Friday, May 31

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty awesome week. Thanks for understanding the lack of blog posts, it was an exceptionally busy week, and the next couple are looking equally busy. But I'm really impressed by the work the students did this week - there were some big improvements! I'll go over the main things we did this week:

Sharing Assembly 

Probably the biggest event of the week was our sharing assembly, which was at 9:00 this morning. We practiced every day this week for 15-45 minutes, and it definitely paid off. The students delivered their lines with confidence, and many opted to memorize them rather than reading from a script! The speeches were moving, the book was nice, the division was well-explained, and the song was heartwarming. I'm very proud of everyone!

Persuasive Writing

We did a few persuasive writing prompts this week. The students addressed the questions: 

"Would you rather be able to fly, or breathe underwater?"

and... 

"Would you rather sleep for a whole year, or stay awake for a whole year?"

With these tasks, we focused on providing and explaining reasons, as well as writing in the correct tense. We talked about how its important to be mindful of using the words "I" and "you", as well as "would" vs. "will". A lot of students struggled with this at first, and would write sentences like: "I would rather breathe underwater, because you can see lots of fish, and I will take pictures of them." But we did a lot of editing and I do believe the class walked away with some new perspectives on writing.

 

Math - Fractions, Percentages, and Factoring

We're kind of at the point in the year where we've covered all the big stuff in math, and now its just a matter of filling in the missing pieces. We learned about simplifying fractions, in basic terms, as well as how to turn a basic fraction into a percentage, by writing the equivalent version with a denominator of 100. Today, we learned about factoring, which I regret not teaching earlier, because I think it would've made equivalent fractions easier.

 

Gym - Basketball

We've been playing lots of basketball in gym. We learned about dribbling, passing (bounce pass and chest pass), and shooting, although we don't have hoops.

Drills - Lockdown AND Fire

We had a Lockdown Drill and a Fire Drill this week, both of which went well.

YMCA Field Trips Next Week!

I sent a message out earlier about what to expect from next week. Thank you so much to everyone for getting their forms back! :) Please let me know if you have any questions, or would like to volunteer - it would be great to have one more volunteer for our Swimming Day on Friday.

Have a great weekend,

Zac

Blogs moving to Fridays!

Hi parents,

We are entering the busy time in the year, and with our upcoming field trips, and the assembly, its even busier than usual. As a result I am just going to be updating the blog on Fridays. I will try to make the Friday updates extra informative and fun to read. I will also keep posting spelling words on Fridays.

Thanks for your understanding!

Zac

Please come to our assembly on Friday!

Sports Day!

 Hi parents,

We had an awesome sports day today!

The weather cooperated and the whole day was a blast. I think we'll all sleep very well tonight.

Our sports day class team was The Potato Army. Here's the poster.

Remember that next week we are still working on the same spelling words!

Also, please send back your field trip forms if you haven't already done so.

Have a nice weekend,

Zac

Thursday, May 23

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today. In the morning, Miles Cooper, a WHL hockey player, talked to the Grade 3/4 classes about teamwork and resilience. He answered tons of questions from kids and even gave everyone an autographed photo. 

We worked on a writing activity to reflect on the visit, and the students thought about something that they wanted to work really hard at, and what teamwork meant to them.

In math, we learned more about the relationship between fractions and decimals. Students went back to their Fraction Number Lines and added corresponding decimals. We had some awesome mathematical discussions about how bizarre it is to know that there are an infinite number of numbers between 0 and 1, and how when you divide by a decimal number, your dividend actually becomes larger....

The students went to Music, and when they got back, we practiced for our Assembly on May 31.

Tomorrow is Sports Day! Lets hope for decent weather. :)

Have a nice night,

Zac

Sports Day Tomorrow!

 

Tuesday, May 21

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty great day today. In the morning, the students learned about fractions and number lines. We learned how to divide a line into fractions of equal length.

The Grade 3 students worked on a writing task with Ms. Adamson while the Grade 4s did their second health lesson.

In the afternoon, we had Music, and watched a presentation from a guest speaker about accessibility and street / path design in Calgary. It was really interesting!

At the end of the day, we worked on this week's spelling words, and learned about the different forms of the -s suffix. Also, on List B, the second 'studies' has been replaced with 'buddies'. 

YMCA Field Trip Forms were sent home at the end of the day. Please fill in all sections and return them ASAP! Volunteer Forms will be sent home tomorrow. :)

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words! (Week of May 19)

 Spelling List A (May 17 – 31)

cries	tries	ponies	ashes	ladies
fries	spies	copies	wishes	flies

 

Spelling List B (May 17 - 31)

rubies	studies	wolves	buddies	parties
hobbies	riches	polishes	marshes	armies

 

Spelling List C (May 17 – 31)

applies	banishes	species	perhaps	strategies
pastries	politics	cities	weaknesses	robotics

Very challenging words this week!

