Wednesday, May 27

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today. The students spent a long time working on their book in a box projects. I've done this project 3 years in a row now, tweaking it slightly each time and this is my favourite iteration of it. The students are turning their boxes into 3D models of settings in their bookx and its really cool.

We learned about 'energy pyramids' in science today. The students drew their own diagrams, and even invented a pyramid for a fictional planet with different plants, herbivores, and carnivores.

Fort PJ Stuffy Day - Tomorrow! (May 28)

Whole bunch of days combined tomorrow. The students are invited to bring a blanket, a pillow, and a stuffy to school, and wear their PJs. This was chosen by the students who won last month's table prize.

The stuffies are only able to come out if a possibly stolen elf toy is returned, though.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, May 26

Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today. The students did good copies of their latest haiku poems.

We learned about telling time in math. This lesson went super well. I think it paid off leaving this till later in the year, when everyone is a lot better at counting by 5's. Will probably do the same next year. Students who already knew how to tell time answered challenge problems about 'elapsed time'.

We spent a lot of time working on the Book in a Box project too.

Have a nice night!

Zac

Monday, May 25

 Hi parents,

We had a good day today! In the morning, the students wrote haiku poetry. They used poetic words from a word list to make their poetry extra nice. This also challenged them to think outside the box with how they used words. 

We practiced this week's spelling words a bit, and the students quizzed each other to figure out what list they should work on. We talked about how getting 8+ correct means you're ready for the next level up.

In the afternoon, we worked on the Book in a Box project. The boxes are looking good so far and the kids seem really into it.

We also did an area and perimeter activity in which the students learned how two rectangles with the same area can have different perimeters, and that a long, skinny rectangle will have a longer perimeter than a shorter, wider rectangle with the same area.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of May 24)

 Spelling List A (May 22 – 29)

would	very	many	which	with
went	they	use	pull	because

 

Spelling List B (May 22 – 29)

about	should	they’ve	eight	myself
better	warm	done	bring	together

 

Spelling List C (May 22 – 29)

breath	airport	damage	honour	meant
judge	reason	either	since	worse

This week's words are 'need-to-know' sight words, which means they'll be harder to practice. I would recommend starting at list A - if your child gets 8+, try list B, if they get 8+ again, then List C. As the lists get harder, the words become less frequent. 

It is my dream to end a school year with everyone knowing how to spell 'they'.

Good luck!

Friday, May 22

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today with a lot of work period time. Performing at the Volunteer Tea was fun. I don't think the kids realized what a big audience they'd have! Thankfully we know those French songs super well.

In math, the students were tasked with finding the area and perimeter of their tables. They were allowed to use any unit of measurement they chose.

In Health, we learned a bit about social media and internet safety. We talked about the potential dangers of social media and how alogorithms are designed to show content that evokes an emotional response - often a negative one. 

At the end of the day, I sent home the spelling quizzes and the multiplication / division quiz re-dos. If you child wants another re-do, no problem! It only takes a few minutes to switch up the questions. Unlimited re-dos are available. I just want everyone to learn this stuff and feel confident that they know it.

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

Zac

Thursday, May 21

 Hi parents,

We had a great day at Nose Hill Park today!

We did a ton of walking, exploring, and learning about the significance of the park, and the medicine wheel landmark. The students loved getting to experience this unique place and seeing the city from a completely different angle than our other field trips have allowed. Thanks so much to our parent volunteers. :)

Spelling quiz tomorrow! Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, May 20

 Hi parents,

We had another good day today. In the morning, we learned about perimeter. Students had to calculate the perimeter of a variety of irregular polygons, and find the missing side length when given a perimeter.

We did another 'School-wide Write', where every class in the school spent an hour writing about a picture prompt.  This was the prompt:

 

I think this one went better than the last one. The work we've done with story writing and descriptive writing seems to have sunk in! I had a lot of fun reading these.

In the afternoon, we worked on the Book in a Box project (email  coming soon), went outside for gym, and learned about Nose Hill Park's iconic landmark, that we will be visiting tomorrow.

Have a nice night!

Zac 

Tuesday, May 19

Hi parents,

We had a great day today. In the morning, we learned about finding the area of rectangles. The students made city skylines using these area rectanges for buildings.

We did spelling sentences for this week's 'aw' words. The math quiz re-do went pretty well from what I've seen so far - I was so happy when half the class told me they'd been studying!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of May 17)

 Spelling List A (15 – 22)

saw	law	paws	draw	claws
hawk	pawn	flaw	yawn	gnaw

 

Spelling List B (15 – 22)

drawn	awful	straw	crawl	spawn
lawn	prawn	sawed	shawl	awesome

 

Spelling List C (May 15 – 22)

lawyer	sprawl	drawer	awkward	brawl
scrawny	withdraw	flawless	unlawful	awry

The theme is 'aw'. I had to dig pretty deep for some of the words on here so I anticipate this quiz being a difficult one!

Good luck!

Thursday, May 14

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today. It was basically just a big work period. 

I didn't have a chance to mark the spelling quizzes yet, but we did those, and we learned a few more cursive capital letters too. We also reviewed our French songs, which we will be singing at the Volunteer Tea. 

In the afternoon we did some quiet reading, and I am so happy with how this Book in a Box project is going so far! Students seem totally enthralled by their books. Lots of them have started reading by themselves as a responsible work choice.

I ended up giving a bit of homework this weekend. I mostly just did that to follow through, and in the hopes that it will help motivate students to work a little bit harder during the day. There was a lot of talking this week. I sent home short descriptions of each task as well, but in case your child didn't bribng one, here's what they said:

The multiplication and division quiz is on Tuesday! Have a nice long weekend, and maybe see you at the Spring Dance tonight :)

Zac

Wednesday, May 13

 Hi parents,

We had a really great day today. The students were exceptionally focused and hard-working, and we got through a whole bunch of stuff.

In the morning, we talked about parts of speech, including nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Students were tasked with writing 'super sentences' that included each of the above. For example: "the sneaky (adj,.) elf (noun) quietly (adv.) entered (verb).

We also went over the Montessori symbols for parts of speech. 

In math, we did more measurement, and learned about inches and feet. Students created big imperial 'rulers' on the floor using tape, and then measured their heights in feet and inches.

We had an awesome kickball game and the Blue Bandits won 10 - 8. Sportsmanship was exemplary.

In the afternoon we had an absouletly silent quiet reading block. Students had 25 minutes to read their chosen books for the Book in a Box project.

We ended our day with Social Studies, and read an article about the Hudsons Bay Company and its legacy in Canada. Students worked in pairs to answer comprehension questions.

Wheelchair Basketball Forms

At the end of the day, I handed out the math quizzes from last week, as well as more forms, these ones for our upcoming Wheelchair Basketball residency. Please bring those back ASAP, as well as the field trip forms if you haven't already - I'm sorry they're the same colour I know that's confusing.

Math Quiz Re-Do - Tues. May 19

On Tuesday, May 19, students will have an opportunity to re-do the multiplication and division quiz. The Re-do will feature the same format of questions, but with different numbers. We have practiced factoring every day this week, and I am confident the students have made huge growth in that area. I have also met with small groups of students to work on long division, and 'fill in the blank' problems. I am asking all the Grade 4s to re-do the quiz (the first version was too easy), and making ot optional for Grade 3s. I will use whatever score is higher when doing report cards, so there's really nothing to lose in trying it again.

Tomorrow is our spelling quiz!

Have a nice night,

Zac