Agenda

Read 20 mins.

Reading Journal (tomorrow)

Spelling Quiz (tomorrow)

BBQ – TONIGHT

Math: Pg. 8 #1-6

LA: Writing Notebook Cover

Terry Fox – Sept. 26

Picture Day – October 2nd

Vegetable Fundraiser – Sept. 18th

Good afternoon!

What a busy day! We started out by working through the first Unit Problem of our current Math unit, Patterns and Equations. This problem is on pgs. 4-5 of their textbook. It asks students to help Carly solve two math problems by using pattern recognition to help finish to charts that she has started. The first asks students to help determine how much money Carly will earn for each pledge, based on the amount donated per km. The second chart asks students to discover how many laps Carly will have to run around a 400 m track if she wants to run 10 km. Pattern recognition is going to be the base of this unit. Students will be practicing recognizing patterns in charts and tables, and using this information in order to extend these tables. They will then transition into writing equations that represents these patterns. Check out the work we did today in the pictures below! Students can access the Math textbook online by visiting: www.mathmakessense.ca. The login is: Timberlea_student and the password is: student_2009. This is a great solution for when students forget their Math text at school!

In French today we had our first “Watch It Wednesday!” We use a video, song, dance, etc. at the beginning of class, and then students are able to listen to the video for familiar words, similar words, etc. This is a great way for students to use problem solving and to learn new vocabulary words. Today we learned to disco. Want to learn how to disco at home? Visit:

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

We also continued to add to our growing knowledge of classroom expressions. Today we added these great sentences to our repetoire:

Est-ce qu je peux boire de l’eau? (Can I get a drink of water?)

J’ai besoin d’un crayon. (I need a pencil.)

J’ai besoin de papier. (I need some paper.)

In Social Studies we have started a mapping task. We reviewed some of the positives and negatives of a “Bird’s Eye View”. Students noted that while you can see a large area, it doesn’t reveal details about a place. We are now constructing a map of our portable. Each group is working on a different section (our classroom, the link, the hallway, the washrooms, and outside). Our maps have to be colourful, include a legend, and have an accurate compass. We will be putting them all together to create a giant map once we are finished sometime tomorrow. I’ll post some pictures then!

Agenda

Read 20 mins.

Reading Journal (Friday)

Spelling Quiz (Friday)

BBQ – TOMORROW

Email Request – ASAP

Terry Fox – Sept. 26

Picture Day – October 2nd

Good evening!

Today in class we worked through a lot of great things! We started our morning off with some Math. Today we marked our quiz from yesterday. It was nice to get to hear everyone’s feedback about how they thought they did, and to hear some of the different strategies used to understand the questions. I can tell we are off to a great start with our Math. Tomorrow… Patterns and Equations!

We also had Computers today. We visited the Zoe and Molly online website. This is a program that many of the students will have used last year too. It helps students to remember some of the safety concerns that they may face when using the internet and it was a great review to get us back into the swing of things. Check out the link below to read through Zoe and Molly’s story for yourself! We also played some of the Social Studies games that we have been using in class. Everyone is doing a great job at improving their understanding of the provinces and territories! It might be time for a small quiz! We will be using computers in a similar nature all year. Students typically work on an activity that is cross-curricular in nature, whether that is researching a project or practicing some Math on Mathletics. Our rules for computers are listed below:

Come to class with clean hands.

Operate the equipment properly.

Make sure you listen to directions.

Push your chair in when you are done.

Use your inside voice.

Touch the keyboard lightly.

Eat and drink outside the computer lab.

Remember to take your printouts with you.

 

Learn something new each time you come to the lab.

Always work toward your best, not your neighbors’ best.

Be careful not to pull out any cords on your computer.

Everyone did a wonderful job at following all of our rules! Here is the link for Zoe and Molly online: http://zoeandmolly.ca/app/en/

We also had French for the first time today. We will be starting off our year by learning some classroom expressions. These are things that the students can use to speak French in class, and some of the things that they may hear throughout the year. Today we reviewed some common expressions that students are already familiar with:

Comment ça va? – How are you?

Ça va bien – I am good.

Ça va mal – I am bad.

Comme ci comme ça – I am okay (so-so).

Oui – Yes

Non – No

Est-ce que je peux… – Can I?

Est-ce que je peux aller aux toilettes? – Can I go to the washroom?

We then practiced speaking some of these expressions with each other. We will continue with expressions throughout the next couple of weeks as we get to know one another, and to encourage students to be speaking French in class.

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Reading Journal (Friday)

Spelling Quiz (Friday)

Book Orders – Sept. 27th

BBQ – Sept. 12th (Thursday)

Email Request – ASAP

Running Club (TOMORROW)

Terry Fox – Sept. 26th

Happy Monday!