We will be working on these lists for the rest of May, because next Friday is Sports Day, and Monday is a day off, so there'll really only be 3 days to practice.

Please go over the words with your child, and ask them to write the 'singular' form of each one, and notice how the ending changes as it becomes plural.

We will be looking at the '-s', '-es', and 'ies' suffixes, and when to use each one.

Good luck!

Thursday, May 16

 Hi parents,

We had an off day today but it ended well.

In the morning, we had our spelling quiz, and then moved on to what I thought would be a fun social studies activity, in which the students worked in groups to build landscapes that we've been studying. Unfortunately there was a lot of arguing and fighting. The class ended up losing all of their table points. 

We had some good discussions about group work, and compromise, and the students had follow-up conversations and made sure everyone in the group felt like they mattered, and we got some pretty awesome work done eventually. You can see it in our main display case!

In math, we explored 'equivalent fractions'. We learned that you can make equivalent versions of any fraction by multiplying the numerator and the denominator by the same value.

I hope you all have a great long weekend!

Zac

Wednesday, May 15

 Hi parents,

Today we continued learning about fractions, and the students used greater than / less than equations to compare fractions with the same denominator.

We had time for finishing up writing tasks that were already on the go, and students who were already finished got to work on word work sheets on suffixes, prefixes, and the '-le', '-al', and '-il', sounds, which sound really similar at the ends of words.

We did some quiet reading and work time in the afternoon, and at the end of the day, we discussed 'formal' vs. 'informal' behaviours, and when each is appropriate. We talked about how tomorrow, with our dance instructor, the whole class should be in formal mode, because our instructor doesn't know them well enough yet for them to be acting silly - that would come across as rude.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, May 14

 Hi parents,

We had an okay day today. Unfortunately, we had to have some conversations about showing respect, because the students were not listening well in gym, and our dance instructor was having to repeat himself over and over. If you could have some conversations at home about respectful listening at school, that would be great - because I don't want it to be a thing that the kids only do because I told them to, or they're afraid of getting in 'listening club' - I think it should be something they do genuinely, out of compassion.

In the morning, the Grade 4s did a 'health and wellness' lesson while the Grade 3 students worked in our buddy class.

In math, we continued learning about fractions. I gave the class a really tough challenge - to use protractors to perfectly divide a circle into fifths, ninths, and twelfths. Only one student was able to do it. 

In the afternoon we did Daily LA, Sound Kreations Dance, and then work period.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday, May 12

 Hi parents,

We had a good day today! The students spent most of the day finishing up work they'd started with Ms. Delke last week when I was away. They've been writing stories that are set in Peru, working on division practice sheets, sketching and writing notes on mysterious artifacts, and working on content for our upcoming assembly.

LBS is also looking for submissions for this year's Yearbook Cover! So some students in Rm 6 have begun working on those as a responsible work choice.

Today we started working on Fractions. We talked about have fractions are a lot like division - except instead of splitting a big number up into smaller groups, we're now splitting just one into even smaller parts. We used the Fraction Towers material to model this process before creating diagrams to depict simple fractions in different ways.

We are still quite short on volunteers for our YMCA field trip the first week of June - please let me know if you're interested in volunteering!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of May 11)

Spelling List A (May 12 – 15)

all	any	them	they	when	what
there	try	put	our	have	were

 

Spelling List B (May 12 – 15)

colour	happen	found	anything	those
wouldn’t	does	laugh	cheese	together

 

Spelling List C (May 12 – 15)

energy	different	furniture	arrange	natural
neither	observe	sweater	scent	possible

 It's a short week, so we're doing sight words! Please be aware - the words on List C are considered to be "Grade 5 sight words". Please make sure your child has already mastered the words on list A and B before attempting list C. 

Being able to correctly spell 'have' is a far more valuable life skill than being able to spell 'furniture'.

Good luck!

Wednesday, May 8

 Hi parents, 

We had another good day today. In the morning, we made new kickball teams, which means we have to retire "The Toxic Tigers" and "The 90's Kids". We will be taking team photos on Monday, May 13 to commemorate them. Students may want to wear their team colours, totally optional.

Today was Hats on for Mental Health Day, and as such, we did a lot of work around mindfulness, and mental wellbeing. I told the cautionary tale of my second year of university, and how sometimes, having freedom to eat whatever you want and play as many video games as you want actually isn't the key to happiness. The students seemed to think this was pretty obvious so that's a little embarrassing. 

