Good afternoon!

Another busy day. We started off our day by doing a simile challenge. Students listed to a song, and were challenged to pick out as many similes as they could. There was 38 altogether! You will remember that we did this activity earlier in the year, when we did “You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch”. Today was a review, to keep the concept fresh in students’ minds. We will be completing this challenge again, as well as adding to it as we learn new poetic devices.

In Math today, the Gr. 4 students worked on telling time! We looked at the analog clock, and discussed concepts such as: hour hand, minute hand, 60 minutes in an hour, etc. and students were challenged to tell time. We did this by giving each group a practice clock and I held up a time for them to model on their clocks. Each group did extremely well. They also have some homework questions to practice the skills that they learned today. The Grade 5 students added to their growing list of problem solving strategies. Today we worked on a strategy that we have not discussed since September – making a chart. Students were presented with a measurement problem, and used a chart to help them model the correct answer. Charts can help students discover patterns that may be useful in solving the problem, or make the work more efficient.

In Science today the Gr. 4 students completed our last lever experiment. They practiced moving the fulcrum of a first class lever, to balance the lever (similar to how you would balance a scale). They had to move the fulcrum, they could not change the weight on either end. They did very well, and we reviewed the concept that moving the fulcrum closer to the load gives you a mechanical advantage. The Gr. 5 students began discussing safety issues surrounding electricity. They are trying to discern why particular situations are unsafe, and tomorrow we will review and discuss when electricity is safe to use in experiments (eg. in class) and what types of electricity are UNSAFE to experiment with.

Homework: Multiplication Quiz (Friday)

                         Spelling Quiz (Friday)

                         Read 20 minutes

                         Reading Journal (Friday)

                         Math: Gr. 4 – pgs. 130-131 #1-10

                                      Gr. 5 – pg. 127 #1-2

                         Computers: Powerpoint Assignment (Friday)

                         Health: 6A and 6B in FRIENDS (tomorrow)

                         Science: Gr. 4 – find an example of a lever at home

                         Family Science/Math Night – tomorrow @ 6:00 pm

                         Classroom Science Fair – March 4th

                         School Fair – March 7th

                         Book Orders – February 22nd