Wednesday, March 20

Hi parents,

We had a pretty fun day today. In the morning, the students prepared for "student led conferences" by writing about work they were most proud of, or creating 'event maps' to show their plans for which work they'd like to share. I'm going to provide a cheat sheet to parents as well that feature the 'must-see' work. Sometimes kids just want to show off their art.

In math, we had a mini quiz for multiplication, mostly to check in and see if we're ready to move on to more complicated concepts. In a word - yes, we are. The students did such an amazing job on this quiz, I couldn't believe how many perfect or near-perfect scores there were, and if there were mistakes, they were incredibly minor.

We played bench dodgeball in gym and had some excellent matches! Teams were coming up with unique strategies, and sometimes they really paid off!

In the afternoon, we worked on our novel studies, and then did a big clean-up. We ended the day with Daily LA.

Today was sadly Mr. Wade's last day :(  But we celebrated his time with us by making one giant table, and having "DJ Day", where the students finally got their song requests fulfilled.

Three Big Things:

Please...

1. Sign up for conferences if you haven't already.

2. Return field trip forms tomorrow!

3. Send shoeboxes if you have any.

Have a nice night!

Zac

"Book in a Box" Exemplar. Whoever made this clearly had help from their mom.

Monday, March 18 - Blog Homework!

Hi parents,

We had a good day today. We did some writing practice in the morning, around spring-themed writing prompts. We also did some multiplication work around word problems. After solving a couple example problems, students went off and created their own. Many of their problems are featured below. We decided to turn it into a 'blog homework' activity to make things interesting! Feel free to try these out at home:

Choose whichever problems you want. Skip any problems you don't want to attempt. Every 3 problems solved is worth 1 bonus table point! (maximum 3 pts per person).

1. There are 48 boys at a party. Each boy eats 4 cinnamon rolls. How many cinnamon rolls do the boys eat in total? 

-Seth

2. There are 65 teachers singing. Each teacher sings 3 songs. How many songs are sung in total?

-Anny

3. There are 6 boxes of clothes. Each box has 3 shirts inside. How many shirts do we have in total?

-Anny

4. There are 5 pandas. They each have 3 babies. How many baby pandas are there in total? 

-Claire

5. There are 12 classes and 5 students in each class. How many students are there in total?

-Claire

6. There are 30 crowns in a box, and there are 8 gems in each crown. How many gems are there in total?

-Harper

7. There are 32 houses and each one has 5 people living in it. How many people are living in those houses in total?

-Seth

8. There are 3 fish tanks, and each fish tank has 50 fish in it. How many fish are there in total?

-Kobe

9. There are 2 holes in the ground. Each hole has 2,000 centipedes. How many centipedes are there in total?

-Isla

10. There are 3 animatronics at each pizzeria, and there are 2 pizzerias. How many animatronics are there in total?

-Evelyn

11. The zoo has 5 crocodiles per enclosure, in 6 enclosures. How many crocodiles are there in total?

-David

12. There are 13 bags, and each one has 4 stuffies that I bought at WalMart. How many stuffies do I have in all?

-David

13. There are 5 stuffies at a ball. Each one has 2 button eyes. How many buttons are at the ball?

-Memphis

14. There were 6 cats. Each cat caught 8 mice. How many mice did they catch altogether?

-Hannah

15. There are 10 spiders. Each spider has 8 eyes. How many eyes are there in total?

-Michael

16. There are 10 space ships with 15 humans on each one. How many humans are there in total?

-Beatrice

17. A dog got 5 toys every day for 1 week. How many toys did the dog get in total?

-Beatrice

18. There are 50 pizzas at Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria. There are a lot of children eating pizza, and they each eat 2.5 pizzas. How many children were there? 

-Seth

Spelling Words (Week of March 17)

 Spelling List A (March 15 – 21)

meet	hoax	light	town	fruit
haul	coin	crew	each	paid

 

Spelling List B (March 15 - 21

coffee	loaves	higher	however	cruise
gaunt	poison	nephew	eating	daisy

 

Spelling List C (March 15 – 21)

goatee	scapegoat	highway	scowl	ruined
autumn	turmoil	pewter	cease	paisley

With Spring Break just around the corner, what better time for a spelling review? The Quiz will be on March 21. May the luck of the Irish smile on you.

Friday, March 15

 Hi parents,

We ended our week on a high note, as we have been doing most weeks lately. 

The students did a writing / drawing activity that we're going to compile and give to Mr. Wade on his last day, next Wednesday. 

We learned how to draw "Celtic Knots", and we also learned about the history of St. Patrick's Day, and how it, like many other holidays, was brought to Canada by people from another country.

In math, we played "Classroom of Doom", which is basically a game where students quiz each other on Addition, Subtraction, and now multiplication basic facts, and earn treasures for answering questions correctly. 

Our Simple Machine display is officially finished! Come see if for yourselves at Student-Led Conferences!

Stay tuned for spelling words, and have a nice weekend,

Zac

Thursday, March 14

 Hi parents,

This has really been a great week for our class.

