Did You Know…? The arms of an octopus can work and solve problems independently of its brain due to the many neurons it has.

Good evening,

The Grade 4 students have a Math test tomorrow! Don’t forget to review! Use your textbook, the blog, or your Mathletics account. Don’t forget to get a good night’s sleep so that you come to school relaxed and ready tomorrow.

In Health today, we did a little review of how our Mindfulness study has been going. I shared with students some of the successes that I felt we were having. Tomorrow students will be sharing successes with me. We are also going to be having some other teachers come and spend some time with our class to learn more about Mindfulness, which will be really exciting! Check out the new Headspace video we watched today; reminding us of why Mindfulness is so important:

In Science today, the Gr. 5 students worked together and with some found objects to construct their own switches. Students were challenged to create a switch out of manila paper, brass fasteners, and paperclips. Remember, anything that conducts electricity can be used to help create a closed circuit. Next class we will be challenging students even further by asking them to use tinfoil.

The Gr. 4 students reviewed rollers and started to think about wheels! Today we compared rollers and wheels with the following chart:

I’m excited to start building with and exploring wheels and axles in our upcoming classes!

We also had our Sock Hop today as part of our Spirit Week for the Centre of Hope. Don’t forget that tomorrow is the last day to bring in donations!

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Language Arts:

• Book Club Reading (schedules on Reading page)
• Words in Motion Poetry Contest – extended (due Feb. 18th)

Math:

• Gr. 4 – pg. 76-77 #1-9
• Gr. 4 – Whole Numbers Unit Test (Friday)
• 11x Tables Quiz – Monday

Science:

• Gr. 5 – left-hand pages, interactive notebooks (Monday)
• Data Collection Check-In – February 16th
• Classroom Science Fair – March 7th

French:

• Colours, Shapes, Numbers 0-31 Quiz – February 17th

Timberlea Spirit Week – February 1st-5th

• Pajama Day, donate toothpaste, toothbrushes, etc. (Friday)

Parent Teacher Interviews – February 9, 10th (sign up at http://timberlea.fmpsdschools.ca/)

Family Valentine’s Dance – February 11th, 6:00-8:00 pm, School Gym (entrance by donation)

National Cupcake Day – February 29th (Details TBD)

Grade 5/6 Floor Hockey – Wednesday, 3:00-4:00 pm

STEM Club – Monday, 3:00-4:00 pm

Grade 5/6 Basketball – Tuesdays, 3:00-4:00 pm

Did You Know…? To save money on chimney-sweeps, skint Victorians used to push a live goose down their chimneys.

Good evening,

Today the Grade 4 students began to review for their upcoming Unit Test on Whole Numbers. Today we worked in our textbook on the “Show What You Know” questions from pgs. 76-77 in the textbook. We actually started with the more difficult questions today. Why? Well, if students struggle with these questions, they still have tonight and tomorrow to keep practice and to seek support. If we left the more difficult questions until tomorrow, students wouldn’t be able to get extra help. Also, if they are struggling at home the night before the test, this might shake some students’ confidence. We want everyone relaxed before a test! Make sure you finish these questions tonight for homework and don’t forget that you can do other questions from our previous lessons to help you study!

In Language Arts today, we received new spelling words, and took the time to practice in our groups with our practice menu. The orange group had their first Spell Check today! This is where students have a short quiz with me on some of the words they have studied over the past few weeks. This quiz helps me to decide whether or not we should move on to a new word feature or if we need more assistance and review in our current word feature. Practice your spelling words at home. We will have our quiz on these words next Thursday.

In French today we reviewed our Colours and Numbers from 0-31 with a quick game of Jeopardy. Want to challenge yourself at home? You can play the game at home by clicking on the link below:

French Numbers and Colours Review – Jeopardy

After Jeopardy, we quickly added 7 shapes to our growing list of French vocabulary. Today we learned:

• Un rectangle – a rectangle
• Une carée – a square
• Un oval – an oval
• Un cercle – a circle
• Un triangle – a triangle
• Une étoile – a star
• Un coeur – a heart

We also spent some time today discussing the the indefinite article (L’article indéfini): un, une. We have previously discussed masculine and feminine words; today we discussed why we use an article in front of words in French. Students were surprised to realize that we use the indefinite article in English too: a, an. Our notes from today have been added to the French page.

