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..

Wednesday Afternoon: Computers, Music and Finishing everything.

Notices:
Skating Jan 10 Feb 3 Permission form to go home tomorrow.
Please sign and send them back

After computers Mrs. Awalt took the students to music class and as we only had about 20 minutes of actual computer time prior to music, after music we went back to the computer lab to finish their work. (I taught them how to spell check in power point, to make and insert a text box and how to use page design and color to emphasize their ideas or concepts. After next week I will introduce other programs such as spread sheets and idea mapping tools in our computer time.

We started the afternoon reading for 15 minutes foll0wed by a computer period where the students worked to wrap up all their unfinished projects. We put the emphasis on them making sure to finish their Explorers Power Point project first.



Great day everyone see you Friday.

Welcome Back: Spelling, Resolutions, Library, PE and Migration

Welcome back everyone... It is so nice to see you all again.

We began our day, and the new year with our unit 11 spelling words.

cube, huge, mule, use, hue, rude, cute, fume, tube, glue, mute, cure, dew, few, new, drew, flew, stew, yew, crew. (ue and ew words)

owl, brown, flower, frown, gown, cow, growl, towel, town, tower, clown, vowel prowl, how, howl, ouch, round, mouth, trout, noun, loud, shout, grouch, cloud, down (ow and ou words)

We then talked about New Years Resolutions and the students had to come up with six resolutions for school. They then had to pick one of the resolutions to try and accomplish it. The students worked at coloring a New Years page and wrote out their resolutions.

After recess we had a library and reading period to get the students a new book to read during silent reading (dear: Drop Everything And Read)

After reading until lunch we did a math multiplication programs with the 6 and 7 times tables.

After lunch we had PE and were joined by Mrs. Favell's grade 2 class for 20 min of a roaring game of Slimers Island. We played boys against girls so that we could mix the grade 4's and 2's in a fair way. It was a lot of fun and the grade 2's were exhausted trying to keep up with our grade 4's. Our grade 4's learned to dodge around the grade 2's without running them down.

Caribou camucks from when I lived in the NWT and worked with the Inuit.

From Gym we talked about Tuktu (the Caribou) I showed them Inuit clothing made from the skin of the caribou and we talked about hunting methods and how the Migration of the Caribou affected the life style of the Inuit. I miss the smart board for finding pictures so we had to depend on the pictures from the text book. The students were assigned a one page report on the Tuktu focusing on migration. The one page report has to have a picture, information, a title and be colored. Many students managed to finish so they do not have to take it home for homework for the rest it is due on Friday.