In the morning we went to the library and read books about St. Patrick's Day. The students wrote 'quiz questions' to accompany each book, and test future readers on their comprehension.

In math, we reviewed the four big multiplication strategies that we've covered so far - Skip-counting, Noodles and Bowls, Arrays, and Repeated Addition. The students created pages in their sketchbooks to show a single equation solved using each of the big four.

We've been working hard on our simple machines display and getting lots of compliments on it. There are still a few machines that need to be put up, but here's how it looks so far!

At the end of the day, the students worked on vegetable paintings with Ms. Davies. Those also look incredible, I wish we had enough space in the hall to put them all up!

The spelling quiz is tomorrow - have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, March 13

 Hi parents,

We had another wonderful day today. Our simple machines display is coming along nicely, and we spent a big chunk of our morning working on it. The students have begun to build simple machines, that will be mounted on the wall to make the display more interactive and fun.

We did Daily LA in the morning, and our novel study work in the afternoon, 

We learned the Repeated Addition strategy for multiplication. This strategy involves adding a number to itself over and over again for each time its being multiplied. For example, solving "12 x 3" as 12 + 12 + 12.

Repeated Addition is a good introductory strategy for multi-digit multiplication problems. For example, the students may struggle to solve "27 x 3 = ", but adding 27 + 27 + 27 isn't all that difficult, if you stack them.

At the end of the day, we continued working on our spelling practice crosswords. The students have started adding 'clues' and numbering their words. 

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, March 12

 Hi parents,

We had another awesome day today. It was also a great example of when good things come from bad things. In the morning, we were all ready to type up good copy paragraphs for our simple machines project, but then we encountered technical difficulties and had to give up. We decided to do the good copies by hand instead, which ended up actually being way better - I am seriously amazed by how well our hallway display is coming along.

In the afternoon, we had Music and art, and spent more time reading for our novel study. Again, I cannot express how proud I am of the students. This project has been going better than I ever imagined it would. Some kids have even told me they like reading more than free-choice time. 

Have a nice night!

Zac

Monday, March 11

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today.

In the morning, we did not do weekend journal writing, and instead began working on our big simple machines wrap-up project. Here's how it goes:

Students are working in small groups to research one of the following topics: pulleys, levers, wheels, gears, wedges, inclined planes, screws, and traditional indigenous tools. They're going to write a short, concise paragraph about their topic, and type it up. Then, they're going to create Davinici-esque sketches to illustrate their topic. We'll put that work up on display outside the classroom. Finally, using K-Nex or other materials, they're going to create a working model of their simple machine. All of this will be on display for Student-Led conferences outside the classroom. Hopefully it turns out as well as I'm envisioning it.

Our book study project is off to an excellent start. We did about 20 more minutes of reading today, and the kids are making great progress on their books. The plan is to keep reading until spring break, and then anyone who isn't finished their book by then can take it home and finish it over the break.

In math, we learned about arrays, which can be used to solve and represent multiplication problems.

Finally, we ended our day by introducing the "Spelling Crossword Challenge", which is a more difficult, but fun, way to practice spelling, by creating a crossword puzzle that uses all of your spelling words and creating clues for each word.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Friday, March 8

 Hi parents,

We had another good day today. The highlight was probably when we officially started our "Book Study" project - to look at the room, and see every student reading a chapter book quietly to themselves, was just an awesome sight to see. What's even better though is seeing how proud the students are of themselves. I've told the students they are welcome to take their books home and read as well. 

We worked on personalized bookmarks, to celebrate the project, and of course to mark pages in books.

For gym, we went out and played kickball in the snow. When we got back inside, once of our students gave a presentation to the class all about 3-D printing. The audience asked thoughtful questions and were clearly quite engaged!

We ended our day with the spelling quiz, and with multiplication practice.

Have a nice weekend,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of March 10)

 Spelling List A (March 8 – 15)

again	this	what	who	have
out	some	could	soon	there

 

Spelling List B (March 8 – 15)

chief	piece	movie	field	siege
cutie	thief	friend	wield	series

 

Spelling List C (March 8 – 15)

nieces	belief	relieved	rookie	fierce
premier	pierce	diesel	grieve	achieve

The rule this week is "'ie' but it sounds like ee"

I couldn't find enough words that were suitable for List A, so List A is just a bunch of must-know sight words.

Good luck!

Thursday, March 7

 Hi parents,

We had an awesome day today. In the morning, we used the coloured bead bars to solve more multiplication problems. We talked about how in a Montessori classroom, using concrete materials and working through problems manually is important even if you already know the answer in your mind. nIt's kind of like how you can visualize a kitten in your mind, and imagine how fluffy and cute it is, but that's no substitute for actually holding one.

After that, the students discussed a deceptively complicated question: "Where does water come from?"

As they discussed, it became apparent that there was no all-encompassing answer. That led us to discuss the water cycle. Students created their own labelled diagrams of the water cycle in their sketchbooks. t also prepared us for our presentation by Janice Mah, who is a member of the LBS community and also happens to work as an engineer for the city of Calgary in the water treatment department.

