Classroom News
January 9th, 2017
Welcome back! The month of December was filled with lots of fun activities and a well deserved break. In January, we will have lots of exciting activities and events:
Website Subscriptions:
In the next week, please look for your child's sign in for Mathletics as well as Info-Jeune. Mathletics is a math website that will level students and help them practice their math skills. Info-jeune is a similiar website to Raz-kids but in French. We will practice signing in and working in the program so that students will be able to work independently at home.
Agendas:
For January 16th, could you please help your child find their agendas and prepare a list of important dates for them in the month of January? We will be working on organizing and scheduling our time using our agendas. Activities to include would be sports, extra-curriculars, appointments, important visits, church or other obligations or events. We have found that students require some additional time management skills when entering to Middle School therefore, we will start by having them learning to plot important information in their agendas and to schedule things like reading, math practice or homework around their other activities and events. If your child has lost their agenda, they will be provided with a calendar to help them.
Reading:
For January, we will also begin to track our reading in our agendas or on our calendars daily. I have found that some students may be overestimating their reading times. I encourage for you to help your child track in their agenda or on their calendars in order to have a more accurate tally of the minutes.
Science:
At the end of January, we will be starting our simple machine unit. Students will be making an amusement park ride using two or more simple machines (wheels and axels, pulleys, levers, gears, wedges, ramps). In order to do this, we ask that your child bring in your clean and dry recycling. Here are some examples of what we are looking for the following items:
- milk cartons
- cardboard (boxes)
- egg cartons
- plastic containers
- toilet paper and paper towel rolls
- bottle or milk jug caps
- empty spools from ribbon or thread
- tin cans
Math:
We are working on our multiplication tables. We have started with basic multiplication of facts up to 9 x 9. We will be working our way up to two-digit by one-digit multiplication.
French:
We will be working on elements of a story as well as reading comprehension skills.
English:
We will be working on literature circles in the month of January culminating with a final project of the students' choice. Projects include movie trailers on the iPads, dioramas,
Social Studies:
We have looked at the regions and the animals of Alberta. Now, we will work on a inquiry project about the natural resources in Alberta.
If you have any quesitons or concerns, please let me know!
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016
November has flown by with a fury of activities! We have been very busy doing all kind of fun things. Here are some important dates:
December 2 - Communication of Student Learning goes home
December 6 and 8 - Parent, Student, Teacher conferences
If you are leaving early in December for vacation, please let me know.
Français:
We have been reading some short novels in groups. We have been looking at the elements of a story: Characters, Setting, Beginning, Middle, End, Problem, Solution, etc. We have also be doing some mini grammar lessons on masculin, feminin, singulier and plural. This is a tough concept for most students as they struggle to understand how an inanimate object can be masculin or feminin.
English:
We are working through a story called Hanna's Suitcase. It's a true story of a young Jewish girl during World War Two that has sparked a lot of conversation about the war and Holocaust. We are also working on poetry and figures of speech. This week, we tackled alliteration poems which are now on Google Drive.
Math:
We have finished both 4-digit addition and subtraction. The hardest part for most students was borrowing from two places values over ( i.e. 5007-1459 =... Students need to borrow from the thousands, convert to hundreds, then 10 then ones). We are currently working on estimating sums and differences. Next, we will work on multiplication. Please keep practicing basic addition and subtraction facts with your child.
Social Studies:
We are continuing to work on the regions of Alberta. Once we have completed our big project, we will work on the natural resources that can be found in Alberta. We will also be having our multicultural lunch in December. Information forthcoming!
Science:
We are working on our Light and Shadow unit. We will be looking at how the eye works as well as how light reflects, bounces and travels through different materials. We will also be looking at the shadows and the movement of the sun.
Friday, October 28th, 2016
Halloween is just around the corner. We will be having a class party with some food and a treat on the 31st. The Halloween costume parade starts at 1:15 if you'd like to come in and watch. Students have been asked to be considerate of the younger students and to not make their costumes or make-up overly gory.
Please try to limit Halloween candy in lunches as the high amounts sugar can impact learning and focus.
Here's what we have been up to:
Français:
We have been working through a text called L'Univers de Zaza which is about a school age child who is making new friends. While reading these texts, we have been working on sentence structure, beginning capitalization, end punctuation, la liaison (ex: in French the words "les amis" is said "lezami"), third person plural verbs (ex: we don't say the 'ent' ending on verbes - "courent" is said "cour") and the sounds "on", "en" and "in". We are also reading a novel called "La nouvelle maitresse" which is the story of a very unconventional teacher.
