Good afternoon!

What a day! The Gr. 4 students began their morning with their Fractions and Decimals Unit Test. The Gr. 5 students were working on their unit problem for Fractions and Decimals. We complete a final problem at the end of each unit, sometimes as a class, sometimes in groups, and today we worked individually. Students had to construct a garden according to the fractions given to them.

In Language Arts we worked on a “Grow and Glow” activity. Students read eachother’s rough copies of our “Letters to the Future.” They needed to consider spelling, and then select two things that “glowed” about their partners work, and one thing that their partner could work on to help their piece to “grow.” Using these suggestions, we then began our good copies.

In Science, the Gr. 4 students learned about concave and convex mirrors. We discussed the differences between these mirrors, and what you would use these mirrors for. The Gr. 5 students worked on an activity where they were testing solutions. They were trying to see if the following ingredients could be dissolved in water: sugar, baking soda, corn starch, alum powder, and baby powder. After, the students were asked to explore two new separation techniques: decanting and filtering. These techniques work well with heterogenous solutions involving liquids, but share similarities to our earlier solid techniques – sieves and filters are very similar!

We are currently reading as part of the MS Readathon. Students are able to set reading goals and collect donations if they meet those goals. The money goes to MS research and support. Our class is taking this yearly activity a step farther. We are playing, “Beat the Teacher!” Students are trying to out-read me every night. We had a number of students successful today. I only read for 90 minutes yesterday, and we had some accumulated numbers that were already up to 240 minutes! Great work everyone!

Don’t forget that tomorrow is Girl Power. The Gr. 5 girls will be going to the Syncrude Sports and Wellness center for a day of physical fun! Please bring: appropriate clothing for exercise, running shoes, healthy lunch, and a water bottle.

Homework: Read 20 minutes

                         Reading Journal – Friday

                         Spelling Quiz – Friday

                         Multiplication Quiz – Friday

                         Language Arts: Good copy of Letter

                         May 23rd – Book Orders Due

                         May 17th – Intent Forms Due

                         May 16th – Green Day

                         May 24th – Metis Festival 

Spelling Words: constitution, instinct, tuition, suction, notion, cousin, cotton, onion, union, snout

Hello again!

Another busy Monday. We started our day of with some Math. The Gr. 4 students were using today as a review/study day, as they have their Unit Test tomorrow. Students are encouraged to use the “Show What You Know” questions, their textbook, and their extra workbook to help them prepare for the test. The Gr. 5 students started their Geometry Unit. We have begun with discussing the attributes of shapes. In particular we looked at the length, direction, and vertexes of shapes today. Students know how to represent these concepts visually (eg. hatch marks for length, looking for parallel lines, naming shapes, etc.) and will continue to practice these skills throughout the unit.

In Science today, the Gr. 4 students discussed the moon. We have been working hard at discussing how light travels, reflections, and shadows, and today helped us to pull it together. We discussed the phases of the moon, and we also looked at lunar and solar eclipses. The Gr. 5 students continued to experiment with mixtures. Today we were further exploring solutions, and this led us to explore density. We completed three experiments: mixing liquids, layering liquids, and water droplets. Through these experiments we learned that liquids with different densities won’t mix, but will settle according to density (eg. densest on the bottom). We also discussed cohesion and the surface tension of water (something we have touched on before). We will continue to explore solutions in our next lesson, and will begin discussing separating techniques for solutions.

The Gr. 4 students are now discussing their likes/dislikes in French. We have started by reviewing and learning some new French expressions. Students will learn how to introduce themselves, and to discuss some of their likes and dislikes. We will also be discussing physical activities, which will allow us to introduce the concept of verbs and conjugations. The Gr. 5 students are beginning a unit on homes. Today we learned some new vocabulary for different homes that people might live in. Students will continue to expand their vocabulary and speech throughout this unit.

