Week in Review: April 24 - 28

A quick update on the latest and greatest classroom events.  The pace of learning continues to roll along and there was plenty of fantastic learning happening in class.  This last week I put the class on notice that over the remaining few weeks the completion of homework assignments and/or at-home projects will be closely monitored.  Building greater self responsibility in terms of completing school work outside the classroom helps set the stage for next year's move into grade five. This homework change may undoubtedly be a bigger challenge for some than others and thus create a new source of anxiety or stress; as parents you can definitely assist your child.  With West Haven we do provide after school learning labs Monday through Thursday which allow students the opportunity to work on incomplete assignments after school with teacher supervision on any of their incomplete assignments.

In working with kids and homework there are undoubtedly challenges, however having a plan of attack can alleviate a lot of "hair pulling" and stress, and instead create set routines that can allow children to thrive.  There are many ways of creating structures at home that support children's learning.  Specific decisions about structuring depend in part on your child's learning needs and on your (parent's) ideas about specific involvement that will "fit" both your child and your family context, for example, what the home is like and what other demands require your time - ie. siblings, work etc..

As parents, establishing homework routines (e.g., students decide the order in which the work will be done, while parents track time and remind students of remaining tasks) and offering suggestions for organizing homework space (e.g., clear off the table or desk before starting homework) are important to ensuring learning success and the completion of tasks. It is important to create a comfortable, quiet environment and maintain consistent rules for homework completion (e.g., who can work together; when it's okay to ask for help).

Some strategies that students can use to avoid becoming distracted during homework include telling themselves not to get up until a specific part is finished, or doing easier parts of the assignment first. It is also a good idea to remove or limit external distractions (TV, electronics, phone) be turned off until homework is done.  Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, offer positive reinforcement (e.g., free time, small rewards) to motivate efficient completion of homework.  In all, it is very important that parents let students know that they value and expect effort and learning in the homework process.

Curriculum wise here is what we have been doing in class...

In Math we have continued to work through our measurement unit and did plenty of work converting units and determining appropriate units for measuring various objects.  Next week we will be moving on from the calculation of area and perimeter and it the measuring of liquids involving millilitres, litres, and kilolitres.

In Language Arts we continue to work on reading fluency and comprehension.  We have been working with comprehension strategies that help to reinforce understanding of literature.  In being able to retell story events, generate predictions, infer character emotions and ultimately locate specific story information to support their inferences, students are able to better integrate their learning and make personal connections to story information which allows for detailed recall.

In Science we continued our study of light and shadows and began investigating the principle of light ray refraction.  Refraction is the bending of light (it also happens with sound, water and other waves) as it passes from one transparent substance into another.

This bending by refraction makes it possible for us to have lenses, magnifying glasses, prisms and rainbows. Even our eyes depend upon this bending of light. Without refraction, we wouldn’t be able to focus light onto our retina.

Mental Health Awareness Week
Mental Health Awareness Week kicks off next week on Monday, May 1st, and will most definitely be an exciting time for everyone involved.  The staff and students of West Haven public will definitely be showing their support through participation in a multitude of different events!

Here is a summary of the activities planned to celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week at WHPS.  Parents and families are welcome to attend any or all of the events:

Monday (1) 
- Motivational messages
- Joke of the Day
- Classroom door decorating contest begins

Tuesday (2)
- Motivational messages
- Joke of the day
- Mental Health Activity Day - parent volunteers welcome to come and participate with their children.  Ten different activities to attend throughout the day including yoga, physical literacy, nutrition, cooperative games, mindful colouring, an escape room, floor hockey, frisbee golf, music exploration, and finally a poetry writing station.

Wednesday (3)
- Motivational messages
- Joke of the day
- School spirit day: "National Hats on for Mental Health" Day - everyone wears their favourite hat, ie. cowboy hat, sombrero, baseball cap, hard hat etc.

Thursday (4)
- Motivational messages
- Joke of the day
- SWAT team Bake Sale in support of the Canadian Mental Health Foundation.  All items are 50 cents and all funds raised will be donated to the CMHF.

