Hi parents,
We had a great day today, most of which was spent on work period.
The students used their time really well and finished tons of things from earlier in the week.
I am just realizing now we completely forgot to do the skip-counting challenge. That'll be on Monday I guess.
We also had Daily LA and played some great dodgeball games in gym.
Remember our math quiz is on May 5th! There's a detailed description of what to expect from it in a previous blog post.
Have a nice weekend,
Zac
Hi parents,
We had an awesome day today, with a lot of new work.
In the morning we learned about Food Chains. Students created food chains to show how their research animal fits into a larger food chain. We talked about how a food chain is meant to represent the typical predator / prey relationships that occur in nature, not weird hypotheticals (for example, an alligator is not a predator of a coyote, even though they probably could eat them in very unusual circumstances).
In math, the students worked on some very challenging division word problems. In French, we learned about 'la maison'' (the house), and various words pertaining to it. In Cursive we learned how to write the capital letters K, L, and M.
Tomorrow is our spelling quiz, and we are also doing another skip-counting check-in.
Have a nice night,
Zac
Hi parents,
Today we finished watching a video on Voyageurs. The students wrote in their journals as if they themselves were voyageurs, describing their adventures and hardships, and trying to use as much historically accurate information as possible. Some kids decided to build a trading post and river scene in their spare time. I'm always pretty excited when a social studies topic sparks games like this (it does not happen often....)
Multiplication & Division Quiz - May 5th
This quiz will feature:
-8 basic fact problems, multiplication and division
-6 "fill in the blank" basic facts (for example, 3 x ___ = 12) (Grade 3 only)
-4 long multiplication problems (e.g. '342 x 4 = _____') (Grade 4 only)
-2 word problems involving basic facts
-4 long division problems (Grade 4 only)
-A 'factor tree' problem (Grade 3 only)
-A picture problem in which students must write an equation to describe a situation
Have a nice night!
Zac
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Hi parents,
We had a pretty good day today. In the morning, we started our animal research project. Students chose an animal from a variety of options, and were given a book to use for researching that animal. They read through their books and took some notes, categorizing the notes into sub-topics. Tomorrow we're going to use other sources for research to fill in some gaps, and learn about citing sources.
We went over this week's spelling words, and had music and gym in the morning.
In the afternoon we did Daily LA, and learned about voyageurs in social studies. We also started to learn about line graphs in math.
Have a nice night,
Zac
Spelling List A (Apr. 24 – May 1)
Spelling List B (Apr. 24 – May 1)
Spelling List C (Apr. 24 – May 1)
Hi parents,
We had an awesome crazy hair day. Thanks for helping out with that, I'm sure the pictures will make the yearbook, they're just so good.
We had a lot of work period time today.
We also had the spelling quiz.
We learned about 'sub-topics', and how you can break any topic down further and further as you go into more and more specific detail. For example, you could take a big topic like 'animals', and then make a sub-topic on 'ocean animals', which could have a sub-topic on 'deep-sea animals', and so on. Next week, students will be researching animals, taking jote notes, and then writing multi-paragraph papers on these animals, so having a good understanding of how to break a big topic (the animal), into sub-topics (habitat, diet, adaptations, etc.) will be crucial.
In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, and then watched a virtual book-reading of 'How To Be A Good Ancestor', by Leona Prince. She also answered audience questions after. It's been cool to hear from so many authors this year.
The spelling quiz went okay. Students were generally pretty good about spelling the words correctly, but lost marks for apostrophe placement. That may be something worth reviewing a bit.
Tomorrow is a PD Day, so have a great weekend, and stay tuned for next week's words!
Zac
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
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
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 List A (Apr. 17 – 24)
Spelling List B (Apr. 17 – 24)
Spelling List C (Apr. 17 – 24)
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
