00
- Please ensure all library books are returned this week. Students who wish to renew a book for over the break need to speak with Ms. Binks
- Mrs. Ball's last day is Thursday :(
Monday, 12 December 2016
Important Notice Sent Home
This morning we had our spelling tests. We will be getting all of our spelling tests returned to us by the end of the week. There will be no new spelling words until after the break.
Today we started a 3 step process to help build our questioning skills when looking at resources through different subject areas. Ms. Binks showed us the photos called "where children sleep" which shows different places children from all over the world sleep. We first talked about the main idea that this linked to...in this case it was quality of life in social studies. Our next step was observing. We created a scale from 1-4 that showed how well we were achieving this skill. If we were a 1 we were looking very quickly at the picture, not looking at all parts of the picture and coming up with a simple conclusion. To earn a 4 we had to take our time, look at all sections of the picture, focus on big and small things and make connections to the main idea. After observing we did inferencing which was best guesses or connections to something we saw and how it connects to the main idea. For example in the pictures below one of the inferences that we made was "I saw a car which makes me think they sleep near a road so I wonder if they get much sleep because of the noise from the cars"
After inferencing we do questioning where we create strong questions. We said that a question at a level one would be very simple and could be answered using yes or no where a question at a level 4 would need thinking, could have the words why and how at the beginning, could be answered using sentences and showed connections.
Here are the two photos we looked at today. Ask me about my observations, inferences and questions!
We started to look at a new region in India called the plains. We were interrupted by the fire alarm going off. This morning we had an evacuation due to a fire in the boys washroom. All students were evacuated safely to St. Bede School. A letter was sent home with each student today giving more details. If you have any questions please feel free to call the school and speak with Mr. Hebert.
Reminders:
- We have caroling tomorrow at 1:30. Parents are welcome to join
- Mrs. Ball's last day is Thursday
- Friday is a half day
- Pillars of Care assembly is on Friday at 8:15. Letters of the students winning awards will be sent home tommorow!
Today we started a 3 step process to help build our questioning skills when looking at resources through different subject areas. Ms. Binks showed us the photos called "where children sleep" which shows different places children from all over the world sleep. We first talked about the main idea that this linked to...in this case it was quality of life in social studies. Our next step was observing. We created a scale from 1-4 that showed how well we were achieving this skill. If we were a 1 we were looking very quickly at the picture, not looking at all parts of the picture and coming up with a simple conclusion. To earn a 4 we had to take our time, look at all sections of the picture, focus on big and small things and make connections to the main idea. After observing we did inferencing which was best guesses or connections to something we saw and how it connects to the main idea. For example in the pictures below one of the inferences that we made was "I saw a car which makes me think they sleep near a road so I wonder if they get much sleep because of the noise from the cars"
After inferencing we do questioning where we create strong questions. We said that a question at a level one would be very simple and could be answered using yes or no where a question at a level 4 would need thinking, could have the words why and how at the beginning, could be answered using sentences and showed connections.
Here are the two photos we looked at today. Ask me about my observations, inferences and questions!
We started to look at a new region in India called the plains. We were interrupted by the fire alarm going off. This morning we had an evacuation due to a fire in the boys washroom. All students were evacuated safely to St. Bede School. A letter was sent home with each student today giving more details. If you have any questions please feel free to call the school and speak with Mr. Hebert.
Reminders:
- We have caroling tomorrow at 1:30. Parents are welcome to join
- Mrs. Ball's last day is Thursday
- Friday is a half day
- Pillars of Care assembly is on Friday at 8:15. Letters of the students winning awards will be sent home tommorow!
Thursday, 8 December 2016
Winter Concert Tonight!
Today we continued our work in social studies around the regions in India. We finished up the plateau region. Today we learned about the Nilgiri Hills which are located in the southern part of the region where the Eastern and Western Ghats meet. The Nilgiri Hills is one of the best places in the world to grow tea.
In science this afternoon we looked at how water can erode rocks. We watched a video and saw how the force of water, freezing water and constant streaming water changes rocks. Mrs. Ball then showed us 2 different experiments where she had created a mountain and a beach. For the mountain we looked at the shape of the mountain and the positions of the rocks before Mrs. Ball sprayed and poured water down the mountain. After she did that we noticed that the shape of the mountain changed, some rocks were uncovered and some rocks moved down the mountain. For the beach we used a folder to create waves and saw how sand and rocks got dragged into the water and the main part of the beach was washed away.
Tonight is our winter concert. The doors to the school will open around 6 pm (it may be a bit earlier due to the cold!)
Please have students come up to the classroom once they arrive. They will stay in the classroom for the entire night until they are picked up by a parent at the end of the entire show. We ask out of respect for all performers that families stay until the very end. Mavericks will be selling popcorn tonight for 2 dollars. Students who buy popcorn will not eat it at school, but will take it home to enjoy it later!
See you tonight!
In science this afternoon we looked at how water can erode rocks. We watched a video and saw how the force of water, freezing water and constant streaming water changes rocks. Mrs. Ball then showed us 2 different experiments where she had created a mountain and a beach. For the mountain we looked at the shape of the mountain and the positions of the rocks before Mrs. Ball sprayed and poured water down the mountain. After she did that we noticed that the shape of the mountain changed, some rocks were uncovered and some rocks moved down the mountain. For the beach we used a folder to create waves and saw how sand and rocks got dragged into the water and the main part of the beach was washed away.
Tonight is our winter concert. The doors to the school will open around 6 pm (it may be a bit earlier due to the cold!)
Please have students come up to the classroom once they arrive. They will stay in the classroom for the entire night until they are picked up by a parent at the end of the entire show. We ask out of respect for all performers that families stay until the very end. Mavericks will be selling popcorn tonight for 2 dollars. Students who buy popcorn will not eat it at school, but will take it home to enjoy it later!
See you tonight!
Wednesday, 7 December 2016
New Spelling Words
Here are the spelling words for the week! Remember we will be having our spelling tests on Monday! Please make sure you practice the word families/spelling rules that could be chosen for bonus words. Ideas for these bonus words will appear in brackets next to the spelling word.
Green Ninja Cats
1) live (alive)
2) me
3) cool (school, pool, tool, stool, fool, spool)
4) give
5) most
6) saw
7) law
8) raw
9) jar (par, are, car, star, charge, cart)
10) straw
11) draw
12) India (remember the capital letter!)
13) ocean
14) title
15) skip (pip, skip, flip, hip, sip, chip)
16) change
Blue Berry Bananas
1) save (cave, gave, crave, grave)
2) school (pool, tool, spool, cool)
3) father
4) keep (peep, sheep, beep, jeep, steep)
5) safe
6) grade (made, arcade, wade)
7) reached (teach, breached, teacher, peach)
8) raise
9) theme
10) scream (cream, team)
11) easy
12) cycle
13) changes
14) rock
15) solve
16) science
Pink Fluffy Bunnies
1) usually
2) character
3) friends
4) heard (herd)
5) order
6) villain
7) become
8) poison
9) landform
10) desert (dessert)
11) plateau
12) mountains
13) plains (plain, plane)
14) population
15) happened
16) remember
17) measure
18) abundant
19) tropical
20) destroyed
Green Ninja Cats
1) live (alive)
2) me
3) cool (school, pool, tool, stool, fool, spool)
4) give
5) most
6) saw
7) law
8) raw
9) jar (par, are, car, star, charge, cart)
10) straw
11) draw
12) India (remember the capital letter!)
13) ocean
14) title
15) skip (pip, skip, flip, hip, sip, chip)
16) change
Blue Berry Bananas
1) save (cave, gave, crave, grave)
2) school (pool, tool, spool, cool)
3) father
4) keep (peep, sheep, beep, jeep, steep)
5) safe
6) grade (made, arcade, wade)
7) reached (teach, breached, teacher, peach)
8) raise
9) theme
10) scream (cream, team)
11) easy
12) cycle
13) changes
14) rock
15) solve
16) science
Pink Fluffy Bunnies
1) usually
2) character
3) friends
4) heard (herd)
5) order
6) villain
7) become
8) poison
9) landform
10) desert (dessert)
11) plateau
12) mountains
13) plains (plain, plane)
14) population
15) happened
16) remember
17) measure
18) abundant
19) tropical
20) destroyed
Winter Concert Tomorrow
This morning each spelling group was given their new spelling words. Please look at the separate blog post to see the words for this week. We will be having our spelling tests on Monday. Ms. Binks pointed out lots of word families and letter sounds that help us to build new words. We brainstormed different words today that will be shown next to the spelling words in brackets. These words may be used as bonus words.
