Wednesday, April 13

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today! In fact, it was good enough to earn two pieces of our 'persistence pie' which means we have earned a fun Easter-themed celebration in class tomorrow. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned the Persistence Pie on the Blog before, and if I haven't, I apologize because that sentence probably made no sense.

In the morning, the students practiced two important skills they'll need for our upcoming zoo field trip: writing jot notes, and realistic sketching. They worked in partners to use Raz-Kids to research an animal, and then wrote notes about that animal, sketched it, and labelled their sketches. 

In the afternoon, the students read the book "What's Next, Nina?", and Mrs. Fernandez led them through a fun fractions lesson in which they put together necklaces, and then wrote fractions to represent the number of each colour of bead relative to the whole necklace.

We ended the day with Daily LA.

Today the Top 10 submissions for our School's Yearbook Cover Contest were revealed! I am so proud of the students in room four for all their hard work - any one of their creations would have made a wonderful yearbook cover. Although these covers were not ultimately selected to move forward, I hope you will all appreciate the great thought and care that went into each of them. The messages truly capture the spirit of our school.

Have a nice night!

Zac

Tuesday, April 12

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today!

In the morning, the students showed a lot of persistence and resilience as they worked on their fictional 'day at the zoo' schedules. For this activity, the students wrote out a tentative day plan, that laid out which exhibits the students would want to visit, how long they would spend at each one, and what other things they may need to make time for (lunch, breaks, etc.) 

We also had a long morning work period, as many students were unable to finish their work from our busy day yesterday.

Mrs. Fernandez read the class the book, "The Lion's Share", which was about a bunch of animals at a birthday party that had to figure out how to divide a cake up evenly. The class worked at various Fraction Centres after that, using Montessori materials, and playing fraction-themed versions of popular games like Uno, Bingo, and Roll and Cover (which is only a 'popular game' by school standards, where the bar is notably lower).

In the afternoon, Mrs. Fernandez helped the students to edit their haiku poetry from last week. Then, the kids made water colour paintings to accompany their poetry. We'll finish this up tomorrow and then I'll post some on the blog!

The Zoo Field Trip Forms were sent home TODAY! 

Please sign and return them as soon as you can, as the field trip is just a week away! 

Please email me if your child did not bring home a form today - I found one on the floor after school so I know at least one person dropped theirs. Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to join us at the zoo as well. We have hit our volunteer quota now, but please still contact the office if you'd like to get your volunteer clearance for next time.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday, April 11

Hi parents,

We had a pretty good Monday today - between Library, Gym, and Music, there wasn't a whole lot of time to work, but the class did learn more about fractions. Today we used the Montessori materials, and lego, to represent different fractions. 

The students also worked on journal writing and spelling. The sentence 'It was fun.' has been temporarily banned from journal writing, as we're focusing on how we can use engaging descriptions to show readers how a weekend felt, rather than just telling them.

Our Zoo Field Trip forms have been approved by the CBE head office so I will be sending them home tomorrow! 

Have a nice night,

Zac

Order Your Yearbook!

Lake Bonavista School 

ORDER YOUR YEARBOOK TODAY DON’T MISS OUT! 

Did you know that the yearbook is created by parent volunteers for your children to enjoy? It also features portrait pages of all grades and images from events throughout the year. 

Help us keep our yearbook going as we have only sold 85 out of our contracted amount of 126 yearbooks. If you have already ordered please disregard. 

Pricing is $20 until April 15th; after that date it will go up to $25 per yearbook. 

PAY ONLINE: Go to: ybpay.lifetouch.ca Enter school code: 11352722 

Spelling Words (Week of April 10)

 Spelling List A

Find	Hand	Lend	Bond	Wind
Do	Did	What	So	Get

 

Spelling List B

Found	Friend	Almond	Around	Unkind
Read	Why	Because	Best	Upon

 

Spelling List C

Behind	Pretend	Respond	Suspend	Thousand
Woodland	Legend	Rewind	Extend	Minuend

Good luck!

Friday, April 8

Hi parents,

I'm not sure what was up with today but it was a real off day for the class. We had to spend time practicing lining up, walking in the halls, and coming into the school without yelling. We lost all responsible work choices during the morning work period and unfortunately lost our 'morning recess' time too because the behaviour was just wild.

