Wednesday, April 22

Hi parents,

We had a busy day today. In the morning, we did Spelling Sentences, with two twists - the sentences had to all be on the tsame topic, and they also had to start in different ways. The hope was that this would help students prepare for paragraph writing, and from what I saw, it did.

In Health, we learned about permission, refusal, and boundaries. The students worked in groups to act out short skits illustrating situations in which a person might have to politely say no to a friend.

In the afternoon we did Daily LA and math. Math ended up being really hard today. We were doing fill in the blank type division problems, which really confused the students.

Problems like "8 / ___ = 2", for example, or "____ / 3 = 3".

These will inevitably become easier with time, as students build a stronger understanding of fact families,  and further develop their ability to recall basic facts. But practicing at home would definitely help too.

Tomorrow is Crazy Hair Day, and students are also allowed to bring a stuffy. :)

Have a nice night,

Zac

Our Art Card masterpieces are on display

Tuesday, April 21

 Hi parents,

We had an awesome day today. In the morning, we kept working on the biography paragraphs we started yesterday. We talked about 'indents', and staying on one topic or sub-topic per paragraph.

In math, we did a skip-counting challenge that the students absolutely knocked out of the park. I gave them 90 seconds to count as high as they could by 2's, 3's, 4's, 6's, 7's, 8's, 9's, 11's, and 12's. They did so well we're going to re-do the challenge next week with only 60 seconds.

For Health (just regular health - not 'grade 4 only') we learned about dangerous substances, and how to be safe if you encounter them. We talked about illegal vs. legal substances and the students brainstormed examples.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday, April 20

 Hi parents,

We had a good day today. In the morning, the students read simple biographies, and took jot notes. We started to turn these notes into topic sentences of paragraphs, and we'll complete the paragraphs tomorrow.

We learned about contractions, and looked over this week's spelling words. We also had Music and did Mission Impossible in Gym.

In the afternoon we had Daily LA, and in Math, the Grade 3 students worked on factor trees, while the Grade 4s used the stamp game for long division. We're really speeding through the whole division unit and I think we'll probably have a quiz around the end of April.

Thursday, April 23 - Crazy Hair Day

This Thursday is Crazy Hair Day for our class, as chosen by students who won last month's table prize.  Students are also allowed to bring one stuffy.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (week of April 19)

 Spelling List A (Apr. 17 – 24)

I’d	he’s	don’t	I’ve	you’ll
it’s	I’ll	can’t	I’m	she’d

 

Spelling List B (Apr. 17 – 24)

They’re	didn’t	she’ll	you’re	hasn’t
aren’t	they’d	mustn’t	where’s	that’s

 

Spelling List C (Apr. 17 – 24)

couldn’t	should’ve	wouldn’t	doesn’t	hadn’t
who’s	we’ve	they’ve	when’s	weren’t

The theme of this week is common contractions. We'll be talking about apostrophes and how they essentially are used to combine two words (did not --> didn't). For this week's quiz, apostrophe placemeent matters and capitalization of I also matters.

Good luck!

Friday, April 17

 Hi parents,

We ended our week on a good note today, but I don't have too much to say as most of the day was spent on Work Period. The students did an awesome job continuing work on their stories and paragraphs about friction.

We used the computers one last time to practice basic typing skills, and discussed 'factors' in math. We'll do more work with those next week.

The spelling quiz also went well although I haven't finished marking them yet.

Stay tuned for next week's words, and have a nice weekend!

Zac

Thursday, April 16

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today. 

In the morning, the students had music and gym, and we also started turning our jot notes from the Friction video into actual sentences, and paragraphs. We learned the cursive capital letters G and H.

 In French, we learned the months of the year.

In the afternoon we had a practice lockdown. The students did an awesome job at this. We also learned some more computer skills, and the kids are successful in starting to type their stories. We learned how to change font, size, spacing, etc. as well as how to undo. Some kids figured out how to share their work with other email accounts. We'll do a bit more work with computer skills tomorrow and then I think we'll wrap it up for the year, although typing up good copies of stories / other work will still be available as a responsible work choice sometimes.

We had a mini quiz for social studies today. Students were challenged to arrange 5 events from Canadian history in order, and to list the three reasons why European explorers mainly went on their voyages.

Tomorrow is our spelling quiz.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, April 15

 Hi parents,

We had a good day today. The students were really excited to use the computers. We did some lessons on logging in and out, and opening google docs. We'll do some more learning around basic computer skills (typing, internet safety, etc.) tomorrow and Friday, and then that'll probably it for a while.... I like to keep the tech use to a minimum.

We played kickball in gym, and worked more on our 'jot note' writing from yesterday. Tomorrow, we're going to attempt to turn these notes into paragraphs.

In math, we played Classroom of Doom, which is a math game that helps students practice basic facts using all operations. Division is going quite well - I think the students are getting it faster than multiplication, and there semes to still be a lot of enthusiasm around it.

In Social Studies, we learned about Samuel de Champlain. 

Have a nice night!

Zac

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