Week 21

We had a experiential, wonderful and lovely week.

We have been continuing to work with Cathy Beveridge. This week we practiced our descriptive writing pieces based on our 4 frame plan. We wrote about a moment in our First Nations character life that provoked a strong emotion. 

In Math, we worked on a couple of open-ended math problems. These included Subtraction Surprise and Triangular Numbers. 

Here were some of our solutions for the problem Triangular Numbers.

In Social Studies, we started our partner and group research about fur trading Alberta. 

We will be starting our new unit in Science, "Wheels and Levers". Last week we had our Mad Science presentation. Our presenter was not only knowledgable, but also very crazy, hilarious and silly! We learned about pulleys, inclined planes, levers, wedge and screws. 

Next week, our next spelling pattern is:

In vowel pairs, two vowels come together to make one long vowel sound. The second vowel is silent.   

In vowel diagraphs, 2 vowels come together to make a vowel sound that can be long or short. 

Example:

vowel pairs

 between 

vowel diagraphs

eagle

Practice Words

between 

eastern 

breeze 

clues 

hoed 

meaning 

tiptoes 

reason 

treating 

roasted 

freedom

loaned 

approach 

measure 

glued 

instead 

eagle 

boasted 

fleet 

meadow

Reminders:

Report Card Envelopes - Please return your report card envelopes (and thanks if you already have!)

Winter Weather Clothes - Please remember to have children bring snow pants and boots during the colder, wet season. The field can get very wet as snow melts. Extra socks in their backpack would be great as well.

No School Days - There is no school this upcoming Thursday, Friday and Monday. 

Week 20

We had a delightful, wonderful and joyful week.

In Science, we have been continuing to learn about convex and concave lenses. A convex lens is curved out and makes objects look bigger. A concave lens is thinner in the middle and thicker on the outside making objects look smaller. We conducted two experiment this week: The Broken Pencil Experiment and the Lenses Experiment. We gained some experience with the Scientific Method (Question, Hypothesis, Materials, Procedure, Observations, Conclusion).

In Math, we have learned the "Open Number Line" subtraction strategy. We start by writing down the bigger number (from our number sentence) on our number line. We minus the thousands/hundreds from our smaller number, then we subtract the tens, and finally we subtract the ones. We needed to make sure we broke up numbers so that our difference was a friendly number. 

 

In Social Studies, we presented the research we gathered for our First Nation peoples. We shared information about their family life, jobs and roles, and traditional clothing/food, stories and legends, transportations, beliefs/customs, languages, their daily life, celebration, art/music/dance, and other facts. 

We have been continuing to work with Cathy Beveridge. This week we created a Nisitapi boy or girl character. We made a poem to describe their personality, character/physical traits, dreams, fears, regrets, their family role, what they're proud of and clothing. When we created names for our characters the first word in their name was an adjective (descriptive word) and the second word in their name was something you find in nature, such as the names Lone Wolf, Shooting Star, Summer Waterfall, Rotten Squirrel, and Blue Beaver.

Reminders:

Valentines Day - Children are invited to bring cards for their classmates on Wednesday, Feb 13th to exchange. To avoid any hurt feelings, please send cards for every student in your child’s class. Of course, this is optional and you may choose not to participate. Due to CBE policy there can be no food items and/or candy with the Valentine cards.

Report Card Envelopes - Please return your report card envelopes (and thanks if you already have!)

Winter Weather Clothes - Please remember to have children bring snow pants and boots during the colder, wet season. The field can get very wet as snow melts. Extra socks in their backpack would be great as well.

Week 19

In Math, we learned a new addition strategy called the "Open Number Line". The steps include first drawing a number line and then drawing your first number on the number line. Your first hop will be to add the ones from your second number, then add the tens, hundreds and thousands. At the bottom of each hop you write the sum on your number line. The last hop is the total sum. 

Students found several ways to get to a sum of 350.

In Science, we looked at how the position of a light source effects the size of an objects shadow. If the light source is closer to an object, the objects shadow will be bigger. If the light source is farther away from an object, the objects shadow be smaller. We also looked at how the position of the sun during the day affects shadow of objects. The angle of the sun will also be the same angle of the objects shadow.

