Thursday, June 27 (Last Day of School!)

 

Room 6 - 2023/24 - Thanks for an Amazing School Year!

Hello families,

Today was one of the most emotional last days of school I've ever experienced. We had an awesome day that was spent reflecting on good times, saying goodbyes, cleaning up, and having fun. We did a bunch of end of year traditions, like learning the Cadillac Ranch line dance (just in time for Stampede), watching the Arthur episode "The Short Quick Summer", making summer to-do lists, and having one last sharing circle. 

This was maybe my best year of teaching yet. I loved coming to work every day because the kids were so kind, funny, supportive, and perseverant. It was amazing getting to see them all grow up and find themselves in our classroom. The sense of 'community' this year was really special.

Parents - thank you all for raising such great kids and being so supportive of our work in the classroom.

I hope everyone has a fantastic summer! See you in September  August because for some reason that's when we're starting next year!

Zac

Spelling Words (Last week of a School!!)

 Spelling List A (June 25 – 27)

joy	only	roof	fire	fries
isn’t	soil	used	now	chew

 

Spelling List B (June 25-27)

toilet	screw	shadow	value	destroy
rapidly	gloomy	admire	rubies	weren’t

 

Spelling List C (June 25-27)

borrow	volume	soybeans	carefully	waterproof
squire	cities	doesn’t	fierce	preview

Sorry for the massive delay! The last quiz of the year is just for fun so no pressure. :)

Friday, June 21

 Hi parents, 

It's been a fantastic week in Room 6. Here are the highlights:

Writing - Poetry

We continued working with different styles of poetry, including verse, free verse, and concrete poems. The students wrote poems with multiple rhyming verses of 4 lines each. I was really hoping to post some pictures of the students' work but it's all being sorted right now. So you'll have to wait until next Thursday to see it, up close and personal.

Math - Complementary and Supplementary Angles, Triangles, and Area

We covered a bunch of content in math this week. Students applied their addition, subtraction, and angles skills to determine complementary and supplementary angles in a variety of different problems. Basically this involved finding a 'missing angle', using a 90 degree or 180 degree angle as a referent.

For Triangles, the Grade 3/4 expectations are pretty simple - just identifying and drawing different types of triangles, including right triangles, isosceles triangles, and equilateral triangles. When we talked about Area, we also talked about how you can find the area of a Right triangle the same way that you would for a rectangle, and then divide it in half, because a right triangle is half of a rectangle.

French 

We did a lot of French this week in preparation for the French Party, which was on Wednesday. We learned:

-French numbers to ten

-French basic body words (head, shoulders, knees, feet, eyes, ears, mouth, nose)

-How to say "I would like" (Je voudrais)

-How to say "I have" (J'ai)

-The Bonhomme Song 

The French Party was a blast. Students put their Montessori Practical Life Skills to good use through cutting bread, spreading jam, and eating politely.

Social Studies - Alberta's Natural Resources

We learned about the natural resources found in Alberta. We talked about the uses of Oil and Gas, as well as Agriculture and Forestry.

Cursive

We learned a bunch more letters in Cursive and will finish the cursive alphabet before the end of the year. Every student will be able to sign their name!

Indigenous Peoples' Day

We attended an assembly, and then went outside as a whole school to find 'sit spots'. I was incredibly impressed with the students in Room 6 for their calmness, patience, and contentedness to just sit quietly and observe the world around them. 

Stay tuned for the FINAL spelling words of the school year, and have a nice weekend!

Zac

Spelling Words (Wk. of Sun. Jun. 16)

 Spelling List A (June 14-21)

know	school	shopping	point	true
Mr.	Dr.	Mt.	Ms.	cm

 

Spelling List B (June 14-21)

between	choose	circle	police	didn’t
Rd.	Mrs.	etc.	AB	Aug.

 

Spelling List C (June 14-21)

brittle	ripple	primitive	hangar	oppose
etc.	lb	e.g.	Sept.	blvd.