Janice taught the about the meaning of the word 'watershed', and all about how our city ensures our water is clean for everyone. We learned about the three different types of water (drinking water, waste water, and storm water), and why its important to ensure certain things are kept out of different kinds of water. 

In the afternoon, we went outside because we'd missed gym in the morning. A lot of students were so excited about the book report project, that they just wanted to read instead. It was so cool to see. I can't wait to see where this project goes.

Tomorrow is our spelling quiz! Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, March 6

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today!

In the morning, students were introduced to the "Book in a Box" project, which we will be working on every day for the next few weeks. Basically, its a novel study, on a novel of the students' choice. We went to the library to find books that were a good difficulty level. I'm really excited about this project because I think it will be a great way for students to push themselves to read longer, more complex books. Ms. Smith helped the students find books that were at a good level for them. 

After that, we learned about the bead chain material, and how we can use it for skip-counting, and multiplication.

In the afternoon, we had more time for writing, as well as Daily LA.

We ended our day by reviewing Simple Machines, in preparation for another cool project we'll be starting next week.

There will definitely be a lot to share for conferences.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, March 5

 Hi parents,

We had a good day today all around. The morning was awesome - we got to see the Beauty and the Beast opera, which was actually really cool and incredibly well done, and then we had Tea Time Tuesday. The students wrote about what they thought of the Opera, or chose to retell the story of Beauty and the Beast in their own words. 

In the afternoon, we did more work with multiplication. We're trying to do as much work with concrete manipulatives as possible right now, to make sure everyone understands what multiplication really is, before we start getting into more efficient, but abstract concepts. 

The class went to Music, and then had Art with Ms. Davies at the end of the day.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday, March 4

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today. In the morning, we continued building skills to help with story writing. The class used a template to help them with planning a simple, short story. It goes like this:

Once there was a __________, who wanted to ________________.

So they tried ____________________.

But, it didn't work because __________________.

Then they tried _____________________.

And it worked!

The advantage to starting with a plan like this is it ensures your story has a problem and a solution. The next step is to expand on each section and add details, dialogue, and develop the plot more gradually. It is often helpful to know where a story is going beforehand, so you know how long to spend on each part.

In math, we did a fun activity based on fact families. There were 18 kids present today, and they had to silently figure out how many different ways they could be split into equal groups, and write multiplication equations to correlate with each arrangement. For example, "3 x 6 = 18,   2 x 9 = 18, etc."

In the afternoon, we learned about Opera, and talked about the performance we're attending virtually tomorrow on Beauty and the Beast. We also talked about how to dress in fancy clothes for attending an opera, which of course is optional, but might be fun.

We ended our day with spelling practice.

Tomorrow is also Tea Time Tuesday! Bring your own teabag!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Beauty and the Beast Opera! (March 5)

 

Ms. Kawchuk has organized this awesome experience for our whole school! We will be talking about the meaning of 'opera', as well as its history, and Beauty and the Beast in class on Monday. 

Remember that Tuesday is an exceptionally fancy day, as we are not only attending the virtual opera, but also having tea for Tea Time Tuesday.

Spelling Words (Week of March 3)

 Spelling List A (March 1 – 8)

new	blew	view	crew	stew
dew	few	chew	flew	brew

 

Spelling List B (March 1 – 8)

fewer	screw	jewels	shrew	brewery
renew	chewed	curfew	reviewing	nephew

 

Spelling List C (March 1 – 8)

sewage	pewter	skewers	preview	overview
renewable	jewelry	interview	askew	eschew

Keep up the great work!

Friday, March 1

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today and ended our week on a high note.

In the morning, students finished up their French work from yesterday. We also finished building the big version of our K-Nex Rollercoaster. It is massive and it has a loop. Unfortunately it can't make it around the full track without a little boost, but I think it may have always been like that - it's about 25 years old.

We met with our buddy class and played "Place Value Pickle". It's a simple math game that builds estimation and place value skills, and its great for kids of all ages.

In Science, we learned about levers in more depth, in particular the role of a 'fulcrum'. Students experimented by making levers with objects from around the classroom, and moved the fulcrum to allow light objects to lift heavier ones.

At the end of the day, we learned more about multiplication. We talked about the 'Noodles and Bowls' strategy, which is a slow, but reliable, way to solve multiplication problems. Basically, you'd take any multiplication problem, lets say 3 x 5, and then draw 3 circles (bowls), and then put 5 lines (noodles) in each one. Then count them all up.  This is great for beginners as it provides a clear visual of the process of making equal groups, but ideally students eventually move away from it and use skip-counting instead.

At the end of the day I handed back a bunch of marked work, including the Angles Quiz. A lot of students lost marks for really minor mistakes, like not indicating the 'vertex', or not labelling angles as obtuse, acute, or right. I hope they see that as a learning experience to read questions more carefully.

Have a nice weekend,

Zac

REMINDER: TEA TIME TUESDAY - MARCH 5

BYOT (Bring Your Own Teabag)