May 13-16

A Few Reminders:

• May 23 - Bike day
• This year, we will be having the one day for students to bring their bikes.
• May 24 - Volunteer Appreciation in the morning
• May 24 - Wellness Day in the afternoon
• May 28 - Twin, Triplets or Quadruplets Dress Up Day!
• May 30 - Yearbook order deadline
• June 5 - Early Dismissal
• June 7 - BGRS Track Meet
• June 11 - Riverview Visit
• June 12 - Conservation Presentation

Cross Grade Buddies! We spent some time with our Grade 1 buddies planting this week! Each student spent some time at 3 different stations learning about Soil and the nutrients it supplies to plants, Compost and how worms help us and Seeds different looks and needs.

SUPER EXCITING SUPERHERO UNDERPANTS STORIES - COMING SOON!

We are continuing to work on these stories, adding details and editing our work as we go along. I am constantly impressed and stuck in a fit of laughter at these stories! Everyone is being so creative and really doing their research to tell about their locations and animals. 

During WeSearch Wednesday students are working on how to organize and record important information. We are experimenting with a new text feature in our note-taking - sub headings. This is when we use more specific headings to separate and organize the notes we take.  

This week they viewed the video below:

As you can see, our focus of research is Plants! This is tying into our science curriculum, as we learn about plants and watch a few grow in our class. To get us started, I gave students 6 key ideas I want them to focus on while researching: 

• What do plants need to survive? 
• How do humans and animals use plants? 
• What are some different types of plants?
• What are some plant adaptations?
• How do plants spread their seeds?
• What is photosynthesis?

From these topics as a class we came up with simple subtitles:

• What Plants Need to Survive
• How We Use Plants
• Different Types of Plants 
• Plant Adaptations
• How Plants Spread Seeds
• Photosynthesis

Over the next few weeks, students will use various types of media and sources to learn about plants and record their notes. They will then take their recorded information to create e-books on Google Slides. 

Reader's Chair

Christian read Mo Willem's That is NOT a Good Idea

MATH

This week students were introduced to decimals. To kick start this unit we talked about different ways we see numbers, and where we see them as a representation in everyday life. 

I placed the three different numbers on the board and had students identify each (fraction, whole number, decimal).

It was great to have them relate what we learn in math class to their life outside school as well. Next, we began to discuss how fractions relate to decimals. Any fraction can be converted into a decimal by dividing the numerator by the denominator. We will be focusing on fractions /10 and decimals to tenths. 

Students did an excellent job identifying the new place value of tenths and hundredths. We worked on converting fractions /10 or /100 to equal decimal. Once they had this skill we were able to place fractions, mixed fractions and decimals on numbers lines to compare them to benchmarks (0, 1/2, 1). 

We will be reviewing this skills next week and have a decimal review quiz on Thursday. 

SCIENCE

Using some paper puppets, students were able to experiment with flashlights to change the shape, darkness and sharpness of shadows. 

Through this experiment students discovered that the closed an object is to a light source the more blurred, large and light a shadow becomes. As you move the object away from the light source the shadow becomes smaller, darker and sharper. 

SPOONY SCIENCE

We took a quick peak at some SPOONY SCIENCE this week to explore convex and concave mirrors/lenses. Students are working in pairs to describe the differences between their appearance in each type of mirror.

As you look into the concave side of a spoon your image will be small and upside down. 

As you look into the convex side of you spoon you are enlarged and right side up.

ART 

After a few weeks of working on different art techniques: acrylic paints and texture, water colour blending and pencil crayon gradients - it was time to put all the pieces together! 

BEHOLD - Our James and the Giant Peach Art!

May 6 - 10

A Few Reminders

May 17 - PD Day; No School

May 20 - No School Victoria Day 

May 23 - Bike day 

This year, we will be having the one day for students to bring their bikes. 

May 24 - Volunteer Appreciation in the morning  

May 24 - Wellness Day in the afternoon

May 30 - Yearbook order deadline

Bike Helmet Checks

They went great! Students were sent home with little notes on the conditions and safety of their helmets.

Minute to WIN IT! 

In gym this week we had minute to win it stations set up and students worked through them. 

ELA 

We are getting our creative juices flowing! 

On Monday's we have begun to work with some creative writing prompts! This week we used the resource Pobble365. This site has a new image for everyday of the calendar year. They also give some activities with each image. 

Our image this week was: 

The Patronus Charm is difficult to produce, and many witches and wizards struggle to produce a full Patronus: a guardian which generally takes the form of the animal with whom they share the deepest affinity. For Severus Snape however, a wizard trained and experienced in the Dark Arts, it was easy.

