Feb 18 - 22

A Few Reminders: 

• Lice Checks this week
• Feb 26 - BOKS Family Night!
• Feb 26 - Spell-A-Thon Pledges due
• Feb 27 - Pink Shirt Day 
• Feb 28 - Spell-A-Thon Wrap up!
• Mar 5 - BOKS Starts again 
• Mar 9 - RBES Girls Floor Hockey Tournament 

ELA 

I have been checking in on different aspects of the students KidBlog posts this week. Please check PowerSchool to see these comments. 

Students have been working on opinion writing since the beginning of the year. For Talk About it Tuesday this week, students read through the book Cheetah vs .Ostrich on Epic to write an opinion paragraph based on who they believe would win. This week, we also introduced how to cite evidence from the text read. Students were to state their reason, and base it off evidence from the book read. We worked on some examples together.

This week we focused on singular and plural nouns. Through structured word inquiry, we worked out how to turn singular nouns into plural nouns by adding the suffix, -s or -es. 

Using the new Smart Learning Suite, students worked in partners to write word sums. 

We also had some fun, practicing for the Spell-A-Thon by doodle spelling! 

MATH

We continued to work through various strategies for solving multiplication problems involving basic facts up to 9x9. We also discussed some multiplication rules, and worked with multiplication and multiples of 10.

When multiplying groups of 10, we think of the basic fact problem related. For example: 

3 x 40 

If we know that 3 x 4 = 12

3 x 40 = 3 x 4 groups of 10 = 12 groups of 10 = 120

Next week, students will work through stations to practice their basic facts. 

SCIENCE

This week, students were hired on by Twisted Trio Toys, and put into employee groups to start their first task! 

Once hired, they were given their TTT Toys handbook, where it describes each task they will have to complete. It also introduces them to the standards for toys (non electronic, eco-friendly) and their clientele, parents looking for toys for children ages 4+. 

They then got into their groups and started to research and plan their designs! You might have had a sudden rush for recycled materials this week! Students are encouraged to bring materials in from home to build their devices. 

SOCIAL

Students worked in Peer Groups to mark each others projects using the rubric we co-created. Everyone did such an awesome job on their projects, I was so impressed! Marks and comments are in PowerSchool. 

You also may have heard about a new pet in our classroom! We have a giant, stuffed, rainbow Llama named Lima! The students asked if Lima was a boy or girl, and I didn't know! On Friday we had a little cake at lunch as a mini gender reveal party! The cake was half pink, half blue. I walked around until the students said stop, cut in and our slice came out PINK!

Feb 11 - 15

A Few Reminders:

• Feb 19 - Spellathon Forms due. LISTS ARE HERE! 
• Feb 21 - Spell-A-Thon test day!
• Feb 22 - Wellness Day (pm)
• Feb 25 - Grade 4's at Rabbit Hill for Day 2! 
• Feb 26 - BOKS Family Night!
• Feb 27 - Pink Shirt Day 
• Feb 28 - Spell-A-Thon Wrap up!

Hopefully we get a little bit warmer weather this week! Please make sure everyone comes dressed to school with hats, touques, mitts and snowpants! 

ELA 

We have been busy in 4B! Students are still working on making different connections to text. The three ways we can connect to text are Text to Self, Text to Text and Text to World. We created an interactive journal page, and students spent some time reading picture books, working on making these connections. 

MATH 

This week we have begun our multiplication unit! This week students were re-introduced to arrays. This is something they would have see in Grade 3 already, and can be used as a method on solving multiplication problems. 

Students worked in pairs, rolling die, creating multiplication sentences and drawing the correlating array. 

 We also discussed how skip counting on a number line, and repeated addition can be used to solve multiplication problems.

SCIENCE
We are beginning our Building Devices unit! Students will use what they learned from our Wheels & Levers unit and put it to work by building different items. Please see this letter, which was emailed to parents about donating supplies for this project.

Students will be "hired" by a Toy Company, to design different toys with specific purposes. First, we have to look at what makes a good toy! Students analyzed different toys, and came up with the pros and cons that each has. 

Next week, we will begin to get into groups and plan our devices. 

SOCIAL 

Our projects are done! Students will spend some time reviewing projects in peer groups. 

Here's is a quick peek at what they have been working on! 

Riverview Visit

I am sure you heard about it, but our breakfast visit was AWESOME! All the students were super excited to see Riverview and all it has to offer, They started with a breakfast of pancakes and bacon in the gym. A BIG THANK YOU to the RMS Staff who cooked for us! We were stuffed!  

 Afterwards Grade 7's from leadership took them on guided tours around the school. 

ART 

We are working on some beautiful art! Using chalk pastels and student created stencils, students are creating some Northern Lights Masterpieces! 

Jan 28 - Feb 6

A Few Reminders:

• Feb 11 - 13 - Skating Week )9:45 - 10:15 every morning.).
• Feb 14 - RMS Pancake Breakfast 
• Feb 18 - Family Day No School
• Feb 19 - Spellathon Forms due. LISTS ARE HERE! 
• Feb 22 - Wellness Day (pm)
• Feb 27 - Pink Shirt Day 

Our Week in Review!

ELA 

This week in language arts we were all about Making Connections to Text! This can be done in three different ways; Text to Self, Text to Text and Text to World. I find the easiest one to work through with students is Text to Self. 

I read aloud an old favourite, Alexander and the Terrible, Nog Good, Very Bad day. This is a book I think every student can relate to at some point (myself included)! Once we read, we identified the different problems Alexander experienced in his day. 

Then I asked the students to think of a part of the book that reminded them of a personal experience. This is how we make Text to Self connections. We ask questions such as:

• What does this story remind you of?
• Can you relate to the characters in the story?
• Does anything in this story remind you of your own life?

Students responded on Padlet, with an experience they related to explaining how and why. 

We will continue to work on this skill independently during read to self time. 

During KidBlog, we have begun to start Peer Review time. As a class, we created a rubric based on the descriptors.

Once students have completed their work, we "spin the wheel" to Peer Review. The student selected reads their paragraph to the class, and we work together to edit and give them a verbal mark. 

We have also started to work with word sums! This is part of our Morphology and Structured Word Inquiry work, where we work with word parts to discover the meaning for spelling. In previous months, we have gone over what different word parts are. 

Students created word part cards, made up of base words, prefixes and suffixes and started making up some word sums!

 

As we introduce different prefixes and suffixes, we discuss their meaning 

i.e. -ed added to the end of a word implies it is past tense and been done, whereas - ing implies that action is currently happening. We will continue to practice this skill, as we learn more spelling rules!

MATH

As a little brain breather, we have been working with time! Students have been working with how to tell time based on 12 and 24 hour clocks. They did great with counting minutes by 5, but really struggled when it came to counting minutes by 1! 

SCIENCE 

We finished up Wheels & Levers! This is a quick informational unit with demonstrations. Students worked to take their own visual notes. The last couple of simple machines we looked at where Wedges and Pulleys! Students worked independently to determine the different types of Pulley Systems and added to their notes. 

We did a Kahoot to check in on their unit knowledge!

SOCIAL

Students have been working extremely hard on their Regions Unit Project!! I have to say I am super impressed with their work! After weeks of research, creating an interactive map on MyMaps, they have their final product! Each student has recorded their reports via Screencastify and given virtual tours of their Alberta Maps! 

STAY TUNED FOR THE FINAL PROJECTS TO BE