If you were unable to come, let me know and perhaps after spring break we can arrange a visit day!
Just a reminder, we do have our Cake Walk coming up this Thursday. It is hoped that every student in Grade 4 donates a baked cake (homemade or store bought) to our fundraiser, as all proceeds are going towards our year end Camp Warwa Adventure! Please bring your cakes, first thing in the morning on March 23rd. Parent Volunteers will be collecting them and setting them up in the Meeting Place (Music room). The first Cake Walk will take place at Lunch recess, and the second at the Dance!
Those of you who have offered to volunteer your time to the cake walk, I will be emailing you with information this weekend!
It has been a busy week in our class(isn't is always?!).
In Science, we have set up a few experiments to observe biodegradable products and how they decompose. We first took a look at these two terms, and created a class meaning for them.
Next, we wanted to put it to test! What would happen to a lettuce leaf when covered up and left in dirt for a week? STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT! Students made their predictions and put them into a powerpoint slide. You can check it out here!This will show use the effects of decomposition using dirt and some squirmy decomposers.
We also had to ponder to ourselves, do all biodegradable materials decompose the same? This time, we're looking at a manufactured product - Toilet Paper! Comparing three different samples, we are trying to determine all are products made the same? Do they decompose the same? Does this affect their quality? How does this effect our environment?
We tested Cottonelle, Purex and School brand toilet paper. Placing them in warm water and then shaking them up to break up the toilet paper. In a week, we will check in and see who holds together the best!
In Social this week we have begun to take a look at our First Nations people and their connections to the land. As an opening activity, I gave each student a greeting from one of the 6 cultural groups of Alberta's past. Using ONLY their greeting they had to figure out how to get together in groups and then using our text, figure out which group they are! Ask your child how to greet someone in their groups language!
Check out our video on Class Dojo!
In Language Arts this week, we are still working with a focus on Poetry. This week we discussed how poets work to create imagery for their readers. This can be done through various techniques, including Figurative Language. The form of Figurative language we worked with this week was Alliteration.
Alliteration is when 2 or more words near each other have the same beginning sound. Here are some helpful tips from a blogger I found useful while talking with the students.
#1- Two words is enough to make a phrase alliterative.
Yes, Leah licked a luscious lemon lollipop is alliterative. But A caravan of camels was seen in the distance is also alliterative.
#2- The words have to be near each other.
Steph drove to Walmart to buy a new stereo is not alliterative. There are too many words between Steph and stereo to make that sentence alliterative.#3- The beginning sounds are the same, not the beginning letters.
The photograph was fuzzy is alliterative, but They found a green gem is not alliterative.
With this knowledge, we began to work on Animal Alphabet Alliteration poems! This was so much fun for the kiddos! And it had them working with their grammar knowledge or adjectives, nouns and verbs.
We did some brainstorming as a class, and then the students had about 20 minutes to come up with as many animal alliteration on their own as they could! These are fun activities your children can do at home too!
With Grammar this week, we focused on how verbs can change tense and are used in special circumstances. In small groups, students were given a bunch of words and without direction were asked to try and figure out how to sort those words. It was really incredible to see how their minds work together and all the different possibilities! Some students sorted words based on their spelling, meaning, etc. Most groups had caught the clue - They were all words that used present (happening right now), past (already happened) and future (going to happen) tense. 
Once they had this information, all students sorted their words into the three categories and worked on writing 5 star sentences (sentences that use who, what, where, when and why?).
Of course for St. Patrick's day we had to work on some Limerick writing! This ties in well with our poetry study and has students working with their syllable knowledge and rhyming skills.
In Math, we have been finishing up our multiplication strategies and had a quiz on Friday. Most students have a good understanding of regrouping when multiplying 2 digit by 1 digit, and 3 digit by 1 digit problems. A majority of our students still need lots of practice with their basic mutliplication facts to become super strong math problem solvers!
Next week we will be moving onto Rounding and Estimating Numbers.
We ended our week with our Pre-Spring Break House Cup! This break's cup winners were...SLYTHERIN!
The way house teams gather points is by participating in class discussion and answering skill testing questions! Congratulations Slytherin on your teamwork and sharp listening skills!We spent the afternoon creating our own golden snitches, enjoying polyjuice potion, cauldron cakes (thanks again Mrs. D!!) and popcorn twists (thanks Mrs. L!) while watching the second Harry Potter movie.
We had our party a week early, as we have some classmates leaving for break early and wanted to make sure they were included!
- I am away at a conference on Monday and Tuesday next week.
- Cake Walk and Family Dance on Thursday! All tickets available online through PowerSchool.
- No School Friday! Happy Spring Break!
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