In social studies today we started to look at the different regions of India. We learned about the plateau region that takes up the central and southern part of the country. We learned that:
- The Deccan Plateau is in central part of the region
- temperatures in the Deccan Plateau can get up to 45 degrees Celsius
- the eastern part of the plateau is formed by the hills in the Eastern Ghats. The hills are discontinuous which means there are lots of gaps between them
- the western edge of the plateau is marked by the Western Ghats where there are many national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forests
We will continue to learn about the 3 other regions in India this week and next week.
To build on our discussion around environment and climate we discussed possible problems that can occur from humans changing the environment to meet their needs. Some of our ideas included:
- You could run out of food if you kill all the animals
- The land could flood if you build a dam for your water
- If you cut down all the trees you wouldn't have anything to use to make things like paper
- There could be lots of pollution
We watched a short video clip of changes that have occurred in communities throughout the world. We noticed how much the land, water and buildings changed throughout the years. Here is a link to the clip:
Changes through 3 decades
This afternoon we watched the dress rehearsal for the winter concert for tonight. The grade 1s, 2s and 3s did an amazing job!!
Tomorrow is our winter concert. Students will be at school for a full day and then have time to go home, eat dinner and change and head back to school. The doors to the school will open at 6:00pm. Students are to come up to their classroom for the evening. The show begins at 6:30pm. Students are to stay in their classroom the entire time until a parent picks them up. Please try and stay for the entire show.
Reminders:
- Fun lunch is tomorrow!
- Winter concert is tomorrow
- Winter break starts December 16 after our half day
In social studies today we started to look at the different regions of India. We learned about the plateau region that takes up the central and southern part of the country. We learned that:
- The Deccan Plateau is in central part of the region
- temperatures in the Deccan Plateau can get up to 45 degrees Celsius
- the eastern part of the plateau is formed by the hills in the Eastern Ghats. The hills are discontinuous which means there are lots of gaps between them
- the western edge of the plateau is marked by the Western Ghats where there are many national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forests
We will continue to learn about the 3 other regions in India this week and next week.
To build on our discussion around environment and climate we discussed possible problems that can occur from humans changing the environment to meet their needs. Some of our ideas included:
- You could run out of food if you kill all the animals
- The land could flood if you build a dam for your water
- If you cut down all the trees you wouldn't have anything to use to make things like paper
- There could be lots of pollution
We watched a short video clip of changes that have occurred in communities throughout the world. We noticed how much the land, water and buildings changed throughout the years. Here is a link to the clip:
Changes through 3 decades
This afternoon we watched the dress rehearsal for the winter concert for tonight. The grade 1s, 2s and 3s did an amazing job!!
Tomorrow is our winter concert. Students will be at school for a full day and then have time to go home, eat dinner and change and head back to school. The doors to the school will open at 6:00pm. Students are to come up to their classroom for the evening. The show begins at 6:30pm. Students are to stay in their classroom the entire time until a parent picks them up. Please try and stay for the entire show.
Reminders:
- Fun lunch is tomorrow!
- Winter concert is tomorrow
- Winter break starts December 16 after our half day
Tuesday, 6 December 2016
Brrr... It's cold outside!
It has been very cold the past few days! Due to the cold weather and windchill we have been having indoor recesses but there is a chance we will be going outside. Please make sure that you are dressing appropriately for the weather by wearing: warm coats, boots, mitts, hats and scarves. Also please make sure that you have appropriate shoes to change into once you get to school!
This morning we worked in partners and were given pictures of things rocks were used for in the past. In our partners, we had to figure out the use and then create a play, postcard or story explaining our ideas. Here are some of the pictures we were given...
Can you figure out their uses? We will be going through the actual use for each of our pictures tomorrow!
This afternoon we learned about the rock cycle! We learned how the 3 different types of rocks are formed and how they can change into each other. Here is a great video we watched explaining each type of rock using jellybeans...
Rock Cycle
Today we had our review test on bar graphs and pictographs. We will now begin to move into multiplication and continue to build these skills after the winter break.
Reminders:
- Our winter concert is this Thursday. Doors open at 6. The performance starts at 6:30!
- Fun lunch is this Thursday
- Winter break begins December 16
This morning we worked in partners and were given pictures of things rocks were used for in the past. In our partners, we had to figure out the use and then create a play, postcard or story explaining our ideas. Here are some of the pictures we were given...
This afternoon we learned about the rock cycle! We learned how the 3 different types of rocks are formed and how they can change into each other. Here is a great video we watched explaining each type of rock using jellybeans...
Rock Cycle
Today we had our review test on bar graphs and pictographs. We will now begin to move into multiplication and continue to build these skills after the winter break.
Reminders:
- Our winter concert is this Thursday. Doors open at 6. The performance starts at 6:30!
- Fun lunch is this Thursday
- Winter break begins December 16
Monday, 5 December 2016
We found the rock!!!
This morning each group had their spelling test. Ms. Binks will mark and return them by the end of the week. We will be getting new spelling words on Wednesday and have our final test before the winter break next week. Mrs. Ball also reviewed the parts of a pictograph and bar graph and had us create a bar graph using data about paint colours Ms. Binks should use. We will be having a review test on pictographs and bar graphs tomorrow. Please make sure you review this tonight!
Here are a few websites you can use:
Make Your Own Pictograph
Interpret Bar Graphs
Create Your Own Bar Graph
Interpret Pictographs
Create Your Own Pictograph
This morning we started talking about environment and climate.
Environment is the kind of land and climate a place has. Some examples of environment are mountains, deserts and forests.
Climate is the weather a place has over many years. Some examples of climate are hot, cold, dry and rainy.
We talked about how the environment and climate shape the quality of life for people who live in or near it. We started discussing how humans adapt to their environment and climate. We had to imagine if Ms. Binks dropped us off in the middle of nowhere (how mean of her!) what we would need to do to survive. A lot of our ideas involved building/finding/creating shelter to either stay warm and dry or cool and shaded, finding food sources and changing our clothes to match the weather. Tomorrow we will discuss how humans have changed their environments and the problems that can lead to.
Today we went through the last few tests we had performed to try and find the missing rock/mineral from Ms. Binks's collection. We discovered that Ms. Binks could not scratch it with her fingernail or a coin so it must have been a hard rock/mineral. We asked if she ever dropped it into vinegar to see if it fizzed. Ms. Binks told us that one time when she was cooking she dropped the rock into a bowl of vinegar and nothing happened. Finally we asked her if she remembered if the rock/mineral was magnetic. She remembered that it stuck to the magnet in her purse clasp when she was bringing it to school. Once we heard that final clue we were able to narrow down what rock was missing and it was.......
Magnetite!!!
Mrs. Ball can now replace this rock for Ms. Binks!
This afternoon we reviewed the three different types of rocks: igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary. We watched a video on the rock cycle that went through different traits of all the rocks. Afterwards we brainstormed how we may identify each type of rock. Some of our ideas were:
Sedimentary: look for smaller rocks inside, possibly layers
Igneous: bubbles or smooth, might be all the same colour
Metamorphic: different rocks but more smushed together
We also watched a video clip on what makes up a crystal. We learned that crystals are made up of molecules in a repeating pattern and can be formed in different shapes.
In groups, we worked through identifying whether 5 rocks were either sedimentary, igneous, metamorphic or crystals. We looked at the rocks and used the properties of colour, lustre and texture to help us classify them.
Reminders:
- Our Christmas concert is this Thursday December 8 at 6:30pm. The doors open at 6:00
- Fun lunch is on December 8
- Last day of classes for winter break is December 16
- If you were unable to come to conferences please email or call Ms. Binks to set up an appointment
Here are a few websites you can use:
Make Your Own Pictograph
Interpret Bar Graphs
Create Your Own Bar Graph
Interpret Pictographs
Create Your Own Pictograph
This morning we started talking about environment and climate.
Environment is the kind of land and climate a place has. Some examples of environment are mountains, deserts and forests.
Climate is the weather a place has over many years. Some examples of climate are hot, cold, dry and rainy.
We talked about how the environment and climate shape the quality of life for people who live in or near it. We started discussing how humans adapt to their environment and climate. We had to imagine if Ms. Binks dropped us off in the middle of nowhere (how mean of her!) what we would need to do to survive. A lot of our ideas involved building/finding/creating shelter to either stay warm and dry or cool and shaded, finding food sources and changing our clothes to match the weather. Tomorrow we will discuss how humans have changed their environments and the problems that can lead to.
