Tuesday Jan 31: Friendship, Barren lands and Eric Wilson

Notice:
Notice and signature form for a Field trip to the Museum on Thursday form went home today.
--- IMPORTANT sign and return Wed please--

When you understand the math life is good.

Tomorrow we are having a visit to the class by Leslie McGary who will teach us about the Potlatch and will be making pouches with the students. The following afternoon the class will go to the Museum for a guided tour of the First Nations Exhibit. The following Tuesday the 7 th Leslie will again be in the classroom for her final visit to review and discuss all that they have learned together.

Working hard on Friendship Poems

We began the day reading followed by the students writing an acoustic poem with the word "FRIENDS" My favorite line written by one of the students so far is: "Rainy days are best when friends come over to play."

Papermache after finishing Barren Lands one page report.

After recess we talked about the Barren lands of the Inuit, which are not really barren as the first European explorers imagined them to be. This is part of our Inuit study and also ties into the Author Eric Wilson who is coming to talk this afternoon who spent time in the Arctic researching a book he was writing.

For math we reviewed one digit by two digit multiplication (8 x99= ___) etc. After lunch we worked for 15 min on the mini book "Friendship" followed by an assembly with the Mystery Writer Eric Wilson. The assembly was great with Eric talking about how he became a writer and all about how he created the 21 books that he has become famous for. He gave out many prizes and had a great power point presentation to show the students.

Wilson and Wilson

We returned to class in time to clean up and have a quick game of 'silent ball.'

There will be some general questions about Eric Wilson and his books on Friday's test.

Fantastic day everyone... take care, get your forms in and see you all tomorrow

Monday January 30: Spelling, Eric wilson, FSA

Notices:

Provincial Projects due today
Author Eric Wilson coming tomorrow, parents welcome

More than enough time has been given IN CLASS over the last two weeks for all students to have finished their Provincial projects, which are due today. Six of the 26 students managed to get their final finished project in today and many others say they just have to color or add the odd picture to finish. The next project is to research a First Nations, Inuit or Metes group and do a very similar project using the research skills used during the Provincial Project. The students can choose from one of the Nations and peoples that I have provided or they can choose to do their project on any First Nations group of their choice. The project will be assigned tomorrow and the students will have two weeks to finish this project.

Monday began with our spelling words for the week. The words were dictated to the students and the students corrected their own spelling sheets as it is best that they see their own mistakes in preparation for Friday's test.

List one: black, clam, fly, glad, plum, bless, clap, flip, glass, plate, block, claw, flake, glove, plant, blow, club, flag, glue, place.

List two: vote, bone, explode, rode, rose, stove, coat, soap, loaf, toast, Joan, goal, shadow, slowly, below, pillow, behold, revolt, bolt, thunderbolt.

After the Pretest was marked the students worked on their double sided spelling sheet for this Unit 16.

After recess the students went to music. They worked on music notation, and practiced recorders and sang. The students not finished their notation work have to complete it for homework by music on Wed.

"Y" brought her guitar into music and played a tune for the class. Great Job.

After music I continued to read the book "The unmasking of 'Ksan" by Eric Wilson. The students are working on a little novel booklet as we read through the novel. Eric Wilson will be here in the school tomorrow and will be doing a presentation for the school and any parents that are interested in hearing him speak. As I read the first chapter the students checked if their prediction was true or not. As it turns out the story is about the theft of an important ancient raven mask, which is stolen during a dance performance. The students are drawing the moment of the theft, in the middle of the Raven dance when someone in the bear costume came in with a revolver and demanded the mask.

Students working on the FSA test.

After lunch the students went to choir. Those students not in choir listened to and did a one page report on Boz Scaggs. Choir was cut short as the students went to the Lab at 1:15 with Mr. D to do the first part of the Language Arts FSA. The students returned to class as they finished their FSA test and began working on this weeks mini-book, on Friendship. I provided them with 14 sentence starters for them to do on each page. Friends are, friends always, friends help, friends do.... etc. The students have finish the sentence and draw a picture to go along with their sentence. This mini-book is due as always in a week. Some students worked on there paper mache masks throughout the day as time permitted.

