Good morning!
It’s so lonely in here without all of you!
Have a wonderful summer vacation. You all have worked so hard this year, and you definitely deserve a nice long break. Come and visit me next year. You know where to find me. Only by then our classroom, well… my new class’ classroom, won’t look so empty. I’ve loved being your teacher, and I’ll miss seeing all of you everyday. All the best,
– Miss Barrington
Good afternoon!
What a busy second last day. Our classroom is starting to look very empty! It is always sad pulling down art projects, posters, etc. It makes our classroom look a lot bigger, but as a student said this morning, “It looks boring!” The students have been a big help to me this week in getting our classroom ready for the summer. We have been doing a little each day. Yesterday was definitely our biggest cleaning day. We tackled Math manipulatives, and cleaned off all the shelves and bulletin boards yesterday! Tomorrow we will be packing up our classroom library, and then everything will be done for the summer – well, except for my filing cabinet!
We started “Watch It Wednesday” off today with some new video updates from Jamie McDonald. Jamie McDonald is a British man who is attempting to run across Canada without a support crew. He has been filming, tweeting, and using facebook along the way. The students and I have been following him since he started. He is currently in Quebec, but the video updates show him finishing his run across Newfoundland. He is raising donations for SickKids as he goes, so please feel free to check him out at home if you haven’t already. His website is posted below. That way everyone can follow him throughout the summer!
We then completed a Live Math activity on Probability. We have used Math 5 Live (and Math 4 Live) before. You can access them using LearnAlberta. I’ll post the links below as well. Students were asked to consider the probability of different situations. Then we conducted two probability experiments. We tested the probability of pulling a certain colour of marble from a bag, and then we used spinners to predict the probability of spinning a certain number. Feel free to check out the experiments at home. Most of the activities also come with some printable worksheets as well, in case you are looking for some extra work over the summer.
http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/me5l/html/math5.html?goLesson=22
Today we used our Promethean Board a lot! We completed two different Wetlands activities using the Promethean Board as well. In our first activity, we were creating fish. We were attempting to create a fish that would be the longest to survive in the aquarium, against the dreaded Sharky! This required students to consider what adaptations the fish might need in order to help it survive a greater length of time. Try it at home and see if you an beat our record of 130 seconds!
http://www.virtualfishtank.com/main.html
We also completed a fun Art Project today. We learned about two new techniques of drawing. We discussed what a contour drawing is (drawing the outline of an object – focusing on shapes), and what a blind drawing is (a drawing completed without looking at the paper). Then we created some blind contour portraits of one another! We nicknamed this project the Zombie Portrait project. It can be very difficult to complete an accurate blind contour drawing, without looking at your picture or lifting up your pen or pencil! This results in the pictures looking… well, a little different. It is a lot of fun, and the more you practice, the better able you are to capture quick momentary scenes and images, which is why artists use them. You DO have to practice though, because you need to have a very accurate understanding of your page and where your pen is on the page!
Homework: NONE!
Note – We are having a pyjama/slumber party tomorrow. Feel free to bring blankets, healthy snacks, and electronics. Don’t forget about the awards assembly at 10:15 am as well!
Good afternoon!
We had an amazing day. We started off our morning with some Science for a change. We looked at cattails today, and some of the adaptations of this amazing wetlands plant that help it to survive in ponds and marshes. We learned that:
After our review of adaptations, students played a game called “Wonderful Wetlands War!” We were put into 4 different teams: Lightning Unicorns, Chocolate Thunder (a.k.a. The Olympians), Sneaky Foxes, and Lightning Rainbow Potatoes. The Sneaky Foxes won the day, using their skills and luck to answer to most questions about Plants and Wetlands. All groups did very well, and submitted written answers about the game questions. This was our final Ecology (Wetlands + Plants) review, and we will not be writing a written Unit Test for this Unit. Instead, on Monday, we will be travelling to the storm pond to do some hands on work.
In Social Studies today we discussed Confederation a little further. We have already learned about some of the political changes that were occurring in Canada in the late 1800s. Today we were able to use what we had previously learned to discuss some pros and cons about joining Confederation. Countries like New Brunswick were worried about losing Britain as an important trading partner. British Columbia did not have much in common with the other British Colonies and was too far away. Rupert’s Land separated them from the majority of the colonies. However, in 1867, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick joined together to form the Dominion of Canada. British Columbia followed, only when Canada offered to pay their debts and to build a railroad to connect them to the rest of Canada. Tomorrow we will finish our discussion on some of these factors.
Homework: Read 20 minutes
Multiplication Quiz – tomorrow
Math: Gr. 5 – pgs. 278-279 #1-2, 5-7
Yearbook Orders – June 24th ($20)
Heritage Park Donations
Bring extra bags tomorrow!