We had a great day here in 5N! A busy day too! We started off our morning with some Math. This year in Math we are going to be focusing a lot on student proficiency. To start off our year, we did a small assessment this morning to gauge students’ ability with the topics covered in the Gr. 4 curriculum. As I told the students, not everyone was expected to be able to answer every question, and this wasn’t for marks. It was so that I could get to know a little bit more about the abilities in our classroom, strengths, and areas of improvement. It is a great way to plan instruction, knowing in advance where we don’t feel as confident. We will be doing one of these profiling quizzes approximately every two weeks throughout the year. This will allow students the opportunity to gauge their own improvement, and for us to celebrate our successes much more frequently. Want to check out the quiz at home? Click on the attachment below!

Math Profiling Quiz (Sept 9)

In Social Studies today we reviewed the capital cities of the provinces and territories. Students did very well, and it was great to see all of the teamwork. We also played a review game, similar to the game that we played when we were working with the provinces and territories. Check out the link below if you want to play along at home!

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Canadian_Geography.htm

In Language Arts today we started two different activities, both of which we will be building off of throughout the year. The first was creating our Reading Journal. This year, students will be expected to read for 20 minutes every night. We ask that parents sign the Journal to help us encourage daily reading at home. Students will also be completing weekly NINJA questions about their reading. This week our question is, “After reading, I wonder…” Students will fill in a response (a minimum of 3-5 sentences), and be assessed on their work. The Journal is due every Friday. The reason that we are calling the journals NINJA reading, is because students will have the opportunity to earn rewards. Each week the student finishes their nightly reading, they will receive a sticker for their sticker board. Stickers can also be earned through trying the POW, handing handouts in on time, and completing nightly Math homework. When a student has had four strong NINJA responses, then they will graduate to the next colour. Each colour gets more and more difficult, but I know that won’t dissuade students from wanting to earn that black belt! Our reading response form is posted below, however, most weeks students will create their own form using this weeks as a template.

Reading Response NINJA

We also completed a Making Words activity today. Making words is a spelling program that we participate in. Students are given a set of letters, and are allowed the opportunity to try and spell as many words as they can in a given time frame. Students really enjoy it, and often it turns into a friendly competition. After, we share some of our words, and organize and group them. We might put together all the words that start with the prefix re-, or talk about the pronunciation of certain letters. From these words, ten are selected every week for our weekly spelling quiz which takes place on Friday.

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Book Orders – Sept. 27th

BBQ – Sept. 12th (Thursday!)

Email Request Form – ASAP

Reading Journal (Friday)

Running Club (Wednesday)

Spelling Quiz (Friday)

Spelling Words: coin, coil, broil, relive, recent, recite, recoil, recline, violence, election

Hello again!

Sorry for not posting yesterday. I do always do my best to add a daily post, but sometimes time gets away from me!

Today we had a pretty great day. We started off with students completing their first independent Math Journal entry. They completed a “Number of the Day!” entry. We will be doing “Number of the Day” 2-3 times a week. The steps remain the same, we just change the daily number. Our current steps are:

1. Add 10.
2. Round to the nearest 10.
3. Expand It!
4. Write a number sentence with the number of the day as the sum.
5. Write it in words.
6. Multiply by 10.

The students record the number of the day, and then use the number of the day to answer the above. Number of the day is a great way to get daily math fact practice, as well as a way to practice skills that students are going to be using throughout the year. Our first Math unit, Patterns and Equations, will focus a great deal on number sentences, and this is a great way to have the students become familiar with the vocabulary, and to keep practicing throughout the unit. The steps will change throughout the year as our units change and with our changing skill levels. Today’s number was 35. Can you complete the steps above?

We had our very first classroom meeting today. Students move the desks to the sides of the room, and we gather our chairs together in a Community Circle. It is important that we practice our school’s TRIBES agreements during Community Circle: Attentive Listening, Appreciations – No Put Downs, The Right to Pass, and Mutual Respect. We start off every classroom meeting with an energizer to bring the group together. Today we played a fun game called “Pass the Face,” in which a funny face is passed around the circle, similar to doing the wave at a sporting event. Then we have our meeting. The meeting begins by having me raise any concerns or reminders that I would like to share with the group as a whole. Eg. Today we discussed the use of the classroom fidgets, and reviewed the difference between fidgeting and playing. The second part of our meeting is students led. The students bring up any questions or concerns that they have. They can do this directly at the meeting, or through our meeting folder. The meeting folder is kept at the front of the room. Students are free to write a note about what they want discussed in it throughout the week so that I can review it on Thursday and see what issues they would like to discuss. For our first couple meetings the issues will be ones that are staged and facilitated by me, so that students can get a better sense of what is an appropriate issue to bring to Classroom Meeting, and what expectations we have about discussion and behaviour during the meeting. We end our Classroom Meeting by answering a TRIBES question. Our question today was, “What was your favourite thing about the first week of school?” We pass around a talking object, and students can share their answer with the class. As always, students have the right to pass if they wish, and we pass the object around twice so that these students are given another opportunity to participate if they choose. My favourite thing about the first week of school was getting to meet all of my new students!

