Thursday, February 29

 Hi parents,

We had another great day today. In the morning, the students worked on their fossil artwork (the project they've been working on with Ms. Davies), and then we learned about Leap Year.

After that, we moved on to French. We talked about some famous French landmarks / symbols, and then reviewed the phrase "Je m'appelle". The students drew themselves as tourists in France or Quebec City, and filled in "Je m'appelle" worksheets. We also learned about French colour words.

In math, we had our first official lesson on Multiplication. We watched this classic episode of Numberblocks, which in my opinion is the best intro to multiplication on the market: 

Then, we used the Coloured Bead Bars material to model some multiplication equations. We discussed the meaning of 'product', and went over some strategies for solving multiplication problems with and without materials.

We ended our day with art with Ms. Davies.

Tomorrow is our spelling quiz! Have a nice night,

Zac

Book Fair!

 

Wednesday, February 28

 Hi parents,

We had a great pink shirt day today. In the morning, the students chose from four different pink shirt day-related writing tasks. Then, we had our "Angles Redemption Quiz", and I'm happy to report that the students did super well on it. We're definitely ready to move on to multiplication.

In the afternoon, we went to the Pink Shirt Day sharing assembly, which was wonderful, and then did Daily LA. We ended our day by having gym outside.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, February 27 (Pink Shirt day TOMORROW!)

 Hi parents,

We had another good day today!

In the morning, we revisited our exploration of forces and simple machines (which we are just about finished now) and learned about gears. We talked about where we can find gears, and what they're used for. The students used K-Nex to build their own simple gear systems.

After that, the students explored stations dedicated to reviewing the angles concepts that they didn't seem to grasp on our quiz last week.

We're going to have another angles quiz tomorrow which should be a breeze based on how well the class did today.

I honestly don't think any extra practice is needed, but if you did want to study at home tonight, it would be best to review:

-Rays vs. Line Segments

-How angles relate to a circle (i.e. how angles are used to indicate different rotations from 0 - 360 degrees)

In the afternoon, we had Music, daily LA, and Art. Tomorrow is Pink Shirt Day! Please encourage your child to wear pink if they have it, and if not, maybe just a favourite shirt or something in a similar colour.

Have a nice night!

Zac

Monday, February 26

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty typical Monday today. It was a good day.

In the morning, the students finished up Jing Wo letters from last week, and then we worked on journal writing or picture prompt stories. The students did better with these stories than the previous ones - again, we focused on the idea of having a plan of the beginning, middle, problem, and end of the story before starting. If your story has those four elements, you're set. You can always add more details, twists, and events afterwards to make it more interesting.

In math, we reviewed the Angles Quiz from last week. The students did pretty well, and its clear they have a fairly solid understanding of angles. We could use a bit more practice in these areas:

• Rays, Line Segments, Vertices
• How angles relate to circles / rotation (ie. 180, 360, etc.)
• Accurately measuring angles with protractors 

We'll spend a couple more days on these concepts and have an alternate assessment on Thursday.

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, and then learned more about Alberta's fossil history. We learned how fossils form, and that most animals / plants do not become fossils when they die - it's a very rare occurrence. We also learned about the badlands.

We ended our day by practicing this week's spelling words and going over the "oi" sound.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words! Week of Feb. 26

 Spelling List A (February 24 – March 1)

join	soil	oily	foil	avoid
coin	coil	point	voice	Oilers

 

Spelling List B (February 24 – March 1)

noisy	moist	choir	stoic	boiling
spoiled	choice	poison	toilet	pointer

 

Spelling List C (February 24 – March 1)

exploit	rejoice	thyroid	pointy	poised
hoist	appoint	turmoil	moisture	paranoid

Good luck!

Friday, February 24

Hi everyone, 

Happy Family Literacy Day!

We had a great day today but I don't have too much to write. We had a long work period this morning to finish up a whole bunch of tasks from earlier in the week. The students did an excellent job on their Jing Wo Thank You letters, their fossil artwork, and on preparing for the spelling quiz.

We had our Angles quiz and it's clear that the students have got a pretty good handle on the concepts we've learned. I haven't finished marking them yet. As always there will be an opportunity for a re-write for anyone who isn't happy with their scores.

The last part of our day was dedicated to Family Literacy Day. Students buddied up and read with friends and family, and it was quite wholesome. 

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

Zac

Thursday, February 22

 Hi parents,

We had an awesome day today. In the morning, our whole school met in the gym to watch an amazing Lion Dance performance, courtesy of Jing Wo! Jing Wo is a not-for-profit organization in Calgary that seeks to share and preserve Chinese Culture, predominately through the art of Lion Dance. The performance was incredibly energetic, entertaining, colourful, and fun. The people from Jing Wo answered some thoughtful questions from the students afterwards.

http://jingwo.com/

When we got back to the classroom, we started writing Thank-You letters to let Jing Wo know how much we enjoyed the experience.

In math, we did an activity around finding similarities and differences between angles. We talked about different ways that angles could be sorted into groups based on shared attributes.

We're having a review of Angles tomorrow! The one thing I think the class could use a bit more practice with is just the terminology. If you have time, please review these at home:

Vertex: The point where two lines meet and an angle is formed.

Line Segment: A line that has a beginning and end.

Ray: A line that just keeps going and going, usually depicted with an arrow.

In the afternoon, we had Daily LA and Music. We also had an art lesson with Ms. Davies.

Have a nice night!

Zac

Wednesday, February 21

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today.

In the morning, the students used Epic! to research Chinese New Year / Lunar New Year and the Lion Dance. They learned about the Zodiac, and were very interested to learn about the qualities traditionally associated with their Zodiac animal. We also learned a bit about the origins of the Lion Dance, and how the unique image of the Chinese lion is a result of it featuring attributes from four different animals.

We were very fortunate to have a student in our class bring in an actual 'head' from a Lion Dance costume! The students had a great time experimenting with the pulleys that controlled the eyes and ears.

In math, we learned about how angles relate to rotation. We talked about the terms '180' and '360' and how they're often used in sports like skateboarding and snowboarding. The kids already seemed pretty familiar with those terms so this lesson was a breeze. We're wrapping up our unit on angles and will have a quick quiz on Friday to see if we're ready to move on. I realize that's a quick turn-around, but rest assured we will not move on unless the students have really got the hang of it. I think they already do.

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA and spelling, and read about the fossil history of Alberta.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, February 20

 Hi parents,

I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend. We had a good day back at school today. In the morning, the students wrote in their journals about their long weekends, or a variety of alternative writing prompts that they came up with as a class.

In math, we practiced measuring and naming angles in a 2-D dimensional drawing of a park. 

In the afternoon, we had a great discussion about AI, and the implications of a future where people may not have to work as hard, and how that might impact our wellbeing, for better or for worse.

We had Daily LA and Music, and ended the day with another art lesson from Ms. Davies.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Family Literacy Day - Friday, Feb. 23