Did You Know…? An entophyte is a plant growing inside an animal (or another plant).
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Math: pgs. 263-264 #1-4 (Grade 4), Graph Sheets (Grade 5)
Science: Climate/Weather Foldables (tomorrow)
Welcome Back BBQ! – Tonight (5:00-7:00 pm)
Book Orders – Sept. 25th
Did You Know…? Bees are not busy: they spend 80% of their day doing absolutely nothing.
Good afternoon,
Today the Grade 4’s and I continued to look at pictographs. Students should be able to name the features of a pictograph (eg. title, labels, key, symbols), now they are progressing towards creating their own pictographs. Take the table below for example:
Students should be able to use the data in the table to create a pictograph.
Students should also be becoming more comfortable using different keys. For example, the data displayed above could also be displayed like this:
Both of the above pictographs display the same data, but they have different keys. Students should select the key that will make the data easiest to display as well as easiest to read.
In Language Arts today, we continued to discuss brainstorming. Earlier this week we discussed using a brainstorming web in order organize our thoughts and ideas on a topic. Today, the students learned a new way that they could focus their idea. This is a narrowing triangle. Some topics are just too big to write about, so you have to narrow your idea. See the example below:
Sports is way too big of a topic. Basketball narrows it down to a specific sport, but that’s still too broad. The smallest idea, the game against the Panthers is a good, specific idea. In just one paragraph, you could say a lot about it. Each idea in the triangle is a smaller part of the idea above. Students recorded our two brainstorming methods in our Interactive Notebook:
Then, for the first time, students completed a left-side entry in their Interactive Notebook. They used colour to create their own examples of brainstorming webs and narrowing triangles.
In Social Studies today, students reviewed the cardinal directions (North, East, South, West). We also reviewed the intermediate directions (Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Northwest). Students practiced using a compass today to give directions to different locations. We did this by looking at small maps. Stay tuned for more map features. Next week we move on to scale!
In Reading today, we once again discussed predictions. Today we worked as a class to make predictions about the book “Strega Nona” by Tomie de Paola.
Before our reading we looked at the title, the pictures, and considered what we already knew. Our predictions were:
After watching the book a little further, we observed that Strega Nona is a witch, but a good witch who cures headaches, warts, etc. She hires an assistant named Big Anthony. Big Anthony sees Strega Nona using her magic pasta pot. He doesn’t see that Strega Nona blows 3 kisses to it at the end to make it stop. Some of our predictions from before were correct. Strega Nona is a witch. Using this, and what we know now we predicted:
Watch the video at home to see if our new predictions were correct!
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Language Arts: Interactive Notebooks – Brainstorming (Monday)
Math: Pgs. 260-261 #1-3 (Grade 4 – Monday), Double Bar Graph (Grade 5 – Monday)
Science: Waste Check-up (Grade 4 – Monday)
Book Orders – Sept. 25th
Welcome Back BBQ – September 15th @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
*Remember, if you are interested in Arabic this year, send Ms. B a note!!
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Blog Comment – due by tomorrow! (may people are LATE)
Math: Pg. Impossible Chart (Grade 5)
Science: Waste Check-up (Grade 4)
Book Orders – Sept. 25th
Welcome Back BBQ – September 15th @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
*Remember, if you are interested in Arabic this year, send Ms. B a note!!
Did You Know…? One-third of the world’s socks are made in a single city in China.
Good afternoon,
Today the Grade 4 students began with Math. As previously mentioned, each morning the Grade 4 students begin with a “Problem of the Day” that relates to previous lessons. We are getting into the habit of starting to work on the problem at the beginning of class each day, so from now on I will be checking over the problem books and marking them everyday. This is a good way for students to know how they are doing throughout the unit. It is also a good indicator for me of who may have struggled with the previous lesson, allowing us to quickly meet one-on-one or in a small group to quickly review the problem. Today’s problem was:
The Grade 4 students were assigned 3 questions for homework tonight. Students will be bringing home Math homework each night, unless they finish their work during class time. Please talk to your student frequently about how they are doing, and make sure that they find some time each night to finish the practice problems and to review daily lessons and concepts. Later this year we will set up Math Help one day after school for students who are struggling or may need extra assistance.