Homework: Read 20 minutes

                         Multiplication Quiz (Friday)

                         Spelling Quiz (Friday)

                         Reading Journal (Friday)

                         Math: Gr. 4 – Show What You Know

                                                 – Unit Test (tomorrow)

                                      Gr. 5 – pgs. 224-225 #1-7

                         Book Orders: May 23rd

                         May 16th – Green Day

                         May 15th – Girl Power

                         May 17th – Intent Forms Due

                         May 24th – Metis Festival

Good afternoon!

We had a great day today. We started with our spelling quiz, as usual. Students are reminded that they should be reviewing their spelling words at home every night, before the quiz on Friday.

In Computers we explored a website called “Claire and her Grandfather.” This site has a story that I asked students to read. It is about a girl named Claire. Claire needs to share with the class something about her ancestry, and about their contributions to Canada. Claire is unsure of how to answer that questions, until she talks to her grandfather and learns about some of the amazing contributions First Nations peoples have made to Canada today. See the link below if you want to read the story at home, or to play some fun games!

I usually post pictures of our Art on Friday, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to today because it is a surprise. I hope everyone has a great weekend, and a Happy Mother’s Day!

Computer Class Link:

http://www.beatstudios.ca/inac/eng/2000_e.html

Homework: Read for 20 minutes

                         Language Arts – Finish Rainbow Editing

                         Math: Gr. 4 – pgs. 214-21 #1-10

                                                 – Unit Test (Tues.)

                         French: Special Occasions (Mon.)

                                          Birthday Cards (Mon.)

                         Book Orders – May 23rd

                         Green Day – May 16th

                         Girl Power – May 15th (Gr. 5 Girls)

                         Metis Festival – May 24th (Gr. 4’s)

Good afternoon!

Students were working hard in 4/5 N today! We started our morning off with some Math. The Gr. 5 students wrote their Unit Test. The Gr. 4 students were working with adding and subtracting decimals up to the hundredths place. This is a new place value place for us, but our strategies for adding and subtracting have remained the same. The Gr. 4’s will be writing their Unit Test on Tuesday, and I want to remind everyone that we have Math help tomorrow and Monday at recesses for those who want some help with their studying!

In Social today we completed an activity very similar to yesterday. Today we looked at some Plains First Nations groups. We discussed how important the buffalo is to many of these peoples, and that unlike our previous lessons, these First Nations were migratory; that is they moved with the buffalo. This created some key differences in culture and lifestyle. We then read a Blackfoot legend called “The Trickster’s Race.” In our previous lessons we have discussed Raven as a Trickster character for the Plateau and Pacific Coastal groups, but today we were able to talk about Coyote and the role that he plays in many Plains First Nations stories and traditions. We have learned that Trickster characters are agents for both good AND bad, and that you never quite know what they are up to. In today’s legend, Coyote tricks Old Man to beat him in a footrace. We had some great class discussion about whether or not Old Man was deserving of this trick. Then, like yesterday, we completed a snapshot activity using our story. The small snapshots, or tableau, are a great way for students to really understand these stories, because by being physical and making choices about what we are portraying, we have to understand the subject matter. Today I asked students to focus on their characters’ expressions. This is again something that we are going to continue developing.

In DPA today we learned the actions to a new dance. Throughout the year we have been adding to our repetoire of DPA dances. You can find the instructions in the link below if you want to give it a try at home!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WlcM1pl_ys&list=UUguswIRYHaPGsNvVS3bfZOw

Homework: Read 20 minutes

                         Reading Journals – Friday

                         Spelling Quiz – Friday

                         Multiplication Quiz – Friday

                         Language Arts: Rainbow Edit Letters

                         Math: Gr. 4 – pgs. 214-215 #1-10

                                                 – Unit Test (Tuesday)

                         Science: Signed Tests

                         French: Gr. 5 – Special Occasions (Mon.)

                                          Gr. 4 – Birthday Cards (Mon.)

                         Book Orders – May 23rd

                         Green Day – May 16th

                         Intent Forms – May 17th

                         Girl Power – May 15th (Gr. 5 Girls)

                         Metis Festival – May 24th (Gr. 4’s)

Hello again!

