Spelling Words (Week of November 13)

 

Spelling List A (Nov. 13 – 18)

Want	Saw	New	White	Will
Dream	Peach	Beast	Cheap	Cream

 

Spelling List B (Nov. 13 – 18)

Which	Around	Goes	Light	Only
Leave	Peace	Grease	Weasel	Cereal

 

Spelling List C (Nov. 13 – 18)

Theatre	Already	Great	Create	Search
Deadly	Break	Jealous	Heart	Plateau

Just a quick note, for anyone who might be curious - the words on List A are aligned with the new Grade 3 curriculum. The words on List B are aligned with the Grade 4 curriculum. The words on List C are sort of an extension of the Grade 4 curriculum. 

The words in italics are sight words that everyone should probably know just to enhance the clarity of their writing. They are words from the Dolche Words List that I've noticed are commonly misspelled in student writing.

Good luck!

Thursday, November 10

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today. Ms Greenhall and Ms. Burnham put on an incredible Remembrance Day assembly, and the students in room 4 were exemplary audience members. I knew they would be. The conversations we've had all week have been thoughtful, emotional, and heartfelt, and I know the students have a genuine respect and appreciation for this important day.

We worked on our Wish Tree dioramas, and I am happy to report we are just about finished! We went over the 'diorama checklist':

The diorama should:

-Clearly show an event from the story

-Clearly depict setting

-Feature major and minor characters

-Have both foreground and background features

-Show careful and thoughtful construction

Most students have already accomplished most of these, but on Monday we will have a bit more time to add the finishing touches. Maybe even on Tuesday too.

We watched an amazing video called "Poppies" (see below), and had a university level discussion on symbolism. The students pointed out symbolism I'd never even considered!

In the afternoon, we had gym with our buddies, Music, the Spelling Quiz (didn't have a chance to finish marking them since it was late in the day), and ended our day with the math game Classroom of Doom. 

There is no school tomorrow as it is Remembrance Day. 

We will also be having a subtraction quiz on Thursday, November 17. This will be a lot like the previous quiz. Based on what I've seen over the past couple weeks, most students will have no trouble with this, but there will also be opportunities for 'redemption quizzes' if needed. Quizzes help students build test-taking skills, and they also help me identify challenging topics we may need to revisit later in the year.

Have a nice night!

Zac

Wednesday, November 9

 Hi parents,

We had another good day today.  The students have really been enjoying working on their Wish Tree dioramas. Today we talked about adding 'speech bubbles' to help students better capture their understanding of the specific details in their chosen scene. We talked about how just having characters and settings doesn't fully capture the event, as many of the events involve the same characters and the same setting.

In writing, we attempted a first draft for our snack writing task. It was a decent first effort but I think we'll do a lot better on the second draft. Describing food is actually pretty challenging.

We sung Riding with Private Malone again and talked more about Remembrance Day. As you've probably seen, our school is having an assembly tomorrow at 10:00am, where we'll be observing a moment of silence, and learning more about why we celebrate this important day.

We did Library book exchange in the afternoon, and worked more on snack writing. 

At the end of the day, students wrote their own subtraction word problems.

I sent home the Sample Art Cards at the end of the day. If you are interested in purchasing cards, please follow the instructions inside your child's sample card. Lots of the money raised will go towards our school and classroom!

As Friday is Remembrance Day, there is no school, which means tomorrow is our spelling quiz. Good luck!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Remembrance Day

 Remembrance Day:  How You Can Help Make a Positive Change in the Lives of Veterans  

 

Poppy Fund Donations

 

Students will be given a poppy on November 10th while honoring Remembrance Day at school.  If you would like to send in a monetary donation to support the Poppy Fund that day, it would be greatly appreciated.  You can also show your support by donating online through following the link: https://legion.ca/donations 

 

MOMMS Pet Food Drive

 

To support Veterans and their dogs, our community pet store is collecting donations. These items will help support the pets that bring so much comfort and happiness to those who have served our country. Please send any donations to school with your child, on or before November 10th. They will be dropped off by Room 7 and 8. See the information below for donation details.

Tuesday, November 8

 Hi parents,

We had an awesome day today. The students worked so quietly and diligently for the first two hours of the day, on their morning math, spelling, and wish tree dioramas. Other teachers who were passing by even commented on how focused everyone was (impressing other teachers is the end goal of every lesson).