We worked outside in the garden on haikus, and did the spelling quiz. We spent quite a while on corrections and ran out of time for Daily LA and Drama (although a couple groups did get to present their brain skits!)

Next week may feel a bit like the first week of school again because we're going to be reviewing work period and hallway expectations. I am disappointed that this is happening in April but I would rather end the year on a high note than have the students check out early!

Have a nice weekend,

Zac

Wednesday, April 6

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today. In the morning, the students responded to the writing prompt: "What is a rock?"

They used sentence starters like "A rock is used for...", "Rocks can be...", "Rocks are not", and more, to convey what they currently know about rocks. Because as you may have guessed, we're going to be starting our rocks and minerals unit in science very soon!

Mrs. Fernandez taught the class more about fractions.  We learned the terms "Numerator" and "Denominator" (most students still call it 'the dominator'), and also about what each part of a fraction represents. The students practiced writing fractions, and shading in portions of shapes to show fractions.

Have a nice night!

Zac

Tuesday, April 5

 Hi parents,

We had a much better day today! We started our day with a discussion about persistence, and the students shared about times when they thought they couldn't do something, but proved themselves wrong. 

We had an unexpected Lockdown Drill and the class did a great job - this was the first unexpected lockdown drill we've ever had, but everyone stayed calm, quiet, and attentive. 

The students read about some of the traditions and festivals in Meteghan and Iqaluit. Then, they wrote paragraphs about whether they would rather live in Meteghan or Iqaluit, and why. We talked about how paragraphs are like sandwiches - they always need to have two pieces of bread (an intro and conclusion), but what goes between the bread is up to the author. Typically more is better too (within reason).

In the afternoon, Mrs. Fernandez taught the students more about Haiku poetry, and led them through some basketball activities in gym. We wrote a haiku as a class:

A flower laying,

On the grass, so bright, so wise,

Very beautiful!

And we ended our day with music. 

Have a nice night!

Zac

Monday, April 4

 Hi parents,

We had a bit of a crazy day today. I spoke with the students about continuing to progress, and always doing their best work, rather than just 'passable' work. I've noticed a trend in which many students, particularly the faster writers, will spend 80% of the work period talking, and then quickly write a few sentences and draw a black and white picture and call it a day. 

I challenged the students to look back through their writing books, and find their 'best work' from the year. If the date on that work is from more than a month ago, then we've got a problem! We have spoken numerous times throughout the year about how to ensure work is the best it can be: editing for spelling / punctuation, adding more sentences, including a colourful picture are the three big ones. But the question I hear more than anything else is still "Am I done?"

Ms. Brown also let me know that our class has been consistently missing out on Gym time due to excessive talking - so I think this is definitely something we will need to address this week.

Moving forward we will be replacing Explore and Play time with an additional work period. I hope that will help.

We started learning about Fractions today! Mrs. Fernandez taught the class the meaning of the word 'fraction', and why fractions need to be equal. The students folded paper into fractions and non-fractions and had some great conversations. We talked a bit about how to write fractions, but more work still needs to be done.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of April 3)

 Spelling List A

Star	Stay	Step	Stun	Stop
There	Out	Be	Have	Am

 

Spelling List B

Steal	Storm	Stone	Stinger	Style
Use	Fast	Pull	Both	Which

 

Spelling List C

Strange	Study	Steady	Starfish	Stampede
Strength	Strategy	Standard	Stopwatch	Structure

More st- words!

Good luck!

Friday, April 1

 Happy April Fools Day!

We had a fun day full of pranks, jokes, and general deception. Mostly at the expense of the students unfortunately, as I'm pretty sure this was many of their first April Fools days at school.

In the morning, we had Music, wrote the spelling quizzes, and finished up our Giving Tree Artwork. Here are a few examples of how they turned out! I wish I could post them all but unfortunately some are still drying.

The students wrote April Fools-themed journal responses, where they had the choice to write about something that makes them laugh, a good prank they'd previously pulled, or the best joke they've ever heard.

In Math, the students were challenged to solve some very difficult - some may even say "impossible" - math problems, such as:

0 x ___ = 5

9 / 0 = ___

While these problems were intended to mostly be April Fools jokes, we ended up having some interesting class discussions about why they are impossible to solve, and I think the students acquired a stronger understanding of multiplication and division as a result.

Have a nice weekend!

Zac