Today we went through the last few tests we had performed to try and find the missing rock/mineral from Ms. Binks's collection. We discovered that Ms. Binks could not scratch it with her fingernail or a coin so it must have been a hard rock/mineral. We asked if she ever dropped it into vinegar to see if it fizzed. Ms. Binks told us that one time when she was cooking she dropped the rock into a bowl of vinegar and nothing happened. Finally we asked her if she remembered if the rock/mineral was magnetic. She remembered that it stuck to the magnet in her purse clasp when she was bringing it to school. Once we heard that final clue we were able to narrow down what rock was missing and it was.......
Magnetite!!!
Mrs. Ball can now replace this rock for Ms. Binks!
This afternoon we reviewed the three different types of rocks: igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary. We watched a video on the rock cycle that went through different traits of all the rocks. Afterwards we brainstormed how we may identify each type of rock. Some of our ideas were:
Sedimentary: look for smaller rocks inside, possibly layers
Igneous: bubbles or smooth, might be all the same colour
Metamorphic: different rocks but more smushed together
We also watched a video clip on what makes up a crystal. We learned that crystals are made up of molecules in a repeating pattern and can be formed in different shapes.
In groups, we worked through identifying whether 5 rocks were either sedimentary, igneous, metamorphic or crystals. We looked at the rocks and used the properties of colour, lustre and texture to help us classify them.
Reminders:
- Our Christmas concert is this Thursday December 8 at 6:30pm. The doors open at 6:00
- Fun lunch is on December 8
- Last day of classes for winter break is December 16
- If you were unable to come to conferences please email or call Ms. Binks to set up an appointment
Wednesday, 30 November 2016
New Group Spelling Words
Green Ninja Cats:
1) little
2) work
3) know
4) place
5) years
6) rain
7) mail
8) wait
9) paint
10) chant
11) paid
12) sail
13) goods
14) services
15) city
16) country
Blue Berry Bananas:
1) between
2) own
3) base
4) country
5) plant
6) slip
7) lunch
8) pond
9) front
10) thump
11) inches
12) yard
13) stored
14) motion
15) expand
16) calculate
Pink Fluffy Bunnies:
1) yourself
2) maybe
3) problem
4) complete
5) rather
6) crowd
7) since
8) fresh
9) piece
10) cotton
11) children
12) heaven
13) penguin
14) commutative
15) associative
16) ecosystem
17) community
18) geography
19) Asia
20) multiplication
1) little
2) work
3) know
4) place
5) years
6) rain
7) mail
8) wait
9) paint
10) chant
11) paid
12) sail
13) goods
14) services
15) city
16) country
Blue Berry Bananas:
1) between
2) own
3) base
4) country
5) plant
6) slip
7) lunch
8) pond
9) front
10) thump
11) inches
12) yard
13) stored
14) motion
15) expand
16) calculate
Pink Fluffy Bunnies:
1) yourself
2) maybe
3) problem
4) complete
5) rather
6) crowd
7) since
8) fresh
9) piece
10) cotton
11) children
12) heaven
13) penguin
14) commutative
15) associative
16) ecosystem
17) community
18) geography
19) Asia
20) multiplication
Student Involved Conferences Tomorrow
We have continued to work on our bar graphing skills this week. We looked at the similarities and differences between bar graphs and pictographs. We saw that they both have titles that describe what the information is about, categories, and the amount of answers or information about the category. The differences between them are that pictographs use pictures and have a key explaining the value of my picture where as a bar graph uses a number scale and has bars showing the data. Mrs. Ball asked us what colour she should paint her nails. We collected data using tally marks and then had to transfer this information into a bar graph.
In science we still tried to help Mrs. Ball figure out what rock she lost from Ms. Binks's rock collection. Yesterday we performed tests to discover the texture and streak of different rocks and minerals. For texture we felt the rock/mineral and decided if it was smooth, grainy, rough and bumpy. For streak we could only test minerals. We were given tiles and had to drag the mineral across the tile. If the mineral left a mark on the tile we would write down the colour. Some of the minerals left white, brown and green streaks. Today we tested the hardness of rocks and minerals. We used a scale called Moh's Hardness scale that rates rocks/minerals from very soft to very hard. To conduct the tests we first used our fingernails. If we couldn't scratch the rock we then used a penny. If there still wasn't a scratch we would use a nail (very carefully!!!). If we didn't see a scratch we then used a piece of sand paper to see if the rock was scratched. A rock that could be scratched with a fingernail would be very soft. A rock that could not be scratched by the sandpaper would be very hard. You can see all the rocks and minerals we have eliminated on our board outside the classroom.
Each of the 3 spelling groups were given brand new spelling words today! They will be posted separately. Please make sure you are practicing your words because we will have our new spelling test on Monday. Just a reminder that students will be able to change groups as their spelling needs change.
Tomorrow and Friday are our student involved conferences. Please make sure you visit the school website to sign up! We will be reviewing student learning goals during these conferences. All students are encouraged to come to the conferences.
Reminders:
- Book fair is on this week until Friday. Students are able to bring money to purchase items from the book fair or can wait to come with their family at conferences
- Student involved conferences are Thursday evening and Friday morning
- There is no school on Friday (unless you are coming to conferences!)
- December/January calendars were sent home yesterday
Monday, 28 November 2016
Missing Rock
This morning each spelling group had their spelling test. We will be getting new words for our group tomorrow. We will be having our new spelling test next Monday to give everyone enough time to practice. Please make sure that you are going through the words at home and working on/noticing the word patterns. We will be getting these spelling tests back tomorrow.
We finished working on our Taj Mahal art projects with Mrs. Ball. We used bleeding tissue paper which is a special kind of tissue paper that "bleeds" its colour onto paper when water is added to it. We had to sketch out the Taj Mahal in pencil and then add the bleeding tissue paper onto our paper with water. We added warm tissue paper into our background. Some examples of warm colours are pink, orange, red and yellow. We had to add cool tissue paper to the inside of our Taj Mahal building. Some examples of cool colours are shades of blue or green. After our tissue paper dried we used sharpie to outline and add details to our Taj Mahal. Some examples of our finished art are below...
We continued work on pictographs today. Mrs. Ball gave us some information about businesses she saw while on a quick holiday to Las Vegas over the weekend. She saw:
10 malls
40 hotels
75 restaurants
60 spas
We talked about how if we used a 1:1 representation on our pictograph we would have to draw way too many symbols so we needed a many to one representation where our picture could be more than one. Some of us counted by 2s, 5s and 10s. Tomorrow we will begin working on bar graphs.
This afternoon we found out that Mrs. Ball borrowed Ms. Binks's rock collection and lost a rock!! Ms. Binks couldn't remember what the rock was called but thought of some of its properties while we did testing. Today we looked at the properties of colour and lustre. Lustre means how shiny a rock is. We looked at different rocks and minerals and noted what colour they were and their lustre on a scale. Once we were finished Ms. Binks remembered that she still had white and pink rocks in her kit and that the shiniest rock was still there too. After hearing this we knew that the rock Mrs. Ball lost could not be:
- Quartz
- Marble
- Calcite
- Pirite
We will continue to perform tests all week to help Mrs. Ball replace the missing rock.
Reminders:
- We are having our pajama day tomorrow!! Please make sure you wear appropriate pajamas for school. Remember no slippers! You may bring one small stuffy that YOU are responsible for
- The forms about the popcorn must be in by tomorrow morning. If students do not return the form they will be unable to have a snack during the video
- Fun lunch orders are due tomorrow
- We have library tomorrow. We will not be doing book exchange because the book fair is here! We will be browsing tomorrow
We finished working on our Taj Mahal art projects with Mrs. Ball. We used bleeding tissue paper which is a special kind of tissue paper that "bleeds" its colour onto paper when water is added to it. We had to sketch out the Taj Mahal in pencil and then add the bleeding tissue paper onto our paper with water. We added warm tissue paper into our background. Some examples of warm colours are pink, orange, red and yellow. We had to add cool tissue paper to the inside of our Taj Mahal building. Some examples of cool colours are shades of blue or green. After our tissue paper dried we used sharpie to outline and add details to our Taj Mahal. Some examples of our finished art are below...
We continued work on pictographs today. Mrs. Ball gave us some information about businesses she saw while on a quick holiday to Las Vegas over the weekend. She saw:
10 malls
40 hotels
75 restaurants
60 spas
We talked about how if we used a 1:1 representation on our pictograph we would have to draw way too many symbols so we needed a many to one representation where our picture could be more than one. Some of us counted by 2s, 5s and 10s. Tomorrow we will begin working on bar graphs.
