Thursday, November 7

 Hi parents,

We had another good day today. I'm actually so impressed by how quickly we got back into the swing of things after the strike, I was so worried it was going to be like restarting the year all over again, but it honestly feels like we picked up right where we left off.

In the morning, we watched the music video for "Highway of Heroes" by The Trews. After a thoughtful class discussion, the students went and wrote short paragraphs using some sentence starters that I provided.

Some of the writing work we did today and yesterday

In math, we played Place Value Bingo, and then 'Beat the Teacher', addition mode. We practiced multi-digit addition with regrouping and tried to get as close to 1,000 as possible, using two numbers generated by dice rolls.

We also had Music in the morning.

In the afternoon we did Buddies and used the iPads to read books on Epic.

We ended our day with a fun 'screen-less coding' activity, in which the students wrote instructions, in code format, to instruct a classmate on how to line up, from their seat. We talked about how code needs to be incredibly specific - when coding a robot, for example, you couldn't just write "go line up". You'd have to walk it through each step (literally) and ensure you had specific values for distance, so it didn't just walk into a wall. 

Our school's Remembrance Day Assembly is tomorrow at 11:00. Our Spelling Quiz is also tomorrow.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, November 4

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today!

In the morning, we looked at an alternate version of the 'number bond' math we were doing yesterday (I don't know if I even mentioned that we were doing that) in which numbers are depicted as whole and fractured rectangles. 

The idea is that any quantity can be split into parts, and parts can be combined into totals. It should help them with solving problems formatted like "8 + ___ = 13", which tend to be tricky.

In writing, we did Spelling Sentences. Students had to start every sentence with a different word. I had this idea to do spelling sentences every week with a different 'twist' to make it interesting. I'm sure the kids will love that.

In the afternoon, we had gym, and then had some coding lessons using Scratch Jr. The students learned more about the program's capabilities - it can do a lot more than just make animations!

Please send back your field trip forms as soon as you can, and remember our remembrance day assembly is this Friday at 11:00.

Have a nice day,

Zac

Monday, November 3

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today.

In the morning, we used the stamp game to review 3-digit addition with regrouping. The students did an awesome job with this, and we were able to bring in the standard algorithm alongside. Now that we've got the hang of the stamps, we can start moving away from them and towards the algorithm, which is a lot quicker and more convenient.

We used this 'provocation tray' (created by Ms. Cooper and pictured below) to introduce our new novel study, 'A Rover's Story'. Students made observations and predictions, and then we started reading the book. So far it is told from the perspective of a Mars Rover. It's interesting to hear the robot's observations about humans in the lab.

We had Music and Gym. In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, and then I gave the class 10 minutes to work silently and create a written response to this question:  "what is Remembrance Day?"

They did such an amazing job on this. Many students referenced the specific date, others talked about poppies, but everyone understood the purpose was to honour veterans. A lot of students did their best writing of the year so far on this - I was really impressed.

We also went over this week's new spelling words, and the 'ai' sound.

At the end of the day I sent home Field Trip Forms. We're going to Telus Spark on November 19! If you are interested in volunteering, please send me an email, and I'll get the volunteer forms sent home ASAP.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of Nov. 2)

Spelling List A (Nov. 3 – 7)

paid	mail	waiting	fail	rainy
tail	vain	said	snail	chain

 

Spelling List B (Nov. 3 – 7)

again	claim	train	brains	painter
grain	braids	contain	rainbow	plains

 

Spelling List C (Nov. 3 – 7)

obtain	remain	retail	afraid	sailor
fainted	quaint	explain	daisy	await

We'll be looking at the vowel team 'ai' this week, in situations where it sounds like 'ay' (with the exception of 'said'). 

Good luck!

Friday, October 31

 Hi parents,

Halloween at LBS was as fun as ever. Thanks so much to everyone who was able to attend the parade despite it being so last minute. It was awesome to get to continue this timeless tradition, complete with multiple classes getting lost on the parade route and the music timing out every 2 minutes. We all had such a good time. :)

Much of our day was spent working on good copies of our Tim Burton inspired art.

They turned out fantastic!! Had to post every one that was handed in, just to showcase how unique they all are.

We did our spelling quiz and I marked them but forgot to hand them back at the end of the day.

All around it was a pretty good one. 

Stay tuned for next week's words, and Happy Halloween!

Zac

Thursday, October 30

 Hi parents,

The old blog is up and running again, I guess it just took some time to load after my email came back online.

We had another great day today. We revisited my personal favourite writing routine, 'spelling sentences', just in case anyone forgot how fun it is, and then in math, we used the stamp game to solve 4-digit subtraction problems, with no regrouping.