We did an activity where we tried to clear our minds, and became 'watchers' of our own thought patterns. The students wrote down thoughts that popped into their heads despite them trying not to think about anything. We talked about how it can be helpful to become aware of your thought patterns so you can address things that might be causing stress on a sub-conscious level throughout your day.

In math, we finished using the golden beads to teach long division. The grade 3s wrote their own division word problems.

In the afternoon, we had music, and started an art project about Chullo hats, the traditional Peruvian knitted hats.

I am away at a conference tomorrow and Friday, so enjoy the rest of the week, and have a nice weekend!

Zac

Tuesday, May 7

 Hi parents,

We had a good day today. In the morning, we did an art project (top secret), and then moved on to math. In math, the Grade 3 students worked away at division and multiplication problems with missing numbers, while the Grade 4s did long division work with the golden beads. We're starting to move away from the beads and more towards the algorithm (see below).

The algorithm is of course way more efficient than using the golden beads, but if you don't understand why it works, it can kind of limit your understanding of division. The beads are always great for helping kids understand the 'behind-the-scenes' of math algorithms.

In science, we watched a Bill Nye video about pollution. It was cool to see how much technology has changed since the 90s - in the video, they were talking to scientists who were working to develop a biodegradable plastic, but it wasn't nearly ready for commercial markets. They also referenced electric cars as a hypothetical future innovation.

In the afternoon, we had our first Sound Kreations Dance class, which was super fun. A lot of kids came up to me after and said "I'm really glad I did that". Many of them were skeptical at first.

Tomorrow is Hats On For Mental Health Day!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Flower Fundraiser!

 There’s only 10 days left to order from our Spring Flower Fundraiser with gorgeous flowers and supplies from Growing Smiles. Ordering closes on May 15^th and flowers will be ready for pick up on May 30^th (2:00 – 4:00 pm). Click the link to check it out! https://lakebonavistaschool.growingsmilesfundraising.com/home

Thanks!

Monday, May 6

 Hi parents,

We had a bit of a crazy day today, but a good one all around. Due to some unexpected absences we ended up taking on the grade 3 students from another class.

In the morning, the class chose from three writing prompts:

1) Write about your weekend

2) Write a short story

3) Top Secret

In math, the Grade 3 students worked away at division problems, as well as multiplication "fill in the blanks" (for example, ___ x 3 = 6), which are basically division problems when you think about it.

The Grade 4s learned how to use the Golden beads for short division. We're learning the 'why' behind that classic short division algorithm, where you write the remainder as a little number beside the next place value column. It's honestly really cool. Until this year, I'd never really considered how it really worked, so I'm excited not only to have made sense of it, but also to be teaching it to the kids so hopefully they do as well.

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, Spelling practice, and Music.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of April 14) & Blog Update

 Spelling List A (May 3 - 10)

wire	fire	hire	tired	siren
going	you	used	walk	just

 

Spelling List B (May 3 - 10)

spire	entire	empire	desire	expired
retire	admire	vampire	firefly	mire

 

Spelling List C (May 3 - 10)

satire	squire	choir	require	acquire
inquiry	wireless	sapphire	backfired	conspire

 

Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today - the students have started presenting their speeches, and so far, they've exceeded expectations!

We learned more about Peru through a book on Epic, played math games to work on division and multiplication facts, and did Daily LA. We went outside and played Kickball.

Once again I didn't have a chance to mark the spelling quizzes. I will do that on Monday.

Have a nice weekend!

Zac

Hats on For Mental Health!

 

Thursday, May 2

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty fun day today. In the morning, we learned more about Peru, and watched videos on the Incan Empire and Machu Picchu. Then, the class worked together to build their own "city in the clouds" with materials from around the classroom. The purpose of this activity was to appreciate how amazingly difficult it would've been for the Incas to build their city at the top of a mountain, without any modern technology - not even the wheel!

Believe it or not, the whole thing was cleaned up in about 7 minutes.

After that, we did some division word problems. The students came up with their own examples, and solved them.

In the afternoon, we learned about the Montessori concept of Cosmic Education. 

Basically, this is the idea that everything in the world, and by extension the universe, is connected, on some level. Sometimes that connection is so seemingly insignificant, but its always there. We used the example of a bad day at school. Obviously it affects all the kids in our class. But often, after a bad day, we'll negatively impact our families at home with our bad moods, which in turn may impact people they interact with, and before you know it, our bad day is impacting people who have no idea who are. That's the idea of cosmic education. 

Thankfully it is also true for positive impacts we can have. We used a ball of yarn to show how we can uplift our peers, which often creates a ripple effect that goes well beyond the classroom.

We ended our day by practicing speeches. Tomorrow, the students will do some presenting!

Have a nice night,

Zac