Week in Review: March 20 - 24

This last week was definitely one of ups and downs.  Obviously the excitement of the upcoming Spring Break filled the room and that energy trickled into everything we did this week.  Everyone worked hard and we continued to complete a few more items on our units of study checklist.  

This last week featured unit tests in both Math (long division) and Science (Building Movable Devices), and surprisingly the success of the results was mixed.  On one end of the scale we had students who excelled and displayed great understanding - congratulations Kaleb on your TWO 100% tests - and then there were those students who, despite working well in class, stumbled and experienced a dip in their test scores.  This dip obviously raised some eyebrows - What is going on?  Is my child not listening?  Goofing around?  As I noted with one parent, both the units in Science and Math featured concepts this last round that were difficult and more abstract to comprehend - the works gets more challenging as you progress along in the year.  There was a definite increase in the need to apply previous learning to develop and display understanding, and consequently dips in performance can sometimes occur because the activities are no longer simply recall based activities.  These are those types of activities which are very familiar, such as addition and subtraction, which the students have had around in some fashion for four years and subsequently have a base of knowledge to draw from.  So with that said how does one combat this dip?  With the Math continue to practice the recall of multiplication facts and division equations - the extra practice is essential as it will help build that new base of knowledge, which the kids can then draw from in the future.


In terms of curriculum this past week...

With Math this week it was all about the long division and a lot of activities aimed at developing student's working level of comprehension with how the skill works.  As with last week the class was broken into smaller groups based on student's levels of comfort and expertise with the concept.  The use of the groups allowed me to not only offer more individual attention to some students, but also challenge other groups with more difficult activities.  

As of this week we wrapped up our division unit and will be taking a break from number operations for a few weeks as we will be kicking off our measurement unit upon are arrival back at school after the break.  The measurement unit will look at the linear measurement, area, perimeter, weight, temperature, and time.

In Language Arts we continued our work with developing reading strategies and building comprehension skills.  In our reading work this week we focused on identifying phonemic sounds within words, chunking words into syllables, sounding out words,  and using context clues within the surrounding text.  

Additionally this last week we received a package from the Edmonton Oilers in support of our home-reading program.  Using this as a teachable moment we discussed the importance of reading at home, and how much like any skill whether it's skating, running, or shooting a basketball, you need to practice in order to get better at it.  The extra reading at home allows students the opportunity to practice things like reading with expression (ie. no robot voices), improving their fluency (ie. trying to avoid reading word-by-word), building their sight word vocabulary, and ultimately gaining confidence in reading unknown words (ie. applying reading strategies).  

At present we have only five students who regularly return their home reading folder daily, and who are consistently tracking their home reading.  Thank you to those students and parents.  These five students were the first to receive their reading prizes from the Oil Kings and Oilers.  In closing, I mentioned to the kids that it would be great if that number could increase so that everyone could get a prize, and that it only required a minimum of fifteen minutes each night.

In Science we wrapped up our Building Movable Devices unit and sent everyone off with a final at-home construction project to complete over this last week and Spring Break.  The next project involves the construction of a 30cm tall "crane" that is capable of lifting approximately 250g of weight.  The design for the crane was left up to the students to decide, although we did do some rough planning in class to get everyone's ideas going.  The crane project is to be returned to the class no later than Tuesday, April 4th, as that is when we will be testing them in class.


Upon our return from Spring Break we will be tackling a new unit, Light and Shadows.  With this unit students will learn about light by studying the effects of light on things within their environment.  They will learn about light sources, about materials that light can pass through and about what happens when a material blocks or changes the path of light.  By observing shadows and their motions relative to a light source, students will discover that light and shadows fall along a predictable path.  The students will experiment with mirrors, prisms and a variety of other materials to see that these things can affect light's path by reflecting and refracting light and by splitting light into colours.

In Social Studies this week, student activities worked to help students recognize how the stories of people and events can provide multiple perspectives on the past, and how these stories are a valid source of knowledge about the land, culture and history of the province. 

We continued to discuss the influence of the diverse Aboriginal peoples within  Alberta, and how Alberta's culture was now changing with the arrival of the European fur trade, specifically The North West Trading Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. 