Learning abbreviations is part of the curriculum now, so this week's works are a combination of abbreviations, acronyms, and sight words.  I am going to be picky about correct capitalization and period use this week. I think I wrote all the words correctly, I was going based on the Canadian Writing Guide (weirdly interesting read) and trying to keep all those rules in mind. Regardless of what list your child picks, it would be helpful to brainstorm a list of common abbreviations with them! We'll be discussing the purpose of abbreviations in class too.

GLHF

Friday, June 14

Hi parents,

Here are some of the highlights from this week!

Writing

-Multiple lessons on correct apostrophe use 

-Wrote about the best decade to grow up in

-Wrote haiku and verse poetry

And we learned a few letters in cursive too!

Math

-Focused on money, using decimals

-Learned about Canadian money

-Completed the 'Pet Shop Problem', where students looked at a list of items and prices, and solved real-world problems

-Created our own "______ Shop Problems"

 

Social Studies

-Watched and discussed videos about the history of Alberta - this series is pretty good!

90's Day

-Played 90's or Not Trivia

-Went outside for gym and did classic 90's schoolyard games - four square, wall ball, and kickball!

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

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of June 9)

 Spelling List A (June 7-14)

can’t	won't	isn’t	they’d	he’s
Sara’s	David’s	let’s	I’m	here’s

 

Spelling List B (June 7-14)

couldn’t	wouldn’t	how’s	I’ve	weren’t
Amos’	Kobe’s	hadn’t	there’s	you’ve

 

Spelling List C (June 7-14)

Beatrice’s	wasn’t	shouldn’t	Memphis’	doesn’t
should’ve	Michael’s	doctors	Alberta’s	babies

The theme this week is apostrophes. 

These words are very difficult because not only are they essentially sight words, without predictable letter families, but they also feature apostrophes. You can be sure we'll be learning all about apostrophes in class, but any extra work you do at home will certainly be of help.

Good luck!

Friday, June 7

 Hi parents,

We had a fantastic week at the YMCA!

Here's the summary of some of the highlights... (apologies if some days are mixed up - it was a busy week)

Monday

-Toured the YMCA, did introductions, talked about health

-Participated in a Blackfoot Pow-Wow and learned basic steps for the Grass Dance, the Fancy Dance, and Jingle Dress Dance (sadly couldn't take any pictures, but this was an amazing experience.)

-Played cooperative team-building games

Tuesday

-Visited the YMCA library, saw the 'behind-the-scenes' rooms, learned about all the awesome free programs at the library

-Inclusive sports activity - we went to the YMCA gym and played volleyball, bocci ball, tag, and basketball. We altered each game to help students understand how barriers can exist in sports, and how we can change the activities to remove them and let everyone get involved

- E-Sports - we played Mario Kart and Rocket League as a class, and learned about healthy vs. unhealthy habits for gaming. Our instructor was a professional gamer and stressed the importance of playing with friends (in-person whenever possible!), including exercise breaks, healthy eating, and getting lots of sleep.

Wednesday

-We learned about charities, and how the YMCA is involved in many charitable causes. The students designed their own charities based on things they felt should change in the world. They presented their charities, and then used monopoly money to donate to the charity of their choice.

. . 

-We played Basketball games outside and worked on shooting, passing, and defensive skills

-We wrote persuasive letters to the YMCA staff to politely ask them to open the waterslides on Friday

Thursday

-We talked about community, and did a community building activity where students created their own circles, cut them into quarters (fractions connection!) and then combined them with their classmates' circles

-We went to the walking / jogging track for some exercise, and talked about 'track etiquette'

-We made 'cabinet of curiosity' sculptures to capture favourite moments from the week

  

-We made Bracelets to celebrate the core value of the YMCA - Respect, Responsibility, Honesty, and Caring. The bracelets will be sold to raise money for children's charities!

Friday

-Sadly, we were unable to swim :(

-We played a little bit of table tennis in the main lobby

-We finished sculpting

-We learned about public art and murals, and used chalk to make our own mural outside the YMCA to showcase empathy and compassion

YMCA Vouchers!!

Students were given water bottle and not one, but two vouchers for admission to the YMCA pool and other facilities, to compensate for us not being able to swim today. I hope everyone can arrange a time to swim with their friends this summer!

I want to say a huge thank you to all the parents who volunteered this week, we couldn't have had this amazing experience without you!

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

Zac