Tuesday, April 8 - See Parent Council Info!

 Hi parents,

We had a bit of a rough day today, I'm not sure what was going on, but it felt like we took a big step backwards....

We're chipping away at the book in a box paragraphs, and while some students are still giving it their best effort, a lot of the class seems to have checked out. It is really disheartening when students spend 10+ minutes waiting for my feedback, only to submit their work with no capitalization or periods!! This is the kind of thing we have talked endlessly about and I know they are completely capable of at least attempting to write using sentences. I talked to the class about being more independent and genuinely giving work their best efforts. We've had a lot of those conversations lately (and it seemed to work on Friday!) but unfortunately now we have to start giving up the 'fun', choice-driven blocks of the day (Daily LA, Work Period, etc.) and going back to a more structured approach. C'est la vie!

Now for the positives. Things are going well in math.  The Grade 4s are beginning to move onto Long Division using only the standard algorithm, although of course the Stamp Game is still available whenever needed. The Grade 3's did a great job with some challenging division word problems.

In social studies, we researched Ukraine. This was another disheartening activity as over the course of 40 minutes, many students had less than 4 jot notes written. Still, we were able to combine those notes into a decently comprehensive page that we co-created as a class, and I think the students did walk away with a lot more knowledge than they had previously. 

We ended our day with Music.

Looking forward to making Pysanky Eggs on Friday! Please remember to send a few eggs in a safe container!

Zac

Thursday, April 10, 6:00pm - You're Invited to Attend Parent Council!

The Grade 3/4 team will be presenting about the work we've done lately. I will be presenting about our Ever Active Schools Residency. Hope to see you there!

Monday, April 7

 Hi parents,

We had a good day today. In the morning, the students worked on the second step of their Book in a Box write-up, which was to write a paragraphs describing the setting of their story, and explaining the significance of whatever item they're planning to bring to represent it.

The plan is to write a paragraph about plot / event tomorrow, and then theme / student choice on Wednesday. We'll edit on Thursday, start good copies on Friday, and ideally finish it all up midway through next week, so students can do their presentations after the Easter weekend.

In math, the Grade 4s continued building their understanding of long division, and the Grade 3's worked on Fact Families.

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, and then started to learn about Ukraine. We watched a couple of videos, and learned about traditional Ukrainian clothing, food, and dance. We also saw some cool architecture, and learned that Ukrainian is its own language, and most people speak it there.

We ended our day with spelling practice.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of April 6)

 Spelling List A (April 4 – 11)

nation	vision	options	motion	lotion
potion	action	fusion	they	because

 

Spelling List B (April 4 – 11)

section	version	station	emotion	mention
portion	mansion	caption	tension	fiction

 

Spelling List C (April 4 – 11)

auction	pension	passion	mission	erosion
fashion	cushion	evasion	suction	caution

The theme this week is 'sion' and 'tion' - the 'shun' endings!

List A and B shouldn't be too hard. List C has some weird words, like 'fashion' and 'cushion', that break the rule with a seemingly redundant 'sh'. Proceed with caution! 

Friday, April 4

 Hi parents,

We had a really good day today! 

In the morning the students finished up work from earlier in the week, and made some big improvements to their pendulum whacker devices. 

The spelling quiz went quite well - a lot of A's today - and then we went to play a math game with our buddies. 

When we got back, we started the writing portion of the Book in a Box project. I gave this class this exemplar for how a 'character item' writeup should look:

We talked about how the paragraphs weave in lots of important information about the character, without being robotic. We learn about Samar's significance in the story, how she connects with the setting and other characters, and how she overcomes problems. Ideally with this project, there should be a good amount of overlap between the items - it should be clear how characters, items, settings, and events all come together to form a story.

Anyway - I didn't actually think the students would be able to meet that standard on their first effort. But I was happily surprised to see that wasn't the case! The paragraphs I've seen so far have been very clear and descriptive, while also maintaining a good 'flow' and not being choppy or robotic. 

I'm sure the conversations you've had at home have contributed to the students having a deep understanding of their books!

Have a nice weekend,

Zac

Thursday, April 3

 Hi parents,

We had another good day today. In the morning, students continued working on their pendulum-based whacking devices from yesterday. They reflected on the changes they'd made to the 'prototype' model, and how these changes helped to improve their design. 

Then, we went out into the hall and tested them all. Every single device outperformed the prototype - some were even able to hit the ball more than 30 feet!

