Thursday, February 1

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today. Much of our day was spent working on a challenging social studies task, in which the students used their Alberta textbooks and learned the differences between climate and weather. They also learned how climate is often connected to factors like elevation, winds, proximity to water, and latitude. 

We did a 'pre-assessment' on Angles in math. Turns out the students don't know very much about angles - which is perfect, because we're just about to start learning them.

In the afternoon, we had Music and work period time.

Have a nice night!

Zac

PS: The students somehow managed to get the lift chain working on the roller coaster! 

Wednesday, January 31

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today. It was fun to see the literary character costumes, and Rooms 2 and 3 put on a great assembly. 

In the morning, we talked about the terms 'protagonist' and 'antagonist', and the students wrote in their journals about their favourite heroes and villains. Again, they did an excellent job on this one.

We're working on building more efficient work habits for the morning work period. We tried working for a solid 15 minutes, in complete silence, to see how much we could get done, and a lot of students were able to finish all their math and French work in that short time! In a Montessori classroom, students who finish early get to work on 'Responsible Work Choices' - lots of students complain that they wish they had more time in the day for these. The best way to make that happen is by completing routine work more quickly!

In the afternoon, we continued learning about wheels, axles, and vehicles. This time the grade 3s worked with K-Nex, while the Grade 4s got to use Lego.

Thanks to your Scholastic Book Orders, we now have enough money to buy another K-Nex set for the classroom - this one is focused on Simple Machines, and pairs really nicely with all the work we're doing in Science.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, January 30

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today! The rollercoaster is finished:

In the morning, we talked about "literary genres" (fantasy, mystery, action, sci-fi, etc.) and the students wrote about their favourite types of books. Their work really exceeded my expectations. I wasn't sure how this prompt would go over, but the students took it seriously, and many of them wrote paragraphs (with topic sentences and everything!) without even being asked. It's awesome to see that those skills have stuck around.

In math, we learned about inches and feet, and measured lines scattered around the classroom using these units.

In the afternoon, we had Daily LA and Music. We also did another "Mad Minute" and graphed the scores.

Tomorrow is "Dress Up As Your Favourite Literary Character or Author" Day! 

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday, January 29

 Hi parents,

Today we reviewed the last couple chapters of A Rover's Story, and then the students wrote the next chapter, based on what they thought would happen next. It was awesome to see how well they captured the personalities of the characters, and referenced specific events from earlier in the book.

We're doing more "mad minutes" this week, and this time, we're tying in some graphing as well. The students are creating line charts to document their scores for each day. It's pretty amazing to think that at the start of the year, we were doing 6-8 basic facts for Morning Math, and now many students are getting through 20+ basic facts in just two minutes. 

In the afternoon we did Daily LA, and learned about the -ow sound for spelling. We also learned about 'tension' and 'elastic' forces.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words! (Week of Jan. 28) & Literacy Theme Day

 Spelling List A (January 26 – February 2)

now	how	owl	town	meow
down	cows	crowded	vowel	brown

 

Spelling List B (January 26 – February 2)

somehow	frowning	gown	towers	power
however	shower	powder	clown	flower

 

Spelling List C (January 26 – February 2)

drowsy	jowls	scowl	browse	powerful
flowery	downtown	countdown	showdown	empowerment

Good luck!

Friday, January 26

 Hi parents,

Today was a nice way to end our week. In the morning, the students did another "pop quiz" math check-in, that basically was just a more formal version of what we do every day for morning math. They did much better on this one than the one we did on Wednesday, which is reassuring. Moving forward I hope they'll treat morning math as though it were a 'quiz', and give their work a bit more time and effort.

We put our folding skills to good use today, and helped to organize the school's Lost and Found bin:

Please take a look at the pictures and see if there's anything you recognize.

We had our spelling quiz, and went outside to play kickball. When we got back, the students had more time for building and testing vehicles using K-Nex and Lego.

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

Zac

Thursday, January 25

 Hi parents,

We had another good but somewhat unruly day. What I mean by this is that when the students are actually working, everything's great, but the transitions between activities have been painfully slow and I find myself asking 3+ times for students to put things away, line up, come to the carpet, etc.