Upcoming Calendar of Events

March 24 - April 2 - Spring Break: No School
Monday, April 3 - First day back to school
Wednesday, April 5 - School Spirit Day: BEACH DAY - wear your beach-themed outift
Wednesday, April 5 - Early dismissal @ 2:30pm
Wednesday, April 5 - Bake Sale (50 cents per item)
Friday, April 7 - Library: book exchange
Friday, April 7 - Saturday, April 8 - Caledonia Viking Cup Boys Floor Hockey tourney

Week in Review: March 13 - 17

Twas an excellent week in grade four as the excitement of St. Patrick's Day filled the class. This week we completed numerous "St. Paddy's" related activities including some reading comprehension, composing limericks, some leprechaun math, as well some art activities and of course our class celebration that included a viewing of James and the Giant Peach as a wrap up activity to our novel study unit.  In conclusion, thank you to those parents who were able to come out for our student-led conferences last Tuesday, the kids were excited to have to you visit and also for the opportunity to show you many of the wonderful things they have done.

In terms of curriculum this past week...

In Math the students are continuing to build confidence in their understanding of long division.  This past week saw many of the students make the needed connections and begin working through the in-class problems independently or with little guidance.  As their confidence continues to grow so will their independence.  Next week we will having a quick division review quiz just to assess every one's comprehension of the division concept. The quiz will be assessing that the students know the needed steps and can apply them accurately when needed without assistance. 

In Language Arts we tackled the fun and creativity of limerick poetry!  Through the use of their words we were able to explore the fun of Irish poetry and iambic pentameter. In addition we wrapped up our study of James and the Giant Peach.  As you are sitting around the supper table ask your son or daughter about the novel and what happened in the story - retelling story events is a great way to increase story comprehension; not to mention the fact it allows your child the opportunity to share a little about their day at school.

In Science we have nearly concluded our study involving the Building of Movable Devices. Our activities this week looked at the use of wind power as a means of generating energy to produce movement.  Throughout the week the students had a chance to construct a vehicle, test it, and then take it home to retool and redesign for a second test.  With the tests the vehicles had to travel a distance of two meters solely powered by wind in order to receive the full five point score.  The scores from the various construction project tests all serve to generate an overall unit project grade.  Check with your daughter or son to see how their car scored in the testing.  

As a concluding activity for our constructing movable devices unit we had the folks from Learn and Create come into the school to work with the kids on creating a couple of different moving Lego projects - a dune buggy and a swinging boat amusement ride.  It was great seeing the teamwork and cooperation among the various groups.  Everyone successfully built their projects, and as was pointed out "Everyone had such a good time playing we didn't even know we were learning something".  Here are a few pics from the day's fun...

Next week everyone will be busy constructing our final project, a box crane capable of lifting a small load.  Look for information coming home in everyone's agendas.  The crane project will allow us to integrate our knowledge of pulleys, levers, and mechanical advantage.  Our concluding unit exam will be held next week.

In Social Studies we continued to look at the early settlers in Alberta, initially the native Cree people who first settled the region and then the European settlers who established trading posts like the Hudson Bay Company within the province.  By studying these groups we are drawing connections between past and present life in Alberta.

Thank you
Thank you to those families that provided snacks for the class St. Patrick's Day party. Everything was delicious, as evident from the vacuumed cleaned platters and smiling faces.

St. Patrick's Day Fun
We had some fun playing around with this activity on Friday...have some fun and find out your "official" Leprechaun Name.

Upcoming Calendar of Events

Tuesday, March 21 - Math Unit Quiz: Long Division
Wednesday, March 22 - Science Unit Exam: Building Movable Devices
Friday, March 24 - PD Day: No School
Monday, March 27 - Sunday, April 2 - Spring Break: No School
Monday, April 3 - 1st day back after Spring Break
Wednesday, April 5 - Early Dismissal @ 2:30

Week in Review: February 27 - March 2

Though a quick week we still managed to pack a lot into it!  Between online division skills, creative story writing, vehicle testing, "sticky" art projects and the fun of Random Acts of Kindness...we definitely stayed busy!  

In reflecting upon the last couple weeks of Health instruction regarding bullying and respect towards others, this week's learning built nicely upon our base knowledge in that throughout this last week we focused on the topic of kindness. With the kids we talked about what it means to be a kind person, and how our actions are a direct reflection of how we are viewed by other people.  I tried to really emphasize that kindness is not only something which is shared with others but is also something which can make them also feel good about themselves. When talking with your children about the week remind them that far too often people forget that its the little things that people do for each that really do have a tremendous impact.