Friday January 27: the day before the big provincial project due.

We began the day with our regular Friday test. This was followed by reading and then the students were give time until lunch to work on their provincial projects which are due on Monday.
After lunch most of the class went to buddies while those that did not go worked on x-table math sheets. We ended the day with a roaring game of bench ball in the gym.



ave a great weekend everyone and see you Monday with your projects. Y,N,SP,JP and JT have finished and handed theirs in.

Friday Test Information

Friday Test:

When it rains too much it can cause floods.
When it rains too little it can cause droughts.
Rain is part of the water cycle.


two by one multiplication. 5 x 75 =

Spelling
and a question like:

there are items for sale at the pet store.
ball $ 2.25
bear $ 2.00
bone $ 1.75
rope $ 1.50

Jasmine bought a ball and a rope with a $ 10 dollar bill.
About how much change should she receive?

Good Luck and see you tomorrow.

Tuesday January 24: Spelling

Notice:
Writer to visit school on Tuesday. You are welcome to come along.
Eric Wilson- Mystery Tour
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
1:00 pm 70 minute presentation
Gym

We began the day with our spelling pretest for the week, then the students worked on the two sided spelling sheet for this unit, unit 15. After the spelling test groups of four worked on paper mache at the back of the class.

List One: tiny, windy, penny, silly, baby, dusty, bumpy, muddy, city, jelly, sixth, lucky, only, candy, misty, family, tasty, scary, guppy, stormy

List Two: glide, title, drive, vampire, divide, shine, quite, provide, pie, dried, lies, relied, lightning, fright, might, tonight, high, night, fight, sunlight

The spelling pretest and spelling worksheets took until recess.

After recess the students read for 30 minutes then we began a new novel study on the Mystery book by Eric Wilson (a local writer who will be in the school next Tuesday) called "The Unmasking of 'Ksan. The students began the title page and, after I read of the first few short paragraphs of the book, had to draw the opening scene and make a prediction about what the story was about.

The Part I read was:

"GrrrrrrrrROAR!
The terrible sound came from Bear, crouched in the doorway. Firelight glowed in his fur and flickered against his mask.
Snarling, Bear moved toward me.
I tried to look brave as he came close, growling low in his throat.
Suddenly, his paw lashed out.
I flinched as the long claws glittered in the firelight. Then Bear’s head tilted and the mask’s blank eyes stared into mine. Nearby people laughed, then looked nervous as Bear moved on, searching for another victim. "

What do you think the book might be about? Discuss it with your child, and feel free to join us at the assembly next Tuesday.

After the novel we worked on problem solving questions like the ones in the coming FSA. until Lunch.

After lunch we read for 5 min because of a noise infraction then went to P.E. and were first joined by our buddy class for 30 minutes before having the next 30 min to run by ourselves.

After P.E. the students were given time to work on their Provincial Mini book project.

Friday January 20: Test, Provincial Projects, Art, Buddies, FSA and P.E.

Notice: No school Monday Pro-D day

Some of the Class wanted to sing a song for everyone

We began the day with our weekly test which had science and math questions as well. All tests have been marked and will be handed back Monday. We followed the test with quiet reading while all students finished the test.


After recess the students were given time to paper-mache in small groups and the rest were working on their Provincial mini-book report outlined at the side. The students worked hard on their projects and made good use of their time.

After lunch most of the students went to buddies, those students not at buddies worked on math multiplication questions.

At 1:30 the students went with Mr. D to the computer lab to do a practice FSA on the language arts and reading part of the test.


After FSA the students had a well earned Gym period to run off the energy built up taking the FSA test.

Thursday with Mrs. O'Connor

Notices:
Friday test tomorrow; hints in previous blog entry
Monday is Pro-D day
Bring proper indoor shoes for in school and gym

Thank you for your continued support this year. Please email us if you have any questions.
We are currently studying Earth and Space Science. The grade four topic is weather. All this snow helps add to the hands on learning and excitement of charting the temperature everyday using a thermometer. Today we designed, created and tested an anemometer, the tool used to measure wind speed.