In the morning we learned French personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, we, etc.) We learned that in French, you can make sentences using just a personal pronoun and a verb, (for example, "I am eating" is "Je mange") and the students wrote their own sentences in French.

In math, we practiced measuring perimeter using rulers. The students measured the perimeters of books in the classroom. We talked about how with rectangles, you only need to know the length and width, because the parallel sides are the same length.

In the afternoon, we had Music and Daily LA, and we read A Rover's Story.

Tomorrow, we're going to have a spelling quiz, and a very short (6 questions) addition and subtraction review, because I've noticed that the students have been a bit lazy with their morning math, and I don't want them to lose the skills they worked so hard to build.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, January 24

Hi parents,

The fun science continued today in room 6, as we delved further into the topics of wheels, axles, and forces.

The students brainstormed examples of "low-friction", "high-friction", and "elastic" activities. For example, a low-friction activity would be watersliding or skiiing, while a high friction activity would be anything that requires grip.

The Grade 3 students experimented with different Lego wheels, and built and tested racers. The Grade 4 students learned how to construct effective wheel systems with K-Nex.

 In math, the students worked in Table Groups to measure the length of the hallway - in mm. This was an awesome activity that was as much as test in teamwork as it was in mathematical thinking. In the end, the group that was most successful was the one that chose to measure a single floor tile (which was 30cm), then could the number of tiles along the hall, and multiply that by 30cm, and then by 10. The groups who chose to repeatedly use increments of 100cms also got pretty close! 

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, January 23

 Hi parents,

Here are some pictures from our "Chonker Cat Challenge". As you can see in the top image, the Chonker Cat is unable to slide down the ramp on its own. There's too much friction. The students looked around the classroom to find, design, and test different 'devices' that would allow the cat to move down the ramp, by reducing friction. We learned that wheels and rollers are an excellent way to drastically reduce friction, but also that smooth objects can often do the trick on their own.

The new science curriculum is really fun. Looking forward to more experiments and building in the future!

On that note - the rollercoaster is coming along nicely:

The students have done 100% of the work. I have not helped once.

In math, we looked further into the concept of Area. The students drew rectangles and other polygons, and determined the area by counting up the number of 'squares' in each shape. We learned how to use the unit 'cm squared' when writing area.

In the afternoon, we had Daily LA, Music, and Cubby Clean-up time.

As part of our work around Montessori Practical Life Skills and Grace and Courtesy, we're planning to start "Tea Time Tuesday" next week. This will give students an opportunity to practice basic skills like making tea, pouring, drinking a hot beverage, and cleaning cups. 

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday, January 22

 Hi parents,

We had a rowdy day today and the whole class ended up serving 5 minutes of "Listening Club" time at recess. 

That being said, a lot of good learning still happened. It often just took a little longer to get started.

In the morning, we watched this episode of Science Max on Friction, and learned about friction, and some cool experiments we might try soon. We also talked about the term "Applied Force", which is basically any time an object is physically pushed or pulled by a person or thing.

We did a quick experiment with friction, in which we used 3 different inclines and tested which objects would slide down, and which would stay in place. 

In math, we continued working on measurement, by creating Minecraft-inspired self portraits, and measuring the perimeters as well as the area. Thankfully this was done on grid paper, so the students didn't need rulers or multiplication.

In the afternoon we did some fact-fluency practice (the return of the Mad Minute), practiced spelling, and did Daily LA.

Have a nice night!

Zac

Spelling Words (Jan. 19 - 26)

 Spelling List A (January 19 – 26)

sigh	high	sign	light	might
night	right	fight	sight	flight

 

Spelling List B (January 19 – 26)

higher	eight	knight	height	weight
thigh	midnight	bright	mighty	sleigh

 

Spelling List C (January 19 – 26)

highest	nightmare	eighty	weighted	straight
tonight	highway	freight	neighbour	eyesight

This week's focus is the -igh blend, an especially challenging one - good luck!