Many students are now finished their Wayside School Paragraph writing, and the display is coming together. 

We had Music, and played 'infinite dodgeball' in gym.

In the afternoon we did Daily LA and then started working on some Tim Burton-inspired self portraits.

We'll finish those up tomorrow.

Tomorrow is also our spelling quiz, and even more exciting, it's Halloween. The LBS Halloween Parade starts at 10:30am, and you're all welcome to come!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Friday, October 3

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today. In the morning, students worked on their paragraph writing, and as predicted, the skyscraper schools (see previous post) have grown even taller. We'll finish those up as soon as we're back. 

In math, we played Place Value Bingo. Basically this is regular bingo, but with big 5-7 digit numbers. At first we just played the easy version where I read out the numbers, and students crossed them off their cards. Then we played the more advanced version, where I just read place value clues about the numbers (for example, "there is a 4 in the ten thousands place, and a 6 in the tens place", could be a clue for the number 42,761).

We did Daily LA and then I gave the class an art lesson on drawing scary, weird faces. We ended our day by playing Dr. Dodgeball in Gym.

I'm really going to miss being here next week. We are off to an awesome start this year and I know we'll pick up right where we left off when we get back. 

Have a nice weekend! (let's hope its not plural...)

Zac

Thursday, October 2 (Stuffy Day tomorrow)

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today. In the morning we had our best, most productive work period of the year. A lot of students were able to finish their paragraph writing, and we've started putting them up on display. I'm sure tomorrow there will be even more skyscrapers (you have to open the building up to see the writing)

In math, we did some 3-digit addition w/o regrouping worksheets. Every once in a while it's good to get some repetitive practice in. Based on the way the kids blew through these, I think we're ready for bigger numbers, and of course regrouping too. On that note - if you happen to find yourself looking for math worksheets, this website is great: https://www.k5learning.com/free-math-worksheets

We had Music and Gym too. 

In the afternoon, we rewatched a video that we'd watched yesterday which gave a brief overview of human history. The reason for this is we're going to start learning a bunch of Canadian history content that is brand new to the curriculum  (I'm actually really excited to teach it because it's pretty interesting!), but I thought it would be good to give the students a bit more context. It's hard to understand Canadian history without also having some general idea of indigenous and European history too.

The students used the information in the video to create simple timelines that showed some of the big innovations that led to the formation of modern societies. Things like agriculture, writing, and trade.

We are not going to have our spelling quiz tomorrow because it just wasn't enough time. We'll keep working on these words for the next little while. If your child is blasting through them and wants more of a challenge, learning to spell all of these words would be a great one: https://dolchword.net/by-grade-frequency/ 

Generally kids who are able to spell more high-frequency words accurately have a lot more confidence with writing. They have more time to spend thinking of creative ideas because they're not caught up trying to remember how to spell 'through', 'because' and 'laugh'.

Tomorrow is going to be a 'Stuffy Day' because the students have been fantastic and they've earned it. If your child is bringing a stuffy, please make sure it's small enough to fit in their bag.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, October 1

 Hi parents,

I hope you all had a nice long weekend. We had a great day back at school today. In the morning, the students worked on the good copies of their paragraph writing work. We used the Stamp Game some more while also writing the standard algorithm alongside it. We played kickball in gym, and had Music in the morning.

In the afternoon we did Daily LA and looked at this week's spelling words. I think we might postpone the quiz this time, the words are pretty tough and probably require more than 2 days to master. I think I underestimated them when I was putting the lists together.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words! (Week of Sep. 28)

 Spelling List A (Oct. 1 – 3)

once	one	said	when	them
made	your	want	walk	of

 

Spelling List B (Oct. 1 – 3)

someone	keep	without	could	saw
does	many	again	today	better

 

Spelling List C (Oct. 1 – 3)

around	always	ground	papers	brother
afraid	guess	build	outside	happen

It's a short week at school, but I still think we can take on some new words. Some have been on previous lists too. This will be our last week of 'sight word' spelling lists, then we'll move on to spelling patterns instead.

Good luck!

Friday, September 26

 Hi parents,

Today was Orange Shirt Day. We went outside for a whole school sit spot, we had our spelling quiz, and the students worked more on their paragraph writing. The orange shirt day assembly featured poetry, drumming, singing, and indigenous language lessons, and was amazing to be part of.

We read the book 'Peter's Moccasins', and the story 'Terrence' from Wayside school.

Stay tuned for next week's spelling words (they probably won't be up till Sunday or Monday!) and enjoy your long weekend!

Zac