In Language Arts I am focusing on the use of speaking to explore and express ideas to an audience. The unit will finish with the students writing and presenting a speech.

We continue to work on our math skills, currently we are focusing on times tables. Thursday is Library day, and they took out books. I am happy to report that the librarian informed me that our class was the first to return all our books before Christmas break. Keep up the good work everyone.

Remember to study your spelling words and practice for the Friday test.
Bring indoor shoes to leave at school if possable.

See you next Wednesday!

Friday test help

Spelling words

What is wind?
moving air

What do you measure wind with?
Anemometer

What causes wind?
warm air rising and cool air falling

3 and 9 x tables

In the pet store there are rabbits, gerbils and hamsters
-there are 14 animals in total
-there is the same number of gerbils as hamsters
how many of each animal could there be?
show all possibilities

(hint 1 and 1 and 12; 2 and 2 and 10)

Tuesday Jan. 17th: Provincial project, Reading, Snow time, P.E. and Masks

We began the day with 30 min. of reading followed by time followed by time to work on our Provincial Mini-book projects. The students are doing a great job on their projects and seem to be enjoying the research. (for directions see monday's blog entry or look to the right side under assignments to see what is to go on each page) At recess the students were allowed into the Maddock field to roll large snow balls. Someone spread the rumor that the class that made the largest snowball would get a pizza party. So the rolling began fast and furious. Our class said they worked the best as a group unlike those grade 5's in .......'s class who cheated. Good working as a group div 4.



We continued this project after recess until we began Math. Math with multiplication of two digit numbers by two digit numbers seemed to mystify many of the students even though I tried to teach it so they could understand. To do this I first showed them that 1 x a number is the number and 10 times the number just adds a 0 to the number. Then I moved to 11 x a number showing that it was the same as 1 x the number and 10 times the number and adding them. By the end of class many had the process but many still seemed like they need more practice with the algorithm.

We ended the day with finishing our prep for the Paper mache masks. By the end of the period several students had begun their paper mache and everyone was finished their prep. Along with their pre-paper mache prep the students had to draw a picture of what they thought their finished project would look like. Visualizing their final project will help them during the paper mache part of the project.

After lunch we had P.E. and the students chose their own teams and ran and ran and ran.




Have a great day div 4, enjoy the snow and see you all tomorrow.

Monday January 16th: Spelling, Music, Problem Solving and Provincial Reports

Notices:

PISE sports forms went home with those students involved in after school sport activities in this program.

Baseball Forms for out of school leagues

We began with 30 minutes of reading followed by our weekly spelling pre-test.

List one: mice, side, wife, like, tile, mine, pipe, fire, rise, kite, dive, hide, bike, lime, wipe, tire, rice, life, time, ripe

List two: street, teeth, sheet, fifteen, Steve, these, theme, athlete, field, thief, movie, relief, believe, series, read, repeat, deal, really, squeal, meal

After recess in the snow (where throwing of snow was banned) the students went to music with Mrs. Awalt. They took a music reading quiz then practiced singing, and recorders.

In math we continued to drill on times tables (7x) and the students were given simple division sheet with questions that are simply reverse multiplication. 7 x 3 = 21 21divided by 3 = 7

After lunch those students not in choir listened to and did a one page report on the Allman Brothers Band often called the original Southern rock band. Still one of the most respected rock acts of their era, this American rock/blues band is still one the the top concert draws and many of their albums are live recordings of concerts.

After Choir the students were assigned a Provincial report which is do be done in the mini book format. The mini-book Provincial report is to be 24 pages with one page dedicated to each of the following topics.