In math, the Grade 3s worked on Multiplication and Division Fact Families. They rolled dice to create a multiplication equation, and then wrote the corresponding multiplication and division facts. For example, if you rolled a '6' and a '3', you'd write:

6 x 3 = 18

3 x 6 = 18

18 / 3 = 6

18 / 6 = 3

The idea here is once again to help students see division as being connected to multiplication, and not a whole new concept that they have to start from scratch to learn.

We had a class conversation about 'Roasting', which has been a bit of an ongoing issue at recess. Students often seem to confuse lighthearted, friendly banter with mean, hurtful insults. We talked about how it can be hard to know what might hurt someone's feelings, and that in general, it's probably best just to not engage in 'roast battles', or any kind of negative talk at school. The class felt that was a good plan.

We ended our day with Daily LA, Social Emotional Learning, and Music.

Here is some information about the upcoming PEACE night, which features an art auction, where you could bid on our class' beautiful hand-painted dollhouse!

The Montessori Alternative Public School Society Presents

PEACE Night with Tammy Shamuhn (R.Psych, RPT)

April 24^th, 2025, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at Captain John Palliser School

FREE Workshop and Classroom Art Fundraiser

(Art from all classes of our 3 Montessori Public Schools will be present and part of our PEACE night Art Auction Fundraiser)

TOPIC: Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child

Join us for a night of education and conversation with a registered Psychologist, Tammy Schamuhn, around the topic of "Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child". This presentation covers why Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is more important to your child’s success in life than IQ, What the research says about how children develop Emotional Intelligence Helping kids manage their emotions, so they can manage their behavior Secrets every parent needs to know about crying and anger Managing your own emotions so your child learns to regulate their own

CLICK HERE to get your FREE ticket:

https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/peace-night-raising-an-emotionally-intelligent-child-with-tammy-schamuhn

CLICK HERE to sign up for FREE CHILDCARE at the event:

Go to  www.careinapinch.ca/onlinebooking and click on the link to register your children.

2) When you get to the registration page, under Event Name, select "MAPSS Fundraiser" and write "NA" in the ticket or membership field and follow the prompts.

Spelling quiz tomorrow! Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, April 2

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty awesome day today, especially in the afternoon.

We've been learning about matter, and forces, in science, and today the students designed their own device to apply consistent contact force onto a ball. Basically the devices were made from K-Nex, and involved a swinging mallet-type thing, that collides with a ball and makes it move. I was super impressed by how well the students independently built, tested, and modified their creations - I'm seeing a big improvement in their resilience, teamwork, and flexibility, compared to when we started building simple machines. Here are a few creations I managed to catch in action:

The 'Prototype'

We worked on Book in a Box planning templates. In preparation for writing paragraphs on each item in the box, students took notes on important aspects of characters, events, settings, and themes in their chosen novels. I gave them some guiding questions to help with this.

In math, the Grade 3s worked on division and multiplication worksheets. They've pretty much learned everything they need to about division, and now its just a matter of practicing it, and moving from reliable, concrete strategies (for example, physically dividing counters into equal groups), to more abstract ones (using skip-counting with no materials). 

The Grade 4s, and a few brave Grade 3s, started learning long division, using the Stamp Game. The Stamp Game is my all-time favourite Montessori material because it does such a good job of representing the processes involved in the standard division algorithm. Today, the students just used the Stamp Game, while I modeled the algorithm on the board. Tomorrow, they'll start using the algorithm alongside the Stamp Game, and eventually, they'll be able to just use the algorithm, while still understanding how and why it works.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, April 1

Hi parents,

Today was an April Fools day for the books. We had a lot of laughs but also managed to do a bunch of work too.

In the morning, we had a "flood drill", where the students learned what to do in the case of a flood, including how to deal with 'sewer serpents'. This turned out to all be an elaborate April Fools scheme.

The real joke was on me though, as the students spent the rest of the day putting plastic bugs on my computer and writing on the whiteboard.

In spite of all that, we did a ton of division work - the class learned how to read and answer division problems in the 'long division format', although we only addressed basic facts today. Many students completed their multi-paragraph spring break writing from yesterday, and we continued our exploration of forces and matter, by learning about solids, liquids, and gases. 

We used a kettle to show how water can be heated to change states from liquid to gas. The class brainstormed examples of important solids, liquids, and gases in our daily life.

