March Book Recommendation

Chester

by Melanie Watt



Chester by Melanie Watt is a hilarious picture book about an overconfident cat named Chester that keeps interrupting the author (Watts) as she writes a story about a mouse in a house. Chester keeps rewriting parts of the story, crossing out the author’s words that are in black ink and telling a new tale about himself in red ink. He pokes his head into the illustrations too and changes the direction of the story.

The audience can read both Chester and Watt’s conversations and arguments. Read this unique story to find out who actually decides on the story’s plot: the actual author or Chester the cat!

I rate this funny and entertaining book 5 stars out of 5.

We have Chester and Scaredy Squirrel books, which are also written by Melanie Watts, in our classroom and in our school’s library.

Mrs. S

Care puffs, being a Bug Buster, Computers and P.E.

We continued with our anti-bully day activities with the students having to write a story about a bully that stopped being a bully.  The students had to write their story about how a "Mean Muff",  hair ball, or dust bunny became a 'Care Puff'.  'E' thought of the name for the little characters we are going to be building to write about.  Next week we will use these 'Care Puffs' in a variety of ways to encourage  anti-bully acts of kindness and caring.

We then had a visit from two Nursing students who talked to the class about the importance of body and oral hygiene.  They then shared the facts and the fiction about lice.  The students then were given floss, to be taken home, as a prize and a reward.  As well there is a handout given to take home called " Remember Be A Bug Buster."  The students had lots of questions and it was very productive and informative... Be Bug Busters

After the nurses left the students built 'Care Puffs.'   A big THANKS  to the preparation and planning  done by 'B' (drawing the templates on cardboard and cutting out a few for those without good scissors.  Even with a great demonstration by 'B' the process was anything but simple, however, in the end everyone managed to make at least one 'Care Puff.' of their own.

After lunch we went to computers to work on a self chosen project which we will complete next week.  This was followed by music where the students played games to learn how to read music and played the recorder.

After Music we did a clean up and headed off to the gym to play against Mrs. Carlton's grade 3 class.   Great Care Puff day everyone... mr w

Tomorrow's test is spelling and filling in a blank times table chart.... from 1 x 1...... 10 x 10

Pink anti-bully day, math times tables and Friendship sandwiched.

We started the day with multiplication.  Talking about the strategies and having a boys against girls challenge, which the boys eventually won.

This was followed by Calvin and Hobbes... with Moe the bully... kind of stereotypical but opened the door for discussion.

We read the book:  "The sandwich swap".  A story that starts with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and ends with a humus pita.  It is a story about how two best friends from different cultures secretly think each others sandwich is yucky... It is a story of intolerance that becomes tolerance and illustrates an aspect of bullying.

Two friendship sandwiches

After recess the students made a friendship sandwich out of Popsicle sticks paper and string.  This is a continuation of the recipes for the 'perfect day' etc  the students have been doing the last two weeks.  This time the students had to list those things that would go into a friendship sandwich using alliteration.  The loving lettuce, the helpfulness of ham.  the playfulness of pickles... the trust of tomatoes... etc.   The students talked about the positive virtues while they tried to think of things to put into the sandwich.  Unlike a recipe where you have to add the amounts, with the sandwich the students simply had to list the ingredients. 



After lunch the students in choir (most of the class) had a shortened choir period and the non-choir kids read.  At 1:15 we went off to skating.  Most of the students enjoyed the experience of skating and some who have never skated only a few times may have developed a healthy like for a recreational activity.  I was working on report cards so did not get this post up yesterday.  I will add the pictures to go with this blog entry tonight.   Well done everyone who tried or did their best. 
mr W.

Math Bingo, Art, and Sip Smart presentation

Notice:

Skating tomorrow. Please bring your helmet and skating gear.

Pink Shirt Day tomorrow. Stand up to Bullying.

What do Water, Orange Juice, Apple Juice, Energy Drinks, Diet Coke, and Coke do to your teeth?

This morning we played Multiplication Bingo again. Students filled out blank cards with x5, x8, and x10 questions and answers before we played. A. volunteered to be Mrs. S's recorder, writting all the questions and answers on the board as they were called out. Thank you A! She got more math practice than anyone else today because she wrote over 50 questions with their answers on the board while we played.

Multiplication Bingo winner

Multiplication Bingo winner

Students worked on their Winslow Homer-inspired art (transforming his oil and watercolour paintings into a continuous line drawings) before recess.


Winslow Homer-inspired Art



Sip Smart 3 Week Experiment

After recess we had our 2nd Sip Smart presentation by Camosun Nursing Students. Their interactive, informative, and fun presentation included movement breaks that kept everyone's attention. We found out what teeth look like after sitting in Coke, Diet Coke, Apple Juice, Orange Juice, Water, and Energy Drinks for 3 weeks ... and how these drinks affect our teeth and bodies. Everyone learned about sugar, caffeine, and healthy choices, and some students went home with prizes for answering questions correctly at the end of their presentation.



Movement Break during Presentation



Desk Tidy





We had 30 minutes before lunch to finish art, do a thorough desk tidy, and the students who were finished had a few minutes of free time before lunch. Some students played with playdoh, drew, made things out of paper and recyclable materials, or read.

See you next week!

Mr. W is teaching the class this afternoon.

