Spelling Words (Week of Feb. 2)

 Spelling List A (Feb. 3 – 7)

said	coat	fear	boil	pray
sailing	oath	mean	coil	clay

 

Spelling List B (Feb. 3 – 7)

frail	cloak	plead	android	essay
braid	hoard	eagle	moist	decay

 

Spelling List C (Feb. 3 – 7)

details	goatee	sneaky	Oilers	layout
domain	loaves	appear	devoid	replay

 

We're sticking with the same vowel teams this week - practicing each vowel team in isolation (meaning, for example, asking 'what does oi sound like?') is a good way to help kids look for these vowel teams in unfamiliar words when reading, and approach these words with a bit more confidence!

Thursday, January 30

 Hi parents,

Today was a very unique and fun day for our class. We finished watching The Little Prince, and I think the general consensus is that it was excellent. The ending had us all choked up.

After that, we met up with our Buddies, and played Classroom of Doom in the Library. It was fun introducing the grade 1s and 2's to one of our favourite math games.

We spent most of the afternoon filming for our "Drop-off and Pick-up at LBS" video. We were incredibly lucky to have the expertise of two parents from our class community who are helping with the filming and editing! I can't wait to see how it turns out. The kids had a great time 'acting', especially for the playground scenes. Go figure.

The spelling quiz went pretty well today, but we're going to be reviewing the same vowel teams again next week to really strengthen those skills. 'oa' and 'oi' were particularly difficult.

Tomorrow is a PD Day, so have a wonderful weekend!

Zac

Wednesday, January 29

 Hi parents,

We started watching The Little Prince today, and the students are really liking it, although some are disappointed that it isn't following the original story to a tee. 

In writing, the class returned to the classic "Spelling Sentences". In math, we looked further into regular and irregular polygons, and congruent vs. similar shapes.

We reviewed Buddy Reading for Daily LA, and that went quite well.

We also had our second (and sadly, last) lacrosse session today, and the students took home some information about Elev8 Lacrosse and the programs they offer. That's not the only thing they took home though - we also received the go-ahead for the Be Brave Field Trip, and forms went home today!!

Please sign and return those as soon as you can. Thanks to parent council, there is no fee for this trip!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, January 28

 Hi parents,

Today we did some more "Little Prince" themed writing. We had a surprisingly deep discussion about the 'themes' in The Little Prince - with virtually zero prompting, the students came up with "Grown-ups", "Growing Up", "Friendship", and "Saying Goodbye", ideas which honestly I would've been impressed if a high school class came up with. Then they chose one of two writing prompts:

"Matters of Consequence" or "Things Grown-ups Can Learn From Kids"

In math, we've branched off from Area, and are now looking more deeply into polygons. We talked about the terms 'regular', 'irregular', and 'congruent', as they pertain to shapes.

We talked about 'fresh water', and fish, and how the fish tanks stays clean and properly heated for the fish to live in.

We also reviewed the Literacy Games station of Daily LA, and ended the day with Music.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday, January 27

 Hi parents,

We had a bit of a loud day today, but the students still did some great work. We had our first Lacrosse session this morning, and learned some basic lacrosse skills.

We re-read the ending of The Little Prince, and the students wrote reflections about it.

In Art, we continued working on a challenging 1-point perspective street sketch from last week. 

In the afternoon, we practiced the Literacy Games station of Daily LA (it was too loud, so we have to practice again tomorrow), and we went over this week's new spelling words. I made a mistake and kept two words from List C the same as last week. :( I think it's because 'voiced' has the 'oi' vowel team we're practicing. 'Biased' doesn't really fit the bill though.

I sent out a letter regarding the Little Prince Movie that we'll be watching later this week. It is rated PG, but I'm confident our class can handle it. It's not scary or violent or anything like that, just a bit sad in parts.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (Jan. 24 - 30)

 Spelling List A (Jan. 24 – 30)

mail	foam	east	coin	away
rain	coal	weak	soil	slay

 

Spelling List B (Jan. 24 – 30)

grain	board	wheat	point	mayor
raise	roast	clear	spoil	maybe

 

Spelling List C (Jan. 24 – 30)

remain	throat	really	biased	always
maiden	uproar	reason	voiced	mayhem

This week I'm trying something a little different. We're beginning to look at 'vowel teams' (two vowels that go together to make a single sound) more closely, and rather than dedicate one week to each 'team', I'd like to spend the next 3-4 weeks going over a whole bunch of them. 

