Did You Know…? One acre of Christmas trees produces enough oxygen each day to sustain 18 people.

Good afternoon,

What a wonderful day! Thank you so much to EVERYONE! I am so thankful and excited to have such wonderful students and families to have spent the end of 2015 with. I can’t wait to see what comes in 2016! Thank you to the students for all the hard work the put into our “Top Secret Project” this week and all the families who sent in recyclables. It turned out wonderfully! And thanks to all the families who sent treats and gifts with their students today. I really appreciate it. Happy Holidays to everyone. I’ll see you all again on January 4th!

Just a quick note about our classroom celebration tomorrow. The students and I discussed our plans last week, but I wanted to make sure that parents knew of our plans as well. Ms. McNeil and I are going to be having a combined celebration tomorrow. Ms. McNeil will be showing the movie “Elf” in her room and I will be showing “Santa Paws”. If you have a strong preference of which movie your student watches, please let me know so that I can make accommodations. Ms. McNeil and I will be using the school’s popcorn machine to make popcorn for the students, however, students are welcome to bring snacks that follow our APPLE Schools guidelines if they wish. Some students were also wanting to bring pajamas and blankets, which they are also welcome to do. Thanks everyone, let me know if there are questions or concerns regarding any of the above.

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Math:

• Grade 5 – pg. 82-83 #1-8

Grade 5/6 Floor Hockey – Wednesday, 3:00-4:00 pm (forms due ASAP)

Christmas Concert – December 15th (5:30-6:30 pm)

Christmas Celebration – Thursday, December 17th (bring healthy snacks)

Bring Recycling for “Top Secret Project”!

Did You Know…? The average separation between stars is about 100,000 times greater than the distance between Earth and the Sun.

Good afternoon,

Today our Grade 4 students continued their work on sorting sets of numbers. We have learned two different ways to sort numbers: Venn Diagrams and Carroll Diagrams. We learned about three different types of Venn Diagrams:

What all of these Venn Diagrams have in common is that each circle needs it’s own category (eg. Greater than 2000). If a number doesn’t fit into the categories? Then it just gets placed outside the diagram. A Carroll Diagram is a little bit more complicated. With a Carroll Diagram we are sorting numbers based on two attributes (similar to a Venn Diagram) but we are digging a little deeper with these attributes. Take the example below:

With this Carroll Diagram we are looking at whether the digits of the numbers add to less than 10 or whether they add to 10 or more. However, we are also sorting the numbers based on whether they are odd or even. A Carroll Diagram can be a little trickier, so take your time and watch the categories carefully! Students who didn’t finish their practice homework today in class have brought it home for homework.

In Health today we continued to discuss mindfulness and the brain. We have been learning all about our limbic system, focusing particularly on our amygdala and prefrontal cortex (or PFC). We are working right now on some techniques for keeping our amygdala calm and focused, so that it can continue to send information to the PFC. This means that our thoughts and actions will be based on our brains thinking, reasoning, analyzing, comprehending, and interpreting the information, not just on our initial reaction. Our initial reactions might be based on the amygdala, and be more of a “fight, flight, or freeze” response. We want our actions (especially at school where we are trying to work together and to learn) to be based more upon the thinking and reasoning of our PFC. We started today by having students close their eyes and relax. Students were asked to just listen. They began by listening to any sounds they could hear in the classroom and then expanded to listen to any sounds they could hear in the hallway, outside, or in the school. As students quietly listened, I reminded them that if their mind wandered, that was okay, but to quietly direct their thoughts back to listening. When we had finished, I explained to students that this is a brain “exercise” that we are going to do to help us train our brains to be more mindful. This listening activity has us practicing turning our attention to what is going on around us. The other part of mindfulness that we discussed yesterday is being non-judgmental. As we continue to practice mindfulness in our class, we are going to be doing more and more of these brain “exercises”. One resource we looked at today is Headspace. Check out this animation on effort to see what we are going to be working through:

Why spend so much time talking about mindfulness in our classroom. I showed this animation to the students today to explain why mindfulness is important to practice:

Since we are discussing mindfulness so much in Health right now, we have made some adjustments to our “Fresh Start” board, so that it matches with what we have been learning about:

