Did You Know…? If left alone in a tank for too long, a lobster will eat itself.

Good afternoon,

Today in Math, the Grade 4’s completed their 3rd and final quiz for this unit. Students are bringing home a copy of the mid-unit evaluation they completed earlier this week. I’ve asked the students to review the sheet tonight and to correct any of their mistakes. They make need to do this on a separate piece of paper. This way, students who have any questions before their unit test on Monday, will be able to come and speak to me and get some extra help. Students also have new assigned review in the mathletics that they can be using to begin practicing for the test.

In Health today, we discussed body image for the second day. Earlier this week, we brainstormed some of the qualities that a “perfect” person would have. We wrote down things like: tall, athletic, nice clothing, clean, young, nice belongings, etc. However, some students started to think a little deeper about the question. They began adding qualities like: kind, friendly, supportive, clever, etc. We then looked at some images from magazines. Students were asked to consider if the people in the pictures were “beautiful.” After a class discussion we decided that it takes more than makeup and nice clothes to be beautiful. We decided that personality is really important. We also discussed whether people we see in magazine, or on tv and movies are realistic. Finally, we decided that no one is perfect, but that there was something about everyone that could make them beautiful. Today we continued this with a yoga/guided meditation activity. Students were asked to give positive affirmations to themselves throughout. Students can access this video anytime, through GoNoodle. It is called “Be Kind to Yourself” and it is under Empower Tools. To sign up for GoNoodle at home, click on the Health page (side links) for more information.

In Science today, the Grade 5 students discussed the effects that the sun’s energy has on daily temperature. We did a small demonstration with a flashlight. We found that the suns’ rays covered the most land at 12:00 pm (noon), and the least land at 6:00 am (sunrise) and 6:00 pm (sunset). Then we discussed the temperatures that one could expect to find at these times of day. It will be coolest just before sunrise, because the land has been without light all night and has been cooling down. It will actually be the warmest around 3:00 pm (mid-afternoon). Why? Well, even though the land gets more light at 12:00 pm, the land hasn’t been heating up for as long. The land at 3:00 pm has been absorbing heat all day. Finally, it will not be as cool out at 6:00 pm as it is at 6:00 am, because the land has been heating up for most of the day, and has only begun to cool down. We took the following notes in our interactive notebooks:

photo

The Grade 4 students watched the following video on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to begin their lesson:

We discussed how the materials we use have changed. At one time, humans used mostly natural materials. As time passed, our needs changed and we began to develop new materials. There are positive attributes to these materials: they are more durable, they are weather resistant, etc. An example would be leathers for clothing vs. polyesters for clothing. However, as we learned last class, these materials degrade very slowly, causing some challenges as to how to deal with waste management. Students were asked to consider and share some of the things that we can do to reduce the amount of waste that we produce.

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Practice Spelling Words

Math:

  • Data Analysis Unit Test (Mon. – Grade 4)
  • Review Mid-Unit Assessment (Grade 4)
  • Pgs. 290-191 – at least half (Grade 5)

Science:

  • Left-handed notebook pages (Grs. 4 and 5 – Fri.)
  • Temperature Quiz (Fri. – Grade 5)

Terry Fox Walk Permission Forms/Donations – September 29th

Book Orders – Sept. 25th

Picture Day – September 30th