We also had our Winter Walk today! Thank you everyone for coming prepared for the weather! Check out some of our pictures below.

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Language Arts:

• Book Club Reading (schedules on Reading page)
• Words in Motion Poetry Contest – extended (due Feb. 18th)

Math:

• Gr. 4 – pg. 76-77 #5-10
• Gr. 4 – Whole Numbers Unit Test (Friday)
• Gr. 5 – Definitions (pg. 121)
• 11x Tables Quiz – Monday

Science:

• Procedure/Materials Check-In – Thursday
• Classroom Science Fair – March 7th

French:

• Colours, Shapes, Numbers 0-31 Quiz – February 17th

Timberlea Spirit Week – February 1st-5th

• Sock Hop! Donate deodorant (Thursday)

Parent Teacher Interviews – February 9, 10th (sign up at http://timberlea.fmpsdschools.ca/)

Family Valentine’s Dance – February 11th, 6:00-8:00 pm, School Gym (entrance by donation)

National Cupcake Day – February 29th (Details TBD)

Grade 5/6 Floor Hockey – Wednesday, 3:00-4:00 pm

STEM Club – Monday, 3:00-4:00 pm

Grade 5/6 Basketball – Tuesdays, 3:00-4:00 pm

 

Did You Know…? By the time a person in the United States is 65 years old, he would have seen an estimated two million television commercials.

Good afternoon,

Today we had our Toque Tuesday Assembly! I’ll have some pictures of our class to share later this week. I used Mr. Rutledge’s camera to take them during the Assembly today, but I’m not sure how to get the pictures off of his camera… I’ll share them after I get his help tomorrow! Assembly today went really well. I was really impressed by everyone’s behaviour and attitude during the assembly. I was also impressed by the generosity of our students! I can’t wait to find out how much we have raised at the end of the week for the Centre of Hope.

In Math today, the Grade 4 and 5 students had their quiz on the 7x tables. We did have few students forget to finish their 7x tables homework. Bring it back to me tomorrow! This week we are going to be focusing on the 11x tables. Keep practicing at home! Remember that you can visit the Multiplication Practice page for some ideas and links to some games that you can use at home.

In Science today, the Gr. 5 students reviewed some of the concepts that we have bee studying:

I’ve added these notes to the Interactive Notebook notes on the Grade 5 – Electricity page so that they can be accessed later as needed by students. Students also worked at reviewing and showing their understanding of our topics so far by answering the following questions in their Interactive Notebooks:

Students who didn’t complete these questions in class have them for homework. They will be due before our next Science class on Thursday.

The Grade 4 students are moving on from rollers to begin studying wheels and axles. To get started we are adding some wheels to our pop can rollers to see if we can start to discover some the similarities and differences between rollers and wheels through some experimentation. We will be continuing this topic of study next class.

In Art today we reviewed our colour wheel and warm and cool colours. This is something that we learned earlier this year. Today students began a project using hot and cold colours. We are creating 3-D trees. I’ll share some pictures of our completed work after our next class; we need some more time to work on them.