1 Title Page
2 Dedication Page and Author Page
3 Capital City (Label on map and list 2 facts)
4 Provincial Flower (draw and describe)
5 Provincial Tree (draw and describe)
6 Provincial Animal (draw and tell about)
7 Provincial Flag (draw and describe)
8 Provincial Crest Coat of Arms (draw and describe)
9 Famous person 1 (draw and tell about)
10 Famous person 2 (draw and tell about)
11 Tourist site or Activity (draw and tell about)
12 Map of Canada your province colored
13 Map of Province showing Capital
14 Endangered or threatened animal species. (Draw one and list others)
15 Natural Resources (Draw one and list others)
16 Sports and Sports teams (names and one fact)
17 Population information and numbers
18 Weather / Geography Facts (describe )
19 Historical fact 1 (tell about and draw a picture)
20 Historical fact 2 (tell about and draw a picture)
21 Agricultural products (Draw one and list others)
22 Manufactured goods(Draw one and list others)
23 Fact Page 1
24 Fact Page 2

Friday January 13: Art, tests, FSA and P.E.

We began the day with our regular Friday test. The test also had math and science questions. The tests were marked and sent home with the students. I like weekly tests as it gets the students used to taking tests and I hope it reduces the stress of tests in the future. As there was only about 10 min until recess we sang a song and learned a song from 'F' and 'N'.

After recess we began an art paper-mache project making maskes based on first nations animals and masks. We used milk containers, masking tape and rolled paper tubes to form the structure of our masks. We will begin the steps of paper-mache them next week. The making of their mask frames took the entire period from recess until noon.

After Lunch the students worked with their little buddies doing math. After buddies Mr. D took the students to the computer lab to have them do a practice test for the provinical FSA tests which all students in grade 4, 7 and 10 in British Columbia Take.

We ended the day with a game in the Gym to unwind the brains from all the thinking that they did. See you all bright and sharp on Monday.

Friday test

For Friday Test:
spelling words

A homonym is ......(multiple choice answers) and be able to draw two examples of one.

Math question like

A boy goes to the candy store to buy candy. At the store they have licorice, smarties, mints and gum. He only has enough money to buy two candies. He wants two different candies. What are all the possible combinations of candy that he can order? (note gum & licorice = licorice & gum)

6 and 9 times tables

good luck and see you Friday.

Wednesday Afternoon: almost Computers, Recorders and Math

Notice: Sample questions for Friday test at the bottom of this blog.

We started the afternoon by attempting to go to the computer lab side of the library where Mrs. Carlton's class is while their floors and windows are being done. After 4 or 5 warnings about being loud we went back to class and read for 10 minutes before the students went to music.
In music the students have started learning how to play the recorder. It is very cool the musical experiences Mrs. Awalt provides for our elementary school students.

Last period we worked on more problem solving questions using time and money problems. I had the students work first in pairs or groups of three to see if they could work together to figure out the problems before giving them the way I would approach solving the problem. Again the three and four step problems were hard but the students, in general, seem to have skills based on yesterday's math questions. I told the students to take the question sheet home to show their parents and work on questions they did not figure out. We also talked about how on a multiple choice question there is always one or two answers that are obviously wrong.

See you all Friday when you will have your first practice test in the computer lab with Mr. D. Study your spelling words and know what a words that have the same sound but have a different meaning are called and be able to draw two examples.

There will also be a math question like:

A boy goes to the candy store to buy candy. At the store they have licorice, smarties, mints and gum. He only has enough money to buy two candies. He wants two different candies. What are all the possible combinations candy that he can order? (note gum & licorice = licorice & gum) good luck and see you Friday.

Tuesday January 10th: Math, Reading, Mini book and Skating

We began the day practicing problem solving math questions like the ones that will be on the FSA test that the students all across B.C. will be taking in a week or two. The FSA questions test not just the ability to do math but to apply it logically in an organized way. Partial marks are given for each question where the students show their thinking. There are sample test questions on line at http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/assessment/fsa/sample_responses.htm

Many students could do the math but had trouble understanding what the real question being asked was or how to approach it logically. An example of a multi step question is: The hamster makes his wheel turn once every 2 seconds. How many times will it turn in 5 minutes. A) 10 times B) 50 times C) 150 times D) 300 times. The students have to know how to find the number of seconds in 5 min before they can figure out the answer. They will then have to divide the number of seconds by 2. The students will be able to use calculators. (The answer is [60 x 5 divided by 2= 300] = [ 300 / 2 = 150]) Even though we tell the students to eliminate the obvious wrong answers and think about the question after that, many of the students gave up when they ran into a multi step problem. The actual test is quite long and I worry that many will stop trying long before they finish. Mr. D will be taking the students to the lab to practice taking sample tests.

