Week 4

In math, we are working on how to represent and describe whole numbers to 10000.

We have been representing numbers to 10000 using base ten blocks. 

We have been comparing numbers to 10000 using greater than, less than and equal to symbols. 

We are starting to represent numbers to 10000 using the expanded form.

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This week we shared our personal artifacts. We brought in artifacts that mean a lot to us, have a story behind them, are old, and are things we cherish. We practiced our presenting and audience skills. A great presenter uses their big voice, has interesting ideas to share, and is clear about what they are sharing. A great audience is quiet, listens and raises their hand if they have a question or comment. 

We continued to learn about what it means to be a responsible Digital Citizen. We tested our knowledge of what a Good vs. a Not Good website might look like. This will help us once we start doing more research.

In science, we created a list of Waste Wonders, like "Can you recycle gold?", "Can you recycle old instruments?", and "Can do recycle a mouse pad?". We used our research skills to find good information about our Waste Wonders.    

We continued learning about the Growth Mindset and created skits to show our understanding.

We worked very hard in defining the word "Perspective" using our Frayer Models. We looked up the definition in a dictionary, created our own definition together as a class, and looked up synonyms using an online thesaurus. 

Who knew there were so many synonyms for the word Perspective!

We learned about Terry Fox this week in preparation for our Terry Fox run. He is an inspiration and Canadian hero because he ran across Canada to raise money for cancer research. He showed Empathy because he knew what Greg, a boy with cancer was going through and wanted to raise money to help him and others going through cancer. He showed a 

Growth Mindset by not giving up when running through Canada. Unfortunately, he did not make it across Canada, but his purpose to raise money for cancer research continues. During our run we ran 1495 laps in total as a class.

Nice work Grade 4s!

Spelling Patterns:

Next week will continue to practicing long vowel spelling patterns. We will focus on creating sentences containing words with the long vowel spelling patterns. We will be practicing how to give each other dictations in order to prepare for the dictation given by Miss Pasion. 

Long a - ai, ay, ei, a-e (a-consonant-silent e)

Long e - ee, ea, ey, ie, e-e (e-consonant-silent e)

Long i - igh, ie, y, i-e (i-consonant-silent e)

Long o - oe, oa, ow, o-e (o-consonant-silent e)

Long u - ue, ew, u-e (u-consonant-silent e) 

Below are some of the words from our word list, which we will be using to practice the long vowel spelling patterns: 

safely, costume, idea, opened, cubes, tight, these

Weekly Reminders for October 1-5: 

Library Books - Our library time is Tuesday morning. If your child wants to renew or return a book they should bring it back on Tuesday.

Headphones - Please bring your headphones to class. We will be using them during Daily 5: Listen to Reading.

Homework: Artifacts - Please bring your artifacts to class. We will continue sharing our artifacts with the class. 

Upcoming Events: 

Tuesday, October 3rd - Author Cathy Beveridge will be visiting our classroom on Tuesday, Oct. 3rd to Introduce our class to "Strong Writing".  

Friday, October 5th - No school. Non-instructional day.

Tuesday, October 9th - The Military Museum will be sharing their historic artifacts in the STEM Room with our class. We will continue to share our artifacts next week.

Homework: Social Studies Artifacts

Today we read the book "The Matchbox Diaries" by Paul Fleischman. The book introduced us to the idea of artifacts, which can tell us about a person's life and culture. 

The students were assigned a homework activity in Social Studies. They have been asked to bring an artifact that is special to them and has meaning to who they are today. Students must select an item(s) that involves a personal story and may bring up happy or sad memories. Please bring your artifact to school on Thursday. We will keep them in our classroom for a few days to share with the class. 

Below are some artifacts brought in by Ms. Pasion. These are very special items to her. Each hold a lot of meaning and have a story behind them.

