Friday November 30th

This week in Math we worked on another open-ended problem called Fifteen Cards. We learned how to try and use patterns to solve the problem. We also played games to practice mental math.

In Writing we self-assessed and peer-assessed our descriptive writing pieces. Then we edited our writing to add more of the 4 S's and improve our marks on the rubric. 

In Social Studies we are learning about the First Nations people and also about the newcomers. We learned that Europeans and Eastern Canadian people used to come to Alberta for the fur trade. We are preparing for our field trip to Fort Calgary. 

In Art this week we began to design a painting called The Door to My Imagination. We will be working on this for the next few weeks. 

Today we had an assembly to learn more about The Alex Centre. We can start bringing socks in now to donate to The Alex. We also learned about the Read-a-thon. It kicks off tomorrow! 

In Science we gave all the classes in the school compost bins and we did presentations to teach them how to use the bins properly. 

Next Week's Spelling Pattern:

Silent Letters - Some words contain silent letters. We don't hear those sounds when we say the word.

Practice Words:

knuckle    comb     honest     island    numb   wrench 

exhibit     school    knock      ghost​    thumb    folk

doubt       lamb      chalk

Reminders:

Read-a-thon - Our annual read-a-thon starts tomorrow, on December 1st. Students should gather sponsors and log their reading minutes from December 1st-31st. From January 1st-8th students should collect pledges from their sponsors. On January 10th students should return their Minute Recording Sheet, Sponsorship Form and collected money to the school in the provided envelope. 

The Alex Donations - We are now collecting donations for the Alex Youth Center. We are collecting warm socks filled with hygienic products such as toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo, lotion, body wash, soap, deodorant, hand sanitizer, nail clippers, mittens, etc. Please indicate if the sock is stuffed for a girl or boy. These will be donated to homeless youth in need. On Friday November 30th we will have an assembly with more information. Donations are being accepted from November 26th-December 19th. 

No School December 7th - On Friday December 7th the teachers have a professional development day and students have no school.

Field Trip - On December 11th we will be going on our visit out of school field trip to Fort Calgary. Thank you to everyone who volunteered. 

  

Winter Concert - This year the winter concert will be on December 19th. The performance times are below. 

Daytime: 

12:50pm-1:45pm:  Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 2.

1:55pm- 2:55pm: Grade 3, Grade 4

Evening:

5:30pm-6:30pm: Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 2

7:00pm-8:00pm:  Grade 3, Grade 4.

Last Day of Term - The last day of this term is Friday, December 21st. Friday's regular school hours apply this day. 

Winter Weather Clothes - Please remember to have children bring snow pants and boots during the colder, wet season. The field can get very wet as snow melts. Extra socks in their backpack would be great as well.

Friday, November 23rd

Thank you to everyone who came in for parent teacher conferences this week. It was great to update you on your child's progress in Grade 4. 

This week we continued with descriptive writing. We wrote about a picture prompt of an enchanted land. To  prepared to wrote detail generating questions to generate ideas and we planned sensory words that could be included. 

We worked hard to finish our cardboard challenge indoor recess games. We hope you enjoyed looking at them! Next week we will focus on instruction writing to go along with these games.

In Science we finished our compost posters. We will be presenting them to all the classrooms in the school next week and implementing their compost bins. 

In Social Studies we have continued learning about the natural features of Alberta's regions. 

In Math we have been playing a variety of games to reinforce our mental math, addition and subtraction skills. 

Next Week's Spelling Pattern:

The Sound F - Since this week was busy and short we will be continuing this pattern next week.

The sound /f/ can be spelled in different ways. 

Practice Words:

Photo        Graph         laugh       cough       trophy        shelf    friend        enough       stiff           giraffe       nephew     

Reminders:

The Alex Donations - We are now collecting donations for the Alex Youth Center. We are collecting warm socks filled with hygienic products such as toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo, lotion, body wash, soap, deodorant, hand sanitizer, etc. Please indicate if the sock is stuffed for a girl or boy. These will be donated to homeless youth in need. On Friday November 30th we will have an assembly with more information. Donations are being accepted from November 26th-December 19th. 

Field Trip - On December 11th we will be going on our visit out of school field trip to Fort Calgary. Thank you to everyone who volunteered. Field trip forms went home this week. Please fill them in and return them by Monday, November 26th. 

No School December 7th - On Friday December 7th the teachers have a professional development day and students have no school.  

Winter Concert - This year the winter concert will be on December 19th. The performance times are below. 

Daytime: 

12:50pm-1:45pm:  Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 2.

1:55pm- 2:55pm: Grade 3, Grade 4

Evening:

5:30pm-6:30pm: Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 2

7:00pm-8:00pm:  Grade 3, Grade 4.

Winter Weather Clothes - Please remember to have children bring snow pants and boots during the colder, wet season. The field can get very wet as snow melts. Extra socks in their backpack would be great as well.

Friday November 16th

This week in Math we continued practicing subtraction computations starting from 10 000, using the regrouping strategy. We played a great game called Ground Zero to practice this skill. We have also been practicing our Mental Math skills. These are strategies that allow us to add and subtract numbers in our head, without using pencil and paper. We have also continued solving open-ended math problems. Next week we will be doing a math check-in to check for comprehension of addition and subtraction concepts. 

