Week in Review: February 20 - 24

And it's another month in the books with more exciting learning and school events having taken place.   This week was filled with fun of descriptive writing, science experiments, and the wonderful world of long division...which was more wonderful for some than others!  This week some of you may have noticed some Math homework focusing on division - at present we have two very diverse groups in class, one for whom the concept has clicked and another where we are still developing that "ah ha" moment and are working to reinforce the concept, especially in relation to long division.  In order to provide some extra practice and allow the kids extra time to hone their skills I will be sending home homework packs for the next couple weeks.  The packs are NOT due the next day and are typically meant to be completed over a few days, Please check the agendas and check with your child as there's nothing better than finding homework the day it's due and then having your child scramble to try and complete it on time.  Additionally, much like the earlier multiplication documents (which are still available to everyone), I have shared a Google document with all the students highlighting links to online resources which they can use at home to practice and build their fluency with division.


In class this week...

In Math you may have heard that we have shifted our focus to long division and are now working hard to develop fluency and confidence with the division of larger numbers.  In past weeks we had focused on numbers that were easily divided as basic multiplication facts; with the newer concepts the quotients are not as recognizable.  Here are a couple quick clips explaining the concept of long division - helpful for reviewing at home when the concepts may seem a tad blurry and hard to explain:

Introduction to Long Division

Long Division Example




In Language Arts we continued working with descriptive language and the building of mental visualizations based off our writing.  In getting the students to address descriptors such as size, shape, colour, sounds, smells, textures, moods, time, and perspective in their writing, they will be better able to generate writing that is not only descriptive but also more interesting to the reading audience.

This last week we also continued our novel study of James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl.  Check in your son or daughter about Jame's latest adventures and test their recall of the story events - great strategy for developing comprehension and getting them to pay close attention to details while they are reading.

This upcoming week will mark the start of our poetry unit. Over the next few weeks and into March the students will be studying several different forms of poetry.  Through our work in class the kids will be composing examples of all the different styles including haikus, cinquains, word art, limericks, acrostics, and couplets.  Thus we have found numerous poets who didn't know it(s).our cinquain poetry and all had the opportunity to compose several poems before choosing their favourite to compose and illustrate for display.  Again the students were given free range as to their topics and once again the students' creativity did not disappoint with poems paying homage to everything from chocolate and candy to unicorns and tanks!  This coming week we will tap into our Irish sides and begin working with limericks.

In Science the fun of Building Movable Devices continues with the students having had the opportunity to see how the mechanical advantage of wheels and axles and gravity can be used to reduce surface friction and the amount of effort needed to create motion.  This coming week we will working further with wheels and axles and designing a variety of moving objects that use wind power to generate motion.  Next week's Science homework will be to take home their current wheeled vehicle and fine tune them so that they can be used successfully in two different experiments.  Stay tuned to see what contraptions were created!

In Health this week we continued our discussion on Pink Shirt Day, bullying and the various forms in which this can take place.  During class discussions everyone was familiar with the physical and verbal forms of bullying but were less aware of social/emotional bullying and cyber-bullying.  Social/emotional bullying is behaviours that include gossiping, note passing, and excluding people from activities; whereas cyber-bullying is bullying behaviour that involves the use of technology, including things such as text messages, social media, email, blog posts, message boards etc.  This week has been eye opening, for instance when we researched the topic pf social/emotional bullying we were surprised to find that girls were 43% more likely to engage in social/emotional bullying than were boys.  When asked to explain the percentage the girls cited girl drama as being the main reason behind the higher rate, to which I then asked, "Okay, so how do we change that number?"  

This coming week we continue on with the discussion of interpersonal relationships and will be focusing on the idea of Random Acts of Kindness, and the spreading of kindness without the need for reward or recognition.

Upcoming events

Wednesday, March 1st - Early Dismissal @ 2:30PM
Wednesday, March 1st - School spirit day: Colour Day - all grade four students wear BLUE
Friday, March 3rd - PD Day: No School
Wednesday, March 8th - Alberta Recycling Corporation "Recyclers" Presentation
Friday, March 10 - Saturday, March 11 - Grade 3/4 Girls Floor Hockey Tournament in 
               Devon (for those girls on the team.  Tournament fee payable online)
Friday. March 17th - In-class Lego Science Fieldtrip (fee payable online on Powerschool)
Friday, March 17th - School spirit day: Dress in Green
Friday, March 17th - St. Patrick's party (information to follow)