Remembrance day Assembly and friday test stuff

We began the afternoon with reading and watching the rest of the slideshows we did not have time to watch as the assembly went overtime.   This was followed by music then a short video on bullying.  Below see some of the students artwork and ideas about Remembrance day that made the official all school showing at the assembly.  The students ideas are thoughtful and beautiful and added a lot of positive energy to the assembly.  Those students whose art made the all school slide show were allowed to choose a friend and both were given 15 minutes of free time in the computer lab as a reward.   Great day everyone.  Study for the test tomorrow.  The test questions are at the bottom.  See you all tomorrow.  Mr W

Questions for Friday's test:
Library: Name 3 things that you can find in a non-fiction book.
(Answers: index, glossary, table of contents or any mention of facts or information about real life).

Language Arts: In the Survivor book Mrs. S. is reading to you, describe something that Chapter 1 made you think about, reminded you of, or is similar to something you have experienced.
(Hint: Chapter 1 was about the 4 kids waking up on the island, trying to open a coconut, and finding durian fruit to eat).

Language arts Essay: Choose one of the following A) Tell about Tommy Prince B) Tell the importance of Remembrance day and the poppy or C) Retell the Fable of the Boy that cried wolf.

Math:  Subtraction with borrowing

Addition, Poppies, more Poppies, Choir and Tommy Prince

Calvin doing a subtraction question

Notices: 

Chocolate sales fundraiser.

Students with uniforms please wear them for the Color watch tomorrow at the Assembly.

The assembly is after recess at 10:45 ish

(Parents are welcome to come, the choir is singing and we feature lots of our student's art.)

 We began the day with a math subtraction race.  the students were given a double sided sheet, 100 questions.  Half of the sheet was subtraction and the last half were subtraction with borrowing.  The race was  to focus the task, however, as Mrs. Schneider has been noting, the students were quick to focus on their own.  Of course our best students took the race more seriously than others.  One student only had one shoe on when I said 'go' to begin the math race, the shoe did not get put on until side one was finished.  One student, upon boasting about being ahead of everyone, had her paper moved to the back when she was not looking, it started a foot race to get the paper back to her desk.  Part of my educational philosophy is that the students are there to entertain me.  They are so serious and so great and they do entertain me. 

Missing a shoe

rounding the second corner

Rushing to finish

Students then wanted to do show and tell.  K showed the cool recorder she bought with her birthday money.  She spent the rest of the day, including recess, trying to learn songs.  Mrs. Awalt is inspiring the musicians in the class.  Two other students also wanted to share.

E wanted to show a cartoon character he has created.  Box man.  With all the usual box talents.

 S showed a small hand drum that her father got.  thanks S

After Math we talked about the importance of the poppy as a symbol of sacrifice.  The students made a poppy border then wrote what they knew about the importance of the poppy.  Tomorrow they will learn more about Remembrance Day itself. 

After recess we made poppies for the Remembrance day wreath.  Each class makes a wreath for the Assembly and it is presented by two students and displayed at the assembly.   I usually choose the  two students from the Color guard.

Our amazingly creative wreath with poppies and doves.

 At about 11:10 we finished the wreath and went to the computer lab to do our bit to get into the Art presentation which will be shown at the Assembly.  The students were to draw a picture to commemorate Remembrance day and write a statement about peace, war, poppies, soldiers or whatever moved them.   The students art and words move everyone deeply at the assembly, so come along and add your energy to the event.

After lunch the students went to choir.  Those students not in choir listened to and did a one page report on Bob Marley.  We listened to his songs of peace as the students drew and wrote about him.

Following Choir we studied the war hero Tommy Prince who spent his childhood growing up on a First Nations reserve north of Winnipeg.  During the second World war he joined the army, along with many other Aboriginal peoples and won a total of 10 medals for bravery. 

Great day everyone.  See you all tomorrow.  Mrs. Schneider is in for me in the morning as I have to decorate the gym for the special Assembly.

Monet and Weather Presentations

Math game

Mr. Wilson was away this afternoon and I taught the students for the whole day. Everyone worked quietly and used class time efficiently today. Awesome job everyone J Let’s keep it up.

Math game

Note taking in their own words

This morning students practiced handwriting, applied the spelling rule for countable objects ending in y (change y to i and add es if there is a consonant before the y), practiced adding in math, and started a Language Arts/Art unit on the artist Claude Monet. We started by reading information about Monet, highlighting important information, and learning one method of note-taking. Next week students will use those notes to write a summary of the article in their own words.

Before lunch we had time for 2 weather presentations, complete with weatherperson costumes and background pictures.

After lunch and an indoor recess, students had silent reading, went to Music, and presented their extreme weather report in Science. Several students were a bit nervous to present in front of the class but everyone did a great job, spoke clearly, and some had fun with it too. The costumes were great! The last 5 students can present on the next day I'm teaching them.

 

 

Reminders:

Remembrance Day Assembly on Thursday, 10:45 am. If students belong to Scouts, Girl Guides, or another organization where they wear a uniform, students are encouraged to wear them for the assembly.

Scholastic Book Orders are due tomorrow.

Mrs. S

Addition, Korman’s Survivor, and Basketball

Hard at work during Math this morning

We had a busy day! There were lots of yawns this morning, despite gaining an hour this weekend, but the class was focused and got a lot of work done. They’ve come a long way since September. Students should be proud of themselves for getting to work right away, finishing work in class, and needing less reminders to stay on task. This is what grade 4 should look like J

This morning students wrote Spelling Pre-Test 8, started a unit on addition (building on what Mr. W has done with them), and started a novel study on Gordon Korman’s Survivor. I read the first book in the series aloud to the class for pleasure while they finished work or drew but with this 2^nd book, they will learn about characters, plot, setting, and theme and do activities on these elements. Today students wrote a summary of the first chapter and made connections to their own life, relating the events in the chapter to something they have seen, done, or know about.

