Friday September 28th

Our 4th week of Grade 4 was amazing, awesome, perfect and brilliant! 

In Social Studies we learned about artifacts. We brought in artifacts from our past and we started showing them to our class. In Science we researched our Waste Wonders using internet searches on the computers. We took notes and then we compiled them into one shared document. 

Yesterday we did the Terry Fox run. We are so impressed with ourselves because our class raised $81.00 for cancer research.

In Math we continued working on number sense, representing numbers to 10,000. We practiced writing numbers in:

Standard form - 2,435

Expanded form - 2,000 + 400 + 30 + 5

Words - Two thousand four hundred thirty five

We used a place value chart and base ten blocks to support these activities. 

Here are some photos of sharing our artifacts!

Spelling Patterns

Next week we will continue to practice long vowel spelling patterns. Long vowels are vowels that say their own name. Each vowel has several ways to spell the sound.  We will focus on the following patterns:

Long a - ai, ay, ei, a-e (a-consonant-silent e)

Long e - ee, ea, ey, ie/ei, e-e (e-consonant-silent e)

Long i - igh, ie, y, i-e (i-consonant-silent e)

Long o - oe, oa, ow, o-e (o-consonant-silent e)

Long u - ue, ew, u-e (u-consonant-silent e)

Some of the words from our word list we will be using to practice the long vowels are: 

safely costume idea opened cubes tight these

We will specifically be focusing on writing words with long vowels in sentences. We will be practicing dictations using our sentences, with partners.

Reminders:

Grade 4 Assembly - On Friday October 12th at 10:00am the grade fours will be presenting in an assembly about empathy for the school. Parents are invited to come and watch! 

Thanksgiving Long Weekend - There will be no school for students on Friday October 5th and Monday October 9th.

Library Books - Our library time changed to later in the day on Tuesday. This means that now students don't need to return their library book on Monday, but on Tuesday. If your child wants to renew a book thy should bring it back on Tuesday to get renewed. 

Social Studies Homework

In Social Studies we will be learning about Alberta's past. Part of this learning will include looking at and analyzing old artifacts. To gain an understanding of what an artifact is, as well as to continue getting to know each other, the students have been asked to choose an artifact from their own past to bring to school. This is the task they have been given:

Think of an item that is special to you. This item probably involves a personal story, and may bring up happy or sad memories. It must be significant to you and who you are in some way.

Bring your artifact to school on Thursday. We will keep it in our classroom for a few days to share with the class. 

It would be great if you could support your child with choosing their artifact to bring. They will be sharing with other students, so they might need some help remembering a story about the artifact.

Thank you in advance for you support! 

Toonies for Terry

This year we will once again be doing a Toonies for Terry fundraiser. Our school's goal is to raise $1200.  Please bring in a Toonie for Terry starting Monday, Sept 17 or you can donate online at www.terryfox.org. 

To donate online click the menu icon in the top right corner of the terryfox.org website, then click Donate today.  Then choose to 'donate to a student/school'.  You will need to type 'Panorama Hills' in the search bar and click on our school. All donations done electronically will also count towards our goal of $1200. 

If students are able to collect additional pledges they are free to do so with parent/guardian permission and that would be terrific.  We will be collecting Toonies for Terry until our run day, which is Thurs. Sept. 27 at 1:00 PM. 

Friday September 20th

This week we used the new tinker cart to make patterns or pictures using the exact same materials as each of our classmates. We saw how we each have a different perspective because our pictures were all so different. In math we reviewed place value and we began to learn how to tell time. We also compared numbers up to 10,000. In science we continued learning about waste and we compared and rated our waste management systems of our households. In social studies we began discovering all the different landforms that we have in Alberta. 

We also worked hard on an art project that you will see when you come in to visit our classroom! 