We also watched a Bill Nye video and started looking at concepts of reflection and how light reflects off a mirror. We looked at concave and convex lenses. A concave lens curves inward and it makes objects look smaller. A convex lens curves outward and it makes objects look bigger. 

Today we worked with Cathy Beveridge and learned that perspectives in history are all different because people focus on different moments in history. Each person looks at an event in history differently. This is a video we watched about selective attention proving that we even though we are looking at one event, we all see different things.

Next week, our next spelling pattern is:

Adjectives ending in er compare two things. Adjectives ending in est compare three or more things. To add er or est to an adjective that ends in y, change the y to an i first. 

Example:

est

happy + er = happier

er 

happy + est = happiest

Practice Words

angrier

angriest

happier

happiest

easier

easiest

earlier

earliest

funnier

funniest

prettier

prettiest

lonelier

loneliest

heavier

heaviest

fancier

fanciest

juicier

juiciest

Reminders:

Non-Instructional Day - No school tomorrow, Feb. 1st

Report Card Envelopes - Please return your report card envelopes (and thanks if you already have!)

Record Fees - Recorder fees are due on Monday, Feb. 4th 

Winter Weather Clothes - Please remember to have children bring snow pants and boots during the colder, wet season. The field can get very wet as snow melts. Extra socks in their backpack would be great as well.

Week 18

We had a fantastic, magnificent and exciting week.

In Social Studies, we are researching about different First Nation peoples. We are learning more about: their culture, traditional food, traditional clothing, celebrations, their jobs and roles, beliefs and customs, music, art and dance, forms of transportation, languages, legends and stories, how they live/lived and their way of life and other facts. 

 In Science, we have been learning how light reacts to different objects. We have been using mirrors and different objects to see if they reflect or don't reflect light. Most objects that are shiny and smooth reflect light such as a cd or a spoon. Objects that are dull and rough usually don't reflect light.

In Math, we learned a new strategy called "chunking". This strategy involves taking chunks aways from the smaller number. We start by taking away the biggest place value in the smaller number - starting with the thousands, hundreds, tens and ones. We have been continuing to working on becoming more efficient at using this strategy by racing against our classmates.

For Health, we are continuing to learn about the Growth Mindset. We watched and discussed the videos on ClassDojo about the Growth Mindset. Here is a link to the videos: https://ideas.classdojo.com/b/growth-mindset

Passion Projects!

This week, Japneet presented her Passion Project on Narwhals. Her guiding questions were "What do Narwhals use their tusks for?" and "How long are Narwhals tusks?" . We learned that males tusks can grow between 8.8-9.0 feet, but the females tusks grow much smaller (the size is undetermined). 

This week, Sophie presented her Passion Project on Halloween. Her guiding question was "When was Halloween made?" and "Who came up with it?". We learned that a group called Celts, an ancient group, thought that the spirits/ghosts from the graveyards came out to haunt so they would put on costumes to ward them off and give them treats to make them happy. The Scottish and Irish immigrants came to Canada and they started the Halloween celebration, which was one of their traditions from their homeland. 

Morning Prompts!

Today we watched and discussed Planet Three. Here is the video link: https://vimeo.com/channels/theplanets/62799909

Next week, our next spelling pattern is:

Words ending in Y: When a word ends in y preceded by a consonant, change the y to i before adding an ending, unless adding the ending ing.  

Example:

worry + es = worries 

dry + ing = drying 

copy + ed = copied 

try + ing = trying

Practice Words

•  tries​
• carried​
• worries​
• buying​
• satisfied​
• relying​
• denies​
• copied​
• emptied​
• hurrying
• cries​
• buries​
• multiplied​
• replies​
• supplied​
• drying​
• petrified​
• frying​
• applied​
• scurrying

Reminders:

Winter Weather Clothes - Please remember to have children bring snow pants and boots during the colder, wet season. The field can get very wet as snow melts. Extra socks in their backpack would be great as well.