This week definitely went by quick!

On Wednesday we unveiled our Pink Shirt Day Video! If you haven't seen it already, you can watch it by clicking here!

In Language Arts we have been working with the different types of verbs, Action, Linking and Helping. 

Action verbs do the action in the sentence. 

Joe plays the guitar like no one else. 

Linking verbs link the subject to a noun or adjective in a sentence. 

Bella and Jake are talented guitar players. 

Helping verbs help the main verb in the sentence.

Micah will play my favourite song.  

Students then completed an activity relating this concept to the parts of a Rock Band and completed a little craftivity to go along with it. 

In Social we have started a small project on Natural Resources and Alberta's Industries. We have focused on three industries in Alberta; Oil & Gas, Forestry and Agriculture. Through our chapter readings and discussions we have talked about where these industries are most in Alberta, how they make our province unique and how the affect our population. We took some time to discuss the pros and cons of each industry to our people and environment. With this knowledge, each student is creating their own poster, in support, of one of the three industries. The posters will contain 7 facts about their industry. They are getting really creative with their design!

Next week students will present their posters to each other in small groups.

We have been working on strategies of multiplying larger numbers in Math. We discussed using advanced arrays, multiples of 10 and how to break larger numbers down. 

Here is a sample of how we would work through a problem using the strategy of breaking it into smaller, simpler math problems. 

Next week we will be working on the standard algorithm of multiplication.

A Few Reminders: 
- Next Tuesday is our Waste Management field trip (please sign those forms!)
- There is no school on Friday March 3rd.
- Monday March 6th is our next day at Rabbit Hill.

Skiing, Snowboarding and Skating!

It has been a very active week for us! This blog will be an update for the past two weeks!

Last Wednesday, our student braved some cold weather as we walked over to visit Riverview Middle School! Luckily we quickly warmed up by a delicious pancake breakfast. Afterwards, student moved around the school with Leadership students on a guided tour. It was pretty amazing to see how excited a lot of our kiddos are about their next step!

Monday was an absolute perfect day for Skiing and Snowboarding! The students had an absolute blast at Rabbit Hill, and I bet there were a lot of sleepy faces after school. They all gave their best out there, and even some first timers really rocked it!

In Language Arts, students have been working on spelling, grammar and reading strategies through Daily 5. Students spent some time practicing their Spellathon words in preparation for this weeks test! During word work students were able to use various materials to practice their Spellathon words, such as, stamps, rainbow writing, letter tiles and whiteboards. Students also took this time to catch up on any spelling they had missed over the previous weeks.

We are continuing to read aloud Seven Dead Pirates and participate in class discussions based on the text.

This was our last week for skating! I think every student really improved from Day 1 to Day 8! Way to go boys and girls!!


In Math this week, we have been working on our multiplication basic facts by practicing different strategies to solve them and playing math games. The students learned how to play Salute this week, which is a 3 person game and only requires a deck of cards. If you have a deck of cards at home, use the cards 1 - 8 and give it a try!

In Science, we are digging deeper in the meaning of pre and post consumer waste. We have started to think about products, their raw materials, and the different processes it takes to manufacture them.

The question we have in our minds is - How much waste do we produce? How can we minimize our waste?

In Art, the students created some Pop Art Hearts! This project is inspired by the artist, Burton Morris, and students used bright coloured paper to create the "Pop Art" look, and then trimmed out highlights using white paper. Not everyone is finished, but they are looking great!! 

        

 

Reminders: 

- Please fill out Waste Management trip forms, we go on February 28th. 

- Spellathon Tests went home today! Please return your pledge money!

- Family Day is Monday! No school - get connected with family and not devices! Try our challenge -  spend time without an electronic device this Family Day. 

- Pink Shirt Day is next Wednesday! This is our stand against bullying!

Winter Walk Day!

Hey everyone! It was a bit of a shift in the week with our Tuesday PD Day, but we still managed to get lots done!

The past two Fridays our class has taken time to visit our grade peers and work on some coding! On Fridays, we have our own tech block, where students have been exploring hour of code activities - this is where they use block coding to work through creating, playing and developing games on the computer.
Last Friday, we visited 4B and worked on building Flappy Bird levels! Students worked through 10 lessons on how to add graphic changes, characters and points systems to create their own custom levels. Below is a video of a student who created his own level and gets to test it out!

In Language Arts this week we started a new novel as a class, Seven Dead Pirates. This is a read aloud book, and after reading we are completing reading response activities about the book. First, we created movie posters to introduce the main characters, setting, discuss possible plot predictions and to write down any questions we may have. 

Our second activity was to choose a section from the book to draw and describe. This is where we really tap into our visualization and describe why we think this scene was important to the plot of the story thus far. 

In spelling, our focus was on long a patterns (ay, ai, eigh). We played a few quick review games on the different sounds vowels make (long vs. short). In grammar, we are focusing on verbs! To demonstrate this, we started our lesson with a game of charades! Verbs are most often action words that are found in the predicate of the sentence. They often describe what the subject is doing. 

In Math this week we are started in on Multiplication and demonstrating this process by drawing arrays and repeated addition. For arrays, we discussed that rows are horizontal (imagine rowing a boat and how your arms move) and columns are vertical (like the columns that hold up a building). When we look at a multiplication sentence, our rows are represented by the first number, number of columns is represented by the second. Using two coloured die, students worked in pairs to create multiplication problems, draw their corresponding arrays, and write out the fact family.

In Science, we have discussed the different ways we can sort human waste. Humans create waste by using products that are manufactured. We came up with definitions for Manufacture and Consume, using class discussions to talk about what types of products are manufactured, how we consume them and what do we do with the waste? 

Then we brainstormed products that are disposable (one time use), Durable (intended to last forever), Non-Durable (intended to last more than once/twice but not forever). 

Next week, we will take a look at how products are packaged and how it benefits the consumer vs. the environment.


Wednesday we had our Winter Walk! (Thank goodness it was Wednesday and not Thursday)
We bundled up nice and warm and enjoyed the winter outdoors. The sun actually came out of hiding and seemed to shine on us!

Reminders: 
- Next week is Teacher's Convention - There is no school Thursday or Friday. 

Lots of Permission forms on Powerschool!!!! Please fill these out ASAP
- Pancake Breakfast and Walk to Riverview Middle School will be next Wednesday morning.

- Rabbit Hill is on Monday February 13th, and Skating will also be the Tues, Wed, Thurs that week.

- Waste Management Field Trip is on Feb 28th! This is a half day field trip where students learn about how waste is processed in our local communities.