So next week's words will also focus on 'ai', 'oa', 'ea', 'oi', and 'ay'. Students may struggle this first week with so much new information, but it should be come more familiar over time.

Good luck!

Friday, January 24

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today. Family Literacy Day was wonderful as usual, and we also got to spend some time playing math games with our buddy class.

We did a bit of architecture sketching, finished up work from earlier in the week, and finished our Badminton unit in gym with some doubles games.

Elev8 Lacrosse starts next week! Please send your forms back by Monday or your child will not be able to participate!

We will also be watching the Little Prince movie next week - a letter will go out soon going over the curricular connections, rating, etc. 

Have a nice weekend!

Zac

Thursday, January 23 (Family Literacy Day Tomorrow!)

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today. The math quiz was probably the highlight. I was getting a little worried that I'd made it too difficult, but the students did a fantastic job with it overall. It's clear they have a solid understanding of multiplication. It wouldn't hurt to have more practice with skip-counting, and abstract word problems, but that will come with time.

We continued learning about the landscapes and regions of Alberta. The students added different colours to their Alberta maps, to show where each region is.

We finished reading The Little Prince today. The ending is interesting and leaves a lot of things unanswered. It might be worth talking about at home to help the kids gather their thoughts.

Tomorrow is Family Literacy Day! Please join us at 11:30am for some reading and visiting. :)

It is also our Spelling Quiz. 

Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, January 22

 Hi parents,

Sorry about the lack of Blog yesterday.

We had a great day today, more interesting than yesterday, and more productive too. In the morning, we talked about the concept of 'scale' as it applies in mapping. The students used maps in their social studies text books to answer a wide range of questions about Alberta. It was an awesome application of their new measurement skills, which we've been developing in math, as well as a good way to learn more about our province, and get a general idea of how big it is.

In math, we continued learning about Area, and the students designed floor plans for a 'dream house', where they measured the area and perimeter of each room.

We did "Spelling Sentence" writing, and some quiet reading.

Tomorrow is the Multiplication Quiz!

This quiz features:

-Basic facts (with numbers 1-12)

-3-digit by 1-digit multiplication (Grade 4 only)

-Problems involving 'arrays' (Grade 3 only)

-3 word problems

-A problem in which students must draw a rectangle with a given area, using a ruler

This is all stuff we do every day so I don't think it will be too difficult, but practicing at home is never a bad idea! A great way to practice for this quiz is simply by skip-counting by 3's, 4's, 6's, 7's, 8's, and 9's - those are the tough ones. Reviewing measuring skills is a good idea too.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday, January 20

 Hi parents,

Today the students continued working on their Little Prince planet / asteroid writing task. There are some really awesome, creative ideas being developed, they've been so fun to read.

In Math, we continued working on measurement. This time we learned about the relationship between centimeters, meters, and kilometers. The students used rulers to measure the height of a partner. Then, we recorded all the results, and tried to line up in order from shortest to tallest, based solely on those measurements. All around, they did a pretty good job - it's tough to be overly precise when measuring with a 30cm ruler (and repeating it over and over), but I think everyone was within ~10cms of their actual heights.

We are going to have a Multiplication Quiz on Thursday, Jan. 23!

This quiz will be a general review of the multiplication concepts we've learned so far. 

There will be some multiplication basic facts, for both grades. Grade 3's will have to use repeated addition to solve two fairly easy 2-digit by 1-digit problems. Grade 4's will use the standard algorithm to solve some 3-digit by 1-digit problems. There will be a couple of word problems. There will be one problem where students have to use rulers to calculate the area of a given rectangle. Grade 4's will have a slightly harder variation of this problem.

Based on what I've seen from Morning Math and daily work, nobody has anything to worry about - we're ready for this one.

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, Spelling Practice, and learned how to play a card game called "Sticks". We ended our day with some Around the World Math Practice.

