Jan 21-24

A Few Reminders: 

• January 28 - Grade 4's go to Rabbit Hill! Please fill out the permission forms online. 
• January 28 - Raptor Spiritwear store is open online!
• Girls Floor Hockey has started. Practices are Mondays and Wesnesdays after school (3:15pm - 4:15pm). 
• January 31 - REPORT CARDS ARE ON POWERSCHOOL. We will not be sending home printed versions, please check online to view your child's progress. Don't forget to check assignment comments, there is a lot of information there. 
• January 31 - Outdoor Ed Meeting after school (members only)
• Feb 1 - No School PD Day 
• Feb 7 & 8 - No School Teacher's Convention
• Feb 11 - 13 - Skating Week )9:45 - 10:15 every morning.).
• Feb 14 - RMS Pancake Breakfast 
• Feb 18 - Family Day No School 
• Feb 22 - Wellness Day (pm)
• Feb 27 - Pink Shirt Day 

ELA

Our grammar focus this week was on the difference between common and proper nouns. We discuss this often in our daily writing, and took time this week to determine the difference in hopes that students continue to apply this knowledge into their writing. 

My favourite way to get our brains moving is to have the students discover their own learning. I gave them 24 different cards with words on them and let them come up with their own sorting rules. This was my first year where every group sorted them into noun groups - person, place and thing! Some things must be sticking!!!

Next, I asked them to look at the words and sort them into two groups based on how they look. The secret here is that some of the words were capitalized, proper nouns (Alberta, Mrs. Green, Lion King). Others we common nouns (province, teacher, movie). This time, only one group noticed this! Once I told students the rule, they went about matching the proper noun to the common noun. 

A Proper noun names a specific person, place or thing. Every word in the name or title is capitalized. 

A common noun is the general name for a person, place or thing. 

During Read to Self, students were given a Google Doc to record any proper nouns they could find, and then determine what common noun group they may belong to. 

During our WeSearch Wednesday students are using the skills we have worked on over the year to research a topic of their choice - sort of! The one tiny catch is that I had them choose any topic from a site of my choice, PowerKnowledge Earth & Space Science. They spent some time collecting notes, and then verbally sharing what they learned with their peers. It is pretty awesome to hear them having conversaion about the Energy Crisis, Ocean Biomes and Saturn's rings! (Did you know every 15 years Saturn's rings are actually barely visible due to lack of reflection of the Sun?! I didnt!)

Another week, another Book Club started! This week our group started Bookstore Burgular. As a group we will read through the book, engaging in discussion, making predictions and in the end writing a review. 

MATH 

This was our week to wrap up subtraction! This continues to be a tough skill for most students. The process involved in regrouping and borrowing multiple times can be confusing to some. Students are encouraged to work through the problem, one place value at a time. 

We had our quiz on Wednesday, and on Thursday I met with students in small groups to go over their work. For the most part, I see a very big difference between everyday work and quiz work. Student skill levels do not always match and I take this into account when marking these. When we work through quizzes in small groups we engage in discussion about the questions, walk through the steps and processes to each question and how to solve the problem. 

You will not see an assignment in PowerSchool for the Quiz - Their mark will be reflected in Subtraction 3 -4 digits. 

SCIENCE

Last week we had our demonstration on how the fulcrum effects the effort needed to lift an object. As a class we discussed the difference in the demonstrations and created visuals for our notes. 

We also discussed Inclined Planes and where we can find them in our world. Students are continuing to take visual notes while they work and are doing an amazing job! 

And of course we needed a real life demo of how the length of an inclined plane changes the effort needed!

Moving a load without a simple machine. 

Now with a steep and short inclined plane. 

And the best of all, longer plane!

Mr. Coffin is always around just in time to show his strength!

He pushed the load with just one tiny finger!

In this experiment, we learned that the longer the inclined plane = the less effort needed. 

Jan 14-18

A Few Reminders: 

• Order your Pink Shirts on Powerschool this weekend! Pink Shirt day is Feb. 27.
• January 21 - 24 - Skating week! Check Calendar for times. Parents are welcome to join. Please email Ms. Potter if you would like to join us! Permission forms are online. 
• January 21 - Girls Floor Hockey tryouts begin (times TBA)
• January 28 - Grade 4's go to Rabbit Hill! Please fill out the permission forms online. 
• January 28 - Raptor Spiritwear store is open online!

ELA

Every week, we continue to work on different writing formats through KidBlog. A big focus for us this year is to pre-plan our writing in order to create stronger written pieces. 

Earlier in the year, we worked to created a web in our planning - working with who, what, where, when and how they felt about their weekend. In place of our weekend update, over the next few Mondays, we will be working on writing personal narratives of a favourite memory. Students will be experimenting with taking the main event and describing the beginning, middle and end. They will also be introduced to different ways to start a narrative to gain the reader's interest, and how to stretch sentences within their narratives to give more details. 

As we plan, we are taking out "what" and planning the main topics in the beginning, middle and end. 

Stay tuned to see the final piece!

We have also begun to work with Simple and Compound sentences. A compound sentence is when two simple statements are connects by a conjunction. We cannot create compound sentences without our FANBOYS! For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet and So! These are the more common conjunctions we use, and will practice, when making compound sentences. 