• A photograph of the first time she and her brother saw snow after moving to Calgary from California.
• A photograph of her mother when she visited Banff, Alberta. It is cool to think that her mother also saw the same mountains many years ago. 
• A school uniform from her school in Torrance, California. It reminds her of her friends and teachers back home.
• Her first hand sewn project from Grade 7. She was very proud of the work and craftsmanship that was put into sewing her teddy bear. Her mother had taught her starting at 6 years old how to sew by hand. 
• Her first machine sewn project from Grade 11. She was very proud of the skills she had developed over the years and was able to apply them in a more technical project. 

Toonies for Terry

Toonies for Terry

This year we will once again be doing a Toonies for Terry fundraiser. Our school's goal is to raise $1200.  Please bring in a Toonie for Terry starting Monday, Sept 17 or you can donate online at www.terryfox.org. 

To donate online click the menu icon in the top right corner of the terryfox.org website, then click Donate today.  Then choose to 'donate to a student/school'.  You will need to type 'Panorama Hills' in the search bar and click on our school. All donations done electronically will also count towards our goal of $1200. 

If students are able to collect additional pledges they are free to do so with parent/guardian permission and that would be terrific.  We will be collecting Toonies for Terry until our run day, which is Thurs. Sept. 27 at 1:00 PM. 

Week 3

This week we continued to learn about "perspective". To help our understanding, we used materials from our new tinker cart to create patterns or pictures. Each of our classmates used the exact same materials. It was interesting to see how we each of us had a different perspective. All our pictures were very different! 

In math, we reviewed place value using our place value mats and base ten blocks. We also began to learn how to tell time. 

In science, we continued learning about waste. After discussing our household management systems with our groups, we compared and rated our waste management systems on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being an excellent waste management system. 

In social studies we began discovering all the different landforms that we have in Alberta. We watched Travel Alberta videos to observe and write notes about Alberta various landforms.  

We worked hard on our adjective art project this week, which is displayed outside our classroom! Our Adjective Art was inspired by the book “Why I am me?” by Paige Britt. This beautiful book celebrates our diversity and invites us to ask ourselves the questions: What makes you, you? and What makes me, me? 

Spelling Patterns

Next week we will continue to practice long vowel spelling patterns. Long vowels are vowels that say their own name. Each vowel has several ways to spell the sound.  We will focus on the following patterns:

Long a - ai, ay, ei, a-e (a-consonant-silent e)

Long e - ee, ea, ey, ie, e-e (e-consonant-silent e)

Long i - igh, ie, y, i-e (i-consonant-silent e)

Long o - oe, oa, ow, o-e (o-consonant-silent e)

Long u - ue, ew, u-e (u-consonant-silent e)

Below are some of the words from our word list, which we will be using to practice the long vowel spelling patterns: 

safely, costume, idea, opened, cubes, tight, these

Weekly Reminders for Sept 24-28:

Library Books - Our library time is Tuesday morning. If your child wants to renew or return a book they should bring it back on Tuesday.

Toonies for Terry  - Children are asked to donate a toonie to our fundraiser, if possible! Our Terry Fox run fundraiser will be on September 27th at 1:30pm. We will provide more information about this closer to the date. 

Headphones - Please bring you headphones to class. We will be using them during Daily 5: Listen to Reading on Thursday.

Homework: Waste Management at Home

Today we learned about the City of Calgary's Compost Waste Management System.

Homework:
Find out your waste management system at home. Interview your family members to find out how the waste management system in your house works. 

Interview Questions:

• Does our household recycle?
• Does our household compost?
• What types of bins/bags do we have for waste management?

Week 2

This week we began our Science and Social Studies topics.

In Science, we began learning about waste. We looked at the three types of waste: garbage, recycling and compost. In our visual journals, we created a visual chart were we documented what we already know about these three types of waste. 

In Social Studies, we will be learning all about Alberta. This week we practiced how to use various maps and looked at the difference between cities, provinces/territories and countries. We applied our skills in a map scavenger hunt. 

