Spelling Words! (Week of Jan. 19)

 Spelling List A (Jan. 17 – 24)

ended	mixed	cried	fixed	failed
walked	talked	tried	picked	wanted

 

Spelling List B (Jan. 17 – 24)

tilted	noted	wired	baked	signed
ripped	limited	raised	boiled	fated

 

Spelling List C (Jan. 10 – 17)

decided	varied	blamed	biased	winged
fabled	arched	cursed	voiced	wilted

The focus this week is the -ed ending. This is a great opportunity to also talk about 'past tense' vs. 'present tense' (which we will do in class as well). 

Although fairly short, these words are pretty tricky, as just knowing the '-ed' sound doesn't get you far in a word like 'voiced', that has a tricky 'oi', and a 'c' that sounds like 's'.

Good luck!

Friday, January 17

 Hi parents,

Today we started a new writing project that I'm pretty excited about. As you know, we've been reading The Little Prince. Before the Little Prince gets to earth, he stops at a few other planets with unusual, and generally ironic characters on them. The students are making up their own 'planets', in the style of The Little Prince, and creating their own quirky and contradictory characters. I'm so relieved that they seem to have the hang of this and aren't just making "Taylor Swift Planet" or "Fortnite Planet".

One of my favourite student-made planets features a lone sloth warrior who is awaiting an invasion from a snail at the other end of the universe.

The spelling quiz went pretty well, considering we missed a couple days of practice. Thanks to everyone who practiced at home! It made a difference this week for sure!

We ended our day with Music, and another architecture sketching activity.

Stay tuned for new spelling words, and have a nice weekend!

Zac

Thursday, January 16

Hi parents,

I don't have too much to report for today - we spent a long time finishing up all the work that we started yesterday. In math, we continued learning about area. The students used rulers to draw rectangles with given measurements, and then calculated the area by multiplying.

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, read The Little Prince, and ended the day with Music. 

Blog Homework (+3 bonus table points!)

Gino's Dancehall is looking to build a new stage for performances. The stage needs to be a rectangle, with an area of 36 sq. ft. What length and width measurements could the stage have? Draw a diagram to show your stage design. 

Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, January 15

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today! In the morning, the students did a fun 'perspective' writing task, where they wrote about Video Games from the perspectives of four different characters from Arthur - Grandma Thora, Arthur, DW, and "The Mom". This activity is going in 'the binder' for sure, the kids did a great job with it and I will definitely be reusing it.

In math, we talked more about area, and also about measurement. The kids learned how to draw neat grids using rulers. We also learned about the difference between cms, inches, and feet.

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, French, and some Math practice.

Have a nice night!

Zac

Tuesday, January 14

Hi parents,

Today the students continued working on their pages for our "Drop-off & Pick-Up" pamphlets. They're just about done. I'm looking forward to putting them together and making a bunch of different combinations.

In writing, we talked about 'perspective'. The students wrote paragraphs expressing their perspective on whether or not toys should be allowed at school. It was interesting to hear their arguments!

In math, we started learning about 'Area'. The students used a process called 'tiling' to measure area of various items (books, tables, the carpet) using non-standard units.

 In the afternoon, we learned about rivers, watersheds, and glaciers in Alberta. We specifically learned about the Bow river, and its origin in the Rocky Mountains.

At the end of the day, we had Music.

Have a nice day,

Zac

Monday, January 13

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day back at school today. In the morning, the students collaborated to put together pages for a simple pamphlet that explains our 'across the field' drop-off / pick-up plan. The pamphlets talk about the benefits of even a short walk before school, as well as our plan to reduce traffic congestion. 

We did a couple different assessments today. The Grade 3s did government numeracy assessments, and the Grade 4s did a quick social studies assessment. The purpose of these was to give me a better idea of where I should go next with planning.