Homework: Read 20 minutes
Multiplication Quiz – Friday
Math: Gr. 4 – pgs. 309-310 #1-8
– Unit Test (Thursday)
Gr. 5 – pgs. 268-269 #1-6
Yearbook (June 24th) – $20
Permission Forms – ASAP
Good afternoon!
8 days left! It seems extraordinary that our school year is almost over. Time sure flies when you are having fun!
Students started off this morning by working on some Math. The Gr. 4 students have begun working with division and using remainders. This requires students to attempt one of the following strategies: modelling (eg. chips, counters, etc.), using arrays, or using multiplication facts. Take a look at the example below:
43 / 7 = ___
Modelling/ Arrays
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0
Students can see very clearly that 43 / 7 = 6 R 1, as there is one chip left over that cannot be placed into the array.
Multiplication
43 / 7 = ___
Well…
1 x 7 = 7 2 x 7 = 14
3 x 7 = 21 4 x 7 = 28
5 x 7 = 35 6 x 7 = 42
So…
42 / 7 = 6
Since 43 – 42 = 1, then 43 / 7 = 6 R 1
The Gr. 5 students have started to look at Statistics and Probability. Today we discussed the difference between first-hand and second-hand data. We also began looking at the differences and similarities between single bar graphs, and double bar graphs. Tomorrow we will be working on constructing some double bar graphs.
In Science today we continued to look at animal adaptations. We learned that frogs adapt in the following ways: camouflage (brown, yellow, green skin with spots or stripes), and they have thin, moist skin that allows air and water to pass through easily. Ducks also have adaptations that help them to survive in wetlands. They have webbed feet, and oily, waterproof feathers. We created a Venn Diagram comparing these two wetlands animals and their adaptations. Tomorrow we will be comparing two wetlands plants: lilies and cattails!
In Social Studies today we completed our discussion of the Loyalists. Students were then asked to write a journal entry, letter, or a speech pretending to be one of the following characters. Students could be: an Acadian, a British Soldier (during Expulsion of the Acadians, or the American Revolution), a French soldier, a Loyalist, an American soldier/citizen, or a Black Loyalist/Slave. We have grouped these two historical events due to their similarities. Both feature peoples who were forcibly removed from their homes due to their strong loyalties. They also both greatly affected how their regions developed, and led to migration and settlement in early Canada. I’m excited to get to read everyone’s work over the next few days!
Homework: Read 20 minutes
Multiplication Quiz – Friday
Math: Gr. 4 – pgs. 303-304 #1-9
Gr. 5 – pg. 260 #1-5
pg. 263 #1
Social: Loyalist/Acadian responses (tomorrow)
Jump Day – tomorrow!
Yearbook Orders – June 24th ($20)
Permission Forms – ASAP
Good afternoon!
What a busy day we had today! Due to the weather forecast for today, we opted not to go on our Wetlands walk. We will still be taking our walk, we will just be waiting until it is a little bit dryer! Instead we worked on some Social Studies. Today we completed an activity about the famous 5! Students learned about Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney, Nellie McClung, Henrietta Muir Edwards, and Irene Parlby, and some of the contributions that they made to women’s rights in Canada! Check out the links below if you want to keep exploring this topic at home. Remember the second link has some puzzles and activities.
Please don’t forget to return all permission forms as soon as possible! While it looks likely that our Heritage Park trip will be cancelled, I still want the forms just in case!
Computer Class Links:
http://www.famous5.ca/index.php/the-famous-5-women/the-famous-5-women
http://wayback.archive-it.org/2217/20101208160753/http://www.edukits.ca/famous/students.html
Timeline:
http://wayback.archive-it.org/2217/20101208161854/http://www.edukits.ca/famous/history_timeline.html
Homework: Read 20 minutes
Math: Gr. 4 – pgs. 300-301 #1-10
Jump Day – June 18th
Yearbook Orders – due June 24th ($20)
Permission Forms – ASAP
Heritage Park Trip – June 20th (potentially)
Good afternoon!
Our Gr. 5 students completed their Transformations Unit Test today. They will be moving on to Statistics and Probability. The Gr. 4 students started to work on estimating quotients today. We have been practicing rounding to the nearest multiple to help solve 2-digit by 1-digit division problems.
Eg. 46 / 5 = __
Well… 1 x 5 = 5, 2 x 5 = 10, 3 x 5 = 15, 4 x 5 = 20, 5 x 5 = 25, 6 x 5 = 30, 7 x 5 = 35, 8 x 5 = 40, 9 x 5 = 45!
45 is close to 46, so…
46 / 5 = about 9
We will be continuing to work with quotients next week.
