Friday, April 12

 Hi parents,

Students did a lot of work today, and you could feel the tiredness starting to creep in by the end of it.

Many students finished up their novel studies, which they will be presenting next week, but a lot of students opted to take them home for homework.

The spelling quiz was really tough today. We talked about how tough quizzes are learning opportunities, and how getting an A+ is only an impressive achievement if you worked hard for it. I'm sure we could all do Kindergarten level spelling quizzes and ace them week after week, without ever getting any better at spelling - its the quizzes like this week's that remind us that we've still got learning to do.

Later in the day, students finished their "Plants for Healing" research pages, as well as their multiplication practice sheets. We're definitely at that point of the learning process where it all comes down to practice now. Students understand how and when to multiply, but they haven't built much fluency in skip-counting (especially by 4s, 6s, 7s, 8s, and 9s). If you have flashcards, mad minutes, math games, etc. that help build fact fluency, that kind of practice could be really helpful.

At the end of the day, we introduced our next topic in social studies - communities around the world. Just like last year, we'll be learning about life in India, Tunisia, Ukraine, and Peru, but we'll do different activities than last year to keep it fresh for the Grade 4s.

Have a nice weekend,

Zac