In Language Arts today, we began our review of paragraphing. To begin, we watched the following video as a class:
The reason we began with this video is because I wanted to explain more fully to the students why we returning to paragraphing each year. I also wanted to explain why we will be breaking down our writing this year into a “process” that involves editing and redrafting of their work. It is important to look over initial drafts with a critical eye for specific improvements that can be made. This is why we will be starting slowly, one step at a time. Today we started with “Brainstorming.” The best writing begins with a strong idea. When brainstorming, it is important to consider the “Purpose” and the “Audience.” For example, below a student created a brainstorming web for a school newspaper article. The purpose would be to provide news and information about things going on at school. The audience will be students, teachers, and parents. After considering the purpose and audience, we realized that some of the points did not match the purpose of our paragraph:
Skateboarding tricks, the moons of Jupiter, and a restaurant review might be interesting topics to write about, but they wouldn’t provide the students, teachers, or parents with needed information about school events and activities. Then, students created their own brainstorming web in their new paragraphing books. As discussed yesterday, students are going to begin by writing a paragraph on a physical activity of their choice. Today the students were encouraged to add as much to their web as they could. Tomorrow, we will consider the purpose and audience, and make any changes that we may need to make, just like we did in the example above.
In Social Studies today, we began with a skill and process that needs to be mastered by both Grade 4 and Grade 5 students, in order to complete their upcoming geography units. We looked at Map Features. Students completed a page in their Interactive Notebook about the different features we will be studying. Then we looked more closely at the first feature we will be learning about, the compass. The compass or compass rose is a design found on maps with at least 4 points. These points indicate the cardinal directions – North, East, South, and West. When I was in school, we had to learn a mnemonic device to help us to remember the cardinal directions. Today each group created their own. After each group reached a consensus and shared their mnemonic device with the class, we voted on the device that we would like to use throughout this unit to help us to better remember the cardinal directions. In the end we chose:
Never Eat Surfing Whales
Finally, today had their second day of French today. We quickly reviewed the alphabet from our previous lessons. Then we moved on the conversation. The first conversation piece that students will be studying this year is “Comment ça va?” or “How are you?” Using the attached PowerPoint, we learned how to say, “I am good” (Ça va bien), “I am very good” (Ça va trés bien), “I am fantastic” (Ça va formidable), “I am so, so” (Ça va comme çi, comme ça), and “I am bad” (Ça va mal). Students who would like to review at home can view the following presentation again, or use their notes in our French duotang. Next week students will be practicing this as small conversations in front of the class.
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Blog Comment – due by tomorrow! (may people are LATE)
Math: Pg. 256 #1-3 (Grade 4), Bar Graph – 1st to 100 (Grade 5)
Book Orders – Sept. 25th
September 10th – Wear Yellow (Suicide Awareness Week)
Welcome Back BBQ – September 15th (info. to come)
*Remember, if you are interested in Arabic this year, send Ms. B a note!!
Did You Know…? Pearls can be formed by a grain of sand or grit but the chances of a pearl forming that way is only a thousand to one.
Good afternoon,
Today the Grade 4 students and I began a closer study of pictographs and bar graphs. Today specifically we learned about the title of graphs, the labels, the key, and the scale. For example:
The above is a pictograph. By looking at the title, “Books in April” I know what this pictograph is about. I also see some names labelled. So, this pictograph is about the books that each person read in April. Then I look for the key. The key on this pictograph says that the book symbol represents 2 books. That means that Angie, for example, read 7 books in April.
Bar graphs are read a little differently:
The title of this graph is “Leaves Collected,” the vertical axis is labelled “Number of Leaves,” and the horizontal axis is labelled “Type of Leaves.” So, this bar graph is about the number of leaves collected from each different tree. A bar graph has a scale. The scale of this bar graph is numbered from 0 to 20, and it is counting up by twos. However, if I look closely, I see that 1 square on this bar graph equals 1 leaf. So, for example, the leaves collected from the oak tree were 5 leaves.
This graph has a different scale:
It tells me the same information and the scale stills goes from 0 to 20, however this time each square represents 5 leaves. This graph is a little easier to read, as the bars are not as skinny and long. However, I need to be careful to make sure that I am reading this graph correctly. I need to pay closer attention to the scale. Both of these bar graphs are vertical bar graphs, as the bars travel in a vertical direction.