The students wanted me to share this link again. It is “Les Chats Ninjas” which was our very first Watch it Wednesday activity a few months ago. We watched it again today to try and see if you could discover some new words, and because several students missed it the first time around. The link is below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBfy_kjkt4I

In Language Arts today we Rainbow Edited our rough copies of our “Letters to the Future.” Rainbow Editing is something that we started earlier this year, and we have used it several times since. It involves students completing the following steps:

• Red – Draw an arrow in front of each new paragraph.
• Orange – Underline the capital letters in the FIRST word of every sentence and also proper nouns. Slash through capitals that shouldn’t be there.
• Yellow – Circle punctuation marks at the END of every sentence. Put the punctuation in if it’s missing.
• Green – Underline transition words (first, next, then).
• Blue – Circle words that are misspelled. Use a dictionary to help you!
• Purple – Underline interesting, exciting, or juicy words! There should be at least two in each paragraph.

This checklist helps students to slow down, and really read over their work. Tomorrow we will be peer editing our letters, and then early next week we will be working on the good copies.

In Science today the Gr. 4 students completed three more Science centers. They worked on observing the angle of incidence and the angle of reflection. They solved hidden messages using a mirror, and they observed the effect of looking at an object in two mirrors. Students are doing a great job, and are learning a lot about light and reflection. In Gr. 5 we reviewed the concepts of heterogeneous, homogeneous, and solutions today. We then discussed our last strategy for separating a heterogeneous mixture – air! When using a mixture with a much lighter material, air can be an easy way to separate materials. Then we moved on the homogeneous mixtures. We made lemonade! We observed what would happen at each step in the mixing process. First we added lemon juice to water and tasted it. Then we added some sugar to our mixture, but we didn’t stir it. Students tasted this heterogeneous mixture first to see if there was much of a distance. Then we stirred the sugar until it dissolved. Finally we had some delicious lemonade! We also discussed how we could remove the sugar from the lemonade. Some strategies we came up with were: cooling the solution, boiling the solution, evaporating the solution. We are going to further explore these suggestions in the next few experiments.

In Social today we discussed the Plateau First Nations peoples. We looked at some of their culture, history, etc., and then we read a Carrier myth. The myth we read today was called, “The Snaring of the Sun.” After we read this short myth, students broke into groups to create snapshots of the story. Students summarized the events of the story by freezing into place, as though someone had captured a picture. It was fun to share our snapshots with one another to help retell the story, and we will be adding to this activity in the next few classes.

Homework: Read 20 minutes

                         Reading Journal – Friday

                         Spelling Quiz – Friday

                         Multiplication Quiz – Friday

                         Language Arts – Finish Rainbow Editing

                         Math: Gr. 5 – Show What You Know

                                                 – Unit Test (tomorrow!)

                         Science: Signed Tests

                         French: Gr. 5 – Special Occasions (Monday) 

                                          Gr. 4 – Birthday Cards (Monday)

                         Book Orders – May 23rd

                         Green Day – May 16th

                         Intent Forms – Due May 17th

                         Metis Festival – May 24th (Gr. 4 only)

                         Girl Power – May 15th (Gr. 5 girls)   

Note – I sent an email with the following link attached earlier today. It is a link to a survey for parents regarding the new reporting system. If you have the chance, please take the time to complete this survey, and let district know how you and your student feel about the new report cards. If you would like to print a copy and write your response, you can forward the survey to district through me. Just send it to school in your student’s agenda. Thanks!

http://fmpsdschools.ca/2013/05/07/fmpsd-outcomes-based-report-card-parent-survey/

Good afternoon!

We had an extremely productive day today. We started off our morning by working on Math. The Gr. 4 students were looking at subtracting decimals to the tenths place. We looked at 3 different strategies that students can use. The first is a base 10 block modelling strategy. The second is the traditional right-to-left subtraction. The third is adding to find the difference. Students explored all three strategies, but we emphasized that students can use that strategy that makes the most sense to them. The Gr. 5 students further explored addition and subtraction of decimals. The Gr. 5 students will be having a Unit Test on Fractions and Decimals on Thursday. Students who want to study are welcome to look over the problems in their textbook. Tomorrow will be a review day for us.