In Art today we began our Unit on Colour. Students will be studying 6 elements of design throughout the year: colour, line, texture, shape, space, and form. Today we discussed the components of colour. We learned that colour depends upon the hue, intensity, value, and temperature. We focused specifically on the concept of temperature today. We discussed warm colours (red, yellow, orange, etc.) and cool colours (green, blue, purple, etc.). Then we did some watercolour paintings using some hot and cool colours. The project was called, “Hot Dogs and Cool Cats!” Check out our work below.

Agenda:

Book Orders – Sept. 27th

Family BBQ – September 12th

Come meet your child’s teacher and grab a bite to eat. Vegetarian options are available. Please return the form that went home today as quickly as possible so that we are able to get an accurate estimate when purchasing food.

Email Request – ASAP

L.A. – All About Me! (pg. 2)

Running Club Permission Form – Wednesday, Sept. 11th

Good afternoon!

What a great second day of school! We started our morning off by getting some of our Math supplies ready for the new year. We created duotangs and scribblers that the students will be using for day-to-day work and to complete homework, but we also created our new Math Journals. Students used green construction paper to create a new cover for one of their scribblers. We then decorated the cover with numbers that are important to us. For example, “I have 2 brothers + 2 sisters = 4 siblings”. It was wonderful to see so many creative responses to this suggestion. Students will be using these journals on a weekly basis, to further explore their understanding and mastery of curriculum, as well as completing daily number tasks. I’ll be sure to post our first daily number entry tomorrow so that parents can get an idea of some of the things that the journal will be used for!

Today students also signed our class contract. The major expectations within our classroom all fall under the blanket of the 3 R’s: respect yourself, respect others, and respect the environment. Today students signed a contract promising to follow the 3 R’s throughout the school year. This contract is a giant green poster that we will be hanging on the wall of our classroom as a reminder of the committment that we have all made to one another. In order to “sign” our contract, students decorated a trace of their hands with lots of patterns and shapes. They then signed their name over top, and we glued their handprints to the board! It is going to look beautiful when it is completed. Check out their work below.

In Social Studies today we began by reviewing some of the mapping skills that students are already familiar with. Specifically, we looked at a map of Canada. Students worked together to identify all the provinces and territories. Tomorrow we will expand by adding in capitals. These skills are going to important as we move towards our first Social Studies topic, which is the Regions of Canada.

Agenda:

Book Orders – Sept. 27th

BBQ – Sept. 12th

Email Request – ASAP

LA – All About Me! (Pg. 1)

Good afternoon!

Welcome back everyone! As always we had an extremely busy first day. Because this is our first post of the year, I just wanted to go over what parents/students might expect to find posted on the blog. I try to write a daily summary of the events and activities that our class is working on, and to post pictures of student work when possible. I also post the daily homework. The blog is a great way for students to double check their homework, or for parents to be able to see what we do everyday. Feel free to leave comments as you like, but be sure to bookmark us! You can also subscribe to the blog, to be sent an email telling you when the blog is updated.

Today we started our morning by getting to know a little bit more about me, and about the rules and expectations of our classroom. Students were great, and it was wonderful to see such attentive listening on the first day! We also played some fun games to help us get to know one another. We discovered each others favourite ice cream flavours, and played a fun board game that had questions like, “What are you most afraid of,” and “If you could live anywere in the world, where would you live and why?”

We also had a classroom scavenger hunt today. Students were sent to locate various locations in the room and to complete different tasks from these locations. Students had to find the writing center and record an example of the 3R’s on the worksheet. They had to find the classroom library and properly sign out a book. They also had to find their storage bin and create a name tag! After our scavenger hunt we reviewed the areas of our classroom, and put our supplies away. Students keep supplies in their desks or in their bins. They choose where they want to keep things, as long as they are prepared for each class, and keep their desks and bins neat. Students are welcome to bring supplies all this week. We can definitely find time to put them away.

In Social Studies this year we will be starting with Mapping Skills. Today we created a “Life Map,” that we are using as a textbook cover for our Social Studies texts. Students included important information about themselves, their likes/dislikes, etc. and then we folded the paper over their textbooks. These covers will help protect our books, but I think they also help create a sense of ownership. They look fantastic!

Homework:

Book Orders – Sept. 27

BBQ – Sept. 12

Email Request Forms – ASAP

*If your student brought home an email request form, please return it to me as soon as possible so that I am better able to compile a class mailing list. If their is a method of communication that you would prefer that  I use, please include that information on the form as well!