He felt a slight tingle from the end of his wand as he swished it in a smooth, subtle arc. A jet of flawless, pale-white light danced from its tip, and the Patronus began to take form in front of him…

Here are some student samples of how they carried on:


....a shiny white blue doe, standing right in front of Snape. A Dementor that was closing in backed away, then it flew away. Snape noticed he was standing in the middle of the forbidden forest, so he whispered lumos and the end of his wand emitted a sphere of light, kind of like a magic flash light, as he made his way out of the forest. He saw two more Dementors so he yelled EXPECTO PATROUNUM! The Dementors scattered and he got out of the forest. as he was running back to Hogwarts, noticed a mushroom moving toward him. it was a Redcap. ( Redcaps are fierce mushroom Dwarfs that lurk in the forbidden forest, or outside of it. The only way they will leave the protective home is when they want to bring human blood to decorate their homes) STUPEFY Snape yelled and the Redcap fell down stunned. but just as he thought it was the last of his troubles..
- QB

Then is a blink of a eye a pine needle landed above his head, he then got a bit nervous after he heard a thousand crows squawking. After that he was thinking of going home but, did not know where he was. He panicked. He was wishing he charged his phone and night rather then texting friends on it all night. He hoped and prayed with all his might then turned on the phone and saw that is had 0%. He was thinking "how in the world will I get any help??" Unfortunately there was no way. other then to call 911 but it was only him and a Doe. He thought hard and hard but could not find any answers. He was thinking "I may have to eat this doe, for my hunger.
- LM


All of a sudden a doe appear in front of him,the doe got startled by him then it ran away from him, then a huge WHOOSH of air came and knocked him down and his wand was trying to wiggle out of his hand as the wand was trying to wiggle out his hands he looked at it and seen that it was alive the wand summoned Harry Potter but he was sleeping in his pajamas but luckily he was sleeping with his wand. As he was sleeping the water was getting really loud like fireworks were exploding but the wand didn't like it so he used his powers so it would be very quiet but suddenly Harry potter woke up.
- TG


This was our first go, and before we wrote we discussed what Snape might hear, feel or smell in his environment. They will be working on writing complete sentences, with adjectives to describe detail, and work on showing, not telling character emotions. 

Students have also begun a writing project based on the book Charlie's Superhero Underpants by Paul Bright. This is a tale of a boy who has lost his superhero underpants and must travel to all corners of the world to get them back! Along his journey he encounters many animals in various parts of the world. Students are writing their own personal version of this story, creating their own animal characters. 

It was important they understood the relationship between their character and setting. The animal they choose has to make sense in the setting they choose. We looked at a map of the world and discussed which animals you would find in each place. Then students got to work! 

During Talk About it Tuesday on KidBlog, we're beginning to work on persuasive writing. This is a form of opinin writing, but uses a different tone. As you write, you are trying to convince your reader to agree with you. Students started planning for their question: Should recess be longer? 

Whole Class Brainstorm 

They will be writing a letter to me as to why they think recess should be extended or shortened. They have to come up with reasons to win me over. It important with persuasive writing to know your audience and come up with reasons that will be appealing to them. 

READER'S CHAIR

This weeks Reader's chair was Sam! She knocked it out of the park as she read Click, Clack, Boo by Doreen Cronin to the class. This was our final book from this Author. 

Up Next: Christian!  

MATH

This week was an all over review of Fractions - improper, mixed numbers, fractions of a set and fractions of a whole. Students did really great if we worked one on one, small groups or as a whole class. However, when it came to independent work they still need some reinforcement and guidance. 

We also did some work with equivalent fractions in a hands-on activity. Students used 6 strips of paper, all the same length and width and created equivalent fraction strip. We worked through some problems using their as manipulatives to solve the problems. 

They have really been enjoying our interactive lessons using Smart Suite. Students respond to lesson activities on iPads or their chromebooks! 

Next week we will reinforce their understanding of fractions and the relationships between fractions and decimals. 

SCIENCE

First there was lights, and now we have shadows! What is a shadow? A shadow is created when an opaque object blocks light. Lots of interesting facts about shadows was taught to us by this little guy: 

We also worked in Hyperdocs to research different shadows, what they look like, and how the distance to a light source can affect a shadow. Now that the sun is out we will be able to conduction some experiments outdoors next week! 

We also had a picnic lunch outside with all the Grade 4's. 

Enjoying the beautiful weather while we have it! 

SOCIAL

This week we started to look at the arrival of both French and English Explorers. Students practiced note taking skills as we read over information about the explorers, highlighting important information and taking notes. 

It was really interesting to map out the initial exploration of the English as the slowly over the years made their way from East Coast to West Coast Canada. 

We have been busy little bees! 

Grade 4's helped out Mrs. Garlough's kinders with their Mother's Day WordArt! Kinds wrote ten words related to their Mother's (i.e. favourite food, colour, activity) and created beautiful WordArt hearts.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Mother's Day gifts from us! We loved making them! The students really put thought into their gifts and cards. I love leaving them to their own devices and letting them create their own cards with their own thoughts and feelings.