Before lunch students read a short story and answered comprehension questions. Some students finished their math after this time and a few students who were finished everything played math games (dominoes, dice games, cards, puzzles, brain teasers, etc).

After lunch was Library for a book exchange, then Science. Students planned and practiced their weather presentation, which will be presented tomorrow. Each student is a weather person, giving us a weather forecast and update on an extreme weather system moving into the area. Hurricane Sandy’s landfall last week is a perfect example, and we’ve watched some of the weather updates and news broadcasts of this event.

We finished the day with Basketball in the gym. Students practiced dribbling in patterns and following lines, practiced ball handling tricks (figure 8s and other ball control moves), did some team dribbling relays, and ended with free play. I taught the students the game Bump because some didn’t know how to play. Others chose to shoot hoops, play 4 square, practiced ball handling tricks, or made up games.

Reminders:

Please return signed October Home Reading forms. Our class is at 248 nights of home reading so far.

A Tillicum School fundraiser (selling chocolates) went home today. Please look at the forms and do your best to sell some.

Mrs. S

Tests, Fables, Buddies and Gym

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

 Notice:

the new daily reading calendar went home

Thank you those who graphed their Halloween Candy haul, Mrs. Schneider will be very happy to see a practical use for the graphing she is teaching.

We began our Friday with Calvin and Hobbes.  Today it was stupendous man turning back time.  I thought it was fitting as we are learning about time.  I have also included yesterday's Calvin and Hobbes, as the students requested that I post them,  for the students to share them with the parents.  We then did some Smarties math using Halloween candy to make predictions and learn probability.  After that we began our weekly Friday test.  After recess some students needed more time on the test so I gave an extra 10 minutes.

Fable of the boy who cried wolf

We then continued with our poem Aesop's Fable poems.  This weeks story is the boy who cried wolf.  Many of the students were familiar with the story but it is a good one so worth retelling.  We than watched three versions of the story on the Internet.  One that followed the original story line but gave the moral as "don't lie."  The second was the Muppet version where Gonzo, the shepherd, over reacts to things the sheep keep saying .... it is quite funny and has a Muppet twist or two...  We than watched a parody of the story made from Lego characters called the boy who called dragon.

The bankers had a busy day paying of the students

From there we opened the bank, had our payday and desk pay. The students then had reading time or catch up work time in the 20 minutes prior to lunch. 

Desk Clean

After lunch we read for 15 minutes then headed off to Buddies.  Today in buddies the students worked on making equations using pictures of pumpkins and cats.  Very cool and fun too. After Buddies we worked on regrouping in subtraction before cleaning up and heading off to gym.

Have a great weekend everyone and we will see you on Monday

Book Talk – November

I’ve noticed several students reading this book during silent reading and thought the rest of the class would like to know about this book too. So, this month’s book recommendation is First Encyclopedia: Bugs. We also have Sea, Cats, and Dogs in this series in the classroom.

Recommended Book for November:

First Encyclopedia: Bugs

This information book features different kinds of arachnids, myriapods, and insects. The large National Geographic quality photographs, easy to read layout, and short paragraphs on the bug’s parts and what they are for makes this book attractive to look at and fun to read.

The book begins by answering, “What is a bug?” and tells us how arachnids, myriapods, and insects are different. Each pagecontains information on interesting and unusual bugs, like “[a]n assassin bug [that] lies in wait before attacking its prey and injecting it with poisonous saliva” and dung beetles that “use animal droppings, which they roll into a ball using their strong legs.” More delicate and less grotesque bugs are also shown, like monarch butterflies and dragonflies.

The book also has a table of contents, a glossary, and an index, and is written at a grade 4 level.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

If you liked Bugs, check out Sea, Dogs, and Cats, which we also have in the classroom.

Mrs. S

Writing and Candy tired students

We began the day with a simple writing assignment on a vignette from Halloween 2012.  I had other writing ideas but the students were so excited to talk about their Halloween that I went with it.  I guess if we have Black and Orange day I can let them have a free writing assignment on the Biggest day of the year for Kids. I had them write about the best moment of their Halloween 2012.  Over time they will forget the whole day but will remember a single great moment.  One of the students wrote about watching her baby brother on his first Halloween as being her best moment.   I was not surprised to find this depth of insight, in their ideas, as they are a very thoughtful group.

After writing we practiced subtraction with borrowing.  The main concept that the students need to start is with place value to understand that borrowing carries a 10.  We will continue the concept tomorrow with more practice, as it takes practice once a concept in understood.  On tomorrow's test there will be subtraction questions involving borrowing.  There will be two different levels of questions easy for those just starting to get it and harder for those students who already have a good handle on the concept.  The students will get to choose which 5 they do.

The students were quiet but unfocused today, probably because they were out late and up late and let down after the excitement of Halloween. So I let the students pay for a movie. We watched the movie Mulan.  A movie about a girl who goes to war disguised as a man to save her father. The students are going to answer the question "Should women go to war?" as our debate topic next week in preparation for Remembrance day.

In the afternoon we finished off the movie in time to go to music where the students are preparing songs for the Remembrance day Ceremony next Thursday the 8th.  We are having it early as the 11th is a Sunday.  Those students with uniforms such as brownies or scouts be sure and wear your uniforms so you can be part of the color party.   We ended the day with a games in the Gym.

See you all tomorrow, well rested and focused.  The Test will be Spelling with some subtraction and Time, there will be no Socials and No Science this week, however, I will ask you to retell the story of the Tortoise and the Hare.