In Health today, we continued to discuss the positive benefits of physical activity. We reviewed some of the physical, social, and emotional benefits that we discussed last class. Then we discussed some of the consequences of not getting enough physical activity, such as:
Students are going to be writing and then later publishing a paragraph on a physical activity of their choice, as part of our upcoming Language Arts lessons.
In Science today, the Grade 5 students began their study of Weather. The Grade 5 students have started by looking at a standard instrument for measuring weather – the thermometer. Today we were able to each use a thermometer. We examined the bulb and the scale. Then we used our thumb to increase the temperature so that we could see the thermometer rise, and then later fall. We also talked about three important reference points that we will be discussing throughout our Weather unit: the freezing point of water (0ºC), room temperature (20-21ºC), and the boiling point of water (100ºC). Finally, we began to discuss room temperature. The students were asked to consider which point in the room might be the coolest or the warmest. Many felt that the window would be the coolest, because of the temperature outside. Some felt that near the the front of the room might be the warmest, while others thought at the back because we have a lot of technology at the back (eg. microwaves, computers, etc.). Each student was given a thermometer and allowed to place it in a position in the room of their choice. On Day 4 (Thursday) we will be returning to these thermometers to get a better sense of where the warmest and coolest points of our classroom are. I can’t wait to check and record some observations!
The Grade 4 students began their unit on Waste in Our World. As a group we discussed, “What is waste?” “Where is waste found?” “Why can some forms of waste cause problems?” and “What can we do to reduce waste?” Then students completed a “Waste Checkup” Students were given statements such as:
Each student needed to select whether they never, sometimes, or always followed the statements. We will be coming back to this page to continue our upcoming discussions at the beginning of this unit.
We typically have Library on Day 2 in the afternoon, but unfortunately the library isn’t quite ready for students yet. Instead, we celebrated the warm weather by getting outside for some extra DPA. Check out the pictures below!
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Blog Comment – due by tomorrow! (may people are LATE)
Math: Pg. 257 #5 (Grade 4), Bar Graph – 1st to 100 (Grade 5)
Book Orders – Sept. 25th
Grade 5 – ClassDOJO forms (due ASAP)
September 10th – Wear Yellow (Suicide Awareness Week)
Welcome Back BBQ – September 15th (info. to come)
*Remember, if you are interested in Arabic this year, send Ms. B a note!!
Did You Know…? Scorpions navigate by starlight.
Good evening,
We had a busy but fun day. We started off working in our individual Math groups. The Grade 4’s began their unit on Data Analysis. We started with an introduction to the unit. This unit we will be learning:
We worked together and then in small groups to look at some examples of pictographs and bar graphs. Take for example this pictograph:
After looking at title (“Books Read in April”), the vertical axis (names), and the key (represents 1 book), we know that this pictograph shows how many books each person read in April.
What about this bar graph:
After looking at the title (“How Many Hours We Sleep at Night”), the vertical axis (number of children), and the horizontal axis (number of hours slept), we know that this bar graph shows how many children slept a certain amount of time each night. For example, 4 children slept for 11 hours. We will continue to study pictographs and bar graphs next week.
In Language Arts today, we discussed our first reading strategy of the year; predicting. Students wrote some notes on predicting in their new Interactive Notebook for Language Arts. Strong readers make predictions before, during, and after reading, and there some steps that we can follow:
Before Reading:
During Reading:
After Reading:
Predicting will be the strategy that we being practicing in the next few weeks. About once a month students will be bringing home a book report to complete, utilizing the reading strategy that we are currently studying.
Finally, we went to Sustainival today. I hope everyone had a good day. I was so impressed with everyone’s behaviour! Everyone made sure to stay in their groups and followed the instructions wonderfully. Thank you everyone!
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Blog Comment – due by tomorrow
Social: Interactive Notebooks (TUESDAY!)
Book Orders – Sept. 25th
Grade 5 – ClassDOJO forms (due ASAP)
September 10th – Wear Yellow (Suicide Awareness Week)
Welcome Back BBQ – September 15th (info. to come)
No School – Monday, September 7th
*Remember, if you are interested in Arabic this year, send Ms. B a note!!