In Language Arts we continued to work on our “Letters to the Future.” Students used the planning sheets that they started last week, and began to write a first draft of their letters. Tomorrow we will be rainbow editing these letters as a class, and sharing ideas and suggestions with each other. It is important that each student finish their rough draft tonight, to bring to class tomorrow.

In Science, the Gr. 5 students explored mixtures. We discussed the difference between heterogeneous and homogeneous mixtures, and students learned three techniques to separate heterogeneous mixtures. We used sieves, magnets, and water to help separate mixtures of sand/counters, sand/paperclips, and sand/beads. Tomorrow we will be using air as a separating technique, before moving on to homogeneous mixtures. The Gr. 4 students explored light and shadows. We did three small experiments. The first involved students shining a flashlight through a series of index cards. This further enforced that light always travels in a straight line. Next students were given three objects (Ziploc bag, wax paper, paper bag) and asked to use a lamp to determine which object was transparent, translucent, and opaque. Students recorded their own definitions of these terms. Lastly, students were challenged to use two flashlights to create two shadows, using only one object. The Gr. 4 did a great job, and everyone is really putting together our concepts of light very quickly.

In Social today we discussed the First Nations of the Pacific Northwest. We discussed some cultural norms, traditional ways of life, and food sources used by Pacific coastal groups. We then discussed one of these groups more in depth. We looked at the Haida. Students got to explore some Haida culture (which we will continue during Art next week), and we read a traditional Haida story called “Salmon Boy.” This story serves two unique purposes. It is a teaching story, and it demonstrates that level of respect that these First Nations peoples had for the environment. Check out the link below if you want to read the story at home:

http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/SalmonBoy-Haida.html

Homework: Reading Journal – Friday

                         Read 20 minutes

                         Spelling Quiz – Friday

                         Multiplication Quiz – Friday

                         Language Arts: Rough Copy of Letter

                         Math: Gr. 4 – pg. 211 #1-8

                                      Gr. 5 – pgs. 214-215 #1-13

                         Science: Signed Tests

                         Book Orders – May 23rd

Spelling Words: conservation, conversation, conversion, contrive, inventor, investor, reaction, overcast, overcoat, ancestor

POW (by Tithi): I have 50 marbles. I want to put them into groups of 4. Will they be divided equally? How many are in each group?

Good afternoon!

Another Monday gone. I can’t believe that we only have 6 Mondays left! This school year has gone quickly. Today students were celebrating paperless day as part of our “Amazing Waste Race” challenges. We did a pretty good job, and had some creative solutions on how to use less paper today. We used reusable plastic folders and markers, the whiteboards, and the Promethean board. We also used manipulatives to help problem solve. One great activity that we did today was changing how we handled our usual “Mystery Word Challenge.” Instead of using our usual answer sheets, students teamed up and used both the Promethean board and the white board. Students were trying to work as a class today instead of individuals. To keep up our motivation we had a contest. The class was trying to build more words with the mystery letters in 10 minutes, than I could build with the mystery letters. It was pretty close. In the end the class created 82 words, while I created 88. Phew! I had to work really hard to squeak passed them in the end. It was great to see everyone working together, and to see us trying something new. This might be a great way to do “Mystery Word Challenge” every once in a while, and without paperless day we never would have thought of it.

Homework: Read 20 minutes

                         Reading Journals – due Friday

                         Spelling Quiz – Friday

                         Multiplication Quiz – Friday

                         Science: Signed Tests returned

                         Book Orders – May 23rd

Good afternoon!