The dioramas are off to a great start but we'll still need a couple more days to finish them up.

We practiced spelling using the "Write, Cover, Spell" technique, where students cover their words and attempt to spell them from memory. 

We sung "Riding with Private Malone" together as a class, and then watched the music video for "Highway of Heroes" by The Trews.

In the afternoon we had Music and Gym, and ended the day with a Pokemon themed subtraction scavenger hunt. Students had to find subtraction problems hidden around the classroom and solve them in order to 'catch' imaginary Pokemon.

We also read from our new novel, "Trapped in Transylvania", which is a fun, kid-friendly version of Dracula. I had meant to start it in October but Wish Tree took so long.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday, November 7

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today!

In the morning, the students wrote about their weekends, but with a focus on writing in complete sentences. The stakes were high - for each incomplete sentence, they had to add a whole extra sentence to their writing! I think this made everyone take a bit more time with their editing, I'm really happy to say that so far every sentence I've read for this writing task has been complete. :)

We did another subtraction check-in in math. The students are definitely doing a lot better now, and I feel like they've got the processes down. The tricky part now is just the basic facts. A problem like 100,452 - 54,701 = __ is tough because it's basically 6 basic fact problems in one! If you get even one of them incorrect it can throw off the whole problem. But we're getting there! I am confident that by conferences every student will be able to show off their new and improved addition and subtraction abilities.

We practiced spelling and talked about the -ea vowel blend, and how it can sound different in different words. For example, "EARTH" and "EACH".

In the afternoon, students jotted down info for their wish tree diorama plans, and then began constructing them. We'll have a lot more time to work throughout the week, but I think we're already off to a good start.

Also...

Save The Date! 

Dear families, 

 

Mark your calendars! The fun and excitement of a Scholastic Book Fair is coming to our school! To adapt to our changing needs, Scholastic has developed a Hybrid Book Fair (in-school with a virtual link) to provide an opportunity for our students and families to experience the joy of reading together. 

 

So, save the date! Our Scholastic Virtual Book Fair will take place on:  

 

Monday, November 21^st till Sunday, November 27^th  

 

Virtual Book Fair Link: https://virtualbookfairs.scholastic.ca/pages/5163641

                     

   (link will go live on Monday, November 21^st)

 When it’s time to shop, you can choose to visit the virtual link and purchase online or send in cash for your child to purchase books in person. We will be sending home a letter with more information soon!  

 

 

 

Happy reading! 

And ALSO...

Remembrance Day:  How You Can Help Make a Positive Change in the Lives of Veterans  

 

Poppy Fund Donations

 

Students will be given a poppy on November 10th while honoring Remembrance Day at school.  If you would like to send in a monetary donation to support the Poppy Fund that day, it would be greatly appreciated.  You can also show your support by donating online through following the link: https://legion.ca/donations 

 

MOMMS Pet Food Drive

 

To support Veterans and their dogs, our community pet store is collecting donations. These items will help support the pets that bring so much comfort and happiness to those who have served our country. Please send any donations to school with your child, on or before November 10th. They will be dropped off by Room 7 and 8. See the information below for donation details.

 

 

Have a nice night!

Zac

Spelling Words! (Week of Nov. 6)

 Spelling List A (Nov. 6 – Nov. 11)

Brown	Our	Out	With	Saw
East	Each	Ears	Eagle	Easy

 

Spelling List B (Nov. 6 – 11)

Know	Buy	Found	Those	Pull
Easily	Eatery	Eager	Eastern	Earplugs

 

Spelling List C (Nov. 6 – 11)

Earthquake	Earache	Earthworm	Earrings	Eager
Remembrance	Military	Veteran	Poppies	Soldier

We're starting to look into some VVCC (vowel-vowel-consonant-consonant) words - in particular ea-. 

I ran out of good ones so List C will be doing some vocabulary words instead. :)

Good luck!

Friday, November 4

 Hi parents and happy Friday!

We had a great day today. In the morning, we had a class conversation about war, poppies, and Remembrance Day. We watched a video that talked about the history of the poppy. Teaching about poppies has become about 10x more difficult in 2022, because you can't find any decent videos without getting swamped by "Poppy Playtime" vids. Even just the thumbnails are scary.

The students created labelled diagrams of poppies in their sketchbooks. We compared them to the tree diagrams we'd been looking at previously. All plants have many things in common, regardless of how different they may look at face value.

