Friday, January 19

 Hi parents,

Happy Folding Friday! 

We had a pretty good day today. Energy levels were a bit high during our folding lessons and I'm worried the kids didn't fully grasp how meditative it can be to fold clothes. That being said, I think it went really well overall, and if nothing else, the students walked away with some basic skills, and an awareness of how organization can help them in their daily lives.

We also talked about how having the discipline to fold and put away your own clothes can be a great way of showing responsibility. If you always remember to fold your clothes, you're more likely to remember to feed a pet, pack a lunch, get to bed on time, etc.

We had Music today, which is rare for Fridays, and did some more measurement in math. The students learned how they can measure large objects using a single ruler, through iteration (repeatedly using the ruler to mark increments of 30cms).

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

Zac

Thursday, January 18

 Hi parents,

We had a good day today. It was nice to get to go outside again for second recess.

In the morning, the students worked in pairs to research the Prairie Grasslands region of Alberta, using the textbooks. We learned about the drastic changes that have occurred over the past couple hundred years - namely the development of cities and farmland. We also looked at Nose Hill Park, and the city's decision to reduce the number of trails to allow the natural environment to stay better preserved. 

In math, we continued learning about measurement, and also introduced the concept of 'perimeter'. The students drew and measured a variety of rectangles in their math books.

In the afternoon, we had Daily LA, and music. As part of our exploration of "Forces", we started watching this Science Max episode: https://www.tvokids.com/school-age/videos/science-max-season-1/newtons-3rd-law

The students have also started to build a giant K-Nex Rollercoaster set, as a responsible work choice. It was too hard for me when I was 8. They seem to be having a better time with it thankfully.

Remember that tomorrow is "Folding Friday", and it is also our Spelling Quiz!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, January 17

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today. In the morning, the class learned about 'commas', and practiced using them in sentences. We discussed how commas can be used to list things, to indicate pauses, and to separate related ideas in writing. The students did quite well with this, so I'm hoping to see commas popping up more frequently in their regular writing tasks.

In math, we continued to learn about measurement. The students measured a variety of things in the classroom using centimetres, and then measured those same objects in millimetres, building a stronger understanding of how the two units are closely related.

We continued to learn about 'forces' in Science, though this was the first time we formally introduced the topic. We studied Newton's First Law, which states: "An object that is not moving will stay still until a force makes it move, and an object that is moving will keep moving until a force stops it."

The students experimented by using different forces to move markers (mostly whacking).

Remember that Friday is FOLDING FRIDAY!

Have a nice night,

Zac 

Tuesday, January 16

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today. We started learning about measurement, and talked about millimetres, centimetres, and metres. The students brainstormed some approximate ways of thinking of each unit. For example, "a metre is about the armspan of an 8 year old", "a centimetre is about the width of your pink", "a millimetre is about the width of a pencil line".

We did some regular journal writing, where students had the option to write about their weekends,  or create 'third person' paragraphs about themselves.

In the afternoon, we had Music, Daily LA, and Spelling Practice.

Friday, January 19 - "Folding Friday"

This Friday, we're going to be delving into some Montessori Practical Life Skills, and the students will be learning how to effectively fold clothing. Each student is asked to bring an additional shirt, pair of pants, sweater, and pair of socks. I will send a school messenger about this as well.

Have a nice night,

Zac 

Spelling Words!

 Spelling List A (January 12 – 19)

boat	roar	hoax	oatmeal	coat
soak	coal	load	cocoa	croak

 

Spelling List B (January 12 – 19)

board	coach	foaming	loaned	coating
shoal	throat	loaves	loading	rollercoaster

 

Spelling List C (January 12 – 19)

encroach	overload	poacher	abroad	upload
oasis	scapegoat	coastline	toadstool	approach

Good luck!

Friday, January 12

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty laid back day today because so many people were away. We did the spelling quiz, and the students got to pick from 5 different choices for creative writing prompts. 

We learned about the six natural regions of Alberta - grasslands, rocky mountains, foothills, parkland, boreal forest, and Canadian shield. 

We ended our day with some math games.

Remember that Monday is not a school day - have a nice weekend!

Zac

Thursday, January 11

 Hi parents,

Today was a bit of an off-day for our class, but that often happens when we have multiple blue days in a row. The students also finished their work a lot faster than I was expecting (which is usually a good thing), but in this case they just had too much energy to do responsible work choices... responsibly.

That being said, I'm so pleased with how the graph projects turned out. The students have clearly got the data collection, organization, and graphing skills they need for this point in the year. 

We did some awesome French writing today. We used the nouns we learned earlier in the week, and added some simple verbs to the mix, to create complete sentences. The students even properly conjugated the verbs!

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, and then had a lesson on 'action sketching', where we learned a technique to draw human bodies in different poses. We talked about how its important to consider where a body can and cannot bend, and the relative lengths of different limbs.

We ended our day by reading A Rover's Story and discussing whether or not Res counts as a 'living' thing.

Tomorrow is our spelling quiz.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, January 10

 Hi parents,

We had another good day today. Mr. Wade is back, and playing math games, reading, and working with the students all day. 

In the morning, the students finished up their social studies reading comprehension from yesterday. Then, we continued working on our graph project. Today's work involved choosing an appropriate scale for the graph, making the graph, and answering some questions about it. The students reflected on whether the data was surprising, what they'd expected it to be.

In the afternoon, we had Daily LA, and Music. Mr Wade read "A Rover's Tale" aloud, and Scholastic Book Orders were handed out. If you're interested in ordering, please make sure to use our class code - RC157953   With money from the last Scholastic Order, our classroom was able to buy two new handcover books, and Charades for Kids!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, January 9

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today.

In the morning, the students worked on the 'data collection' step for their graphing project. They surveyed their classmates, and used personal strategies to keep track of who they'd already asked, to make sure they got responses from everyone. Tomorrow we'll start graphing.

We did a lot of French this morning, which ended up being a lot more fun than expected. We learned that in French, words can be 'masculine' or 'feminine', and the words 'un' or 'une' are used differently depending on what they're associated with. The class used Google Translate to learn the French words for a variety of nouns, and sorted these by "Un" and "Une". 

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, and then the students split into their 'social studies buddies' and read from our Alberta textbooks, answering comprehension questions along the way. I really enjoy these textbook comprehension activities because the students are able to work so independently on them - I think that's why they enjoy them too. They also help build skills for researching and locating information efficiently, which are so important in higher grades.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday, January 8

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty great first day back.

The students wrote about their Winter Breaks in their journals, and some set goals for the new year.

We started working on the 'Graph Project', which will basically challenge students to apply all the things they'd learned before the break about data collection, graph creating, and graph interpretation. Even though its been a couple weeks, they seem to have a good handle on everything so far. Surveying other students is always fun too.

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, practiced spelling, went to Music, and read A Rover's Story.

Looking forward to a great 'part two' of the school year!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words! Week of January 7

 Spelling List A (January 8 – 12)

need	meet	free	deer	feeling
beeps	creepy	three	green	sheep

 

Spelling List B (January 8 – 12)

greeting	leer	greedy	tweed	sleeping
indeed	coffee	breeze	puppeteer	sweeten

 

Spelling List C (January 8 – 12)

teenager	pioneer	between	oversee	career
degrees	needless	employee	goatee	guarantee

I hope you all had a fantastic winter break! I'm sure the kids can't wait to get back to spelling practice. The theme this week is the 'ee' blend - Good luck!