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Language Arts:

• Book Club Reading (schedules on Reading page)
• Words in Motion Poetry Contest (due Feb. 4th)

Math:

• Gr. 4 – pg. 75 #5, 6, 7
• Gr. 4 – Whole Numbers Unit Test (Friday)
• 11x Tables Quiz – Monday

Science:

• Procedure/Materials Check-In – Thursday
• Classroom Science Fair – March 7th

Social:

• Canadian Shield Poems (due Wednesday)

French:

• Colours Scramble – Wednesday

Timberlea Spirit Week – February 1st-5th

• $2/picture with Timmy (Wednesday)

Winter Walk – February 3rd, 1:00 pm

Parent Teacher Interviews – February 10th, 11th (sign up at http://timberlea.fmpsdschools.ca/)

Family Valentine’s Dance – February 11th, 6:00-8:00 pm, School Gym (entrance by donation)

National Cupcake Day – February 29th (Details TBD)

Grade 5/6 Floor Hockey – Wednesday, 3:00-4:00 pm

STEM Club – Monday, 3:00-4:00 pm

Grade 5/6 Basketball – Tuesdays, 3:00-4:00 pm

Did You Know…? Einstein had a pet cat who got depressed when it rained.

Good evening,

Today our Grade 4 students began practicing word problems that can be solved using addition and subtraction of 3 and 4-digit numbers. We will continue practicing tomorrow. On Wednesday and Thursday we will review our Whole Numbers unit. That means that our Whole Numbers Unit Test will be on Friday! Want to start reviewing at home? Use your textbook to practice some questions from earlier lessons, print off an extra workbook from the Grade 4 Math page, or complete some Mathletics lessons and activities.

In Language Arts today, we had a Book Club meeting. Don’t forget to keep up with your reading! It is hard to discuss the book with your classmates when you are behind! Afterwards students began working on their new Book Club Jobs. We have the: Visualizer, Connector, Word Watcher, Questioner, and Predictor. I won’t go into each job tonight, as that would make for a very long entry! Instead, I’ll highlight one job each time we have a Book Club meeting. All students will get a chance to do each of the jobs throughout the rest of the year. Tonight I’ll highlight the Visualizer. The Visualizer is responsible to draw a part from the story that they visualized. Next they have to explain why they picked that part of the story, and describe some good word choices or sentences that the author used to help them visualize that scene from the story. All of our jobs relate to the reading strategies we have been learning in class and are meant to encourage the students to think a little deeper about what they have been reading. I also had the chance to question each group about their reading today. Today’s question was, “I was surprised by…” I was really impressed with most answers! We have some very excited readers in our class!

In Computers today, our Grade 5 students had the chance to explore an upcoming concept from our Electricity unit… the electromagnet. You can use demonstration again at home by visiting:

Grade 5: Electromagnet – http://archive.fossweb.com/modules3-6/MagnetismandElectricity/activities/electromagnet.html

I’ll also add this demonstration to the Grade 5 Electricity page for further use. The Grade 4 students worked on their Mathletics to help us get into some extra practice before Friday’s test!

In Social Studies today, students were completing two tasks that we began in earlier classes. The first was to complete their poems on the Canadian Shield that we began last week. Students’ who did not complete their poems were asked to take them home for homework tonight. They will be collected on Wednesday. Students were also asked to complete their research on Landforms for their Regions projects. On Wednesday we will begin Bodies of Water and then we will be done our research! On to the project!

The January Digital News is out. Check it out to see what Timberlea has been up to for the month of January:

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Language Arts:

• Book Club Reading (schedules on Reading page)
• Words in Motion Poetry Contest (due Feb. 4th)

Math:

• Gr. 4 – pg. 74-75 #1-3
• 7x Tables Quiz – Tuesday

Science:

• Variables Check-In – Tuesday
• Classroom Science Fair – March 7th

Social:

• Canadian Shield Poems (due Wednesday)

French:

• Colours Scramble – Wednesday

Toque Tuesday Assembly – February 2nd ($2 donations encouraged)

Timberlea Spirit Week – February 1st-5th

Winter Walk – February 3rd, 1:00 pm

Parent Teacher Interviews – February 9, 10th (sign up at http://timberlea.fmpsdschools.ca/)

National Cupcake Day – February 29th (Details TBD)

Grade 5/6 Floor Hockey – Wednesday, 3:00-4:00 pm

STEM Club – Monday, 3:00-4:00 pm

Grade 5/6 Basketball – Tuesdays, 3:00-4:00 pm