We have been doing some sentence play in the classroom, creating simple and compound sentences and then identifying different parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronouns, etc) and the subject and predicate (to determine if it is a complete sentence or not). 

Book Club! 

Another Book Club started this week and we're reading Chocolate Fever by Robert Kimmel Smith. 

This week, both clubs worked on describing the main character and setting from their novels. 

Using evidence from the text, they described the character's traits and setting. 

MATH 

We are still plucking away at subtraction! This week we focused in on subtracting across zeros. This is where students have to borrow multiple times, and is often where mistakes are made. We did some practice as a group and I did a quick assessment as well.

We are moving forwards to subtraction of 3 and 4 digit numbers, with regrouping. 

I have also begun to do small focus groups and work through addition and subtraction word problems. 

SCIENCE 

SIMPLE MACHINES! Wheels, Axles, and Levers, OH MY! These simple machines have been our focus this week. As we work through our informational unit, students are working on taking visual notes while they learn! We do have some guidelines while doing this: you can uses words and pictures, only 3 - 4 colours, and you need to have some organized format. I think they're really doing an amazing job with this! 

We also did a demonstration with levers! We wanted to test how the position of the fulcrum affects the amount of effort needed when lifting a load. 

First we placed the fulcrum in the very middle of a first class lever. This was pretty tough to lift! 

Next we tried moving the fulcrum closer to the effort. This was almost impossible! 

Last, we tried moving the fulcrum closer to the load, and VOILA! Willow was able to lift me with just ONE FOOT!

Mr. Coffin even joins in on the fun!

In conclusion, the closer the fulcrum is to the load, the easier it will be to lift! 

SOCIAL 

Our region of study this week was the Rocky Mountains!This is such a beautiful and unique region in Alberta and the students enjoyed researching all about it. 

We're Back! Jan 7-11

A Few Reminders:

• January 11 - Ms. Potter Away all day. 
• January 18 - Elder Florence Visit during Assembly
• January 21 - 24 - Skating week! Check Calendar for times. Parents are welcome to join! Please email Ms. Potter if you would like to join us! Permission forms are online. 
• January 21 - Girls Floor Hockey tryouts begin (times TBA)
• January 28 - Grade 4's go to Rabbit Hill! Please fill out the permission forms online. 
• January 28 - Raptor Spiritwear store is open online!

I hope everyone had a lovely break! Our week started off we a new house sorting! Students were sorted into new houses for the next semester.

Once in house they had some time for House Huddles. This is going to be a time for the students to gather in their house and have about 10-15 minutes of topic guided peer conversation. This week they discussed their breaks! It was great to see them interacting with each other and going outside their immediate friend circles to share.  

After their sharing time, they worked on their KidBlog posts sharing about their break in writing. 

We also had  special visitor this week - Ms. Betty and her new pup MOLLY! 

ELA

Reading 

This month, I will be working with students in small group book clubs. During this time, students will work on practicing reading strategies, reading aloud to their peers, analysis of characters, theme and setting. The first group I am working with is reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. 

At the end of the month the students will work on summary projects on their books. 

Writing 

First thing we did this week was talk about resolutions! As it is that time of year. However, this year I wanted students to take what we have learned throughout of Waste and our World unit and write a special type of resolution - Earth Conscious ones! 

As inspiration I showed the students this video about packaging in Australia to light the fire on how we can work to reduce the amount of waste created by people. 

As a class, we discussed the different ways we can realistically work towards being more earth conscious through recycling, reducing, and reusing items! 

They came up with some wonderful and creative ways to help our Earth in 2019!

Math 

We have started our unit on subtraction! Throughout the week, we have been working on retraining our brains to subtract numbers instead of add! This can be a tougher transition than you think! 

Students have been working on estimating differences - this is really tough for them! They all want to do the exact math, which is wonderful, but they cannot make the tie between rounding & estimating. When estimating you round a number and then subtract to find a estimated difference. 

They have also begun to work with subtraction problems that require regrouping. We are taking time and doing lots of practice! 

Science 

We're onto a new unit! Wheels & Levers! We had a great introduction to this unit and got to do hands on tasks when the Bennett Center came in November. 

This will be a quick information and demo based unit. We will work through new information, and then observe demonstrations of Simple Machines. 

This week we looked at ROLLERS! This simple machine, like most machines, helps us put in LESS effort on tasks. We demonstrated this by moving students across the room using rollers! Watch the videos below to see our attempts today!

Science Trial Videos

TRIAL 1 - No Rollers 

We observed and B's effort to move W on a scale of 1 - 5, and then B shared what she felt. The average was a 4 on this trial. 

TRIAL 2- With Rollers

Everyone was in shock and awe as W glided easily across the floor by just a small push from B. 

We took turns moving across the room on the rollers so everyone could feel how little effort was needed. 

Catch up from 2018 

We had a few students who finished up their product flow charts before the break! We had 3 classes to work on them before break, and one this week. There are still a few students who need to finish! 

Social 

We are continuing to work through our regions by taking notes and adding to our My Maps project. Stay tuned for the final product!