We have changed the “Thinking” side of the board to “Stop! Breathe! Focus” as these are some things that students could do to get back on task and to be more mindful of what is going on or what they should be doing. We have changed the “Succeeding” side of the board to “Masters of Mindfulness” as this is where students who are seen demonstrating mindfulness will be moved. This could be following instructions or helping a classmate. We also discussed the importance of acknowledge one another’s mindful behaviour with appreciation statements. If the students see another student being mindful, they should share an appreciation statement with this student. We also added a graffiti board in the library where students can share examples of where they were mindful:

 

I really liked this one about the focus needed to succeed in sports or after school activities:

In Computers today, we participated in Hour of Code, as part of Computer Science Education Week. The students worked to complete one of the Hour of Code tutorials on code.org. Today I asked students to work on either the Minecraft or Star Wars tutorials, as these were the tutorials I was most familiar with so that I could assist students as needed. Most of the class worked in block form, as this is the coding form that we have been practicing in class throughout the year by using Tynker. However, some of our students who are feeling confident with coding decided to try the Java Script tutorials! These tutorials will stay up until new ones are added next year, so please feel free to use them at home. I’ve added them to the STEM page so they can be accessed throughout the year. Or you could bookmark the link below. I told students that teachers and parents are encouraged to get involved with Hour of Code, so don’t be surprised if your student challenges you to complete an Hour of Code tonight!

Hour of Code Tutorials – https://code.org/learn

After Computers we started to work on some decorations for the gym for our Christmas Concert next week. We are going to be singing “Mele Kalikimaka (Hawaiian Christmas Song)” so we are working on some tropical decorations. We are drawing some tropical birds, using the Kookaburra tutorial on Art for Kids Hub. I know there are no Kookaburras on Hawaii, but students are decorating the birds with tropical and Christmas colours, and I think they’ll look really nice with some of the Christmas decorations we are going to be adding to them. Look for them at the concert! If you liked the Art for Kids Hub tutorial we did today, visit: http://artforkidshub.com/ for more. I’ve created an Art page, so that students can find the link throughout the year.

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Math:

• Grade 4 – pgs. 44-45 #2-6
• Grade 5 – pg. 79 #8

Grade 5/6 Floor Hockey – Wednesday, 3:00-4:00 pm (forms due ASAP)

Christmas Concert – December 15th (5:30-6:30 pm)

Christmas Celebration – Thursday, December 17th (bring healthy snacks)

Bring Recycling for “Top Secret Project”!

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Spelling Quiz (Thursday)

Grade 5/6 Floor Hockey – Wednesday, 3:00-4:00 pm (forms due ASAP)

Christmas Concert – December 15th (5:30-6:30 pm)

Christmas Celebration – Thursday, December 17th (bring healthy snacks)

Bring Recycling for “Top Secret Project”!

Did You Know…? New York gets 15 times as much snow as the South Pole.

Good afternoon,

Today our Grade 4 students continued to work on comparing whole numbers. We spent some time this morning reviewing our lesson from last week and then we worked on our practice questions. The students were given today to work on these questions because our fire drill last week interrupted our practice time. Any questions that were not completed in class today went home for homework. Tomorrow we start sorting whole numbers!

In French today, students reviewed their numbers from 0-31. Then we added the numbers from 32-69. There are lots of patterns in counting these numbers that we were able to use to help us, like:

• the first number is usually “__________ et un” (eg. 31 = trente et un, 21 = vingt et un, etc.)
• the rest of the numbers count up (eg. deux, trois, quatre, etc. vingt-deux, vingt-trois, vingt-quatre, etc.)

Don’t forget that you can look at our notes by visiting the French page. You can also access review activities and any videos or songs that we use in class like:

Students got their new spelling words today and continued to practice in their groups using our practice menus. Make sure your student takes some time each night to review their words at home. It is difficult with our 4-day schedule to keep the amount of time we get to work on Spelling consistent each week, so we are going to be getting new words every Day 4 and having our first quiz on Day 3. We will have a second quiz on Day 1 when we get our new words. This has gone well for us this month so I would like to continue this pattern. Just remember, that our days don’t always match the day of the week with the 4-day schedule, so our tests won’t always fall on Thursdays or Fridays. However, students will always get 3-4 nights in between getting their words and doing their first quiz.

