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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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!