In Social Studies we began examining the natural features of Alberta's regions. In particular we looked at the climate (temperature and precipitation), land surface (mountains, valleys, etc.), animal life and plant life. 

In writing we have been practicing how to make our writing more interesting by using the technique "Show Don't Tell". This is when the author shows the feelings of a character or describes a scene, rather then telling the reader what is happening. An example

Next Week's Spelling Pattern:

The Sound F

The sound /f/ can be spelled in different ways. 

Practice Words:

Photo        Graph         laugh       cough       trophy        shelf    friend        enough       stiff           giraffe       nephew     

Reminders:

Parent Teacher Conferences - Thursday November 22nd after school and Friday November 23rd morning are the parent teacher conferences. Students have no school on Friday. Please book your appointment through the online booking system. I look forward to updating you on your child's progress so far in Grade 4. 

Field Trip - On December 11th we will be going on our visit out of school field trip to Fort Calgary. Please email and let me know if you are able to volunteer to come with us on this day. It will be a whole day field trip. Field trip forms to sign will go home closer to the date.

No School December 7th - On Friday December 7th the teachers have a professional development day and students have no school.  

Winter Weather Clothes - Please remember to have children bring snow pants and boots during the colder, wet season. The field can get very wet as snow melts. Extra socks in their backpack would be great as well. 

Friday November 9th

This week we had our second session of in-line skating. The second time was much better! Today we had our Remembrance Day assembly.

We also started building our indoor recess games for the cardboard challenge. It was really fun! 

In Writing we came up with goals and strategies based on our peer and self assessment, and teacher feedback of our haunted house descriptive writing. We put these writing goals into Iris. Next week we will include photos of our writing piece. 

In Science we began planning our waste management system presentations and information posters to bring to the different classes in our school. We hope to implement this soon!

In Math we practiced subtracting 3-digit and 4-digit numbers using the regrouping and place value/base ten blocks strategies. We also practiced mental math subtraction strategies (strategies that help us subtract in our head, without writing it down). Finally we have been working on problem solving, in particular how to solve open-ended problems that have many solutions. 

Math - Subtraction with Regrouping Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkzoUfyAXDU

Remember that you can keep track of our math Learning Intentions and Success Criteria, along with games where they can practice these concepts at the following link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Von0b3dqkGpqP00Y4zjj35-ZHBRuyDOx9VjNy1nAvsc/edit?usp=sharing

Next Week's Spelling Pattern:

Consonant Digraphs

Consonant digraphs are 2 consonants together that make a completely new sound. They can be found anywhere in a word. 

Practice Words:

thunder 

farther 

reach 

chicken 

wheat 

Thursday 

foolish 

gather 

brother 

awhile 

chimney 

sharply 

leash 

bother 

shipment 

feathers 

charge 

shovel 

whiskers 

crush

who

whole

Reminders:

Class Pictures - Monday November 12th is picture re-take day and our whole class photo will be taken on this day as well.

In-line Skating - Thank you for returning the forms. The next final in-line skating session will be on Wednesday November 14th. Please have your child bring their helmet to school on this day. 

Field Trip - On December 11th we will be going on our visit out of school field trip to Fort Calgary. Please email and let me know if you are able to volunteer to come with us on this day. It will be a whole day field trip. Field trip forms to sign will go home closer to the date.

Winter Weather Clothes - Please remember to have children bring snow pants and boots during the colder, wet season. The field can get very wet as snow melts. Extra socks in their backpack would be great as well. 

Friday November 2nd

This week was terrific, spooky and crazy because we got to dress up in costumes on Halloween!

To celebrate on Halloween, we began making Day of the Dead skulls in art. We also practiced using expression to read spooky stories out loud. 

In Math we had a challenge! We had to think of subtraction strategies using base ten blocks to teach the grade 1s and 2s. We will be creating videos to help them. We also continued working on open-ended problem solving questions. 

In writing we wrote descriptive writing about a halloween scene. We learned how to use an assessment rubric to decide how strong our writing is. 

In Science we analyzed our data about the classroom's waste management systems. We will be creating presentations to give to each class to help them properly implement composting. 

Today we had our first session of Daily 5! Daily 5 is a rotation of 5 stations, Word Work, Work on Writing, Read to Self, Passion Project and Read With the Teacher. 

We also had our first session of in-line skating. It was fun! 

Next week we will continue with R-controlled vowels as our spelling pattern.

Reminders:

In-line Skating - Thank you for returning the forms. The next 2 in-line skating sessions will be on November 7th and November 14th. Please have your child bring their helmet to school on these dates, if they have one. 

Class Pictures - If you would like to purchase your child's photo, please return the form by November 7th. November 12th is picture re-take day and our class photo will be taken as well.

Winter Weather Clothes - Please remember to have children bring snow pants and boots during the colder, wet season. The field can get very wet as snow melts. Extra socks in their backpack would be great as well.