In Social Studies today, we began to discuss the regions of Canada and Alberta more closely. The Grade 4 students will be doing a project on the regions of Alberta, while the Grade 5 students will be working on regions of Canada. To begin, students will be looking at their region’s climate. Today we looked closely at the features of our Social Studies textbook to see how we could use the “Table of Contents” to help us find our regions, and then we discussed the reading strategies of skimming and scanning and how we could use key words (eg. climate, summer, winter, hot, cold, rain, etc.) to help us find information about the climate. We also watched this video to help us to remember the difference between climate and weather:

More on this as we continue our work in upcoming classes!

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Spelling Quiz (Thursday)

Math:

• Grade 4 – pgs. 40-41 #6, 7, 10-12
• Grade 5 – pg. 74 #1

Grade 5/6 Floor Hockey – begins Wednesday, 3:00-4:00 pm (forms due ASAP)

Christmas Concert – December 15th (5:30-6:30 pm)

Did You Know…? Handschuhschneeballwe-rfer is German slang for ‘coward’. It means someone who wears gloves to throw snowballs.

Good evening,

A quick post tonight, as we were out skiing today, so there isn’t any news to report. However, check back tomorrow to hear about how we are going to be celebrating Computing Science Education Week in our class!

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Angel Tree – gifts due December 8th (TOMORROW!)

Grade 5/6 Floor Hockey – begins Wednesday, 3:00-4:00 pm (forms due ASAP)

Did You Know…? Stonehenge is sometimes also known as The Giant’s Dance.

Good afternoon,

Just a quick post to round out the week. Don’t forget that we are going skiing on Monday, December 7th. The students and I discussed what they should be bringing with them in class. Students should bring/wear snowpants, warm socks, a sweater, a jacket, mittens/gloves, a hat, and a scarf. It is also a good idea to pack some extra mittens, etc. in case one pair gets wet during the day. Students should also pack and bring a lunch with us on Monday. While students can purchase snacks at the ski hill, we do encourage students and parents to consider our APPLE School focus. Students were also reminded today that they will only receive 20-25 mins. for lunch (as they do at school) and that this is often not enough time for students to purchase and eat their entire meal. It is a good idea to pack a lunch so that no matter what happens, students have something to eat. I did speak to the class this week about how impressed I was with the number of packed lunches for our first trip. Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to help make that happen. We will be leaving school around 8:45 am and returning before dismissal at 2:45 pm. We are still seeking a parent volunteer to help us transport ski equipment to and from the ski hill on Monday. If this is something that you would be able to assist us with, please let me know ASAP. If you are planning on attending as a parent volunteer, please also confirm with me that you are attending. We unfortunately do not always have room on the bus for parent volunteers (3 classes, 2 buses), so we do ask that where possible parents drive themselves to and from the ski hill.

Some students may have explained to parents about a calming bottle that we used in class today to help us settle and refocus during a lesson. It looks like this:

Some students found it extremely helpful to help them to refocus their thoughts, and I myself found students to be much more focused during the remainder of the lesson as a result. Some students have expressed an interest in making their own. I am more than happy to allow students to have one on their desk. If they were being used as a distraction, the student and I would discuss this and they could be taken away. If there are parents/students that have some empty bottles at home that we could use to make some more, please send them to school next week. Thanks!

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Ski Days – December 7th (forms due ASAP)

Angel Tree – gifts due December 8th (send me a message if you want a tag)

Grade 5/6 Floor Hockey – begins Wednesday, 3:00-4:00 pm (forms due ASAP)

 

Did You Know…? The word ‘guano’ comes from the Inca word huanu, meaning ‘dung’.

Good evening,

Today our Grade 4 students began using the strategies that we have been practicing in Whole Numbers (base 10 blocks, drawing, place-value charts, etc.) to help them order and compare numbers. As an example today, we started ordering numbers from least to greatest. You can see the strategies that we used today below:

Today we focused on using base 10 blocks, place value charts, greater than and less than, and number lines to help us order numbers. Greater than and less than is a review of previous years for many students. Want a neat trick to remember which direction the symbols goes? Think of it as a VERY hungry crocodile. He is going to eat the biggest portion he can find! That’s why the mouth always eats the biggest number. Number lines may be new for some of our students. One thing to consider that we discussed today in class is where to start with a number line. I always like to start with a number that is close to, but smaller than the numbers I am working with. When I’m deciding what numbers to count up by, I typically choose easy numbers to count up by. In the example above, we started at 1000 as it was close but smaller than 1423. Then we counted up by 500’s. This is an easy number to count up by, and we quickly get above our largest number 2413. Students who didn’t finish their work today in class will have brought home some practice work tonight.