BLOG HOMEWORK: Write a 1-2 sentence response to this question. (+1 table point)

Liquids are substances that flow to fill their container. Is sand a liquid? Why or why not?

We ended our day with Daily LA and Music.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Volunteers Wanted - Thursday, April 10

We will be making traditional Ukrainian Pysanky Eggs! This activity will take most the morning, in our classroom, likely from 8:30am - 11:00am or so. Students will likely need support with dying their eggs, lighting candles, and using the tools. 

Please let me know if you're interested in helping out!

 

Monday, March 31

 Hi parents,

We had a great first day back after Spring break.

In the morning, the students wrote about their spring breaks, after doing a quick 'topic / sub-topic' web to organize their ideas. I think that this extra step actually made a big difference in the quality of writing, as many kids were able to quickly write 3+ paragraphs that each focused on a different aspect of their break. It made the writing a lot more organized and encouraged kids to elaborate on their ideas rather than just listing off a series of events.

We spent a bit of time outside enjoying the snow.

In math, we talked about problems involving balancing equations. Problems following the format: "1 + 1 = ___ -1" have been really difficult for the class, even though the math itself isn't actually that complicated (just about everyone would've written '2' in the blank, and been wrong). We talked about the equals sign as representing a 'balance' - both sides need to be the same number, regardless of what operations you use to get there.

In the afternoon, we talked about the next steps for the book in a box project. We will be working on that in class, during class time, so please don't feel obligated to do anything at home, other than help your child choose four items and acquire a box.

In science, we did some experimenting with forces, on marshmallows. This is part of the Grade 3 science curriculum but also overlaps with elements from Grade 4 science. Basically the kids got to crush, stretch, hit, and twist marshmallows, and write down their observations. Yes, it was as fun as it sounds.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of March 30)

 Spelling List A (March 31 – April 4)

edge	judge	ridge	hedge	lodge
badge	dodge	wedge	fudge	ledge

 

Spelling List B (March 31 – April 4)

budget	bridge	pledge	fridge	badger
sludge	wedged	grudge	gadget	trudged

 

Spelling List C (March 31 – April 4)

dredge	smudge	fidgety	hedgehog	porridge
knowledge	judgement	dislodge	pudgy	dodgeball

The theme this week is '-dge'. List A and B should be pretty easy. List C is very hard. Please don't feel obligated to practice over the break!

Good luck!

Thursday, March 20

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today.

In the morning, we learned about sentence structure, and how to combine two simple sentences into a compound sentence, using conjunctions. We learned the acronym FANBOYS, which stands for: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so - 7 great conjunctions to be aware of for writing. I noticed in many of the kids' dinosaur paragraphs, the word 'so' was often used incorrectly.

We visited the book fair and did the spelling quiz. In the afternoon, we did Music, Social Emotional Learning, and had some more time to work on novel study stuff. The students also assembled their 'student-led conferences' folders, which contain:

-Leprechaun Trap Rubric

-Dinosaur Paragraph

-Division Check-In

-Spelling Quiz

-Novel Study / Novel

-Information about the Book in a Box project

It'd be great to have that folder handy for online conferences today and tomorrow so we can talk about the work. :)

Talk soon, and if we haven't booked a conference (please email me right away if you'd still like to book!), have a wonderful Spring break!

Zac

Wednesday, March 19

 Hi parents,

Sorry about the lack of a blog post yesterday, I was sick - I also want to apologize for the lack of clarity around Book Fair visits! Our Book Fair purchasing time is actually tomorrow morning (I was mixed up), so if you sent your child with money today and they did not buy anything, that's on me. Please send it again tomorrow and we'll make it happen.

The students continued working on a lot of tasks they started yesterday, including paragraphs about the importance of sleep, and division worksheets. 

We did a quick 'Division Check-In', which the students passed with flying colours. Since we've only just started division, this is really just an indicator of whether students understand the fundamental concepts of division. There may still be troubles ahead. But we are off to a good start, there's no doubt about that.

Many students have finished their novel study novels already! This is good news. Students who have finished their books started working on a graphic organizer to organize information about important plot points. I think it might be a good idea for students to read the whole book over again a second time, just to ensure they have a really solid understanding. Over Spring Break, I am going to ask students to gather up a few items for the Book-in-a-Box portion - there'll be information on that in your conferences package.

Today was Ms. A's last day :(

We said our goodbyes and look forward to seeing her again soon!

Have a nice night,

Zac