In Science we have finished our discussions of interactions. Students are now starting to look at two different animals (frogs and ducks), and how these animals adapt to live in a wetlands environment. We have started with frogs. Today we watched a short National Geographic clip titled, “The Last Frog”. This program gave students some insight not only into frogs, but into some of the complications facing wetlands environments. Most of the complications are caused either directly or indirectly by us – humans! Students watching the video expressed their sadness, frustration, and anger towards humans after watching the video, and we discussed using some of the things learned through our Waste in Our World unit and the Amazing Waste Race to help alleviate some of the pressures on these unique ecosystems.
Please send students with signed permission forms tomorrow! If the rain holds off, we may be traveling to the storm pond tomorrow.
Homework: Read 20 minutes
Spelling Quiz – tomorrow
Math: Gr. 4 – pgs. 300-301 #1-10
Jump Rope for Heart – due tomorrow
Year book Orders (June 24th, $20)
Hello again!
What a wonderful day. We started off our morning with some Science for a change! Students have begin to examine wetlands ecosystems. Yesterday we discussed some of the plant life that might be found in a pond. Today we added some animals! Wetlands are unique ecosystems filled with producers, consumers, and decomposers. Producers are green plants that are creating their own food, consumers need to consume plants and other animals for food, and decomposers are recycling organic material. That means they eat dead animals/plants, and the nutrients is added back into the ecosystem! Some examples of wetlands producers are waterlilies, water-weeds, duck-weeds, etc. Some examples of consumers are kingfishers, ducks, frogs, dragonflies, etc. Finally, we might find some worms, beetles, and bacteria, also known as the decomposers. Ecosystems are very complex, but also very fragile. We can examine the food chains of an ecosystem to study this further.
Eg.
Marigold <— Butterfly <— Frog <— Snake <— Hawk <— Maggots
Food chains are only a small part of an ecosystem, because most consumers are able to consume a variety of plants or animals! In fact, there are 5 categories of consumers:
This creates a complex web of relationships between the creatures in an ecosystem, and if one part of the web is damaged or destroyed, all the other parts of the web are affected. This is why ecosystems are so fragile. Students demonstrated this by creating a giant web of their own! We each got to be a wetlands animal or plant, and had to use some yarn to track or connections in the ecosystem! It was hard and very complex! Lots of us were holding a lots more than one string!
Check out our current topics at the below link:
http://prezi.com/ehzxrklo8it2/wetland-interactions/
In Social we have moved away from discussing French contributions to Canadian culture. We are discussing the migration of other cultural groups throughout Canada. We have started with the expulsion of the Acadians, and will finish discussing the Loyalists tomorrow.
The Gr. 5 students are writing a small quiz tomorrow on Transformations! Don’t forget to review your reflections, translations, and rotations tonight! The Gr. 4 worked on multiplying 3-digit by 1-digit numbers today. We utilized the same strategies as yesterday: modelling, expanding, break-apart, and traditional short multiplication. Tomorrow we are moving on to division!
In D.P.A. today we all learned a new Dance. Special thanks to the student who taught it to the class! You were a great teacher! Want to do the Sid Shuffle at home? Check out the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMuJxd2Gpxo
Finally, 2 permission forms went home today. One is for our planned field trip to Heritage Park. We were scheduled to go to Heritage Park on June 20th. As many of you know, Heritage Park has been greatly affected by the downtown flooding. As a result this field trip is pending until further notice. Please sign and return the permission slip just in case we are able to go ahead or reschedule the trip! We had also planned to walk to the Brett Dr. storm pond on Friday this week. Due to the large amounts of rain, we will also be postponing this trip until further notice. Please sign and return this form. The next available dry and SAFE day, we will go further with this activity.
Homework: Spelling Quiz – Friday
Read 20 minutes
Math: Gr. 4 – pgs. 297-298 #1-9
Gr. 5 – Show What You Know
– Unit Test (tomorrow!)
Yearbook Orders – June 24th ($20)
Jump Rope for Heart – June 14th! (Friday)
Jump Day – June 18th
Hello everyone!
Today we started off our morning with some Math once again. The Gr. 4 students are working on multiplying 2-digit by 1-digit numbers. Today we discussed 3 different strategies that students are welcome to use. The first is to model using the base 10 blocks. This is the strategy that we were using yesterday as well. Second, the students used an expanded form strategy. Students write the 2-digit number in it’s expanded form, and then multiply those numbers by the 1-digit number. This is a great strategy because you just need to know your basic facts, and how to multiply by multiples of 10!
Eg. 56 x 4
56 x 4 = (50 + 6) x 4
56 x 4 = (50 x 4) + (6 x 4)
56 x 4 = 200 + 24
56 x 4 = 224
The other strategy is very similar. The book calls this strategy a break apart strategy. Students multiply the bottom 1-digit number by the 2-digit number, 1 digit at a time, and records the results. Afterwards they add the products together to find the final product.
Eg.