After recess we worked on our new mini-book idea. A book based on homonyms. Words that sound the same but have different meanings. We used the book Dear Deer by Gene Barretta as a model. The students really enjoyed the humor in homonyms and homophones and quickly got to work on their book ideas. Many students dedicated their books to their mummy, or their ant. One student dedicated her book to her aunt doe. 'R' put that this book was not to be red on the cover.... Very funny and a great way to learn about language.

After lunch the students worked on their mini books or read for 20 more minutes before we headed off to skating.

Skating was an interesting activity that many of our students have never had to opportunity to try. I think it was a positive experience for everyone as no one whined or tried to get off the ice early. See you all tomorrow.

For Friday Test: A homonym is ......

Monday January 9th: Spelling, Music, Compare and Contrast

Notices:

Skating tomorrow: Bring a Helmet Please

We are leaving around 120 to make it to the arena and get our skates on by 1:45. Join us if you can.

We began the week with our weekly spelling words

List one: keep, need, beef, feel, seem, feet, peek, deer, weed, peel, leaf, meal, beam, mean, near, meat, team, year, seat, leap (ee and ea words)

List two: frail, maintain, Spain, quail, paint, brain, brake, shame, James, waste, trace, whale, crayon, Norway Friday, holiday, May, subway, spray, maybe (ai, a and ay words)

After spelling the students wrote a compare and contrast paragraph comparing themselves with anyone else in their family. This is a first attempt at this type of paragraph to see how they organize their thoughts. Some just made lists rather than knowing how to organize their ideas into sentences. This week we will work on writing lists of information into interesting sentences. I will re-introduce venn-diagrams to help the students organize their thoughts into likes and dislikes then extend them into sub topics to create sentences.

After recess the students went to music with Mrs. Awalt. They are beginning to learn how to play the recorder. Music was followed by more multiplication practice on the 6 x tables and filling out a partially completed times table chart. Most students have the idea that multiplication is just fast adding but some still don't know their simple times tables which are more memory and practice than math.

After lunch those students not in choir listened to and did a one page report on Carole King whose music is an essential part of America's pop consciousness. Music was followed by group work where the students were give half an hour to finish off their group work from Friday then presented their poster to the class. Some students read their projects, one group rapped theirs and one did a dance. We finished the day with a bonus gym period, while a few students worked on finishing their math times table sheets.

Great day everyone see you all tomorrow.

Friday: Test, reading, group work,

Notice:

Tuesday Skating: Skating forms returned please: Students must bring their helmets to skate. We do have a few helmets at school if needed but as three classes are going it will be tight .

We began the day with our weekly Spelling test. This week and for the rest of the year there will be test questions in Math, Socials or Science also on the test. This week there were 7 times table questions

6 X 7= _____ 7 X 8= _____ 6 X 9= _____ 8 X 5= _____ 8 X 9= _____ 2345 x 0 = ______ 2345 X 1 = ______

Three Socials questions from their one page report, the answers being, (Migration, Tuktu and Fall when they are finished summer feeding)

The tests were marked and recorded and sent home. There is a place to sign the test and return it to me so I can make sure you got the test and secondly you can see what the From now on I will try and post the test questions or information on the blog Wed or Thurs before the test.

After recess the students read for 20 minutes then they worked in groups to design a poster per person on a give topic. The topics were repitles, bridges, whales, the desert and eggs. Look at the pictures to see if you can figure out which group is best showing their topic. Group time is an important way to learn and develop social skills.

After lunch the students had buddies where we helped our little buddies with math. The students taught our buddies simple concepts, helped them fill out worksheets, and gave them stickers.

After buddies the students did more group work on their posters. As a group they had to look at all the posters they created this morning and choose aspects of each one to make their final group poster.

We ended the way with a rousing game of slimers island with Mr. D's grade 5 class..