Happy Friday the 13th everyone! I hope everyone enjoys their weekend and sneaks in a bit of spooky fun! 

A Few Reminders: 
- Fred Penner is next Thursday (Oct. 19th). Please fill out the permission forms online. 
--- We need 2 parent volunteers for this field trip.

- Fruit Orders are due October 19th. 
This is our first Grade 4 Trip fundraiser, and what a wonderful one! The fruit is awesome and they added some new products to their order list this year! To check out what the products are like you can visit their website: https://desimonefarms.com/

- No school next Friday (PD Day)

This week was short and sweet! We have been doing a lot of assessments in class, including reading, comprehension and writing. These assessments give us an idea of how students are standing coming into the year and help us, as teachers, ensure we are teaching them to their needs.

In Language Arts this week, we have been working diligently on our KidBlog posts. If you haven't checked out KidBlog yet, it is a spot where students work on daily writing tasks every morning. Through KidBlog students do "QuickWrite" type activities focusing on certain writing skills (opinion writing, personal reflection, journal writing and general sentence structure). We are still in beginning stages and I am excited to watch their progress throughout the year!

We have also worked on our Structured Word Inquiry program, this week looking at how we spell words for meaning. We looked at the word and discussed - why is there a g in sign? When we relate the word sign to signal (where we here the g) we then have to look at the meaning of both words and how they are related in a word family. If you would like to read up more on Structured Word Inquiry, you can visit Peter Bowers site. 

The students had a grammar focus lesson this week, looking at the different types of sentences. There are a few ways to classify a sentence, and this week they looked at Declarative, Interrogative, Imperative and Exclamatory sentences.

Students worked through this by identifying and creating each type of sentences. This idea will be reinforced throughout the year.





Our Patterns unit has come to an end! This week started off with students reviewing our unit through dice games, which they had so much fun with!

To practice increasing patterns, students worked in pairs with 6-sided, 9-sided and even 12-sided die! They would have one die as a starting point and then roll the second die to carry on the sequence. Then writing rules for their patterns. It was a great way to have them engaged and actively reviewing their math concepts!

 At one point it was a race to see who could complete the most patterns in two minutes! Our record was 8 patterns with 8 terms in 2 minutes!

Our Patterns Test was on Thursday, and they will be sent home today to be corrected, signed and returned for Monday. Our biggest skill to focus on is reading the whole questions and instructions. 

Gr 3 Science - Rocks, Minerals and CRYSTALS! Grade 3 students this week learned how to access google classroom via Ipads and work on a digital document. On this document they continued from last week, identifying the rock they chose from their Rock Walk in September. Students used their knowledge of the three types of rocks to try and identify which group their rock belonged to, and then described a few characteristics of their rocks.

If you would like to view your child's Rock Report, you can visit google classroom. They will need their google ID.

We also got up to some business in the kitchen as well! We are making sugar crystals! It is quite the process and looking at our experiments I think this year we may learn from a few mistakes... :)
Students are logging their crystals progress into a google doc as well. Here is one of the photos someone took to go along with procdure!



Gr 4 - This week we looked at how white light changes when refracted through a prism! Using the white light of the projector students spotted rainbows around the classroom! We then filled out a lab report about the results. Students learned that white light is separated into the Visible Spectrum which shows all 7 colours of the rainbow (ROYGBIV).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Enjoy your long weekend, being thankful for the friends, family and food we have around us! 

A Few Reminders: 

- No School Monday (Thanksgiving) 

- School Photo Orders due Oct. 10th. 

- Book Orders due Oct. 10th 

- Fred Penner Thursday Oct. 19th; Permission forms are on Powerschool!

- Patterns Test on Thursday.

If you are interested in volunteering for any field trips this year, please fill out this google form. 

This has been an extremely busy week for us, and we have been working very hard! 

In Language Arts this week, we have begun structured word inquiry. This is a subject area I am very excited to work with the students on, as it helps us understand the written English language! If you would like to learn more about this program you can visit: www.wordworkskingston.com. 

Students were introduced to word sums and word matrices this week. With this program, students learn to spell for meaning and build words based on their prefixes, suffixes, and bases. 

A student creating word sums with prefix + base + suffix

The students really enjoyed the hands on experiences with words!

Our reading strategy focus was Questioning: I can ask meaningful questions, before, during and after reading a text. To introduce this strategy we read one of my favourite short stories, This is not my Hat by Jon Klassen. This is a great story because it provokes students questioning process from the title alone, and throughout the story keeps us in suspense! 

As we read, students generated questions and I copied them on stickies. Students each received a sticky after the story and answered a question. 

Later in the week I read aloud from Tales of Beedle the Bard to students and we practiced this strategy once again. Before, during and after I read students generated meaningful questions about the text. Afterwards they were given questions to answer, and then draw a picture of how the story answered their question. 

In Math this week, we are about to wrap up our patterns unit! Students focused on attributes this week, what they are (colour, shape, size, direction, design) and how they change in a pattern. Students worked on problems and patterns that had 2 or more attributes changed, extending these patterns and creating their own. 