This afternoon we found out that Mrs. Ball borrowed Ms. Binks's rock collection and lost a rock!! Ms. Binks couldn't remember what the rock was called but thought of some of its properties while we did testing. Today we looked at the properties of colour and lustre. Lustre means how shiny a rock is. We looked at different rocks and minerals and noted what colour they were and their lustre on a scale. Once we were finished Ms. Binks remembered that she still had white and pink rocks in her kit and that the shiniest rock was still there too. After hearing this we knew that the rock Mrs. Ball lost could not be:
- Quartz
- Marble
- Calcite
- Pirite
We will continue to perform tests all week to help Mrs. Ball replace the missing rock.
Reminders:
- We are having our pajama day tomorrow!! Please make sure you wear appropriate pajamas for school. Remember no slippers! You may bring one small stuffy that YOU are responsible for
- The forms about the popcorn must be in by tomorrow morning. If students do not return the form they will be unable to have a snack during the video
- Fun lunch orders are due tomorrow
- We have library tomorrow. We will not be doing book exchange because the book fair is here! We will be browsing tomorrow
Wednesday, 23 November 2016
Spelling words for the week...
Green Ninja Cats:
1) over
2) new
3) art
4) take
5) only
6) car
7) park
8) hard
9) barn
10) card
11) shark
12) dark
13) oh
14) eyes
15) date
16) hold
Blue Berry Bananas:
1) high
2) every
3) near
4) west
5) dress
6) best
7) next
8) else
9) checked
10) grand
11) stand
12) am
13) matter
14) forms
15) value
16) area
Pink Fluffy Bunnies:
1) rolled
2) fingers
3) except
4) speed
5) questions
6) catch
7) itself
8) bargain
9) certain
10) orphan
11) fountain
12) latitude
13) longitude
14) compass
15) absolute
16) equator
17) compensation
18) continent
19) country
20) India
1) over
2) new
3) art
4) take
5) only
6) car
7) park
8) hard
9) barn
10) card
11) shark
12) dark
13) oh
14) eyes
15) date
16) hold
Blue Berry Bananas:
1) high
2) every
3) near
4) west
5) dress
6) best
7) next
8) else
9) checked
10) grand
11) stand
12) am
13) matter
14) forms
15) value
16) area
Pink Fluffy Bunnies:
1) rolled
2) fingers
3) except
4) speed
5) questions
6) catch
7) itself
8) bargain
9) certain
10) orphan
11) fountain
12) latitude
13) longitude
14) compass
15) absolute
16) equator
17) compensation
18) continent
19) country
20) India
New Spelling Words and Groups
This morning we had to complete a reflection on the sorting activity we did in science yesterday. We had to explain how our groups came up with a sorting rule, what we found easy/difficult about the activity, something we learned and define the word property. We will be using these reflections on our documentation of learning board.
In math we continued our work around pictographs. We looked at samples of pictographs that were missing key items and had to identify the missing pieces. We then talked about what observations and questions we could make based on the data. Today we practiced creating pictographs that had many to one ratios for the key. This means that instead of having our picture or symbol represent one student or one answer, it represented two or more answers or responses. This helped us practice our skip counting skills as well as our addition, subtraction, multiplication and division skills.
Mrs. Ball read us an Indian story called "A Bucket of Blessings" that was about a monkey who had filled a bucket of water to take to a peacock so the peacock could make it rain. Along the way, the monkey's bucket leaked and the drops of water he left behind created beautiful and magical things. By the time the monkey reached the peacock he was very upset because he had no water. However, there were still a few drops left so the peacock had plenty of water to make it rain. We talked about the moral of this story and how it teaches a lesson. Ask me about this discussion!
This afternoon Ms. Binks put us into 3 different spelling groups. Each group got their own list of spelling words to practice. For the next few weeks, Ms. Binks will be giving words based on specific skills our group needs to practice. The spelling words will be posted in a different blog entry. Since we were given our words today, our spelling tests will be on Monday. If at any time we feel the words in our group are too easy or too difficult, Ms. Binks can switch the group we are in or change up the spelling words. Please look at the separate blog post so that you can begin practicing your words.
Reminders:
- No school Friday
- Picture retakes were sent home today
- Fun lunch orders are due on Tuesday
In math we continued our work around pictographs. We looked at samples of pictographs that were missing key items and had to identify the missing pieces. We then talked about what observations and questions we could make based on the data. Today we practiced creating pictographs that had many to one ratios for the key. This means that instead of having our picture or symbol represent one student or one answer, it represented two or more answers or responses. This helped us practice our skip counting skills as well as our addition, subtraction, multiplication and division skills.
Mrs. Ball read us an Indian story called "A Bucket of Blessings" that was about a monkey who had filled a bucket of water to take to a peacock so the peacock could make it rain. Along the way, the monkey's bucket leaked and the drops of water he left behind created beautiful and magical things. By the time the monkey reached the peacock he was very upset because he had no water. However, there were still a few drops left so the peacock had plenty of water to make it rain. We talked about the moral of this story and how it teaches a lesson. Ask me about this discussion!
This afternoon Ms. Binks put us into 3 different spelling groups. Each group got their own list of spelling words to practice. For the next few weeks, Ms. Binks will be giving words based on specific skills our group needs to practice. The spelling words will be posted in a different blog entry. Since we were given our words today, our spelling tests will be on Monday. If at any time we feel the words in our group are too easy or too difficult, Ms. Binks can switch the group we are in or change up the spelling words. Please look at the separate blog post so that you can begin practicing your words.
Reminders:
- No school Friday
- Picture retakes were sent home today
- Fun lunch orders are due on Tuesday
Tuesday, 22 November 2016
Quality of Life Cards
This morning we invited the other grade 4 classes to our room to brag....and to brainstorm tasks that they would have to complete because we brought in the most items for the veterans food bank. We decided the tasks should be around the pillars of care for showing care for others, place and learning. Some of our ideas for things students in the other class will have to do for us include:
- run our laps for us in gym
- read to us
- carry everything for us
- clean our classroom
- tie our shoes
- pick up garbage
- organize the bookshelves
We will be able to sit back and relax and enjoy being taken care of all next week. We did have a discussion about how important it is to still treat the other grade 4s with respect, compassion and kindness since we may be in their position at some point this year. We talked about how it was okay to jokingly brag today but that we shouldn't be saying or doing things to upset anyone.
This morning Mrs. Ball taught us a new science word (property) by having us complete sorting activities. We were separated into groups... all of which had cool rock names... and in our groups we had a bag of items that we had to sort using a rule. Once we had our rule we wrote it down and Mrs. Ball or Ms. Binks took a picture. Some of the ways to sort became more and more challenging. We talked about how we could sort items by: material, hardness, texture, length and colour. These are all examples of properties. Properties are the qualities or characteristics an item has. We will be applying what we learned about properties to classifying rocks and minerals.
We continued our work around data analysis today by using the data we collected yesterday from our questions to create pictographs. We reviewed how our pictograph needed to have a title, the categories, a legend or key and a symbol that represents the amount of people or answers. Today we worked on practicing when our symbol represents only one answer. We will be working towards using a symbol that represents more than one answers.
To build on our discussion around quality of life Ms. Binks put us into small groups that were representing a small country. She then gave us 24 cards that had different items on them that could be a part of quality of life. Some of the items included: clean air, hot and cold running water, car, family, friends, community sports, education, healthcare, protection from abuse and neglect and pets. We were told that our country only had enough resources and funds for 10 items to give our citizens good quality of life. In our groups we had to choose 10 cards. It was interesting to see how not one group's answers were exactly the same. Most groups had items like clean water, clean air, nutritious food and healthcare included in their 10 items. We talked about the discussion that went into making the decision for the 10 items. We will be doing a follow up activity with this tomorrow.
Reminders:
- No school Friday
- Fun lunch orders are due next Tuesday
- run our laps for us in gym
- read to us
- carry everything for us
- clean our classroom
- tie our shoes
- pick up garbage
- organize the bookshelves
We will be able to sit back and relax and enjoy being taken care of all next week. We did have a discussion about how important it is to still treat the other grade 4s with respect, compassion and kindness since we may be in their position at some point this year. We talked about how it was okay to jokingly brag today but that we shouldn't be saying or doing things to upset anyone.
This morning Mrs. Ball taught us a new science word (property) by having us complete sorting activities. We were separated into groups... all of which had cool rock names... and in our groups we had a bag of items that we had to sort using a rule. Once we had our rule we wrote it down and Mrs. Ball or Ms. Binks took a picture. Some of the ways to sort became more and more challenging. We talked about how we could sort items by: material, hardness, texture, length and colour. These are all examples of properties. Properties are the qualities or characteristics an item has. We will be applying what we learned about properties to classifying rocks and minerals.