Friday (5)
- Motivational messages
- Joke of the day
- Classroom door decorating judging
- Student "Art Gallery" in small auxiliary gym.  All classes will have artwork related to mental health on display for everyone to come and check out.
- Family movie night in support of the Canadian Mental Health Foundation.  Families are invited to come and watch a movie, Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire,  in the large gym beginning at 6:30pm.  Entry to the event is by donation, with all donations being given to the Canadian Mental Health Foundation.  

Lastly CONGRATULATIONS goes out to Kaleb, Kylan, Nate, Sarah, Jenna, Savanna, and Mackenzie on their hard work and effort at this weekend's St. Benedict's Bears Floor Hockey tournament.  It was a great showing for both our school's teams as our boys finished in fourth while our 3/4 girls team managed to win West Haven's first ever floor hockey medal as they captured the silver at the tournament, just narrowly missing the great comeback in the gold final.  Super proud of everyone's attitude, effort and team work during this year's season!

Upcoming Calendar of Events
Monday, May 1- Friday, May 5 - Mental Health Awareness Events (see above)
Tuesday, May 2 - Mental Health Activity Day - dress for the weather as students will be inside and outside throughout the day
Wednesday, May 3 - "Hats on for Mental Health" spirit day - wear your favourite hat in support of mental health initiatives
Wednesday, May 3 - 6H Bake Sale. All items are 50 cents.
Wednesday, May 3 - Early dismissal at 2:30pm
Wednesday, May 3 - Library Book Exchange
Thursday, May 4 - Amazing Agriculture field trip to Edmonton Expo Centre - remember to pack a lunch and arrive at school on time.  We will be leaving by 8:40 and unfortunately won't be able to wait for stragglers due to our tight arrival schedule.
Friday, May 5 - Student Art Gallery.  All parents are welcome to come and visit the West Haven Museum between 8:45AM and 7:00PM.
Friday, May 5 - Family Movie Night "Mrs. Doubtfire".  Entry by donation to the Canadian Mental Health Foundation.  Popcorn concession available.

Week in Review: April 10 - 13

This week, although only four days, was another good one with plenty of learning going on. Throughout the week the class continued becoming poetry masters, worked with metric measurement conversions, continued their study of Piet Mondrian, and experimented with a variety of different materials and light rays. Throw in the fun of "Oilers Team Spirit" day, our Easter party, and of course the excitement of the Easter break and the Stanley Cup Playoffs beginning and it was a great week all around.

In terms of curriculum this week...

In Math we continued our study of linear measurement and began comparing units of measurement.  Working with the metric system we examined, for example, how many units you would get when converting say five meters into millimeters, or 30000cm into kilometers.  We also looked at being able to recognize appropriate units of measurement for tasks, such as using millimeters to measure short distances/objects versus larger/longer distances perhaps using decimeters or kilometers.  After the Easter break we will begin looking at weight and capacity.

This week we also kicked off our participation in the Canada 150 event using the Mathletics online Math program.  Using the program students are able to practice their Math skills both in class as well as home.  An information sheet was sent home containing information about the program as well as a small card containing everyone's usernames and passwords. Everyone is really excited about using the program so it's a great opportunity for everyone to take advantage of that excitement and get some extra practice in at home!

In Language Arts this week we continued working with reading comprehension and getting everyone using with their word attack strategies to decipher unknown words, so as to improve fluency and understanding.  This week's work looked at determining whether writing samples were fact or opinion, and better able to recognize features that would allow them to tell the difference.  In writing, we continued our poetry unit and this week focused on composing "cinquain poems".  With the poems they have a set structure with a relatively easy form to follow, which allowed the style to be quickly understood.  This lead to the publishing of some very creative, and funny poems with a wide variety of topics.

In Science the study of light and shadows continued with everyone experimenting with the creation of shadows in class using a variety of different materials.  The assorted materials we used were a mix with transparent, translucent and opaque characteristics.  This allowed everyone the opportunity to see first hand how these materials interacted with the light rays from their flashlights - some allowed the rays to pass through entirely, some blocked the rays completely, while others allowed the rays to pass through but altered them in some way - dimmer, colour change, direction of the beams etc.