We had a great Friday today. We started off our morning by finishing our CAT-4 examinations. We finished the spelling component today. When we finished we discussed an activity that we will be taking part in on Monday. It is “Music Monday”. As some of you know, we have been watching some of Commander Hadfield’s videos from the International Space Station. He is going to be taking part in an event on Monday, in support of Music Education. During a live web-cast, he and several other guest stars will be singing the same song. He will be singing from the ISS, and everyone who participates will be across Canada, but everyone will be singing at the exact same time! We will be logging on around 9:20 am in order to participate. Check out the link below and you can practice the song at home!

http://www.musicmonday.ca/

For the second part of our Morning, we had a celebration. Students received their FRIENDS certificates today, and we had a going away party. This meant that we had lots of us in Pyjamas, we had lots of healthy treats, and we got to play a game. We played Silent Elephant Ball. Elephant Ball is a game that we are already very familiar with. Students stand in a circle with their feet touching, and try to knock a ball between each others’ legs. It is much harder than it seems, and students need to be pretty flexible. If the ball goes through your legs, you lose an arm, then another arm, then a leg, etc. making the game harder and harder as we continue. Today we played it in silence. It is much more difficult to keep your focus when you are also focusing on being quiet. Once students get into the game, we also added a second ball to make it more challenging.

Homework: Read 20 minutes

                         Math: Gr. 4 – pgs. 207-208 #1-10

                                      Gr. 5 – pgs. 208-209 #1-13

                         Science: Sign and return tests

                         Book Orders – May 23rd

Hello everyone!

Today we started working on a Language Arts project that is pretty exciting. We are going to be entering the Alberta Legislature’s “Students’ Letters to the Future” Contest. In celebration of the Legislature Building’s 100th anniversary, the Legislative Assembly is inviting Alberta students to be part of history. In their own words, “To launch the next century of democracy in our province, the Alberta Legislature Centennial Capsule will be placed beneath the cornerstone of the Legislature Building later this year, and we would like your students to help us create a meaningful message for future generations to find 100 years from now!” Students are writing letters to the future, and they are asked to include the following:

• A description or outline of what their life is like right now.

• A theme or message they want to pass on to people 100 years from now.

• Guesses or predictions about how things will change between now and 100 years from now.

• Their thoughts, feelings or opinions on what is important to them now and how that may change in the coming 100 years.

We started planning the letters today. We will be writing them next week. Our writing process is going to include the steps that we have been developing in Writer’s Workshop: rough writing, rainbow editing, and good copy writing. Students are excited, and I think inspired by some of the qualifications. This is also a great opportunity for us to review the parts of a formal letter, which we haven’t done since October!

Homework: Read 20 minutes

                         Reading/Reading Journal – tomorrow

                         Multiplication Quiz – tomorrow

                         Math: Gr. 4 – pgs. 207-208 #1-10

                                      Gr. 5 – pgs. 208-209 #1-13

                         Health: Pyjama Party tomorrow!

                         Science: Tests signed and returned

                         Book Orders – May 23rd

“The world’s favorite season is the spring.

All things seem possible in May.”

– Edwin Way Teale

Hello everyone!

We had another busy day today. We started our morning with our CAT-4 exam. Students completed the Math portion of the exam. We only have two sections left: Computation, and Spelling. We will be finishing Computation tomorrow, and Spelling on Friday. That is why we are not working on Spelling Words this week. We will be writing the CAT-4 spelling portion instead.

In Social today students finished working on their brochures. We have been constructing giant brochures on the Canadian Regions. It was a good review of the regions for the students, and we are going to display them on our back wall. We are now going to do a story from each region to finish our story-telling unit.

In Science the Gr. 5 students worked on their last Electricity activity. They are creating a burglar alarm for a house. Students must create a switch that will be closed when a burglar enters their building. They are coming up with some very creative solutions! I’ll share some of their projects tomorrow. The Gr. 4 students explored creating shadows. They were asked to discover how to create a larger shadow, and then they were allowed to play with the flashlights and create shadow puppets. We will be reviewing tomorrow.

We also finished FRIENDS today. FRIENDS books can finally go home. We have finished Booster #2. They only thing left is for students to get their certificates, and for us to have a class celebration. We are going to have a class PJ Day on Friday, and we would love some healthy snacks! Our facilitator from Canadian Mental Health will be joining us for some games and snacks as well.

Homework: Read 20 minutes

                         Reading Journal/Readingo – Friday

                         Multiplication Quiz – Friday

                         Health: Party Snack? Please let Ms. B know tomorrow!

                         Science: Get Unit Tests signed and returned

                         Book Orders: May 23rd