Mrs. S

Multiplication Bingo and artist Winslow Homer

Notices:

The Sip Smart presenters (Camosun Nursing students) come back tomorrow. We will look at our 3 week science experiment and find out what happened to the "teeth" (dried meat bones) that are sitting in pop, juice, water, and energy drinks since their last visit. 

 Skating on Wednesday (1:30-2:30). Please bring your helmet and skating gear.

 

Wednesday is Pink Shirt Day: Stand up to bullying. Wear pink!

Bingo winner # 1

Today we had a smaller class with several students away sick. Get well soon!

After our Monday Spelling Pre-Test, students filled out their own Bingo cards with any x1, x3, and x9 questions (with the answers) that they wanted. After their cards were filled out, we played until we had 3 winners. The game was a hit and we'll play again soon. I also wrote these timestables on the board for those who need some help with them.

Bingo Winner #2

After recess we started our artist of the month study on Winslow Homer. We read a summary about his life, looked at several of his oil and watercolour paintings, and learned how he made his paintings.
When the reading group went to see Ms. Smith, the remaining students listened to a chapter from Spiderwick Chronicles and completed a visualization drawing and description of what they imagined was happening in the story.
During the last 20 min of the morning, students worked on their Artist of the Month title page, finished Handwriting Bug Art from last week, worked on weather pictures, or worked in their Wonderful Word booklets.


S. hard at work on his Homer-inspired art.



M. working on her Homer-inspired art.

After lunch was a Library book exchange, Silent Reading, the start of their Winslow Homer-inspired art (a continuous line drawing that they will add colour to tomorrow), and Benchball during Gym.

An in-progress title page.

Awesome work today :-)
See you tomorrow,
Mrs. S 




Guess who was in the Times Colonist?

Congratulations S. for having your weather picture published in the Times Colonist this week!

I'll bring a copy to school on Monday to give to you.

Mrs. S

Friday tests, finishing work, buddies and P.E.

Notice:

Skating next Wednesday, Bring Helmet and proper gear

A is working with the students to each them double digit multiplication.

A helping the individual students.  S always knows when
the picture is being taken

'A' has been wanting to teach her fellow students two digit by two digit multiplication.  She started today with a group of three students to see how they would do.  Thanks 'A' for being such a great, caring and helpful Tillicum  citizen. 

We had our regular Friday Test which today included Spelling and what they learned about and from our Lock Down Drill yesterday.  The test was marked, the results recorded and the tests handed back into the students mail boxes.

E taking the spelling test

B is putting the marked tests into the mail boxes

The students then worked on completing work on their Fable Film Formulators, with those students who were finished presenting their film to the rest of the class.   Each of the finished groups wanted to present their creation to the younger students in the school.  So we will set that up next week.

A group  finished Fable Film Formulator

Another group finished their Fable Film Formulator

M is running the bank  for payday

After lunch the students wen to buddies and made Chinese inspired lanterns and read with their buddies.   After buddies we read, cleaned up then headed off to the Gym with the other grade 4 class in the school.  It was great and most people were tired out from the running, the chasing, the screaming, the dodging, the dipping, the ducking and the dodging.

Great week everyone and a special thanks to Mr. Stokes for introducing the Fable Fabricators... they were a great hit.   Mr. S will be back in April for five weeks.  See you all next week.

Sudoku Strategies, Lock Down Drills, Fable Films, Computers, Music and P.E.

 Notice:  

Lock down drill notices and followup notices were handed out yesterday and today.

We began the day with a Calvin and Hobbes where the father is out camping and fishing in the rain.  He is loving it as a bad day fishing is better than a great day at the office.  Calvin hates it.  Yesterday we talked about a recipe for the perfect day.  As you can see the best day for one person might be the worst for another.  Great opportunity to chat.

Mr Stokes gave them some Sudoku samples that all needed the same strategy to solve them.  The students seem to grasp the basic idea on how to approach doing these math like puzzles.

Lock down Drill

At 9:30 we had our first lock down drill with the students.  Please see notices about them in your child's backpack, if they have cleaned out their mailboxes.  The students are all familiar with fire and earthquake drills but not Lock down drills.  In fact it is the first Lock down drill that I have ever taken part in.   So we talked about the expectations, the  process, and prepared to get away from windows and to sit on the floor hidden with a book or other silent activity to pass the 10 - 15 min quiet drill.  Real lock down drills can last up to 2 hours so you have to be be prepared to get past the boredom and maintain silence.  The class were great with a few infractions that helped us learn what type of things are noisy and what kinds of things are silent and about choosing where and who to sit with.  A great learning activity for us all. 


After recess the students continued making their fable film and film formulator.  The students were engrossed and focused.  They worked hard until lunch, with the odd break for more in our Chief contest.

After lunch we went to the computer lab where the students took a picture of their choice and found words of their choice and made a work of art out the the picture and the text.  The students enjoyed the activity a lot and did a fine job on the produce.  I will incorporate this activity in our next project.

E picked a great picture of Abraham Lincoln to do his Computer one page report.

After computers the students went off to Music with Mrs. Awalt and continued with their recorder and music games.    This was followed by a clean up and a rousing game of ball in the gym with Mrs. Carlton's class.

Great Job everyone.

Friday's test will be spelling and to write about what they learned about lock down drills from our class drill.