Monday, March 9

 Hi parents,

Today we revisited limerick writing in the morning. The students planned for their own limericks by brainstorming rhyme-able name and place words, which almost always are present in the first line of a limerick.

Students spent a lot of time working on their good copies of last week's writing work too.

We went over the new spelling words, which are quite tricky this week so please practice at home!

We had Music and played Volleyball in gym.

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, and then learned about the community of Lake Bonavista, which actually has a pretty interesting and even controversial past. Basically the developers got tired of waiting for the city to give them the permits to build a lake, and just started digging. By the time the city knew what was happening, the project was already too far along, and thus Lake Bonavista became the first urban lake community in the whole country.

We will be learning more about Lake Bonavista tomorrow on our first neighborhood walk, which will be first thing in the morning. Please ensure your child is dressed warmly, and try to arrive at school early!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of March 8)

 Spelling List A (March 6 – 13)

know	knew	knot	knee	knit
wrap	write	wrist	wreck	wrong

 

Spelling List B (March 6 – 13)

knock	knife	known	knight	knead
wrath	wrench	wrestle	wrote	gnome

 

Spelling List C (March 6 – 13)

doorknob	unknown	knuckles	knowing	knelt
written	wrinkle	wretched	gnawing	gnarled

I took no joy in putting together these lists. They are very difficult and full of words the students will rarely use, but still, its important for them to broaden their knowledge of the more common 'silent letters' that exist in the english language. Plus, its in the curriculum. 

Good luck!

Friday, March 6

 Hi parents,

We had a great Fort Day today!

The students had a lot of fun and were still able to get quite a bit of work done, as we learned about 'area', worked on good copies of the 'If you're not from _____' writing, and did our spelling quiz.

The class also met with Jenn Doeve, who will be leading our walking field trips over the next couple of weeks. She gave the students a lot to ponder around the idea of 'place', and how you can be in so many places at once (for example, at school, in the community, in your city, in your province, etc...)

At the end of the day, I sent home the sample Art Cards. They turned out fantastic, I really love the huge variation of styles, I feel like every student was able to create something meaningful and personal to them. Please hang on to the sample card, as it has information on how to order more. A big portion of the money from Art Cards goes right to classrooms, so we can have nice, new supplies and materials.

I didn't get a chance to mark the spelling quizzes yet.

But stay tuned for next week's words.

Have a nice weekend!

Zac

Thursday, March 5 (Fort Day Tomorrow)

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today! The writing from yesterday turned out so well that I thought we should do some good copies for it. We're going to be creating a book, as a class, that features everyone's writing. You'll be able to see it at Student Led Conferences, along with all the other writing we've done so far this year. Please book a conference soon!

We learned how to write 'x' and 'z' in cursive. The class also learned how to say "I am ___ years old in French" (j'ai ___ ans).

We did Daily LA, and in Science we learned more about the water cycle.

Fort Day Tomorrow (Friday, March 6)

The students have earned a Fort Day. This means everyone is allowed to bring a blanket, a pillow, and a stuffed animal to school tomorrow. I recommend bringing a separate to carry all this, if possible. We will still be doing all of our normal school work, including the spelling quiz, but it will be done within the forts. You'd expect fort day to be crazy and loud, but strangely they often end up being quieter and more focused than a normal day...

Geometry Quiz Re-Do (Thursday, March 12)

Anyone wanting to Re-do the Geometry Quiz can do so next Thursday. This is totally optional. If your child would like to have a shot at redemption, I really encourage them to study a little bit every day at home. Basically it is the exact same content as the previous version of the quiz, so if you study from that, you should be good to go. 

The quiz will cover:

-parallel lines

-quadrilaterals

-regular and irregular polygons

-right angles

-sorting shapes based on attributes

-parallelograms, hexagons, rhombuses, pentagons

and for Grade 4s only:

-types of triangles

-measuring and classifying acute, obtuse, and right angles

Have a nice night!

Zac 

Wednesday, March 4

 Hi parents,

We had another good day today.

We did more work on multiplication like we'd done yesterday, around 'partial products'. The students used graph paper to represent multiplication problems as rectangles, and parts of rectangles.

In Social Studies, we read from the textbook and learned about the regions of Alberta. 

We had Music in the morning and Daily LA in the afternoon. Students had more time to work on their water cycle diagrams.

Near the end of the day, we read the David Bouchard book "If you're not from the prairies..." The students wrote awesome paragraphs in the same style. For example, "If you don't play hockey, you don't know the ice", or "If you don't have a dog, you don't know what its like to have a best friend".

