Spelling List A (Dec. 12 – 19)
Spelling List B (Dec. 12 – 19)
Spelling List C (Dec. 12 – 19)
Hi parents,
We had a great day today. In the morning, we learned about 'concrete poetry', which is basically poetry that is created to visually represent the thing it is describing. The students learned that they were going to be writing their own concrete poems about snowflakes. We brainstormed some awesome words and phrases to describe snowflakes, and then looked at how we could take those and arrange them so they actually looked like a snowflake. I was really impressed by the words they came up with as a class, I'm thinking this one is going to turn out really well when we move on to good copies.
We learned the letter 'd' in cursive. We had Music, and then for French, we learned a bit about the Quebec Winter Carnival, and 'bonhomme'. I showed the class the infamous Bonhomme song. It has been stuck in my head since I was in Grade 4. I'm glad I can pass the torch along.
In the afternoon we had Buddies, and then afterwards, we learned about an especially simple kind of simple machine, the inclined plane (ramp). The students were tasked with the challenge of building ramps out of classroom materials, to allow a skateboard to move from the floor onto a chair.
Sock Snowman Supplies Wanted! - Monday, December 15
We will be making sock snowmen on Monday. Please send a sock (used is fine - just no holes) to school with your child, as well as 2-3 cups of rice, coffee beans, or another 'filling' material, if you can. I will also be providing rice, and extra socks, so everyone will be able to participate no matter what - but having extra supplied will allow us to make bigger, fuller snowmen. :)
If you have extra patterned fabric, please send that as well, so we can use it to make sweaters for the snowmen.
Have a nice night,
Zac
Hi parents,
We had a really productive day today. I don't have much to report because we spent so much time finishing the big tasks we started earlier this week, and last week - the art projects, the art project reflection, and the addition and subtraction word problems. These word problems are really tough. I truly feel that if the students can solve these, then they know their addition and subtraction.
Which means.... we will be having an addition and subtraction quiz next week, on Wednesday, December 17. The quiz will include some 2 and 3-digit addition and subtraction problems, as well as a few word problems, and some problems in the format: "____ - 5 = 10", "6 + ____ = 20", etc. Grade 4s will have to do some decimal addition and subtraction.
Have a nice night,
Zac
Hi parents,
We had a pretty good day today. The students spent a lot of time working on Addition and Subtraction word problems. We also finished up art, and did Spelling Sentences, with the twist that every sentence needed to be a different length.
We met up with our buddy class and read book about helpers in the community.
Have a nice night,
Zac
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Hi parents,
We had a pretty good day today!
In the morning we worked a lot on those art projects. Many students finished, and started writing about how their art was inspired by another piece. The display is starting to come together.
We went over the new spelling words, had Music, and played a fun new game in gym called Ice Cream Cones.
In the afternoon we had a fire drill, did Daily LA, and learned about addition and subtraction word problems. We talked about how the stamp game, or the standard algorithm, can be used as a tool to solve real-world math problems.
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Have a nice night,
Zac
Spelling List A (Dec. 5 – 12)
Spelling List B (Dec. 5 – 12)
Spelling List C (Dec. 5 – 12)
Hi parents,
We had another pretty good day today. We spent most of the morning working on the art project we started earlier in the week, and many students are finishing up their good copies now. I'm really enjoying reading the names they've come up with for their artwork.
We had the spelling quiz but I haven't had a chance to mark them yet.
In math, we did another one of those 'math mash-ups', where symbols represent different values and students have to figure out each one.
In Gym we played 'Mario Kart'.
Stay tuned for next week's spelling words, and have a nice weekend!
Zac
Hi parents,
We had a great day today. In the morning, we did the next step of our art project, in which the students started to plan their own art pieces, based on the ones they'd studied yesterday. Some students have even started on their actual good copies.
We had a cursive lesson, Music, and a French lesson, in which we learned a few simple Christmas-themed words, as well as the essential word/phrase 'c'est', meaning 'it is'.
We did Daily LA, and in the afternoon we had a great discussion about charity and volunteering, and homelessness.
Tomorrow is our Spelling Quiz! The words are hard, so practicing once more at home might be a good idea.
Have a nice night,
Zac
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Hi parents,
We had a pretty good day today! Sorry for the lack of blog yesterday, I had some meetings after work.
Yesterday was not such a good day but the students really got their act together together. I told them things are going to be a bit more strict for a little while, and I think today they really took that to heart and started putting their best effort in.
We're starting personal art projects, inspired by the TREX display in our library. Each student in the class has chosen one piece that 'inspires' them. We've analyzed the artwork and made observations about the colours, mediums, emotions, and messages. Students are then going to create their own piece of art, using a medium of their choice (within reason), that is inspired by the original piece. They will then explain how their creation was inspired by the other art piece.
In math, we're still working on subtraction. Its getting more and more advanced though. We've started looking into regrouping over multiple zeros. The stamp game, once again, is enormously helpful for this.
We've looked deeper into 'volunteering' and 'charity', and read a couple books that gave great examples of children who created their own charities. We also talked about simple things we can all do to volunteer - shovelling snow, helping around the house, or reading with a younger child are all great examples.
Our Spirit Week is coming up soon-ish! See the post below for more info.
Have a nice night,
Zac
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Hi parents,
We had a pretty good day today! In the morning, the students did a descriptive writing task, where they wrote about the 'perfect day in December'. For each part of the day, they were asked to include at least one or two interesting descriptive words, whether they were describing the weather, the snow, hot chocolate, blankets, or anything else that they felt a perfect day in December should feature.
We went over this week's new spelling words, and discussed the 'oi' sound.
In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, and then talked about two important words - 'charity' and 'volunteering'. The students attempted to brainstorm examples of each. I say attempted because virtually nobody was able to come up with anything beyond the Terry Fox Run! Tomorrow, we're going to talk more about charities, and ways that people, even children, can volunteer. I was surprised that nobody wrote 'volunteer for field trips' after our Spark trip last week!
Parents - it would be awesome if you talked with your child about volunteer / charity causes that you may personally be involved with, or help them remember times they volunteered or raised money for a good cause. Because there seemed to be some mental obstacle that the class couldn't get past today with their brainstorming. I know they know more about volunteering and charity than our work today would suggest. :)
Have a nice night!
Zac
Spelling List A (Dec. 1 – 5)
Spelling List B (Dec. 1 – 5)
Spelling List C (Dec. 1 – 5)