In the afternoon, we had Daily LA and practiced spelling. We ended the day with a quick lesson on French verbs.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of Jan. 12)

 Spelling List A (Jan. 10 – 17)

rose	hike	here	cube	dare
times	smoke	scale	piles	based

 

Spelling List B (Jan. 10 – 17)

white	prized	Stoney	trade	quite
wrote	unlike	outside	move	phase

 

Spelling List C (Jan. 10 – 17)

became	entire	spiteful	debate	waste
defined	device	theme	graceful	while

The theme this week is "Bossy E", aka, "silent E", aka "Magic E". Basically E making a vowel earlier in the word make its long sound. I'm hoping that students will also start to see that the 'bossy e' isn;t always at the very end of the word - words like "piles", "based", and "graceful" demonstrate how a suffix often goes after the e. 

Friday, January 10

Hi parents,

We ended our week on a high note. The spelling quiz went well, we played some great badminton games in gym, and we worked on an extension of 'The Marbles" problem from yesterday that was even more challenging. 

In science, we learned about the Equator, and how the sun provides warmth to the earth differently depending on where you are.

In Art, we did a challenging architectural sketching task, where the students learned about the 'vanishing point', parallel lines, and shading, and how to use these to create realistic 3-D sketches.

Stay tuned for next week's spelling words, and have a nice night!

Zac

Thursday, January 9

 Hi parents,

Today was our best day of 2025 yet. In the morning, we learned French colour words. We also learned that in French, a colour adjective goes after the thing its describing (for example, le chat blanc = the white cat). The students kept working on their French work from yesterday - here are a few samples (someone got extra creative and decided to rewrite Green Eggs and Ham)

  

We worked on an awesome math problem that really highlighted the importance of reading word problems carefully. Students applied the information from just two sentences to solve a wide range of different problems, that challenged them to add, subtract, and multiply. Apologies for the low quality image.

We read more of the Little Prince in the afternoon. We met "the rose", who the Little Prince really likes.

The students had Music at the end of the day.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, January 8

 Hi parents,

Today was another great day for the class. In the morning, we read this article (with more kid-friendly language) and learned about the benefits of walking to school. It's actually a pretty interesting read, and although most kids at LBS unfortunately live too far to walk the full way, it still supports our plan for an across-the-field drop-off.

In math, we went over yesterday's difficult word problems, and the students realized the importance of reading the question and figuring out what they really needed to solve. We'll keep working at more abstract uses of addition, subtraction, and multiplication over the next couple weeks, and we'll probably have a multiplication quiz pretty soon after that.

We've started reading a new novel!

The Little Prince is a timeless, beautifully written story that they say you should read at least once every 5 years. There are so many different ways to connect with it at different points in your life. The kids are enjoying it so far.

In the afternoon we did Daily LA, Spelling, and French. The students are making little French comics using the words they've learned so far.

Have a nice night!

Zac

Tuesday, January 7

 Hi parents,

We had another good day today. In the morning, we revisited our year-long exploration of "Safe and Active Routes to School". We're taking on a project that will hopefully improve the pick-up / drop-off experiences of families at our school, and also help kids start their days off on a good note. 

Basically, we're hoping to encourage more families to drop kids off across the field in the morning, rather than in front of the school. Anyone who has ever driven by our school in the morning knows how crazy the traffic can be. This project aims to alleviate that congestion and help kids get some extra physical activity and outside time before school, which should help them focus throughout the day.

We're going to be making pamphlets to send home that go over our plan and outline the benefits of walking to school - even just part of the way.

Anyway - today the whole class walked around the perimeter of the school, made observations about the signage, and shared thoughts around safe / unsafe behaviours. That took us all the way to snack.

After that, we wrote sentences for spelling words. The challenge was, each sentence had to start with a different word.

In math, I gave the kids some multiplication word problems that challenged them to think a bit more abstractly with math. They've clearly got the computation aspects of math down - if you give them two numbers and tell them to add, subtract, or multiply, they've got it no problem. But we had some trouble with applying math to solve problems that weren't so simple. We'll keep working at that.

We ended the day with music.

Have a nice night,

Zac