We continued our work around data analysis today by using the data we collected yesterday from our questions to create pictographs. We reviewed how our pictograph needed to have a title, the categories, a legend or key and a symbol that represents the amount of people or answers. Today we worked on practicing when our symbol represents only one answer. We will be working towards using a symbol that represents more than one answers.
To build on our discussion around quality of life Ms. Binks put us into small groups that were representing a small country. She then gave us 24 cards that had different items on them that could be a part of quality of life. Some of the items included: clean air, hot and cold running water, car, family, friends, community sports, education, healthcare, protection from abuse and neglect and pets. We were told that our country only had enough resources and funds for 10 items to give our citizens good quality of life. In our groups we had to choose 10 cards. It was interesting to see how not one group's answers were exactly the same. Most groups had items like clean water, clean air, nutritious food and healthcare included in their 10 items. We talked about the discussion that went into making the decision for the 10 items. We will be doing a follow up activity with this tomorrow.
Reminders:
- No school Friday
- Fun lunch orders are due next Tuesday
Monday, 21 November 2016
Happy Monday
We have been working on creating learning goals for ourselves for math, reading and writing. These are goals that we have created for ourself based on our own perceived learning needs. We picked goals that we can evaluate and that can be applied to things we will learn as the year goes on. Ms. Binks will be posting our goals in a pocket with our name on it. Throughout the year (and coming up in December at conferences) we will talk about if we feel we have reached our goals. If we do, we will put a sticker on our pocket and write a new goal. Today we worked on personal goals that could be around behaviour, friendships, emotions, skills in art, music or phys ed.
Mrs. Ball continued to teach us about collecting data. Today, we talked about what makes up a good question and then questions we could ask our classmates to gather information. Lots of us created questions where we had to pick our favourite of something. For example, what is your favourite video game? After we created our question, we chose 4 items or categories that the people we were surveying would have to choose. We then had an opportunity to walk around and gather answers using tally marks. This week we will be working on changing our data we collected today into pictographs.
In social studies we learned a new phrase called "Quality of Life"
Quality of life is the sense of safety, comfort, security, health and happiness that people have in their lives. We talked about how lucky we are in Canada because most people have a good quality of life. We brainstormed some things that make our quality of life great. Our brainstorm chart is below....
We started to have an interesting conversation about perspective and how even though we may see people in different countries as having a poorer quality of life because what they have is different than us they may view their lives as great quality. We used the example of a bed and how if we saw a child in another part of the world who had a bed as a straw mat we may think they are worse off than we are where in reality they may be very happy and grateful to have the mat. This is a conversation that Ms. Binks is hoping we can continue and build on through our discoveries in social studies.
In science this afternoon we continued our work around rocks and minerals. Mrs. Ball showed us a video by Bill Nye to help us learn some interesting facts. We learned things like:
- There are 3 types of rocks called igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary
- Soil is made out of rocks, sand, roots and plants
- Rocks are made from heat and pressure
- The only thing that can cut diamond is diamond
- Some rocks are made from lava from a volcano that cools off
- Some rocks can have different layers or can be a swirl of different minerals that are combined
We did not have any new spelling words today. Ms. Binks is going to try having 2 different spelling groups with different words for each group. She is hoping to start these groups tomorrow or Wednesday and then do testing next week since there is no school this Friday.
Reminders:
- Book orders are due TOMORROW
- Fun lunch orders are due next Tuesday
- Please bring library books back for tomorrow
- No school on Friday
Mrs. Ball continued to teach us about collecting data. Today, we talked about what makes up a good question and then questions we could ask our classmates to gather information. Lots of us created questions where we had to pick our favourite of something. For example, what is your favourite video game? After we created our question, we chose 4 items or categories that the people we were surveying would have to choose. We then had an opportunity to walk around and gather answers using tally marks. This week we will be working on changing our data we collected today into pictographs.
In social studies we learned a new phrase called "Quality of Life"
Quality of life is the sense of safety, comfort, security, health and happiness that people have in their lives. We talked about how lucky we are in Canada because most people have a good quality of life. We brainstormed some things that make our quality of life great. Our brainstorm chart is below....
We started to have an interesting conversation about perspective and how even though we may see people in different countries as having a poorer quality of life because what they have is different than us they may view their lives as great quality. We used the example of a bed and how if we saw a child in another part of the world who had a bed as a straw mat we may think they are worse off than we are where in reality they may be very happy and grateful to have the mat. This is a conversation that Ms. Binks is hoping we can continue and build on through our discoveries in social studies.
In science this afternoon we continued our work around rocks and minerals. Mrs. Ball showed us a video by Bill Nye to help us learn some interesting facts. We learned things like:
- There are 3 types of rocks called igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary
- Soil is made out of rocks, sand, roots and plants
- Rocks are made from heat and pressure
- The only thing that can cut diamond is diamond
- Some rocks are made from lava from a volcano that cools off
- Some rocks can have different layers or can be a swirl of different minerals that are combined
We did not have any new spelling words today. Ms. Binks is going to try having 2 different spelling groups with different words for each group. She is hoping to start these groups tomorrow or Wednesday and then do testing next week since there is no school this Friday.
Reminders:
- Book orders are due TOMORROW
- Fun lunch orders are due next Tuesday
- Please bring library books back for tomorrow
- No school on Friday
Friday, 18 November 2016
Pillars of Care Assembly
This morning we read a story called "One". In the story the colour red makes the colour blue feel sad and bad about himself. Blue's friends purple, green, yellow and orange see red doing this and stand by and do nothing. When red makes others feel bad he gets bigger and bigger. Then the number one comes along and stands up to red. The final message of the book is that it only takes one to stand up. We talked about how the story isn't really about numbers and colours it is about the importance of standing up for others and being kind. We brainstormed how we can spread kindness and fill buckets within our classroom and throughout the school.
We had our Pillars of Care assembly this morning. Congratulations to the students who won awards for showing care for themselves, others, place and learning. Thank you to those parents who came to support our students.
Reminders:
- Book orders are due Tuesday
- Fun lunch orders are due Tuesday November 29
- We are collecting clothing donations for the Kidney foundation
- Please look into the meaning of your name....are you named after something/someone? Does your name have a special meaning? Do you have more than one given name?
We had our Pillars of Care assembly this morning. Congratulations to the students who won awards for showing care for themselves, others, place and learning. Thank you to those parents who came to support our students.
Reminders:
- Book orders are due Tuesday
- Fun lunch orders are due Tuesday November 29
- We are collecting clothing donations for the Kidney foundation
- Please look into the meaning of your name....are you named after something/someone? Does your name have a special meaning? Do you have more than one given name?
Wednesday, 16 November 2016
Our week so far...
This week we welcomed Mrs. Ball, our student teacher from University of Lethbridge. She will be in our classroom until right before Christmas break. She will be teaching us all about rocks and minerals and graphing. Some of us will be working with her to complete projects around Alberta (the grade 4 social studies curriculum).
We have ended our review on addition and subtraction. Students will be taking home numerous addition and subtraction quizzes this week. Please go through the quiz with your child. Some students will have notes about the importance of continuing their adding and subtracting at home. Ms. Binks can send home some extra practice if needed. Our adding and subtracting skills will come in handy as we move forward in math to learn about graphing and multiplication.
In social studies we have continued our work around mapping. Students have been working on completing activities where they need to plot specific items on maps, read and follow the cardinal directions, measure and use scale and use grids to write down coordinates. Later this week we will begin our focus on the county of India.
We are wrapping up our activities around compound words. Next week our daily 5 activities will focus on using nonfiction literature and how to properly gather and write down facts and information. Our spelling test words will focus on topics that we are learning about.
This week we did an activity around writing where we divided our brain into 3 pockets. We talked about how our "brain pockets" help keep ideas that we can then use to develop our writing. The 3 brain pockets are:
- Memory (these are ideas about people, places, pets and events that we remember)
- Information (these are true facts about topics we feel we know a lot about)
- Imagination (ideas that we create using our own imaginations)
We had to begin to create a story using an idea from our imagination brain pocket. We will start to work on story writing in the upcoming weeks.
Reminders:
- Our Pillars of Care assembly is this Friday at 8:15. Students who are receiving awards will have brought home a special letter today
- Friday is a half day
We have ended our review on addition and subtraction. Students will be taking home numerous addition and subtraction quizzes this week. Please go through the quiz with your child. Some students will have notes about the importance of continuing their adding and subtracting at home. Ms. Binks can send home some extra practice if needed. Our adding and subtracting skills will come in handy as we move forward in math to learn about graphing and multiplication.
