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

Thursday, March 30

 Hi parents,

We had a good day today, once again largely centred around art.

Our Giving Tree artwork is coming along really nicely - as I mentioned in yesterday's post, this artwork is being created as part of an Art Cards by Kids fundraiser, and each child's artwork will be used to create beautiful multi-purpose cards that families can purchase to raise money for our school. We are also learning about the Metis peoples of Canada throughout the process. 

Students also did some awesome work with Haiku writing today. Mrs. Fernandez led the class through a discussion about syllables and descriptive words, and then challenged the students to write down words that described a flower. The students went above and beyond our expectations, and decided to write complete poems about the flower instead - many of these poems even followed the Haiku format perfectly, despite having only learned about it very briefly!

Tomorrow is our spelling quiz!

Have a nice night

Zac

Wednesday, March 30

 Hi parents,

We had another good day today!

In the morning, the students worked on math problems that involved filling in blanks to make 10, 100, 1000, and even 10,000! 

For example,

4 + __ = 10

40 + __ = 100

400 + __ = 1000

'Making Ten' is a great mental math strategy that can help students solve 2-digit addition problems in their heads.

We went outside for gym and the class learned how to play Hopscotch and Four Square. I'm hoping that having a stronger understanding of these games will help students make the most of our school's compound, which has plenty of games painted on it. Recess will be more fun than ever.

The students read about the natural resources found in Meteghan, and some of the good and services there as well. They answered comprehension questions while working in buddies.

Our afternoon was once again dedicated to art. This time the students both sketched and began painting their Giving Tree inspired artwork, which we are doing as part of an Art Card fundraiser. They're looking great so far!

Thank you once again to everyone who has volunteered for our Zoo trip, I am in the process of double checking everyone's volunteer status with the office and I apologize for not emailing you back sooner! We are also working hard to get the field trip forms completed so they can be sent home ASAP.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, March 29

 Hi parents,

Today was a really busy and art-filled day!

In the morning, Mrs. Fernandez read the story "The Giving Tree". This version was an indigenous take on Shel Silverstein's classic. It taught the students about the Metis peoples, and their connection to nature. The book features some amazing artwork too - artwork that we will be attempting to recreate in the coming days!

We talked more about 'syllables', and this time, the students were challenged to write sentences with specific numbers of syllables. They wrote 4, 6, and 8 syllable sentences. I was actually really impressed by how well the class did with this task - definitely a good sign for the Haiku writing we'll be doing in the near future!

Our afternoon was dedicated mostly to creating artwork submissions for the LBS Yearbook Cover Art contest. The students did an amazing job with this. I know there will only be one submission selected, but it could easily go to someone in Room 4. The artwork really captured what our school is all about! I'll be sure to post it on the Blog later so everyone can enjoy it regardless of who wins.

We ended our day with Music.

Thank you so much to everyone who has already volunteered for our Zoo field trip, which is currently scheduled for April 20! If you are interested in volunteering for this, or future field trips, please make sure the office has an up-to-date police check. I know a lot of people's volunteer clearance unfortunately expired over our Covid years.

Have a nice night!

Zac

PS: The April Guest Reader schedule has been sent home!

Monday, March 28

 Hi parents,

We had a great first day back after what was clearly a wonderful Spring Break. :)

We spent time talking about our breaks and getting back into the routine of things, and the students got reacquainted with an old friend -THE CARPET!!!

I am incredibly happy that we are once again able to gather on the carpet and have soft surfaces in the classroom. The room feels more welcoming than it has for the last 2 years.

The students wrote 'Spring Break Story Maps', in which they connected short paragraphs about their breaks with arrows and illustrations. 

Mrs. Fernandez led the class through a lesson on counting syllables, in preparation for our upcoming unit on Haiku poetry. The students made graphs to sort their classmates names by syllables.

We are so happy announce that we're in the process of planning our first field trip of the year! This message was sent out a few minutes ago:

Hello families,

 

We are excited to announce rooms 2,3, 4 and 5 are organizing a field trip to the Calgary Zoo for the tentative date of April 20^th, 2022. This field trip will require 4-5 parent-volunteers for each class. If you are able to volunteer with our class for this day please ensure you have an up to date police check on file with our school. To initiate this process please contact our office for further information. If you are up to date with this and would like to volunteer please email myself at magreenhall@cbe.ab.ca.

 

More information to come,

 

Melissa Greenhall 

Have a nice night!

Zac

Spelling Words! (Week of March 27)

 Spelling List A

Rest	Cost	Must	Past	Mist
They	But	Just	With	All

 

Spelling List B

Crust	Ghost	Exist	Boost	Worst
Made	Gave	Us	Buy	Those

 

Spelling List C

Guest	Almost	Honest	Compost	Tourist
Request	Against	Interest	Scientist	Specialist

Your Spring Break plans just got a whole lot better! 

(please do not actually feel obligated to practice spelling over the break)