Did You Know…? Lettuce flavoured icecream is available in Japan.
Good evening,
Today the students started with Math. The Grade 4 students and I worked through another problem of the day together. This one was a preview of our upcoming Math unit:
Then the students completed their first quiz. Many of the students struggled, but I reminded them that the questions were from the unit we are starting next week. It is OKAY not to know. I had them do their best and guess where needed. This quiz will give me an idea of what students might already know about our Data Analysis unit, and where we should focus. It is also interesting for the students to be able to see how much they will learn during the unit. The next time we see this quiz (and we will see it again), they will have a totally different experience with it, and each student will be able to see their growth.
In Health today the students and I started to discuss physical activity, and how it relates to their health. We made a list of all the physical activities students had done in the past year:
And we then thought about some of the benefits of these physical activities:
We will continue to talk about physical activity in the upcoming lessons.
Today we began working in the interactive notebooks that I would like students to keep for Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science this year. The activities we completed today were an example of a foldable, which is something that students will be allowed to produce on the left side of the page of the notebooks. The right side will be where we keep notes from class.
Don’t forget about our Sustainival Trip tomorrow! We will be leaving the school around 11:30 am.
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Blog Comment – due by tomorrow
Social: Interactive Notebooks (tomorrow)
Book Orders – Sept. 25th
Sustainival Field Trip – Friday
Grade 5 – ClassDOJO forms (due ASAP)
September 10th – Wear Yellow (Suicide Awareness Week)
Welcome Back BBQ – September 15th (info. to come)
No School – Monday, September 7th
*Remember, if you are interested in Arabic this year, send Ms. B a note!!
Did You Know…? A day on the Moon from sunrise to sunset lasts 29.5 Earth days.
Good afternoon,
This morning our Grade 4 and 5 students were again separated for Math. The Grade 5 students are bringing home a form for ClassDOJO. Mr. Dykstra will be using this program as part of his classroom management and as a motivational tool for the Grade 5 students. I myself have used it in previous years, and found it to be very effective. Watch the video below for more information:
The Grade 4 students and I worked on our Math Journals that we started yesterday. They tackled a new problem today, similar to yesterday’s problem. As I wanted to give students as much support as possible in getting used to the routine and procedure, I did help them through the steps again today. Tomorrow they will be working on a new problem, this time on their own. We also discussed what Math would look like in Grade 4 this year. I let them know that we would be tracking our growth and progress consistently throughout each unit. In order to give students and myself a better idea of what students know, areas of concern, etc. there will be a small quiz every Day 4 on our schedule. At the beginning and end of the unit, these quizzes will be a little longer, but most days it will have no more than 2-3 questions. The questions will always be about the lessons we have just completed in the last 3-4 days. I will be sending the students tracking duotangs home afterwards to be signed, so keep an eye out for them, and make sure to bring them back the very next day. This will give parents a better idea of how their student is doing, rather than waiting until the end of the unit or for the report card. Our first quiz is tomorrow! As it is at the beginning of a unit, students don’t have to prepare. It is just to help me get a baseline of what students remember from their previous year.
In Language Arts today, the students completed a writing prompt. I told the students to not be nervous, as I was going to mark it to give me a better understanding of their writing abilities and strengths. Students were shown a picture and given 10 minutes to discuss and plan a story as a group. Then the students were each given an hour to write a story from their planning. I’m excited to read them, and to get started on our writing lessons. This is the picture we used today; Miss McNeil and myself felt that it was appropriate for the first week of school.
We also started French today. Today our Grade 5 students reviewed their alphabet from last year, and the Grade 4 students were introduced to the French alphabet. We used this video to help us:
Students were also given the following notes, in order to help them to better practice their pronunciation:
Then, to practice, we played Alphabet Bingo. Students did a great job of helping one another and listening for their new vocabulary words.
Reminder, if you would prefer that your student participate in Arabic this year rather than French, please let me know, either by sending a note home in the Agenda or sending me an email. I will send home the required form in the student Agenda with students who are interested. This should be done as quickly as possible, as Mr. Dhooma is trying to finalize his numbers so that he can put together the classrooms.