In social studies we have continued our work around mapping. Students have been working on completing activities where they need to plot specific items on maps, read and follow the cardinal directions, measure and use scale and use grids to write down coordinates. Later this week we will begin our focus on the county of India.
We are wrapping up our activities around compound words. Next week our daily 5 activities will focus on using nonfiction literature and how to properly gather and write down facts and information. Our spelling test words will focus on topics that we are learning about.
This week we did an activity around writing where we divided our brain into 3 pockets. We talked about how our "brain pockets" help keep ideas that we can then use to develop our writing. The 3 brain pockets are:
- Memory (these are ideas about people, places, pets and events that we remember)
- Information (these are true facts about topics we feel we know a lot about)
- Imagination (ideas that we create using our own imaginations)
We had to begin to create a story using an idea from our imagination brain pocket. We will start to work on story writing in the upcoming weeks.
Reminders:
- Our Pillars of Care assembly is this Friday at 8:15. Students who are receiving awards will have brought home a special letter today
- Friday is a half day
Thursday, 10 November 2016
Remembrance Day
This morning we read 2 poems related to Remembrance Day. We read the poem line by line and interpreted the meaning of the words. The poems we read are below...
After discussing our thoughts and feelings about the poems we were asked to do a visual representation. This is where we draw pictures to show our understandings about the poems. We need to make sure that our drawings represent each part of the poem.
We had our Remembrance Day assembly this morning. It was a great opportunity to reflect on the ultimate sacrifice that so many soldiers made so we can enjoy the freedoms we have today.
If you did not complete your map of your bedroom you can bring it on Monday.
Reminders:
- Spelling test Monday
- Picture retakes are on Monday
- No school tomorrow
- We are accepting food items until Tuesday
After discussing our thoughts and feelings about the poems we were asked to do a visual representation. This is where we draw pictures to show our understandings about the poems. We need to make sure that our drawings represent each part of the poem.
We had our Remembrance Day assembly this morning. It was a great opportunity to reflect on the ultimate sacrifice that so many soldiers made so we can enjoy the freedoms we have today.
If you did not complete your map of your bedroom you can bring it on Monday.
Reminders:
- Spelling test Monday
- Picture retakes are on Monday
- No school tomorrow
- We are accepting food items until Tuesday
Wednesday, 9 November 2016
Mapping Homework
Today we started to talk about mapping. Ms. Binks read us the story "Mapping Penny's World" where a girl creates different maps with the help of her dog. We talked about how maps are from up above or a "birds eye view" and can show things like the land, roads, building, cities and bodies of water. We were all given homework for tonight that is expected to be completed and brought to school tomorrow. We need to create a map of our bedroom. Our map should include the following:
- A title (what is your map showing)
- The author (who created the map)
- Large items drawn and labeled (for example your bed or dresser)
- Smaller items drawn using symbols (for example circles, colored rectangles, squiggly lines...)
- A key or legend explaining what the symbols are
Here is a picture from the story to give you some ideas:
We have decided that we will be having our spelling test on Monday instead of tomorrow to allow people more time to practice their compound words. Please make sure you are using this time wisely!
Reminders:
- Remembrance Day Assembly tomorrow at 10:20. Students who are in Scouts, Cubs, Brownies or Guides please wear your uniform
- No school Friday
- Picture retake day is Monday November 14
- A title (what is your map showing)
- The author (who created the map)
- Large items drawn and labeled (for example your bed or dresser)
- Smaller items drawn using symbols (for example circles, colored rectangles, squiggly lines...)
- A key or legend explaining what the symbols are
Here is a picture from the story to give you some ideas:
We have decided that we will be having our spelling test on Monday instead of tomorrow to allow people more time to practice their compound words. Please make sure you are using this time wisely!
Reminders:
- Remembrance Day Assembly tomorrow at 10:20. Students who are in Scouts, Cubs, Brownies or Guides please wear your uniform
- No school Friday
- Picture retake day is Monday November 14
Tuesday, 8 November 2016
In Flander's Fields
Today we finished our poppy art for the Remembrance Day ceremony. Today we painted centers on our poppies, created stems and leaves and then cut out our petals. Some examples of our finished artwork is below (you will be able to see all the artwork during our presentation in the assembly on Thursday)
We watched a few short videos today that explained the significance of poppies for Remembrance Days. The Poppy story focuses more on the creation and distribution of poppies in Scotland but it has some interesting facts that we can apply to what we do in Canada. The History of the Poppy gives more explanation about how we came to wear poppies in Canada. Here are the links to the videos if you would like to watch them...
The Poppy Story
History of the Poppy
Ms. Binks read us the story "In Flanders Fields the story of the poem by John McCrae" which explained the history of WWI and how John McCrae came to write the iconic poem. Lots of us were shocked to hear the living conditions of the soldiers on the front lines and became emotional thinking of the sacrifices they made so that we are able to enjoy the freedoms we do today. This story sparked a discussion about the seriousness of Remembrance Day and how it can be emotional for lots of us because of connections we may have. We talked about how important it is to demonstrate respect on this day as a sign of appreciation towards veterans and those soldiers who lost their lives. We were able to choose one of 2 topics to write about:
- Why we wear a poppy
- A letter to a Canadian soldier
Ms. Binks was impressed with how quiet and focused we were on this writing. We will continue to work on it throughout the week.
Reminders:
- Picture orders are due by tomorrow at the very very latest
- Picture retake day is on November 14
- Remembrance Day assembly is Thursday morning
- No school Friday
We watched a few short videos today that explained the significance of poppies for Remembrance Days. The Poppy story focuses more on the creation and distribution of poppies in Scotland but it has some interesting facts that we can apply to what we do in Canada. The History of the Poppy gives more explanation about how we came to wear poppies in Canada. Here are the links to the videos if you would like to watch them...
The Poppy Story
History of the Poppy
Ms. Binks read us the story "In Flanders Fields the story of the poem by John McCrae" which explained the history of WWI and how John McCrae came to write the iconic poem. Lots of us were shocked to hear the living conditions of the soldiers on the front lines and became emotional thinking of the sacrifices they made so that we are able to enjoy the freedoms we do today. This story sparked a discussion about the seriousness of Remembrance Day and how it can be emotional for lots of us because of connections we may have. We talked about how important it is to demonstrate respect on this day as a sign of appreciation towards veterans and those soldiers who lost their lives. We were able to choose one of 2 topics to write about:
- Why we wear a poppy
- A letter to a Canadian soldier
Ms. Binks was impressed with how quiet and focused we were on this writing. We will continue to work on it throughout the week.
Reminders:
- Picture orders are due by tomorrow at the very very latest
- Picture retake day is on November 14
- Remembrance Day assembly is Thursday morning
- No school Friday
Monday, 7 November 2016
Poppy Art
This morning we continued to work on our Rangoli art for Diwali. Lots of us added in colorful details to add finishing touches. A few examples of the completed art work is below.
We had our subtraction review today. Students had to choose questions that were "just right" for them as well as a challenge question. Students needed to do at least one question that required borrowing. Ms. Binks will be marking these reviews this week. We will be completing an addition and subtraction review later in the week before moving on to multiplication.
We started new Daily 5 stations around compound words. Compound words are similar to contractions in the sense that they are formed from sticking two words together. We were given 10 new spelling words that are all compound words. We talked about how important it is to practice our words and even broken each word down into different letter sounds and chunks to help us remember. Our spelling words for the week are:
1) another
2) birthday
3) understand
4) weekend
5) afternoon
6) anybody
7) everybody
8) everyday
9) inside
10) without
Ms. Binks made a bet with us that someone will forget an e or put an extra e in the word everybody. If everybody spells everybody correctly then we earn marbles as a class. If one person spells it incorrectly then we do not get any marbles.
This afternoon we started 2 art projects around Remembrance Day. First, we created paper poppies that we will be displaying on our class wreath. We cut out hearts and glued them together to make the pedals for our poppies. We started another art project that we will display during a slideshow in the Remembrance Day Assembly. We started off by painting coffee filters using different shades of red. We added purple, orange and blue to change the shades. Next we created a background by using black paint on white paper. We used large paint strokes and let the color run out so the white could show through. Since we had to let our paint dry, we will continue this project tomorrow.
Thank you to those students who brought in items for the Food Bank. As of today our class has brought in 74 items!! We will continue to accept items until November 15 and whichever grade 4 class has the most will be the winner of our Pillars of Care contest.
Reminders:
- Library tomorrow please bring back your books
- Picture orders are due tomorrow
- Please bring in items for the Veterans Food Bank
- Remembrance Day Assembly is Thursday at 10:20
- No school on Friday
We had our subtraction review today. Students had to choose questions that were "just right" for them as well as a challenge question. Students needed to do at least one question that required borrowing. Ms. Binks will be marking these reviews this week. We will be completing an addition and subtraction review later in the week before moving on to multiplication.
