Monday, April 13

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today.

In the morning, we did a 'diagnostic' paragraph writing task. I gave the students 40 minutes to write non-fiction paragraphs about the community of Lake Bonavista. We discussed all the stuff we'd learned about Lake Bonavista through our neighborhood walks. 

This task was really interesting because it showed me what the students already knew about paragraph formatting and structure. I was concerned by the high number of students that wrote less than 3 sentences in 40 minutes. We're going to spend the next couple weeks building writing stamina and learning about paragraph structure. Then in a few weeks, we'll basically have a re-do of this task, but on a different topic, and hopefully we'll see a lot of growth!

Speaking of growth, we've been practicing skip-counting every day, and its been very helpful. Each morning I set a timer for a minute, and the students see how high they can skip count by a given number. We got through 5 numbers each day, and the same ones each day of the week, so students can see their own progress. When we counted by 4's last Monday, many students were only able to get to 20 in a minute. Today, most of those students were able to get all the way to 48!

In the afternoon, the Grade 4s learned about Long Division, using the stamp game alongside the standard algorithm. The Grade 3s just practiced short division. We had a lot of writing work time.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of April 12)

 Spelling List A (Apr. 10 – 17)

ever	farmer	player	later	water
after	under	other	paper	buyer

 

Spelling List B (Apr. 10 – 17)

baker	runner	leader	winner	worker
center	danger	fingers	banker	chamber

 

Spelling List C (Apr. 10 – 17)

counter	gatherer	manager	chapter	officer
printer	lighter	painter	leather	founder

The theme this week is the -er ending. We'll be talking about how adding -er to certain verbs can turn them into 'job' words (baker, leader, worker, player, etc.)

But also how -er can just sound like 'urr' and not play a role in a words' meaning at all - such as 'after', 'other', and 'chapter'.

Good luck!

Friday, April 10

 Hi parents,

Today the class spent a lot of time working on their original short stories. Many students were able to write the middle sections of their stories and are just about ready to wrap them up.

The spelling quiz went really well - all marked, but not handed out.

In math, we did some more division, as well as skip-counting practice.

In Social Studies, we learned more about the Age of Exploration, and the explorer Henry Hudson, who played a role in shaping Canada as we know it today. We learned more about the motivations for European expansion and exploration.

We visited the library for some quiet reading, and to try out new books.
Stay tuned for next week's spelling words, and have a nice weekend!

Zac

Thursday, April 9

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today.

In the morning, the students started writing their original short stories. We talked about ways to introduce characters and settings, and to make readers care about the main character by describing their feelings, struggles, etc.

In Cursive, we learned the capital letters E and F. In French we learned some more nouns and reviewed the phrases 'j'ai', 'je veux', and 'j'aime'.

In the afternoon we learned about fact families, and how multiplication and division problems are closely related. I have given the Grade 4s two health lessons so far too, while the Grade 3s have had additional work period time.

Tomorrow is our spelling quiz - have a nice night!

Zac

Wednesday, April 8

Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today! In the morning, the students started planning for a big writing project. They are going to be writing orginal short stories. Based on what I've seen so far, they've got a lot of creative writing talent, and execptional writing stamina - so I think if we pace this out over the next week or so, these stories could actually end up being quite good! Please talk with your child at home about their story plan, and give them feedback and suggestions. We're going to try writing the beginnings of the stories tomorrow.

In math, we officially started division. The students worked as a whole class to illustrate the concept of division by dividing themselves into equal groups. We talked about how to interpret or write a division equation, and how to use simple written stategies to solve basic problems.

In Social Studies, we've been learning about Canadian History, and the age of exploration. We learned about Jaques Cartier today. 

Our Cornhole Boards are pretty much finished! I think they turned out awesome, I may even have to bid on them myself....

Have a nice night,

Zac

 

Spring Event - May 7

 Save the Date!