Blog Homework: Look at a map of Canada. Write down the provinces that are East of Alberta. (+1 table point)

 

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words! (Week of Jan. 19)

 Spelling List A (Jan. 17 – 24)

ended	mixed	cried	fixed	failed
walked	talked	tried	picked	wanted

 

Spelling List B (Jan. 17 – 24)

tilted	noted	wired	baked	signed
ripped	limited	raised	boiled	fated

 

Spelling List C (Jan. 10 – 17)

decided	varied	blamed	biased	winged
fabled	arched	cursed	voiced	wilted

The focus this week is the -ed ending. This is a great opportunity to also talk about 'past tense' vs. 'present tense' (which we will do in class as well). 

Although fairly short, these words are pretty tricky, as just knowing the '-ed' sound doesn't get you far in a word like 'voiced', that has a tricky 'oi', and a 'c' that sounds like 's'.

Good luck!

Friday, January 17

 Hi parents,

Today we started a new writing project that I'm pretty excited about. As you know, we've been reading The Little Prince. Before the Little Prince gets to earth, he stops at a few other planets with unusual, and generally ironic characters on them. The students are making up their own 'planets', in the style of The Little Prince, and creating their own quirky and contradictory characters. I'm so relieved that they seem to have the hang of this and aren't just making "Taylor Swift Planet" or "Fortnite Planet".

One of my favourite student-made planets features a lone sloth warrior who is awaiting an invasion from a snail at the other end of the universe.

The spelling quiz went pretty well, considering we missed a couple days of practice. Thanks to everyone who practiced at home! It made a difference this week for sure!

We ended our day with Music, and another architecture sketching activity.

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

Zac

Thursday, January 16

Hi parents,

I don't have too much to report for today - we spent a long time finishing up all the work that we started yesterday. In math, we continued learning about area. The students used rulers to draw rectangles with given measurements, and then calculated the area by multiplying.

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, read The Little Prince, and ended the day with Music. 

Blog Homework (+3 bonus table points!)

Gino's Dancehall is looking to build a new stage for performances. The stage needs to be a rectangle, with an area of 36 sq. ft. What length and width measurements could the stage have? Draw a diagram to show your stage design. 

Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, January 15

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today! In the morning, the students did a fun 'perspective' writing task, where they wrote about Video Games from the perspectives of four different characters from Arthur - Grandma Thora, Arthur, DW, and "The Mom". This activity is going in 'the binder' for sure, the kids did a great job with it and I will definitely be reusing it.

In math, we talked more about area, and also about measurement. The kids learned how to draw neat grids using rulers. We also learned about the difference between cms, inches, and feet.

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, French, and some Math practice.

Have a nice night!

Zac

Tuesday, January 14

Hi parents,

Today the students continued working on their pages for our "Drop-off & Pick-Up" pamphlets. They're just about done. I'm looking forward to putting them together and making a bunch of different combinations.

In writing, we talked about 'perspective'. The students wrote paragraphs expressing their perspective on whether or not toys should be allowed at school. It was interesting to hear their arguments!

In math, we started learning about 'Area'. The students used a process called 'tiling' to measure area of various items (books, tables, the carpet) using non-standard units.

 In the afternoon, we learned about rivers, watersheds, and glaciers in Alberta. We specifically learned about the Bow river, and its origin in the Rocky Mountains.

At the end of the day, we had Music.

Have a nice day,

Zac

Monday, January 13

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day back at school today. In the morning, the students collaborated to put together pages for a simple pamphlet that explains our 'across the field' drop-off / pick-up plan. The pamphlets talk about the benefits of even a short walk before school, as well as our plan to reduce traffic congestion. 

We did a couple different assessments today. The Grade 3s did government numeracy assessments, and the Grade 4s did a quick social studies assessment. The purpose of these was to give me a better idea of where I should go next with planning.

In the afternoon, we had Daily LA and practiced spelling. We ended the day with a quick lesson on French verbs.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of Jan. 12)

 Spelling List A (Jan. 10 – 17)

rose	hike	here	cube	dare
times	smoke	scale	piles	based

 

Spelling List B (Jan. 10 – 17)

white	prized	Stoney	trade	quite
wrote	unlike	outside	move	phase

 

Spelling List C (Jan. 10 – 17)

became	entire	spiteful	debate	waste
defined	device	theme	graceful	while

The theme this week is "Bossy E", aka, "silent E", aka "Magic E". Basically E making a vowel earlier in the word make its long sound. I'm hoping that students will also start to see that the 'bossy e' isn;t always at the very end of the word - words like "piles", "based", and "graceful" demonstrate how a suffix often goes after the e.