We started new Daily 5 stations around compound words. Compound words are similar to contractions in the sense that they are formed from sticking two words together. We were given 10 new spelling words that are all compound words. We talked about how important it is to practice our words and even broken each word down into different letter sounds and chunks to help us remember. Our spelling words for the week are:
1) another
2) birthday
3) understand
4) weekend
5) afternoon
6) anybody
7) everybody
8) everyday
9) inside
10) without
Ms. Binks made a bet with us that someone will forget an e or put an extra e in the word everybody. If everybody spells everybody correctly then we earn marbles as a class. If one person spells it incorrectly then we do not get any marbles.
This afternoon we started 2 art projects around Remembrance Day. First, we created paper poppies that we will be displaying on our class wreath. We cut out hearts and glued them together to make the pedals for our poppies. We started another art project that we will display during a slideshow in the Remembrance Day Assembly. We started off by painting coffee filters using different shades of red. We added purple, orange and blue to change the shades. Next we created a background by using black paint on white paper. We used large paint strokes and let the color run out so the white could show through. Since we had to let our paint dry, we will continue this project tomorrow.
Thank you to those students who brought in items for the Food Bank. As of today our class has brought in 74 items!! We will continue to accept items until November 15 and whichever grade 4 class has the most will be the winner of our Pillars of Care contest.
Reminders:
- Library tomorrow please bring back your books
- Picture orders are due tomorrow
- Please bring in items for the Veterans Food Bank
- Remembrance Day Assembly is Thursday at 10:20
- No school on Friday
Friday, 4 November 2016
It's Friday!
This morning we had our spelling test on contractions. Lots of us did an excellent job but a few of us need to continue practicing the proper position of an apostrophe in contractions. Here is a fun game you can play to continue your work around contractions...
Contraction Action
In math we worked on story problems. Ms. Binks created story problems and we had to identify the key words that tell us to use subtraction and then solve the problem. We will be having our subtraction review on Monday. There is a separate blog post with practice questions and websites we can use over the weekend to get ready.
We continued to work on our Rangoli art today for Diwali. We watched another short video about Diwali and learned that:
- Diwali lasts for 5 days
- There are many rituals that people perform
- It is about celebrating the good and spending time with friends and family
- Fireworks are set off because they are a symbol of light defeating dark
Next week we will be doing activities around Remembrance Day. The grade 4s will be presenting artwork and a poem during our Remembrance Day assembly on Thursday November 10.
Reminders:
- Please bring in donations for the Veterans Food Bank. We have 14/50 items
- Picture orders are due next week
- Remembrance Day assembly on Thursday
- No school on Friday
Contraction Action
In math we worked on story problems. Ms. Binks created story problems and we had to identify the key words that tell us to use subtraction and then solve the problem. We will be having our subtraction review on Monday. There is a separate blog post with practice questions and websites we can use over the weekend to get ready.
We continued to work on our Rangoli art today for Diwali. We watched another short video about Diwali and learned that:
- Diwali lasts for 5 days
- There are many rituals that people perform
- It is about celebrating the good and spending time with friends and family
- Fireworks are set off because they are a symbol of light defeating dark
Next week we will be doing activities around Remembrance Day. The grade 4s will be presenting artwork and a poem during our Remembrance Day assembly on Thursday November 10.
Reminders:
- Please bring in donations for the Veterans Food Bank. We have 14/50 items
- Picture orders are due next week
- Remembrance Day assembly on Thursday
- No school on Friday
Subtraction Practice
Here are some questions you can try over the weekend to prepare for our subtraction review on Monday.....
1) Dakota walked 9763 steps in a day. Lexy walked 3452 steps in a day. How many more steps did Dakota walk?
1) Dakota walked 9763 steps in a day. Lexy walked 3452 steps in a day. How many more steps did Dakota walk?
2) Madison won 8000 dollars!! (Yipee!!) She decided to give Abby
4573 dollars. How much money does Madison have left?
3) Emmalyn bought 5234 books from Scholastic. Rowan borrowed 4956
books. How many books does Emmalyn have?
4) Brooklyn sharpened 3464
pencils. Rihanna sharpened 2999 pencils. What is the difference between the
pencils they sharpened?
5)
Sawyer read 7000 books. Finn read 3897 books. How many more books did Sawyer
read?
6) 8964 - 8842 = ?
7) 9999 - 865 = ?
8) 4000 - 2359 = ?
9) 13966 - 11854 = ?
10) 5221 - 4663 = ?
11) 520 - 390 = ?
12) 630 - 430 =?
13) 8020 - 7509 = ?
14) 14232 - 11876 = ?
15) 100000 - 9999 = ?
Here are some websites you could visit to practice:
- ABC YA
- IXL
-Subtraction with Base Ten Blocks
Here are some websites you could visit to practice:
- ABC YA
- IXL
-Subtraction with Base Ten Blocks
Thursday, 3 November 2016
Spelling Test Tomorrow
We continued to work on subtraction with borrowing today. Instead of using the traditional algorithm, we used base ten block pictures and a place value chart to help us. To start, we drew out the bigger number in base ten blocks, in the proper sections of a place value chart. Then, starting with the ones, we figured out how many we needed to take away. If there were not enough ones in the place value chart, we had to borrow. We pretended that the lines of the place value chart were guarded forcefields and if numbers were too big to cross, they had to break apart to fit into their new section. For example, if I was borrowing from the tens, the ten rod could not cross the forcefield until it broke apart into ten ones. Once I break it apart, I will have enough blocks to take a number away. Once we solved the ones section of the chart, we moved on to tens then hundreds then thousands. Once we were finished moving base ten blocks, we counted how many were left in each section of the chart and that was our answer.
Here is a great website where students can practice this method and show you how to use it:
Subtraction with Base Ten Blocks (it may take a few seconds to load)
On the website, you can solve problems that have already been made or create your own.
We also began to talk about subtraction story problems and key words that would let us know we need to subtract. Some of the words we came up with were:
- take away
- how many more
- decrease
- fewer
- minus
- less
We will continue to work on story problems tomorrow.
We had talked about having a subtraction review tomorrow but Ms. Binks has decided to move it to Monday to give us more time to practice. She will be sending review sheets home with those students who are interested.
In social studies we started to learn about the 4 diverse countries we will be studying this year: India, Peru, Ukraine and Tunisia. Yesterday we used atlases to try and find each country the following information about it:
- what continent it is on
- what other countries share its borders
- if it borders a body of water
This is what we found out:
- India is on the continent of Asia. It shares its borders with Pakistan, China, Nepal and Bangladesh. It borders on the Indian Ocean.
- Ukraine is on the continent of Europe. It shares its borders with Poland, Russia, Romania, Belarus, Slovakia and Moldova. It borders on the Black Sea.
- Peru is on the continent of South America. It shares its borders with Ecuador, Brazil, Columbia, Bolivia and Chile. It borders on the Pacific Ocean.
- Tunisia is on the continent of Africa. It shares its borders with Algeria and Libya. It borders on the Mediterranean Sea.
Today we learned about a holiday celebrated in India called Diwali. Diwali is special because it celebrates the forces of light winning out against the forces of darkness. During Diwali families go to temple, take sweets to friends and neighbors, buy new clothing and set off fireworks. We learned that during Diwali, beautiful colorful art is placed on the ground in front of doorways to help welcome in the goddess of light. This art is usually made with colored sand or flowers and is called Rangoli. We started to create our own Rangoli art pieces. We will continue to work on them tomorrow.
We have our spelling test tomorrow. Please make sure that you practice your spelling words and know what two words make up the contraction and the proper place of the apostrophe.
Today we talked about collecting donations for the Veterans Food Bank. We have friendly competition going on with the other grade 4 classes to see who can bring in the most food donations. We are looking for nonperishable food items and are aiming for at least 50 items from our class. You can begin bringing in donations tomorrow until November 15. We would appreciate anything that you could donate! Students have been asked to check with their parents before taking any food items.
Reminders:
- Spelling test tomorrow
- Subtraction review Monday
- Picture order money can be brought in
- Picture retake day is November 14
- Remembrance Day assembly is November 10
Here is a great website where students can practice this method and show you how to use it:
Subtraction with Base Ten Blocks (it may take a few seconds to load)
On the website, you can solve problems that have already been made or create your own.
We also began to talk about subtraction story problems and key words that would let us know we need to subtract. Some of the words we came up with were:
- take away
- how many more
- decrease
- fewer
- minus
- less
We will continue to work on story problems tomorrow.