In terms of curriculum...

In Math we continued to build upon our comprehension with division concepts and have now transitioned in "long division".  For some the transition was easy as it blended seamlessly into their comprehension of multiplication facts.  For those still building their automaticity with their basic multiplication facts the process has undoubtedly been more challenging.  As I have told the class all along the way, everything we learn builds upon the previous concepts so it is important that they are practising and building their fluency at home as well as at school.  With both multiplication and division skills the students have access to several Google docs on their school Google Drive accounts chalk full of website links designed to make the recall and reinforcing of concepts more "entertaining", i.e. they'll be learning and practising while still having fun. These Google drive accounts can be accessed as follows:

• Visit the Black Gold student ICT website: http://engagingstudents.blackgold.ca/
• Click on the Google drive icon
• Login with using their school email address:  firstnamelastinitial(four #s)@gshare.blackgold.ca
• Password they should know
• Once onto the site - click on the shared with me folder and the documents will be listed

In Language Arts this week we tackled some more creative writing - this week really focusing on the use of descriptive language within the context of an adventure story as a means of including specific details about size, colour, textures, moods, times, setting locations, perspectives, and problems/solutions.   In planning our stories we talked about how including these descriptive elements allows us, as authors, to paint a better picture and thereby hook our readers and keep them interested in reading our stories right through till the end.  With our compositions we are also using them work on editing for clarity and the use of writing conventions such as capitalization and punctuation.

In Science we wrapped up our first construction project, gravity powered vehicles.  It was great seeing the class working to apply their knowledge to first construct their vehicles and then take what they had learned from their first tests to retool and rebuild their vehicles to gain improved performance - ie. need more clearance to lessen friction with the ground

 or need to change my tires so they roll better.  Come next week the vehicles will be getting modified to become balloon and sail/wind powered.

With Social Studies this week we continued to discuss the fur trade and began looking at individual explorers who had an impact on the development of Alberta as a province.  Explorers such as Anthony Henday, Henry Kelsey, Alexander Mackenzie,  and David Thompson who worked with both the Hudson Bay Company and Northwest Trading Company to map and explore much of what is now Alberta.  Our study of traders, explorers, and trading forts will continue next week as well before we begin looking at the role of European immigration and how settlers new traditions and beliefs had a role in forming Alberta.

Upcoming Events and Activities

St. Patrick's Day Party - March 17th

As was communicated by our class's parent reps, we are having a class St. Patrick's Day party on Friday, March 17th.  With the party the following students are asked to supply the treats:

Korbin  - something sweet example: cupcakes, cookies...

Mackenzie  - meat tray

Zachary  - cheese tray

Damien  - cracker tray

Chance  - juice

Mohib  - veggie tray

Joshua  - fruit tray

Our class has 22 students and 2 teachers.

Student Led Conferences: March 14th

With our parent conferences this second term we will be holding student-led conferences versus the traditional 15 minutes sit-down interviews.  The use of student-led conferences allows for students to better physically demonstrate their understanding of concepts, thereby confirming what is often times contained in report cards.  

Our evening conferences will run from 4PM through until 8PM on Tuesday, March 14th.  With the evening's scheduled activities in Math, Science, Language Arts and Technology please allow at least 30 minutes to work through the various activities with your child.  With the conferences you may stay for as long or little time as needed as the evening's schedule is open house and people may attend as their personal schedule allows.

Calendar

Friday, March 3 - PD Day: No School

Sunday, March 5 - Deadline to register for March 8th Ski Club trip

Wednesday, March 8 - Alberta Recycling Corp. "Recyclers" presentation (no fee)

Wednesday, March 8 - Bake Sale - 50 cents per item

Wednesday, March 8th - Ski Club trip @ Rabbit Hill Ski Resort

Friday, March 10 - Term 2 Report Cards sent home
Friday/Saturday, March 10/11 - Girls Floor Hockey Tournament in Devon 

Tuesday, March 14 - Student-led Conferences 4-8PM (open house style, no set times)

Friday, March 17 - In-school Lego field trip (activity fee currently payable on Powerschool)

Friday, March 17 - School Spirit Day: Irish Day - Wear Green

Friday, March 17 - St. Patrick's Day Party