We continued learning about our learning skills: Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Self-Managing, Reflection, and Research. In groups, we did a jigsaw brainstorm and wrote descriptions for each learning skill. Then we collaborated in a shared document on Google Drive to create slides that defined each learning skill. Here are some pictures of us working hard in our groups!

This week we continued learning about the Growth Mindset. After reading the book "The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes" by Mark Pett and Garry Rubinstein, we learned that no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. As learners, mistakes are important because we can grow and learn from our mistakes. 

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We learned more about Carol Dweck's studies on a Growth Mindset vs. a Fixed Mindset. Someone with a...

Growth Mindset...
- is willing to try new strategies
- doesn't give up
- believes our brain is like a muscle and can grow
- thinks positively
- chooses more challenging tasks
- works harder 
- puts more effort into their work

Fixed Mindset...
- isn't will to try new strategies
- gives up easily
- believes your either smart or not smart
- thinks negatively
- chooses to do the easier tasks
- doesn't work very hard
- puts less effort into their work

Next week, we will begin our weekly spelling patterns. Every Friday on the blog we will be posting the following week's spelling pattern and some words that we will be working with to reinforce the concept. More details will be explained at the Meet the Teacher conferences next week.

Next week's spelling pattern focus will be short and long vowels. Some key words we will be using are: 

Short vowel words - hands, dentist, crack, bumps, solid, sticks, stand, trust

Long vowel words - safely, costume, idea, musical, opened, cubes, tight, these


Weekly Reminders for September 17-21:

Library Books - Library book exchange begins on Tuesday, September 18th. Students will be allowed to borrow two books each week, providing the students' library books were returned at the end of last year. Please return library books the following Monday to allow time for Mrs. Keall to check them in. If your child wants to renew a book they should bring it back on Tuesday to get renewed. 

Meet the Teacher Conferences - On Thursday, September 20th and Friday, September 21st will be our Meet the Teacher conferences. There will be no school on Friday, September 21st for students. Please sign up for a 15 minute block to meet with me and discuss the year ahead for your child. I look forward to meeting you! 

Terry Fox Run - Our Terry Fox fundraiser will be on September 27th at 1pm. We will provide more information about this closer to the date.

Week 1

Our first week was filled with fun and excitement!

As a class, we discussed and shared our ideas about what a Peaceful Classroom LOOKS, SOUNDS, and FEELS like... 

In groups, we planned and acted out skits showing expected and unexpected classroom behaviours. We realized that it takes all of our effort (including Ms. Pasion) to make a Peaceful classroom.

Planning skits in our groups. Unexpected behaviour: Listening to loud music, dancing and distracting others. Oh boy! Expected behaviour: Listening to calm music helps us stay focused on our learning.

We began learning about the six 'Learning Skills'. They include: Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Self-Managing, Reflective, and Research. These skills will help us with our learning and are important life skills. 

To help us with our understanding of the Growth Mindset, we watched a funny video about pig named Ormie who stops at nothing to reach a jar of cookies on top of the fridge. His determination to reach the jar of cookies shows a Growth Mindset because he NEVER GIVES UP.  

Watch the video and discuss the questions below with your families: 

How will he solve his next challenge?

What do you thing he will do?

We used the Learning Skills (Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking) and a Growth Mindset during our "Save Fred Challenge". Without using our hands and only using the paper clips, we had to think critically about how we could retrieve the life saver trapped under the capsized boat to save Fred. This was definitely challenging, but we did not give up. We learned from our mistakes and tried different strategies until we could successfully save Fred!

Digital Citizenship

We learned about Digital Citizenship. A good way to remember how to be a responsible Digital Citizen is to use the acronym THINK. 

T = Is it True?

H = Is it Helpful?

I = Is it Inspiring?

N = Is it Necessary?

K = Is is Kind?

Welcome!

Welcome to Room 155's Grade 4 learning blog. My name is Ms. Pasion and I am excited to begin our learning journey this year. 

Please visit our classroom blog regularly as we will be posting school updates and learning highlights from the week. I will also be posting online learning resources that can be used at home.

Please email me if you have any questions. :)

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