This week in humanities our hearts were filled with emotion as we finished up our Global Read Aloud, Pax. Students were asked to think about why the author chose to write this story, and what lessons she was trying to teach us throughout Peter and Pax’s journey. Some deep themes came about in considering these questions, such as: "When you love something, sometimes you have to let it go". And, "No matter what the circumstances, you can always achieve your goals with determination". Also, "Sometimes things in life don’t go your way or turn out how you hope". And finally, "War is difficult for people and animals". This week students also completed a self-evaluation for their “Presenting Pax” projects where they were asked to reflect on their efforts of the picture and typed summary. Check it out on Freshgrade! In our Alberta inquiry, students have continued to dig into the important features of our 6 regions. We learned the difference between “Important” and “Interesting” information when determining importance in a text while reading, and talked about note taking strategies such as using: jot notes, our own words, keywords, and bullet points. Students got onto a virtual website called Zooming in Alberta: http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/sszi/en/ to explore more about Alberta’s climate, landscape, wildlife, plant life, etc. in each region. We have been recording this information in our Google Docs learning journals. Watch for this during student led conferences! In spelling we learned about the /J/ sound. We sorted words starting with the letters J & G to discover patterns in letter pairing and what that means for rules when we're spelling! Exciting News: All grade fours received a pair of personal earbuds to use at school for listening to virtual websites focused around our studies :) Fourth graders were given time to choose and practice the skills they want to showcase at the SLCs this week. We hope you enjoy sharing in our learning and come prepared to ask questions and encourage your child. We look forward to seeing everyone! Updates: - We will be having our first lockdown drill on Thursday morning, Dec. 1 - Term 2 starts on Monday, Nov. 28th - Ask your child about our Family Group theme: Gratitude & Global Citizenship
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This week in Math students continued to explore algebra moving from basic algebraic balancing to solving one step equations. Students have begun working on videos where they will have to explain their reasoning behind how they solved balancing equations. Students will have to explain the reasoning behind their math in the hopes that they will gain a better understanding of how algebra works. This week in science students continued their work with the tomato sphere plants, continuing to collect data. This week students were introduced to an APP called numbers, and learned how to transfer data into bar and line graphs. Starting next week, students will begin to take the data collected from Tomatosphere and present it using the numbers APP. This week in humanities we continued to read Pax and consider "What Do Good Readers Do?". We are excited to be finishing up the novel this week, and look forward to hearing the ideas students have about why this novel was written. This is our first look at theme in literature, and we have a feeling the students will come up with some morals from the story as well. On Monday we shared the pictures of our explorations throughout Alberta as a way to introduce some of the characteristics of our land. Look for these when you visit the school this week for student led conferences! On Tuesday we were lucky to host the group Teacher's Pet, who took us on an interactive race through Alberta. Students began to inquire into the characteristics of Alberta's different regions, and were challenged to think critically about where in our province a new town should be built. We look forward to continuing this line of thinking in the coming weeks. A huge thank you to all of the parents who joined us for this day, we couldn't have done it without you! Stay tuned for news about upcoming initiatives around the school as the holiday season approaches. We will continue to explore the themes of gratitude and global citizenship in family groups and other classes, providing us with the opportunity to give back to the community. In 4.3 and 4.4 Humanities we are happy to welcome a student teacher from the University of Lethbridge, Miss Shania Mack. Miss Mack is a humanities and drama specialist who will be with us until the Winter Break. Enjoy your practicum Miss Mack! Lastly, report cards are coming home Monday! Hard to believe term one is already coming to a close. Please be sure to read the comments from your child's teachers, as they will be the most informative. Details regarding student led conferences are coming home from our admin team early this week. Please note the following:
This week in Science students began collecting data in their Tomatosphere study. Students went in to lab daily to collect evidence of the germination of their tomato plants. In the coming week students will begin to see the link between Math and Science as they learn about graphs and begin to graph their Tomatoshpere data. This week in Math students continued their work on pre-algebra as they began to understand and explore the concept of balancing equation by looking at balancing shapes. Students were challenged to use their problem solving skills to compare the weights of various shapes placed on scales. An example from our work can be seen bellow. Ask your student to describe which shapes are heaviest and lightest and how they know.
This week in math/science grade 4's have been busy setting up their Tomatosphere study. The importance of sample size and how to set up a controlled experiment has been the focus of our work. Students have been given two groups of seeds- the control seeds and the treated seeds. The treated seeds have either been on the International Space Station for 2 months or have been in a vacuum at -80 degrees celsius for 50 days. This is a study to compare how these seed treatments could affect germination of the tomato seeds. Once our data has been collected we will report our findings to the Tomatosphere Project, the Canadian Space Agency, and the University of Guelph. We are also continuing to work on our study of plant anatomy. In mathematics we have completed our study of pattern in number, culminating in our final assessment and review. We are continuing our study of computation and the importance of "balance" in equations. Humanities Update We are all excited to be continuing our journey with Peter and Pax this week, in our read aloud unit. Students have been working on their close listening and reading skills as we use this story to help us understand what good readers do and why. They have used these skills this week to help them make inferences based on what they already know, and the clues in the text. The novel Pax has also allowed us to meaningfully use new technology in class. The apps Google docs, MindMeister, Overdrive (our digital library service), and Freshgrade have allowed us to explore our ideas in new ways. Thank you to everyone who posted their selfie and explored the Freshgrade platform. If you have any questions about this learning management system, please do not hesitate to contact your child's homeroom teacher! We have also been working collaboratively and talking about what it means to be a good group member. Our social thinking curriculum reminds us that our minds and bodies need to be present in order to work well with others. Looking ahead, we will be exploring the theme so of gratitude and global citizenship in our family groups and classrooms! To support this theme, please see the note below from one of our family groups:
The Yellow Bumble Bees Family Group is collecting non-perishable food items to support The Calgary Veterans Food Drive. Please help us support this valuable cause by bringing in non perishable food items next week. |
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June 2017
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