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	studies	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

Wednesday, May 1

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today although the talking was a bit out of hand. The students got in trouble for being quite loud in the halls and disrupting other classes.

In the morning though, things were great. We watched a couple videos about effective presentation habits, including speaking confidently, looking at the audience and making eye contact, and using gestures to drive your points home. The class practiced their speeches with partners, keeping these things in mind.

We moved on to division, and worked on problems with remainders. This time, the students used the Coloured Bead Bars material to illustrate the concept of equal groups and remainders. This material is awesome for this lesson because the beads are already put into groups, so you can see how many groups will 'fit' into a larger number.

The afternoon is when we had our big talk about hallway etiquette. We also had Music, and introduced a new math game called "Around the World". This game is based on a 80's / 90's classic, where children circulated around the room competing against each other to solve multiplication problems faster.  

This new and dare I say improved version challenges students to compete against the clock, rather than each other, to solve as many problems as they can, while still travelling around the classroom. The problems even have countries / provinces attached to them to teach a little geography. It also allows the whole class to play simultaneously instead of just watching while two students face off.

SPORTS DAY 2024

We are so excited to be able to host a Lake Bonavista School Sports Day in 2024! Sports Day will be taking place on Friday, May 24th from 9:00am – 11:50am, the end of day dismissal time will stay the same (12:15pm). Students will participate in a variety of sports activities in the school field and will end the day watching the Second Annual Teachers VS. Grade 6 Kickball Game! Parent Council has generously provided a small snack for all students to enjoy during their outdoor time. Please pack an additional snack for your child to eat prior to heading outside for the day.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Wear athletic clothing and shoes
• Pack a water bottle and snack (we will have two snacks this day)
• Please apply sunscreen and bug spray before arriving to school
• We will be moving forward with Sports Day unless there are thunderstorms, please dress accordingly 

Thanks for your support! 

Sports Day Committee

 

Sports Day Volunteers Needed! 

We are seeking volunteers for our LBS 2024 Sports Day! We are looking for parents who would be comfortable co-leading (with support from a teacher) a sports day activity. This year, sports day is happening on Friday, May 24, 2024 from 9:00am – 12:10pm. If you’re available to join us please email your child's teacher. Please note that a valid police clearance is required to volunteer.

Have a nice night,

Zac