We're still working on subtraction in math. But it's coming along.

In French, we learned some family words. The students wrote sentences using the format "Mon / ma ________ s'appelle ________" (for example, ", ma mere s'appelle Susan - my mother's name is Susan). They drew their families and labelled them in French.

We spent a lot of time outside, building structures and completing athletic challenges. 

We ended our day with the spelling quiz. Sadly I didn't have time to mark all of them. 

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

Zac

Thursday, November 3

 Hi parents,

We had a good day today, the afternoon was a little crazy but that is the way it goes after the first Fun Lunch of the year!

In the morning, the students worked on Concrete Poems. We actually started this yesterday but I forgot to include it in the blog. Students were given pre-written poetry, and challenged to rewrite it as a Concrete Poem. A Concrete Poem is a basically a poem that looks like the topic. They use spacing and fonts creatively to help create poetic effect.

A concrete poem about a campfire

We are still working on subtraction with regrouping. While I've noticed a ton of progress working one on one with students, their independent subtraction check-ins are still not quite there, so we're going to keep on chugging away at it. Practicing multi-step subtraction problems is also a great way for students to work on their fact fluency - when you solve a problem like "224 - 188 = ___", you're essentially solving three basic fact subtraction problems, while also bringing in knowledge of place value. It's a full brain workout.

In the afternoon, we had Music, and then tried to work on our tree poster research project. Unfortunately this project has been so riddled with technology issues, people losing their work, and group confusion that we're going to have to put it on hold for the time being and learn about trees in a different way. I think it may have been too early in the unit to take on a project like this.

At the end of the day, we learned how to use dictionaries, and tried to use them to look up unfamiliar words from 'Riding with Private Malone'. Unfortunately this lesson also didn't work out in our favour as many of the unfamiliar words weren't in there! Still it was a good way to introduce dictionaries. The kids were weirdly enthusiastic about getting to look up definitions, even when they couldn't find them.

Tomorrow is our spelling quiz! Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, November 2

 Hi parents,

We had another great day today!

After getting off to a bit of a late start due mostly to the weather, we did another full class subtraction lesson. Please keep practicing at home! Students are really starting to get the hang of it!

After that, we continued to work on our Wish Tree pages. Today we discussed the concepts of 'rising action', 'climax', and 'falling action'. We decided that the climax of Wish Tree was when all the students, and even animals, came together to save Red from being cut down, and to encourage Samar to stay. Students chose our major events from the story and added them to their rising action / falling action diagrams.

We read a book about pine trees and discussed how they are different from deciduous trees. We talked about how difficult it is for young trees to grow, and how trees compensate for this by producing tons of seeds. If even just a few seeds grow into healthy trees, the life cycle continues!

For social studies, we did more work around the song "Riding With Private Malone" by David Ball. Today the students went through their lyric sheets and found examples of proper / perfect rhymes vs. near rhymes. Most of the lyrics end with words that almost rhyme, or words that 'rhyme-but-only-if-you-have-a-southern-accent' (for example, 'bill' and 'wheel').

Tomorrow is our first day of Fun Lunch!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, November 1

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today, and a busy one too.

In the morning, we did a full class math lesson on 2 digit subtraction with regrouping. It was great to see the concepts start to click for a few more students. Thank you to everyone who practiced a bit at home - I could immediately tell which students had practiced, as they had a completely different outlook than when we worked on the same stuff yesterday. Keep it up!! Just 2-3 problems a day is all it takes, and school will take care of the rest.

We did another 'subtraction check-in' later in the morning, and as expected, the results were better than yesterday's. :)

We finally finished Wish Tree! It had an awesome, touching ending. Now that we're officially done reading, we've started to do our summative project. We're just in the planning phase right now. We are discussing the setting, characters, and events, and creating pages to illustrate these. By doing this, students are able to review the story as a whole and select a scene to capture with their diorama project, which we will likely start later this week or early next.

In the afternoon, we had Music and Gym.

Then at the last part of our day, we listened to the song "Riding With Private Malone", by David Ball. If you haven't heard it, you should definitely give it a listen. It's a beautiful song with an amazing story. The lyrics are full of implication - they rarely explicitly say what's happening, so it's a fun one to discuss and ponder. 

I'd like to teach the class the song and see if we can record a version of it for Remembrance Day (just to make a video - we're not in the assembly). There are a lot of words though so that might be wishful thinking. 

Have a nice night!

Zac