In Health today, we began focusing on our brain and how it controls our emotions and motivations. Specifically, we are looking at the 3 following parts of the limbic system: amygdala, hippocampus, and the prefrontal cortex. We are going to continue to learn about our brain and some strategies to help our brain throughout the next few weeks.

Grade 4’s, don’t forget about your Science test tomorrow! Students should all have brought home their Interactive Notebooks as well as their Study Guide to prepare for tomorrow’s test. Extra Study Guides can be found below:

WiOW – Study Guide

Grade 5’s, don’t forget about your Math test tomorrow! Need help studying? Why not do some textbook questions or your “Show What You Know” again? Or use Mathletics!

Everyone should get a good night’s sleep tonight. Don’t tire your brain out studying. A quick review followed by a physical brain break (walk around the house, a GoNoodle video, etc.) can be very helpful. Don’t forget to drink lots of water and to RELAX! You are all amazing students!

In Language Arts, students have put the finishing touches on their character sketches from FIAT. We focused on: Mr. Daniels, Keisha, Travis, Shay, and Albert. Today we discussed the importance of group work and the expectations we have for group work in our class. In fact, working in groups is something that students are evaluated on in both Grade 4 and Grade 5 Language Arts.

Grade 4:

• SO 5.2 – Work Within a Group
  • Cooperate with others – take responsibility for collaborating with others to achieve group goals
  • Cooperate with others – ask for and provide information and assistance, as appropriate, for completing individual and group tasks
  • Work in groups – use brainstorming, summarizing and reporting to organize and carry out group projects

Grade 5:

• SO 5.2 – Work Within a Group
  • Cooperate with others – accept and take responsibility for fulfilling own role as a group member
  • Work in groups – contribute ideas to help solve problems, and listen and respond
    constructively
  • Evaluate group process – show appreciation for the contributions of others, and offer constructive feedback to group members

Some students have been struggling with these outcomes. Being in a group takes a lot of communication and a lot of compromise. Something that we are going to continue to practice throughout the year.

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Spelling Quiz – Thursday

Math:

• Grade 4 – pgs. 39-40 #1-5
• Grade 5: Unit Test – tomorrow!

Science:

• Grade 4 – Waste in Our World Unit Test (tomorrow!)

Ski Days – December 7th (forms due ASAP)

Angel Tree – gifts due December 8th (send me a message if you want a tag)

Waste Free Lunch Day – tomorrow!

“It is December, and nobody asked if I was ready.”
― Sarah Kay

Good evening,

Today the Grade 4 students continued to work with whole numbers to 1000. We are still practicing our strategies from last week: using base-10 blocks, drawing a pictures, writing in words, using a place-value chart, using standard form, and using expanded form. Students today each came up and conferred with me one-on-one on their understanding of the strategies, and I was pleased to see that everyone is feeling very confident so far. Keep up the good work everyone. Tomorrow… comparing and ordering numbers!

We have finished FIAT! This makes me a little sad, I must admit. I’ve really enjoyed reading this book together. We have a few wrap up activities to complete this week and then next week we will be starting Book Clubs. Can’t wait! Watch Lynda Mullaly Hunt read the final chapters in the videos below:

We also got our new Spelling words today. Don’t forget to study everyone!

In Science today, the Grade 5 students began to edit their videos. Tomorrow we should have the videos edited and uploaded for everyone to see!

The Grade 4 students began to review for the unit test on Thursday. We are using the following study guide to help us to prepare. Watch out for these and notebooks to come home tomorrow night:

WiOW – Study Guide

Finally, in French today we have begun to review numbers. We have started with numbers 0-31. Today we practiced with a Powerpoint presentation and we also watched this fun video. Check out the French page for any of the above. ALL of our French notes from the entire year are uploaded and I update this page every week.

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Spelling Quiz – Thursday

Math:

• Grade 4 – pgs. 37 #9-11, 13-16
• Grade 5: Unit Test – December 3rd

Science:

• Grade 4 – Waste in Our World Unit Test (December 3rd)

Ski Days – December 7th (forms due ASAP)

Angel Tree – gifts due December 8th (send me a message if you want a tag)

Waste Free Lunch Day – December 3rd