Spelling Patterns

Next week we will continue to practice long vowel spelling patterns. Long vowels are vowels that say their own name. Each vowel has several ways to spell the sound.  We will focus on the following patterns:

Long a - ai, ay, ei, a-e (a-consonant-silent e)

Long e - ee, ea, ey, ie/ei, e-e (e-consonant-silent e)

Long i - igh, ie, y, i-e (i-consonant-silent e)

Long o - oe, oa, ow, o-e (o-consonant-silent e)

Long u - ue, ew, u-e (u-consonant-silent e)

Some of the words from our word list we will be using to practice the long vowels are: 

safely costume idea opened cubes tight these

Reminders:

Library Books - Our library time changed to later in the day on Tuesday. This means that now students don't need to return their library book on Monday, but on Tuesday. If your child wants to renew a book thy should bring it back on Tuesday to get renewed. 

Toonies for Terry  - Children are asked to donate a toonie to our fundraiser, if possible! Our Terry Fox run fundraiser will be on September 27th at 1:30pm. We will provide more information about this closer to the date. 

Science Homework

Today the students were assigned a homework activity in Science. We are learning about waste management systems and they have been asked to find out about the waste management system in their household. 

Their task is to ask their family members the following questions:

Does our household recycle?
Does our household compost?
Do we have all 5 bins/bags for waste management?

They are also encouraged to ask different family members if they always dispose of waste correctly or sometimes forget, etc. 

We will be discussing our findings on Wednesday September 19th, so they should have the information by then.

Thank you for supporting this activity at home! 

Friday September 14th

This week was amazing, tiring, terrific and busy. We worked hard! 

We began our Science and Social Studies topics.
In Science we began learning about waste. The three types of waste are garbage, recycling and compost. We made a visual journal art page about the things we already know about waste. In Social Studies we are going to be learning all about Alberta. This week we practiced how to use maps and learned the difference between cities, provinces/territories and countries. We did a map scavenger hunt.

We did a jigsaw brainstorm about our learning skills. We wrote definitions of collaboration, self-managing, critical thinking, researching, communication and reflection. Then in our table groups we collaborated in a shared document on Google Drive to input these definitions. Here are some pictures of us in action!

Next week we will begin our weekly spelling patterns. Every Friday on the blog will be posted the following week's spelling pattern and some words that we will be working with to reinforce the concept. More details will be explained at the Meet the Teacher conferences next week. 

Next week's spelling pattern focus will be short and long vowels. Some key words we will be using are: 

Short vowel words - hands dentist crack bumps solid sticks stand trust 
Long vowel words - safely costume idea musical opened cubes tight these

Reminders:

Library Books - Library book exchange begins on Tuesday. Providing the students' library books were returned at the end of last year, they will be allowed to borrow two books each week. Please return library books the following Monday to allow time for Mrs. Keall to check them in. If your child wants to renew a book they should bring it back on Tuesday to get renewed. 

Scholastic Book Order - The first Scholastic book order flyers of the year has been sent home this week. If your child would like to order any books please return the form by Wednesday, September 19th. 

Meet the Teacher Conferences - On Thursday, September 20th and Friday, September 21st will be our Meet the Teacher conferences. There will be no school on Friday, September 21st for students. Please sign up for a 15 minute block to meet with me and discuss the year ahead for your child. I look forward to meeting you! 

Terry Fox Run - Our Terry Fox fundraiser will be on September 27th at 1pm. We will provide more information about this closer to the date. 

Friday September 7th

Welcome to our grade 4 class blog! 
We had a great first week of school. We had lots of fun getting to know each other better and doing group activities. 

Some of the highlights were:

- Save Fred (STEM Challenge)
- Partner Sketch Challenge 
- Learning Skills (Collaboration, Self-Managing, Critical Thinking, Communication, Reflection, Researching)
- Classroom Expectation Role Play
- Growth Mindset
- Perspective Drawing 
- Digital Citizenship
- Summer Writing
- Math War Game

Please ask me all about my week! 

Next week we will continue to work on all of these skills above. We will also learn more Math games to review what we learned in Grade 3. We will begin word work activities and writing skills as well. 

We will update our blog together every Friday, so please subscribe! 

Have a lovely weekend!