I also sent home a note in the Agenda today. On our first day, I know there were some parents who were surprised to see at combined classroom at Timberlea. Many of the smaller schools in the district (Eg. Greely Road, Dr. Clark, etc.) frequently utilize combined classrooms, however, at Timberlea we have only had two in the last 5 years. I know, because I taught both of them. I taught the combined 4/5K in the 2012/2013 school year, and am excited to be teaching 4/5M this school year. The letter is meant to address some questions and concerns that parents might have. However, if anyone has further concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. I would be happy to discuss by phone, email, or even in person, how our classroom is structured. We are also extremely fortunate to have Mr. Dykstra as my co-teacher this year. The last time I taught a combined classroom, we weren’t so lucky. In most classrooms, the teacher is teaching Math to a class of 22-25 students. In our class, we are teaching to 8-10 students. Each student is going to get much more individual support and assistance as a result, and I am really excited for the possibilities that will come from this opportunity. I was also fortunate enough this summer to have this article on combined classrooms shared with me. It does a wonderful job of discussing some of the benefits in combined class configurations:
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Blog Comment – due by tomorrow
Google, email, picture forms – due ASAP
Sustainival forms – due ASAP
Sustainival Field Trip – Friday
Grade 5 – ClassDOJO forms (due ASAP)
September 10th – Wear Yellow (Suicide Awareness Week)
Welcome Back BBQ – September 15th (info. to come)
No School – Monday, September 7th
*Remember, if you are interested in Arabic this year, send Ms. B a note!!
Did You Know…? Puffins are faster than giraffes (top speed of 50 mph vs 33 mph).
Good evening,
Today the students began with their respective Math classes. The Grade 5 students met with Mr. Dykstra to discuss some of the activities and strategies that they will be using in his class this year. The Grade 4’s and I started our Math journals. Each day, the students solve a “Problem of the Day” in their journal. Generally these problems are related to the ongoing Math unit. However, today we tried this problem:
“Three turtles named Mike, Max, and Mark wore hats that were different colours. They were red, green, and gold. And the turtles had three different favourite foods. Their favourite foods were seaweed, grass, and worms. Based on the clues, match the turtles with their hat colours and their favourite foods.
Clues: 1. Mark did not eat grass. 2. Max’s best friend wore a green hat and loved to eat seaweed. 3. Mark wore a gold hat.
Students work through the problems in a very specific order/format:
In the first box, students copy down the important information from the problem. This helps students to practice looking for the most relevant pieces of word problems, and to look past extraneous details. In the second box, students record their answer. In the third box, students and I correct the answer together on the board, and students are expected to record this answer. Finally in the fourth box, students have to reflect on the problem. I gave them the following sentence starters today to help them to get started: “My answer was correct, I know this because…,” “My answer is not correct, I know this because…” Today the students and I worked through the question together, to get used to the format. Tomorrow the Grade 4 students will be trying a problem of the day on their own.
Today the students and I picked our first classroom champion of the year from GoNoodle (www.gonoodle.com). We chose McPufferson!
As the students use GoNoodle, McPufferson will become stronger and stronger. Today we tried a wide variety of the DPA activities, so that new students could see some of the different activities on the site. We will be using GoNoodle throughout the year, as part of our daily DPA requirements. I also like to use it to help students to relax and focus before quizzes and tests, but more on that later!
Another activity that we did today was to create a classroom rainbow! Students were each given a small mirror and assigned a colour of the rainbow. They were asked to draw a self-portrait, any style they wanted, using markers, pencil crayons, or crayons, using their assigned colour. Check out our finished work in the pictures below!
I sent home another permission form today (sorry!) for the Sustainival Field Trip. One of the rides is going to be the “Bag Drop”. Students will need permission in order to participate in this individual ride. I also told the students today that no student will be forced to participate. If students are at all hesitant, they can stay on the ground with me and enjoy the rest of the carnival.
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Google, email, picture Forms – due ASAP
Sustainival Permission Forms – due ASAP
Bag Drop Permission Form – due ASAP
Sustainival Field Trip – Friday
September 10th – Wear Yellow (Suicide Awareness Week)
Welcome Back BBQ – September 15th (info. to come)
No School – Monday, September 7th
