Wednesday, March 18

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today. Our walking field trip to the ridge was wonderful. The weather made such a big difference. We talked about how the valley was formed, and the differences between the natural hill of the ridge, and the manmade one at Lake Bonavista.

We did Spelling Sentences today for the 's words. A bit of extra practice at home couldn't hurt this week, as our quiz is tomorrow, and the concept is a bit tricky.

We started painting two cornhole boards, which are going to be up for auction at MAPSS night in the near future! They look really good so far. 

We watched Napi and the Rock in the afternoon, and did Daily LA. 

Today was sadly Ms. Ireland's last day :( 

She was a great help in our class every Wednesday and we will miss her!

Tomorrow is student-led conferences - please book a time if you haven't already, as bookings will close tomorrow.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday, March 16

Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today. I was getting a little worried about the limericks because a lot of students were just not quite getting it - but something seemed to click mid-afternoon and now I'm thinking we're ready for St. Patrick's Day after all.

We had a good lesson on the new spelling words. I think the students have been curious about how to use apostrophes for a while so they listened surprisingly well. I'm excited to see how this week's quiz goes! If you're practicing at home, make sure to mix up the word order, and use each word in a sentence to test whether your child can tell whether its in possessive or plural form.

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, so encourage your child to wear green :)

And please book a conference if you haven't already done so.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of March. 15)

 Spelling List A (March 13 – 19)

dogs	cat’s	goat’s	houses	bears
cats	bear’s	dog’s	goats	house’s

 

Spelling List B (March 13 – 19)

provinces	teachers	books	province’s	athlete’s
book’s	teacher’s	athletes	gyms	Jim’s

 

Spelling List C (March 13 – 19)

trophy’s	pony’s	hopes	Penny’s	country’s
ponies	Hope’s	trophies	pennies	countries

This week's words are meant to teach how to accurately use apostrophes. We're going to be discussing the difference between plurals and possessives. I also threw in some names to test whether the kids know to capitalize proper nouns, and on list C there are even some names that also double as plurals, one even with an -ies ending.

I am also going to be reading the words out in a random order so I think this will be quite a difficult week for spelling! 

Friday, March 13

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today. Our walking field trip was a lot of fun. We went to the Lake Bonavista Promenade and learned more about the lake itself, and the community, and what the 'promenade' is meant to remind the community of and represent.

I have not had a chance to mark the spelling quizzes yet, but we did those when we got back.

We started writing limericks. Limericks are incredibly challenging poems. Staying on topic, while also adhering to rhyme and rhythm standards, is actually really difficult!

We ended the day with some Handball in gym.

I have finished marking the geometry quiz re-dos - they're a lot better than the first ones. I know we didn't study nearly as much either, so that suggests to me that a lot of what we'd covered before has actually stayed with the kids, and they were able to fill in some of the gaps this time around.

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

Please book a time for conferences if you haven't already done so. 

Zac

Thursday, March 12

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today. Thursdays are always good days because we get to do French and Cursive.

In honour of the 100th day of school, students did a fun writing task based on '100'. They wrote about where they thought they'd be in 100 seconds, 100 minutes, 100 hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, and even millennia. I really enjoyed reading these.

In math, we did the Geometry Quiz Re-do. All around it went better than the first one. If anyone wants another re-do, I am happy to provide that as well. :)

In cursive, we learned our last lower-case letter, 'q', which means we can start working on the capitals. In French we learned how to say "I am happy" and "I am sad".

The spelling quiz is tomorrow, and we are also going on our second walking field trip. Please make sure your child is dressed for the cold weather!

Have a nice night,

Zac 

Wednesday, March 11

 Hi parents,

Today we did 'spelling sentences' with a new twist - all the sentences had to be about the same topic. 

In math, we reviewed for the geometry quiz re-do tomorrow. Based on what I saw today, the students have still got a pretty good grasp on these concepts, but that's also what I thought last time, so if you want to review any of this at home, it would probably not hurt....

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

In the afternoon we learned about glaciers, and how they've shaped the land in Alberta. 

Tomorrow is the 100th Day of School! We didn't have a chance to discuss a 'spirit day', but maybe we'll do something fun on Friday instead. 101st day of school is an even bigger milestone when you think about it.

Have a nice night,

Zac

 

Tuesday, March 10

 Hi parents,

Our first walking field trip was a big success. We walked to a great viewpoint of the lake, and did some journaling. Nobody got too cold. :)

In math, we did a multiplication 'check-in' (not for real marks, don't worry), just so I could get an idea of how we're all doing with multiplication. Long story short - we're doing great! I sent those check-ins home. They were a great insight into who needed a little extra help, and with what, and its all very do-able at school. Still, any extra practice at home is always valuable.

We did some more work with multiplication and area as well.

In the afternoon, we had a lot of work period time because I assigned a ton of work yesterday.

We also had a great discussion about communities and their unique landmarks.

Looking forward to our next walk on Friday!

Have a nice night,

Zac

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