Our spring has come at last with the soft laughter of April suns and shadow of April showers. ~Byron Caldwell Smith, letter to Kate Stephens

Good afternoon!

Welcome back everyone. I hope you had a wonderful Spring Break and that everyone had time to relax a little. Today we started our new Math unit on Fractions and Decimals. We started off with a small group problem for students to solve. We always begin our units this way. It gives students the opportunity to explore some of the concepts that we will be studying, and it gives me the opportunity to discover what the students already know about the topics. The problem we tackled today can be found on pgs. 164-165. Students were asked to consider a garden and the cost of the seeds to plant the garden. Students worked on estimating both addition and subtraction of decimals. The Key Learner Outcomes that we will continue to develop throughout this unit are:

  • Demonstrate an understanding of decimals to thousandths
  • Relate decimals to fractions and fractions to decimals to thousandths
  • Demonstrate an understanding of addition and subtraction of decimals to thousandths
  • Demonstrate an understanding of fractions

In Social Studies today we continued our study of the regions of Canada by looking at the Cordillera region. Students discussed the landforms of the region (eg. Rocky Mountains, extensive rivers, plateaus, coastal plains, etc.) and the impacts that geography has on quality of life. One of the dangers of the geography of this region is avalanches. Students were intrigued by the small selection about avalanches in the textbook so we watched the following clip from the Rick Mercer Report on how Parks Canada prevents avalanches from occurring near major roads and communities. Check it out below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X7uZIgWN1g

In Language Arts today we continued our study of Bridge to Terabithia. Today students were asked to consider what advice they might give to another student who is being bullied. Bullying in one of the themes that is explored in Bridge to Terabithia, and we have spent a lot of time discussing Janice Avery and how she treats both Jess and Leslie, as well as the other students. We have also discussed some of Jess’ and Leslie’s behaviour towards Janice. In the novel, Jess and Leslie want to get revenge, but is that really the best solution? Students are working in groups to create a brochure on bullying that they could provide to other students to give them advice on how to handle bullying. We will continue to work on these brochures tomorrow.

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Book Orders – April 30th

Math: Blue Books (Friday)

Measurement Test (for those absent) – Friday

Multicultural Dress-Up: Tomorrow

Henna Tattoos (Div. II) – Tomorrow bring $2)

Multicultural Potluck – Tonight! (5:30 pm – 7:00 pm)

Taste-it Thursday! (Bring food bank donation to taste some Guacamole)

Science: Switch Project (Friday)

Health: Girl Inc. Forms

L.A. – Bridge to Terabithia Journal #2 (Wednesday)