In Art this week we began our artist study of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian.  Piet Mondrian was originally a well known landscape painter but eventually became more famous for his abstract geometric paintings.  This type of artwork was what we focused on this week in class and  used as our inspiration in class.  This week everyone took a shot at recreating one of Piet Mondrian's more famous pieces called "Composition II in red, blue, and yellow".  This artwork was the inspiration for several clothing lines, and even an entire museum!




Bake Sale - Wednesday, April 19

Just a quick reminder about next week's classroom bake sale on Wednesday, April 19th.  Please be sure to send your 3 dozen individually wrapped baked goods to school first thing in the morning.  If the baked good you are sending contains nuts please marked this on the wrapper as they will be set up and sold on a separate table.  All money collected from the sale goes directly to the classroom.

Go Oilers Go

Here's a great shot of the school showing their team spirit during Wednesday's  Oilers Team Spirit Day...

Upcoming Calendar of Events
Friday, April 14 - No School
Saturday, April 15 - Deadline to order hot lunch for May
Monday, April 17 - No School
Tuesday, April 18 - PD Day: No School
Wednesday, April 19 - Library Book Exchange - please return library books
Wednesday, April 19 - 4H Bake Sale (please send 3 dozen items first thing in the morning)
Thursday, April 20 - East Elementary Invitational Girls Floor Hockey Tournament

Week in Review: April 3 - 7

Welcome back everyone to the school year's home stretch! Time has most certainly flown by and there are a mere three months of grade four remaining.

With this week occasionally the first week back after a longer break such as Spring Break can sometimes be a challenge, as the daily routines and classroom expectations have taken a break and "normal" at-home schedules (ie. bed times) are being re-instituted.  With this year's crew that wasn't the case as we once again had a very productive week and didn't really experience any lull in energy.  New units were kicked off in Math and Science, another two forms of poetry were studied in Language Arts, we met the Voyageurs in Social Studies, and we got to test some amazing crane projects in Science!

In terms of curriculum this week...

In Math we began our study of linear measurement and completed numerous activities getting the students use to using their rulers for something other than drumsticks.  Working primarily with centimeters this week, we will be expanding our learning by beginning to make conversions to larger and smaller units beginning next week, before moving into the calculating of perimeter towards the end of the week.

In Language Arts we continued to work with our weekly spelling words, and were using them to identify part of speech, improve phonic skills, and obviously increase sight word vocabulary and spelling fluency.  With our writing assignments this week, we continued our study pf poetry and worked to compose examples of both picture poetry and couplet poetry.

In Science this week we introduced our new unit, Light and Shadows.  With our activities this week we worked with identifying natural and man-made sources of light, and then examined the qualities of materials in relation to light rays.  We learned about how opaque, transparent , and translucent materials all interact differently with light rays and consequently all create different forms of shadows, if at all.

Lastly a big thank you goes out to everyone for assisting your children with their box crane projects.  It was great seeing the various creative designs having the kids being able to describe how their cranes worked and explain why they used the designs which they did.


In Social Studies, our study of Alberta's fur trade and the immigration of new people into the province continued.  We began looking at the influx of French traders and the role of the Voyageurs within the fur trade.  In examining the Voyageurs this week we had the opportunity to listen to some Voyageur folk songs and learned how these songs and the stories of these men helped to shape the existing culture of some cities and towns with a French heritage within Alberta such as Lac La Biche, Lacombe, and Beaumont.

Upcoming Calendar of Events

Tuesday, April 11 - Class Photos today
Thursday, April 13 - Spelling Test #28
Friday, April 14 - Good Friday: No School
Monday, April 17 - Easter Monday: No School
Tuesday, April 18 - PD Day: No School
Wednesday, April 19 - 4H BAKE SALE - PLEASE REMEMBER TO SEND YOUR BAKING FIRST THING IN THE MORNING AS PER THE EMAIL/NOTE SENT HOME LAST WEEK.