English:
The novel that we were going to read as a class was in use by two other Grade 4 classes so we switched gears and started a poetry unit. We have written 3 poems so far - a Biopoem, an I am poem, and My Favourite Season poem using the 5 senses. We have also covered figures of speech such as metaphors, similies and onomatopeoia.
Math:
We have reviewed 3-digit addition and subtraction. We are currently working on 4-digit addtion using two strategies. We have used the standard algorithm for addition and we have done left to right method. We will continue with expanded notation addition and base 10 blocks.
Social Studies:
We have been working on a project to discover the regions of Alberta. We are learning about the animals, vegetation, hydrography, relief, natural ressources and climat of each region.
Science:
We will be finishing up our Waste in our World experiment by filtering water. Then we will move on to our second unit Light and Shadow.
Friday, October 7th, 2016
Our class has finally settled into a routine and have been adjusting to the pace of Grade 4.
In the coming weeks, we have a few special activities planned:
October 13th - In School Field Trip presentation by Teacher's Pet: Students will be investigating Waste in our World through centers and presentations.
October 14th - Green Calgary - Landfill presentation also relating to Waste in our World.
Français:
We have been improving our sentence writing skills by expanding our sentences to include many more details. Here is the format that we have been using:
Qui?
Le petit chien brun.
Fait quoi?
Le petit chien brun chasse les lapins blancs.
Quand?
Toute la journée, le petit chien brun chasse les lapins blancs.
Où?
Toute la journée, le petit chien brun chasse les lapins blancs dans la forêt.
Pourquoi?
Toute la journée, le petit chien brun chasse les lapins blancs dans la forêt pour s'amuser.
We are going to be starting some literature circles in order to learn how to work through a book and review elements of a story.
English:
We are just finishing up our pirate unit by writing and telling a story using Toontastic. We will be starting a class novel study in order to help us work on literacy skills.
Math:
We have finished learning to representing numbers to 10 000 in different way. We are working on ordering and comparing numbers. Next, we will be moving on to addition and mental math.
Science:
We have started a few experiments with mold. We have made mold terrariums and are watching how food decomposes. This week, we will be having two presenations about Waste in our World. We will also look at how Calgary deals with waste, water filtration and how Red Wigglers help us with disposing of our waste.
Social Studies:
We have finished mapping some of the features of Alberta including regions and water ways. We are now looking at each region individually. We have also learned about Alberta's past at the Atlas Coal Mine. One of the most interesting parts of the field trip was learning through story telling. We will be working on the tradition of oral story telling through our language arts programs.
Friday, September 16th, 2016
We've had a very busy few weeks getting to know each other and getting back into the routines of school. Here are some upcoming dates:
September 21st - Picture day!
September 23rd - Pirate Day! We will be celebrating “Talk Like a Pirate Day” on Friday, September 23rd. 4L and 4W will celebrate the day by dressing like pirates and talking like pirates for the day! This is to celebrate our pirate inquiry in English Language Arts. Students are encouraged to come to school dressed in their finest pirate gear. The dollar store has lots of pirate gear out for Halloween. Please do not feel like you must spend a lot of money for your child to participate. They can simply use things found around the house. Grog will be supplied by Madame! (School appropriate grog of course! I will forward ingredients to families of students with allergies.)
September 23rd - Subway lunch and decorate your shoes day!
Here's what we have been doing:
Français:
We have been learning about writing a complete sentence. We have learned that a sentence needs subject, verb and compliment. It also needs to start with a capital letter and end with punctuation. It also needs to make sense. We will be starting to work on reading strategies and literature circles.
English:
We have started out with pirate unit. We have discovered our pirate names, written our rules to live by and are now working on a message in a bottle. We will be having a pirate day. We briefly touched on Terry Fox to learn about his life and his Marathon of Hope.
Math:
We are working on representing numbers to 10,000 in different way. We have been working with base 10 blocks. We will be looking at standard notation, expanded notation, and representing numbers using picture.
Science:
We have started our unit about Waste in our World. We will be learning about our enviornment, waste, waste removal, and the impacts of human activity on the environment. Look for information regarding presentations that will be forth coming.
Social Studies:
We will be learning about Alberta. Right now, we are working on mapping skills and learning to name the provinces and territories. We are currently working on planning a field trip to Atals Coal Mine to discover Alberta's past and start to talk about Alberta's natural resources.