Students who are interested in retaking the geometry quiz (with slightly different questions!) are welcome to do so starting tomorrow! I don't really have time to make it a whole class affair so it'll be something they do during our math work time. If your child would like a re-do, please review the previous quiz first - it'll be all the same concepts. 

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, March 3

 Hi parents

We had a good day today. In the morning, the students practiced their spelling words with Spelling Sentences, featuring the twist known as 'Haiku Practice' - each sentence needed to be exactly 5 or 7 syllables.

In math, we learned more about arrays, laying the foundations for future work around the concept of Area. We also looked at how multiplication facts can be represented using rectangles, and rectangles within rectangles.

In the afternoon, we played volleyball in gym, did Daily LA, and learned about the water cycle in science. The students created their own water cycle diagrams based on the video we'd watched and the discussions we'd had.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday, March 2

Hi parents,

Today we started learning about limericks, in preparation for St. Patrick's Day. Limericks are actually a really challenging style of poem to write, as they include an unusual rhyme scheme as well as very specific syllable and rhythm rules. I think the best way to learn about them is just to read lots and lots of limerick variations - thankfully there are a bunch on Epic!

We went over the new spelling words. We learned volleyball skills in gym. In the afternoon, the Grade 3s played a multiplication math game, while the grade 4s worked on long multiplication.

Conference bookings just opened up - please book yours as soon as you can!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of March 2)

Spelling List A (March 1 – 6)

action	nation	motion	options	lotion
rations	station	section	fiction	emotion

 

Spelling List B (March 1 – 6)

portion	mention	edition	caption	auction
vacation	suction	question	addition	location

 

Spelling List C (March 1 – 6)

solution	position	creation	reaction	petition
equation	duration	friction	rotation	ambition

As you can probably tell, we're looking at the 'tion' suffix this week. Similar to last week, this is another letter combination that is better to memorize than to try to decipher. Also similar to last week, if you know the 'tion' sound, the beginnings of the words are pretty straightforward. I have high hopes for this quiz. :)

 After Friday, I don't want to see any more 'SHUNS' at the end of words!

 

Thursday, February 26

Hi parents,

We had a pretty great day today.

In the morning, we had our spelling quiz, and it went really well! Thanks for practicing at home!

David Bouchard gave an amazing talk in the gym. He talked about being an author, indigenous culture, and how everyone has a unique gift to offer the world. He played the flute and read from some of his books. He is a very engaging speaker - if you'd like to see him talk at our school tonight, please come! I'll post the info again at the end of this post.

In cursive, we learned the letter p. We played the math game 'classroom of doom'. We had Music class, and went outside for gym.

Tomorrow is a PD Day, so enjoy your weekends, and stay tuned for next week's spelling words!

Zac

"THE GIFT OF READING"

We are thrilled to have the incredible Canadian author, David Bouchard, come to Lake Bonavista School. He will be at our school on Thursday, February 26th. In the morning he will present to all students. In the evening, we happy to host a special parent presentation called "The Gift of Reading". You do not want to miss out on this opportunity to hear from this legendary writer.

Thursday, February 26

6:30pm

Lake Bonavista School

To help us with planning, please RSVP by February 24th using this link.

Thank you to our School Council for their financial support of this event.

Wednesday, February 25

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today. In the morning, we made these Pink Shirt Day posters, which turned out super nice. I wish I could post them but they have students in them. They'll probably be out in the hallway for conferences though. :)

In math, we're working away at multiplication still. The Grade 4s are quickly getting the hang of 3-digit by 1-digit problems.

In Science, we learned about states of matter. We had an interesting discussion about atoms. The students made charts to show the differences between each state of matter.

Our Author Visit is tomorrow! And the spelling quiz is tomorrow too, since there's no school on Friday.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, February 24

 Hi parents,

We had a good day today. The highlight was the 'whole school writing challenge', in which every class in the school spent 30 minutes writing about the same writing prompt. I was super impressed by the work the kids in Room 3 did today, I think it really reflected their best effort. :)

We had a good discussion about 'heating' and 'cooling', and how humans are pretty lucky to be able to manipulate the temperature in different ways. We talked about things like smelting, cooking food, freezing food, warm showers, etc. And the students made charts showing a wide range of activities and what temperature they are best completed at.

Tomorrow is PINK SHIRT DAY! 

Have a nice night,

Zac