We also discussed what a repeating pattern is and how we determine the core of a pattern. The core is the segment of a pattern that is repeated. Students identified the core, extended patterns and describe the pattern rule according to attributes. 

Gr 4 Science: Is still working with Lights & Shadows! This week students explored shadows through HyperDocs and researched. Students observed shadows, described their qualities(long, short, tall, wide, dark, light, fuzzy and sharp) and searched for images on the internet of various kinds of shadows.  Then they experimented with the affect the distance from a light source to an object would have on the shadow. Using animal puppets and flashlights students observed that when a light source is closer to an object the shadow grows and becomes fuzzy, where as if the light source if further from the object the shadow changes to sharper and smaller. 

Grade 3 Science: Took a look at some rocks and minerals and are also working through a HyperDoc overview of our unit. Looking back on the rocks they collected, and using the knowledge of how to identify rocks, they determined what types of rocks that had discovered. 

In a Google Doc, they will work on describing their rock and its properties, what type of rock it is and write a descriptive paragraph about their rock. 

For Thanksgiving we read the book Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano. This is a hilarious book about a Turkey who tries to disguise as other farm animals before thanksgiving so Farmer Jake does not eat him! 

Using this book as brainfood, we did a little letter writing project. Students wrote letters to Farmer Jake, trying to convince him not to eat Turkey this year.. but maybe to try something new? Like cow, pig or sheep? Students we practicing letter format, as well as, persuasive writing. To go along with our letter we did a guided drawing of a turkey and painted them with some water colours! Some students will have to finish up their water colour turkeys next week. 

Terry Fox Week!

What wonderful weather for our Terry Fox Walk!!! 

It was a gorgeous day and I think we all enjoyed our walk, even if it was a bit hot!

A Few Reminders: 

- Book orders went home Friday, these are due next Friday, Oct. 8th. 

- Early Dismissal is next Wednesday. 

In Language Arts, we have been working with our sentence structure and how to build strong sentences that make sense! 

So far we have covered Person + Action sentences, using helping words and answering our question words (who, what, where, when, why?) and Thing + Action word sentences. The big understanding in this lesson is to ensure there is subject and verb agreement in their sentence. 

This week, to add variety to our sentences we started answering our question words at the beginning of sentences. This technique is called Question Word Starters. We altered our sentence about cows by answering our questions at the beginning. 

Original: The cow mooed at my farm in 1945 because he was running away from a bunny. 

WHAT: What kind of cow?

A big brown cow mooed at my farm.

A hilarious brown cow mooed at my farm. 

WHY: Why did they do it?

A cow was running away from a bunny and mooed all the way across the field. 

A hungry cow mooed at my farm. 

WHEN: TIME the object is doing something. 

October 16th, 1945 at 5:00 am in the morning a cow mooed at my farm. 

On a dark winter morning a big brown cow mooed at my farm. 

 HOW: HOW did it do the action?

Like a roaring God the cow mooed at my farm. 

Softly a cow mooed at my farm. 

Confused a cow mooed at my farm, "moooo?".

We will continue to work on this idea, working in the different suffixes (-ed, -ing) that change our tense. 

In Math, we are still working with patterns and have moved onto patterns in T-Tables. Students worked with word problems and use T-tables to solve the problems. These tables had patterns and students were able to identify the pattern, rule and extend the pattern. 

In Science - The threes are classifying rocks! Geologist classify rocks depending on certain characteristics, and the three we looked at this week were colour, lustre and texture. Students observed various types of rocks, looking at lustre (shiny, dull, metallic, or non metallic) and texture (rough, smooth, even, coarse, medium and fine). 

When a rock is coarse in texture you are able to see the different minerals that make it up, where as a rock fine in texture you would need magnifying glasses to see (if you can at all) any of the other minerals in the rock. They brainstormed words they used to describe these rocks and we wrote them down to make posters for us to reference later. 

The 4's this week explored the differences between opaque, transparent and translucent materials. 

Opaque material block out all light and create shadows. 

Transparent materials allow all light to pass through and objects are seen clearly through them. 

Translucent materials allow some light and objects cannot be seen clearly through them. 

Students were given three types of material and had to determine and sort which category they belonged to. Then they went on a hunt in the classroom for objects that feel under each category! 

Brrrr!

It has been a long, cold and wet week! I think I can speak for everyone, when I say we are sick of indoor recesses! 

A Few Reminders: 

- Picture Day is next Wednesday (27th). 

- Terry Fox is next Friday (29th)  afternoon. We will be doing "A Toonie for Terry!"

- Evacuation drill was postponed to next Thursday. 

In Math this week, we have continued to look at increasing and decreasing patterns, and how we can extend a pattern based on a rule. When we see a number pattern, by finding the difference we can determine the rule and continue the pattern. 

Next week, we will start to look at patterns in T-Tables, so we started talking about columns and rows. As a fun way to explore this concept students created their own battleship maps on a grid and played each other! 

In Social, the Grade 4's are with Mrs. Spreen and are beginning to learn about Alberta's 6 different regions. Students are in groups working on their Alberta Passport's, researching the landforms, climate, and unique qualities of each region. 