LBS Springs Together will take place on May 7 from 6:30-8:00 pm.  There will be activities for families to do together throughout the school.  Each class will be doing a musical performance on the stage as part of the event.  Stay tuned to School Messenger as information about what time your child performs will be shared soon.

Monday, April 6

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today. In the morning, we wrapped up our trifecta of story writing lessons (brilliant beginnings, magical middles, and...) with 'excellent endings. We talked about how the best stories don;t just end abruptly. They generally give some insight into what happens after the problem is solved - the 'happily ever after' part of the story. As a class we wrote the beginning and middle of a story, and then the students wrote their own endings for it.

In Math, we used the IPads to create skip-counting videos. I nam hoping this project will really help the kids memorize those tough skip-counting patterns, as they watch and rewatch their work repeatedly during the editing process.

We discussed this week's spelling words, and also did Daily LA.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of April 5)

Spelling List A (April 6 – 10)

fly	fry	guy	sky	bye
by	buy	try	spy	my

 

Spelling List B (April 6 – 10)

type	hyper	rely	myth	deny
ally	eyes	defy	reply	shy

 

Spelling List C (April 6 – 10)

symbol	sly	hymn	onyx	apply
style	cycle	lying	system	lynx

The theme this week is "alternate sounds for 'y'".

On List A, I will be reading by / bye/ buy in a random order to see if the students have really got it. Regardless of what list each student chooses, I am going to teach those three, and reviewing them at home would be great too.

Good luck!

Thursday, April 2

 Hi parents,

We ended our week on a high note, but I don't have much to write as we spent a lot of the day just finishing up work from earlier in the week.

The students are showing exceptional story writing skill this year, I am really thrilled. 

We had our spelling quiz, and I marked most of them but there are a few I didn't get to yet, sorry for the inconvenience.

In cursive, we learned how to do capital C and D.

In French, we reviewed the super catchy days of the week song.

In the afternoon, we finishing watching a video on Canadian history. We also went outside and built a huge fort, and met with our buddy class for math games.

Have a nice Easter weekend!

Zac

Wednesday, April 1

 Hi parents,

We had a fun April Fools Day today with no tears! In the morning the students got new seats, went to Music, and then did an art activity in which they had to sketch the most beautiful floor tile in our school. As a follow up, they were challenged to find the one 'original' floor tile from when LBS was constructed, which is made from real marble, and the only way to tell is by tapping every tile with a pencil and listening for the difference in sound. 

That was my April Fools joke.

Yesterday we learned about writing awesome 'beginnings' to stories. Today, we focused on writing the 'middle'. Students were given a pre-written beginning and ending to a story called 'The Missing Carrots'. All they had to do was fill in the middle. 

In math, we looked at skip-counting patterns on the hundreds chart once again. This time we went a little further, examining 6's, 7's, and 9's.

In the afternoon we had yet another awesome author visit, from Melissa Allan, author of "Brave Like The Buffalo". She also taught the students the accompanying song and answered lots of questions.

Tomorrow is our spelling quiz, and we haven't practiced much this week, so please review once more at home.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday, March 30

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty straightforward first day back with lots of time for catching up and reviewing concepts.

We're about to start a 'story-writing' unit in writing, and so for today's Spring Break journaling, students were asked to write a short story about something that happened on the break. We talked about everything could be told as a story, but that in general, the most interesting stories feature some problem that the characters have to overcome.

We reviewed this week's spelling words, which are a review of the past 9 weeks' worth of spelling words. Please practice these at home as we only have 4 days in class this week.

In gym, we started our gymnastics unit. Please see the reminder post at the end of this blog around gymnastics expectations - this will just ensure we get to maximize our time in the gym and not spend as much time getting ready.

In math, we looked at the similarities between counting by 2's, 4',s and 8's. We talked about how counting by 4's is kind of like counting by 2's, but you skip every other number, and how counting by 8's is doing that same thing but with fours. I know that is confusing. The diagram will make it make more sense.

Have a nice night,

Zac