Did You Know…? For her wedding in 1858, Queen Victoria was given a giant wheel of cheddar cheese weighing over 1,000 lb.
Wow! What a crazy and busy day we’ve had. Thank you everyone for working so hard to get your Science Fair projects completed on time. They were all amazing! All of the visiting teachers were very impressed with the level of student work that you could see in our class, and everyone was very passionate and excited about their projects. I have a few more projects that I would like to discuss further with students tomorrow before making my final decision as to who will be moving on to School Fair. I will let students know no later than Thursday about who will be moving forward to School Fair on Monday.
We spent our afternoon working on the school Chromebooks. For the majority of our students, this was the first day that they received and used their new Google accounts. These accounts will enable students to publish their writing without having to save or email a copy elsewhere, and will allow students to share, edit, and collaborate on work easily and more frequently. We will slowly be learning how to use these accounts as the year goes on. However, students are allowed to begin using and exploring their accounts at home. Students also worked to complete new Tynker lessons today. We had planned to share some of our work on Tynker with the Board of Trustees this afternoon, but unfortunately they were unable to make it to Timberlea today. Hopefully they are able to stop by in the near future to see some of the amazing work and learning that our class has done with Tynker and coding.
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Math:
Gr. 4 – pgs. 105-106 #1, 2
Social:
Regions Project – March 14th
Health:
Pg. 43, Ali’s Thoughts – Tuesday (FRIENDS)
Registration Forms – ASAP (Due at the office on Thursday!)
Grade 5/6 Floor Hockey – No Floor Hockey until April
STEM Club – Mondays, Thursdays 3:00-4:00 pm
Grade 5/6 Basketball – Tuesdays, 3:00-4:00 pm
Yearbook Orders – $22 (March 31st)
Family Movie Night – March 18th (Alvin and the Chipmunks), entrance by donation
Did You Know…? Roasted leafcutter ant abdomens are sold in some cinemas in South America instead of popcorn.
Good evening,
Today the Grade 4 students and I continued to practice multiplication. We explored using multiplication charts together as a strategy today, however, I didn’t send multiplication charts home to help with homework this weekend. The students and I discussed the importance of practicing their multiplication facts and learning other strategies when we get stuck (eg. counting on, breaking it apart, etc.) instead of relying on the multiplication chart. We will all have a multiplication chart on our desks to help us as we start to solve bigger problems.
In Health we continued to discuss helpful thoughts (green thoughts) and unhelpful thoughts (red thoughts) and how they can impact our behaviour. Students brainstormed about a time that they were happy, recording what they were thinking, feeling, and doing as a result. We also brainstormed about a time we were unhappy or scared, recording what we were thinking, feeling, and doing as a result. Students were asked to examine illustrations of other students and to brainstorm what they were thinking. Can we turn them into helpful thoughts?
In Science today the Grade 4 students continued to explore pulleys. We attempted to use more than one pulley to move the weights. Then students started researching and brainstorming ways in which we use pulleys in real life. The Grade 5 students quickly reviewed series and parallel circuits. Then we discussed resistors and began practicing reading electrical dials. We will continue to explore these concepts next week.
In Art today we looked at the artist Keith Haring:
We are going to be working on Keith Haring inspired sculptures for the next few classes.
We also all watched this video shared with us by Sustainival today! It was nice to know they were still thinking about us after our amazing field trip in September!
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Math:
Gr. 4 – pg. 100 #1-7
Science:
Classroom Science Fair – March 7th (Monday!)
Social:
Regions Project – March 14th
Health:
Pg. 43, Ali’s Thoughts – Tuesday (FRIENDS)
French:
Trading Cards (Monday)
Grade 5/6 Floor Hockey – No Floor Hockey until April
STEM Club – Mondays, Thursdays 3:00-4:00 pm
Grade 5/6 Basketball – Tuesdays, 3:00-4:00 pm
Yearbook Orders – $22 (March 31st)
Family Science Night – March 21st @ 6:00-7:00 pm
This Grade 4 student was really able to stretch his thinking in Math yesterday. He broke down 8×8 all the way to 1×8 + 1×8 +…
Did You Know…? The village of Pluckley, Kent holds the official Guinness World record as the most haunted village in England.
Good evening,
Today the Grade 4 students and I continued to explore mental math strategies that we could use to help us with multiplication. Today we looked at breaking numbers apart into known facts and using addition to help us. Check out the example below:
When finding 3 x 7, we know that 2 + 1 = 3. So we can break 3 x 7 into the easier to solve 2 x 7 and 1 x 7. We know that 2 x 7 = 14 and 1 x 7 = 7, so the answer to 3 x 7 = 14 + 7 = 21. The product of 3 x 7 is 21. Take a look at another example:
When finding 8 x 3, we know that 4 + 4 = 8. So we can break 8 x 3 into the easier to solve 4 x 3 and 4 x 3. When finding 4 x 3, we know that 2 + 2 = 4. So we can break 4 x 3 into the easier to solve 2 x 3 and 2 x 3. We know that 2 x 3 = 6, so the answer to 8 x 3 = 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 = 24. The product of 8 x 3 is 24. Unfinished practice questions were brought home for homework. We will continue to practice these strategies tomorrow in class.