We had talked about having a subtraction review tomorrow but Ms. Binks has decided to move it to Monday to give us more time to practice. She will be sending review sheets home with those students who are interested.
In social studies we started to learn about the 4 diverse countries we will be studying this year: India, Peru, Ukraine and Tunisia. Yesterday we used atlases to try and find each country the following information about it:
- what continent it is on
- what other countries share its borders
- if it borders a body of water
This is what we found out:
- India is on the continent of Asia. It shares its borders with Pakistan, China, Nepal and Bangladesh. It borders on the Indian Ocean.
- Ukraine is on the continent of Europe. It shares its borders with Poland, Russia, Romania, Belarus, Slovakia and Moldova. It borders on the Black Sea.
- Peru is on the continent of South America. It shares its borders with Ecuador, Brazil, Columbia, Bolivia and Chile. It borders on the Pacific Ocean.
- Tunisia is on the continent of Africa. It shares its borders with Algeria and Libya. It borders on the Mediterranean Sea.
Today we learned about a holiday celebrated in India called Diwali. Diwali is special because it celebrates the forces of light winning out against the forces of darkness. During Diwali families go to temple, take sweets to friends and neighbors, buy new clothing and set off fireworks. We learned that during Diwali, beautiful colorful art is placed on the ground in front of doorways to help welcome in the goddess of light. This art is usually made with colored sand or flowers and is called Rangoli. We started to create our own Rangoli art pieces. We will continue to work on them tomorrow.
We have our spelling test tomorrow. Please make sure that you practice your spelling words and know what two words make up the contraction and the proper place of the apostrophe.
Today we talked about collecting donations for the Veterans Food Bank. We have friendly competition going on with the other grade 4 classes to see who can bring in the most food donations. We are looking for nonperishable food items and are aiming for at least 50 items from our class. You can begin bringing in donations tomorrow until November 15. We would appreciate anything that you could donate! Students have been asked to check with their parents before taking any food items.
Reminders:
- Spelling test tomorrow
- Subtraction review Monday
- Picture order money can be brought in
- Picture retake day is November 14
- Remembrance Day assembly is November 10
Tuesday, 1 November 2016
New Spelling Words
We have 10 brand new spelling words (hooray!!) that are all contractions. Contractions are two words made shorter by putting an apostrophe in the place of letters that have been taken away. For example for the words she is the contraction would be she's
Here are the spelling words for the week:
1) could've
2) you're
3) don't
4) can't
5) it's
6) they're
7) we're
8) haven't
9) you'll
10) isn't
When you practice your words make sure that you:
- Know what two words are being put together
- Know where the apostrophe goes
- Know what letters have been taken out
- How to use the word in a sentence
We will have a spelling test on these words this Friday!
We continued to review subtraction with borrowing and carrying. This is a concept most students are having difficulty with so we will continue our work around it for the next few days. We will most likely have a subtraction review on Friday. It would be an excellent idea to practice some borrowing and carrying questions at home.
This afternoon we started talking about the communities that we belong to. We pretended that we were in a spaceship that started out hovering over Beddington Heights and then identified our communities as we got higher and higher into space. This is what we found:
We belong to the....
- Community of Beddington Heights
- City of Calgary
- Province of Alberta
- Country of Canada
- Continent of North America
We were put into groups and asked to identify the 7 continents and 5 oceans that make up the world. We were introduced to a new type of book called an Atlas. Atlases show maps, weather, land, animals and all different interesting facts. We will continue to use Atlases throughout social studies.
Ms. Binks was interested to hear how many bags and bags (and bags) of candy some of us got trick or treating last night. After seeing the amount of candy being brought in for snack and lunch (and then the vibrating children afterwards) she has asked that we limit bringing 2 pieces of candy to school for snack or lunch. We talked about this as a class so everyone should know the 2 piece of candy rule. She is hoping that candy can be replaced with other snacks that will be more filling and provide energy for longer.
Reminders:
- Spelling test on Friday
- Please bring in an artifact that shows your family history or traditions
- 2 piece of candy rule starts tomorrow!
Monday, 31 October 2016
Happy Halloween!
This morning we did some spooky Halloween math involving number clues and place value. Most of us found this an easy peasy review! One thing that we had troubles with was an activity based around rounding numbers to the nearest 10s or 100s. We worked through these steps:
For rounding to the nearest 10:
a) Figure out which tens the number appears between. For example 84 comes between 80 and 90. Using a hundreds chart really helps with this!
b) Look at the digit in the ones place. If it is 1-4 you round down. If it is 5-9 you round up. So for 84 we would round down to 80.
Even if I have a number in the hundreds, thousands, ten thousands etc I should only focus on the digits in the tens and ones place. For example if I have 5434 I would start my steps focusing on the 34. 34 comes between 30 and 40. Since there is a 4 in the ones place I round down to 30. Once I'm done these steps I can add back in my thousands and hundreds digits to realize that rounding 5434 to the nearest ten would be 5430.
For rounding to the nearest 100:
a) Figure out what hundreds the number appears between. For example, 745 comes between 700 and 800.
b) Look at the digits in the tens and the ones place. If it is 1-49 you round down and if it is 50-99 you round up. For 745 I would look at the 45 and round down to 700.
Again if I have a number in the thousands I would focus first on hundreds place. For example with 3886 I would focus on the 886. 886 comes between 800 and 900. Then I can focus on the numbers in the tens and ones place. For 86 I would round up to 900. So to round 3886 to the nearest hundred I would do 3900.
Try practicing these questions and bring your answer in tomorrow!!
1) Round to the nearest 10:
- 56
- 732
- 1749
2) Round to the nearest 100:
- 78
- 622
- 7877
We began to work on writing scary stories. We first had to plan our setting, characters, obstacle our hero would face, attempts made to solve the problem and the beginning, middle and end. Once we completed our plans we began to write. In case we were stuck with ideas, there were story cubes that were made for each section of our plan. We could roll the cube and get an idea to keep the writing process going. We will continue to work on our stories tomorrow.
To wrap up our discussion around Halloween and Day of the dead, we began watching the movie the Book of Life this afternoon. It was interesting to see the different interpretations of the day of the dead and we compared it to what we learned in the Halloween Tree as well as how we celebrate Halloween.
Reminders:
- We have library tomorrow! Please bring back your books
- Numerous items were sent home today including math and spelling tests. Please review with your child. Questions from the test would be great review especially if your child did not complete or pass the assignment.
For rounding to the nearest 10:
a) Figure out which tens the number appears between. For example 84 comes between 80 and 90. Using a hundreds chart really helps with this!
b) Look at the digit in the ones place. If it is 1-4 you round down. If it is 5-9 you round up. So for 84 we would round down to 80.
Even if I have a number in the hundreds, thousands, ten thousands etc I should only focus on the digits in the tens and ones place. For example if I have 5434 I would start my steps focusing on the 34. 34 comes between 30 and 40. Since there is a 4 in the ones place I round down to 30. Once I'm done these steps I can add back in my thousands and hundreds digits to realize that rounding 5434 to the nearest ten would be 5430.
For rounding to the nearest 100:
a) Figure out what hundreds the number appears between. For example, 745 comes between 700 and 800.
b) Look at the digits in the tens and the ones place. If it is 1-49 you round down and if it is 50-99 you round up. For 745 I would look at the 45 and round down to 700.
Again if I have a number in the thousands I would focus first on hundreds place. For example with 3886 I would focus on the 886. 886 comes between 800 and 900. Then I can focus on the numbers in the tens and ones place. For 86 I would round up to 900. So to round 3886 to the nearest hundred I would do 3900.
Try practicing these questions and bring your answer in tomorrow!!
1) Round to the nearest 10:
- 56
- 732
- 1749
2) Round to the nearest 100:
- 78
- 622
- 7877
We began to work on writing scary stories. We first had to plan our setting, characters, obstacle our hero would face, attempts made to solve the problem and the beginning, middle and end. Once we completed our plans we began to write. In case we were stuck with ideas, there were story cubes that were made for each section of our plan. We could roll the cube and get an idea to keep the writing process going. We will continue to work on our stories tomorrow.
To wrap up our discussion around Halloween and Day of the dead, we began watching the movie the Book of Life this afternoon. It was interesting to see the different interpretations of the day of the dead and we compared it to what we learned in the Halloween Tree as well as how we celebrate Halloween.
Reminders:
- We have library tomorrow! Please bring back your books
- Numerous items were sent home today including math and spelling tests. Please review with your child. Questions from the test would be great review especially if your child did not complete or pass the assignment.
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