Our Grade 3's are wrapping up our mapping unit! We have discussed what a maps purpose is, the various types of maps (globes, atlas, digital, and paper) and what a map needs (titles, legends, labels, compass rose, etc.). Students will be working on creating their very own imaginary world map. 

Science for the 3'shave been looking at the 3 different types of rocks; igneous (formed from magma and fire), Sedimentary (formed by layers of sediment) and Metamorphic (formed by extreme pressure underground). They used Epic! to read books about each type of rock, take notes, and create a flip book of the 3 types. 

Our 4's dipped their toes a little deeper into the exploration of Lights & Shadows! We conducted two experiments this week around the concept of objects emitting and reflecting light. 

Objects that emit light give off light and can be a light source. An example would be our sun or a glowstick.

Objects the reflect light allow the light to hit them and bounce off, and do not give off light. Our moon is a great example of an object that reflects light (from the sun). 

One way we explored this concept was standing in a dark room and observing what we could (and couldn't) see. Anything that glows or shows light in a dark space emits light. As we turned on our flashlights, we searched for objects we could see that reflected the light.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Week Two!

We have been busy bees in 3-4B!

A Few Reminders: 

- Cross Country Meet is next Wednesday at Coloniale. Forms went home today with information on the meet. 

- School Pictures on Sept. 27th. 

- Terry Fox run is on Sept. 29th.

***WE ARE TAKING DONATIONS - If you have any old computer mice you no longer need, we would love them! 

 

In Math, we are focusing on Patterns. We built up our math knowledge by practicing how to count on, count back and skip count. These skills help us when we work with patterns to find a pattern rule, extend a pattern, or create patterns. 

The two types of patterns we have been looking at are number patterns that increase and decrease. Next week we will start to work with pattern rules and T Tables. 

We start KidBlog this week!!! KidBlog is where we do our morning quick write. Each day follows a theme and relates to certain writing skills. 

On Monday we write our Weekend Updates - This is a chance for students to work on journaling skills, developing sentence structure, descriptive writing and eventually will involve procedural writing as well. 

Talk about it Tuesdays are where students are faced with a question - This week was "Which make a better pet: Cat or Dog?" Students will work on opinion writing - expressing preferences and adding supporting details. 

WeSearch Wednesdays! This is a chance for students to explore our ORC - Online Resource Center and practice their research skills on thematic topics. This week we did some reading on endangered animals, so students took to the internet and research an endangered or extinct animals, answering provided questions. 

Thursday we do a Week In Review, this give students a chance to reflect over their week and think about 3 things they learned, 2 things they liked and 1 question they might have going forward. 

To see some samples, your child can take you on a tour by clicking here and logging in with their google account. 

Grade 3's - In Science, we are beginning to explore Rocks and Minerals! This week students got the chance to take a peek at various kinds of rocks and brainstorm words to describe their feel(rough, smooth), look(shiny, glassy, dull) and colours. 

With this knowledge on Thursday they head out to the Devon River Valley to go on a rock scavenger hunt!
Looks like the weather held out and they had an awesome afternoon!

Grade 4's - In Science, we are starting Lights & Shadows! Students have discussed what types of light sources we have in our world. Some are Man Made (lamps, flashlight, electronics, etc.) and some are Naturally occurring (Sun, Stars, Fireflies, etc). 

Please send a flashlight to school with your child, as we will be using them for experiments later in the unit. 

Have an awesome weekend!

Summer's Over - School's In!

What a week of Welcome! Summer may be over, but wow what a good week for weather!

It has been great getting to know everyone this week! We truly have some superstars in this class and I cannot wait to get started on our learning journey together! 

This week we started off with some activities that helped us get to know one another, as well as, learn about our classroom and new routines. 

Here is a sneak peak into our room!

Students were sorted into their houses on the first day. Students can gain points for their house for class participation, leadership in classroom routines, and positive behaviours.

To learn about each other students filled out their own WANTED WIZARD/WITCH posters! Each student filled out a form including some information about a few of their favourite things. Then using google drawings, students learned how to add their image to create their very own wanted poster.


To create a safe and comfortable classroom for all, students worked in groups to define what makes a Star Student and a Terrific Teacher. In groups students brainstormed what a Star Student Says, Is, Does, and Does not. Then I asked them what they liked to hear and see from their teachers. This is great because it gives me a little insight to who each new group of students are and what they value.

From these suggestions we created a class Word Art, one representing students and one representing teacher.

Student

Teacher

As a first writing project, I of course wanted to hear about everyone's summers! We shared some of our favourite memories and then students created their own Summer Seflies! Picking one memory, we discussed how when writing we need to make sure to cover our bases and describe When, Who, What, Where, Why and How you felt about your experience!

Our week finished off with Rodzilla! Rodzilla blends science and magic to show the kiddos some pretty cool tricks! One of our own was called up first!

A Few Reminders:

- No School next Friday (Sept. 15); PD Day. 

- Picture Day is Sept. 27th

- Terry Fox is Sept. 29th.