In Health today, we started to discuss helpful (green) thoughts and negative (red) thoughts and how they can impact us. We can’t always control how we feel. Feelings are one word; eg. mad, happy, worried. In FRIENDS we are told to think of feelings as residing in the heart. We can control how we think. Thoughts are usual a statement or fact; eg. It is raining, She is looking at me. In FRIENDS we are told to think of thoughts as residing in the brain. Since the brain is in control of so much of our body, it can have an impact on how we are feeling. So, by changing our negative thoughts into helpful thoughts, we can sometimes begin to change how we feel. We did also discuss that all feelings are okay! While we want to change how we think and focus on the positive, it is perfectly okay to have days and moments where we feel negative emotions. This is normal. Everyone feels negative sometimes. If we feel negative for a longer period than normal and we can’t change our thoughts, then it is a good idea to get some help and to share our thoughts and feelings with a parent, friend, teacher, counselor, etc. Students were asked to think about 3 positive thoughts that they could have about today and to record them in their books. We also practiced some new mindfulness activities from our FRIENDS book that are meant to help us practice thinking and noticing the positive things happening around us.
In Science today, the Grade 5 students continued to explore series circuits. They also explored parallel circuits today. You can see a summary of our review and our new knowledge below:
The Grade 4 students started to look at a very special wheel and axle – the pulley! Today we experimented with some fixed pulleys. Students were asked to lift a 200 g and a 500 g weight with a force meter. They were then asked to lift the weights using a fixed pulley. Most of the groups observed that they could feel the heaviness of the load on the string, but that using the pulley meant that they were able to pull the string more quickly and easily that without the pulley. Check out a summary of our new knowledge below:
In Language Arts today, students started working as a group on a culminating activity for their Book Club books. We are completing a Paper Bag Character Study. You can view the activity by following the link below:
I am really looking forward to seeing the objects that each group selects to represent their characters! We will be working on this activity in class later this week and throughout next week.
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Language Arts:
Spelling Quiz – Thursday
Power Writing – First Drafts (tomorrow)
Math:
Gr. 4 – pgs. 96 #1, 3
12x Tables Quiz – Friday
Science:
Classroom Science Fair – March 7th (Monday!)
Health:
Pg. 38, Positive Thoughts – Friday (FRIENDS)
French:
Trading Cards (Monday)
Grade 5/6 Floor Hockey – No Floor Hockey until April
STEM Club – Monday, Thursday 3:00-4:00 pm
Grade 5/6 Basketball – Tuesdays, 3:00-4:00 pm
Yearbook Orders – $20 (March 31st)
Our Grade 5 students using Mathletics to increase their numeracy skills.Some Grade 4 students collaborating on their practice questions.Some Gr. 4 students practicing multiplication with a Math game.Two Grade 4 students working hard to set up their fixed pulley.
Did You Know…? The Irish name for jellyfish is smugairle róin which means ‘seal’s snot’.
Good afternoon,
In Math today, the Gr. 4 students continued to explore using skip counting and counting on as strategies to help with multiplication. Take our example below:
To find 6 x 7 we can begin by counting up by 6’s. We would count up by 6 seven times to find that 6 x 7 = 42. We can also demonstrate this using a number line. We could have also counted up by 7’s. If counting up by 7’s, count up by 7 six times to find that 6 x 7 = 42. Students don’t always need to start from 0 when using skip counting. We can also start from a known fact:
In the example above, to find 9 x 6, students can begin at the known fact 9 x 5 = 45. Then, count up by 9’s. You would only need to count up by 9 one time in order to find 9 x 6 = 54. This strategy can be continued to find higher and higher multiplication facts:
Students who did not finish our practice work today in class will be bringing home some Math homework.
In Language Arts today, students completed some individual and peer editing in our POWER Writing Duotangs. We are finishing our persuasive letters that we began before the break and will be publishing them on Thursday. Make sure your first draft is complete for tomorrow!
We also had a small grammar lesson today. First, we reviewed what we have learned about nouns so far this year. So far we have learned about nouns, proper nouns, and irregular plural nouns. Now we are beginning to look at verbs. Today we just practiced finding the verb in small example sentences:
Stay tuned for more Grammar lessons using verbs!
In French today we quickly reviewed the vocabulary that we learned on some of the important people in our school:
Un ami
Friend (male)
Une amie
Friend (female)
Des camarades de classe
Classmates
Un professeur
Teacher (both male and female)
Un directeur
Principal (male)
Une directrice
Principal (female)
Then we started working on some trading cards highlighting an important friend and an important teacher. Students need to finish these trading cards before our next French class on Monday.
In Social Studies students continued their work on their Regions of Alberta or Canada projects. These projects will be sent home no later than Friday. Students who have not been using their time wisely in class will be asked to complete these projects at home. Students will be given only one more class period on Thursday to work on these projects.
Thank you to everyone who donated fruit, snacks, or baked goods to our Healthy Bake Sale. Thanks to you and your amazing students we raised $203.90! We are so excited to be able to send such a generous donation to the SPCA and it was because of your support and generosity that it was possible. Thank you everyone!
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Language Arts:
Spelling Quiz – Thursday
Book Club Books – tomorrow!
Power Writing – First Drafts (tomorrow)
Math:
Gr. 4 – pgs. 92-93 #2-7, 10
Gr. 5 – 3 Volume Questions
12x Tables Quiz – Friday
Science:
Classroom Science Fair – March 7th (Monday!)
Health:
Home Activity 3B (FRIENDS)
French:
Trading Cards (Monday)
Grade 5/6 Floor Hockey – No Floor Hockey until April
STEM Club – Monday, Thursday 3:00-4:00 pm
Grade 5/6 Basketball – Tuesdays, 3:00-4:00 pm
A student working on creating a Harry Potter themed French trading card.Yay! We’ve raised $203.90 for the SPCA. Well done 4/5M!