56
x 4
24
200
224
Together as a class, we also went over the more traditional multiplication method. This is the method that most of us learned in school. Students multiply the 1-digit number by the 2-digit number, carrying numbers over to their correct place value place.
Eg.
2
56
x 4
224
Students are welcome to choose whichever strategy that they find the easiest to work with. The Gr. 5 students worked on rotation again today, only now we have moved the rotation point. Yesterday we were working on rotating shapes when the rotation point was on the shape. Today we moved the rotation point away. In order to help students visualize this process, many of us have been using tracing paper. Students draw the shape on the paper, rotate the paper the correct amount and direction, and copy the rotation image from there. Tomorrow Gr. 5 students will be working on the “Show What You Know” from this Unit, and they will be writing a short Unit quiz on Thursday! Extra Math help will be provided at both recesses tomorrow if students wish to attend.
In Science today we discussed the 5 different types of Wetlands: bogs, marshes, swamps, fens, and shallow ponds. Bogs are known for the amount of moss and peat that are generally present. They are also very acidic, and the lack of oxygen causes plant and animal matter to decay very slowly. This had led to scientists and archaeologists being able to recover many unique fossils and even bodies from bogs. Bogs are also home to a variety of insects, amphibians, and birds. Marshes are known for the amount of grasses and sedges. Marshes are common in the Prairie Pothole region of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, and are also referred to as sloughs. They are great nesting grounds for waterfowl such as ducks and geese. Swamps are known for trees! Swamps are filled with water-loving trees like cypresses, willows, and mangroves. Swamps are also home to mosses, lichen, etc. that grows from the trees, and they resemble marshes in many ways. Fens are wetlands that are created by groundwater accumulation, and they resemble marshes and bogs. Shallow ponds are characterized by having open water (eg. small lakes and ponds). They are home to a variety of animals and plants, and usually have complex ecosystems. We also reviewed the process of photosynthesis today, and discussed the types of plants that may be present in ponds (emergent, floating, and submergent).
Homework: Read 20 minutes
Spelling Quiz (Friday)
Math: Gr. 4 – pg. 292 #1-7
Gr. 5 – pgs. 312-313 #1-5
Yearbook Orders – due June 24th ($20)
Good afternoon!
Students started off their day by watching a clip from the 2013 Tony Awards last night. We have just finished reading Matilda by Roald Dahl as our Read-Aloud book, and then we watched the movie over a few lunch periods. This year Matilda the Musical was nominated for several Tony awards, and students were able to watch a medley of some of the musical numbers. It is interesting to see how quickly we were able to identify characters, just from our knowledge of the book and movie! Check it out below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evj1z3l5hco
In Math today the Gr. 4 students worked on modelling larger multiplication problems. When modelling a 2-digit by 1-digit problem, students were encouraged to use base 10 blocks and arrays to assist them.
Eg. 23 x 4
__________ __________ __________ _ _ _
__________ __________ __________ _ _ _
__________ __________ __________ _ _ _
__________ __________ __________ _ _ _
The Gr. 5 students were working on rotations. In order to help visualize rotating an image around a fixed point, students were encouraged to think of a clock face. A clock face can easily be split into quarters (eg. quarter after, half passed, quarter to). Using this as a model, we practiced rotating images. In order to rotate an image you need three things: direction (clockwise vs. counter clockwise), amount (1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 1), and the rotation point. This can be a difficult concept for students to visualize, so many of us traced the shapes, and practiced rotating the cutouts of our shapes. This is a great strategy to help practice rotation.
In Science today we began looking at Wetlands. Students discussed the 5 kinds of wetlands: bogs, fens, marshes, swamps, and shallow ponds. Then we discussed the role of watersheds and wetlands. Wetlands are essential in assisting with the following:
Wetlands are areas that have poorly draining soils, water-loving plants, and biological processes suited to wet areas. Lakes on the other hand, have well defined beds and banks, inlets and outlets for water to enter and exit, some degree of current or flow, and is reasonably permanent. Areas surrounding lakes can often be wetlands, and sometimes people name wetland areas lakes! This can be a little confusing, so make sure you know the differences.
We also learned about peatlands and non-peatlands today. Peat is layers of decaying plant/animal matters. These layers are very spongy and contain lots of nutrients. Typically mosses grow on top of the peat, and the ground can be very unstable. Peat can be harvested and sold for it nutrients as well. Bogs and marshes are peatlands, while fens, swamps, and shallow ponds are non-peatlands.
Want to learn more? The presentation that we examined today can be found at the following link:
http://prezi.com/scfk3esijgi_/wetlands/
Homework: Read 20 minutes
Spelling Test (Friday)
Math: Gr. 4 – pgs. 286-287 #1-11
Gr. 5 – pgs. 308-310 #1-8
Spelling Words: continents, innocent, contents, consent, contest, notice, tennis, insect, stone, scent