Superheros ???

Our class has entered the SciFi Channel hit "Who Wants to be a Superhero" contest.  This reality show is auditioning across Canada and pits eccentric, homemade superheroes against one another to see who catches comic industry legend Stan Lee's eye.  Let's hope some of our students get chosen.

Busy days

Beach Day notice... volunteers needed not permission..

Wednesday and Thursday.... We have been working on many year end, writing and drawing assignments.  Some associated with having work finished for report card time and some for Father's day, so, I have been avoiding posting all we have been doing.

However, here are some things of note: A and B were honored at the awards assembly.  Also many members of the class were involved in the set up and planning for the assembly.  Especially E and E who acted as master of ceremonies, helped dress and help the buddy class get ready for their song and community helpers fashion show at the assembly.   So at the assembly our class, performed the drumming welcome, helped with the main presentation,  performed a puppet show and got awards.

Our drumming group

E and E guide the community helper fashion show

E and E guide the community helper fashion show

The puppet show

J and L run the puppet show

A and B get an award

As well because I am helping the whole school produce something for father's day I took Mr. D's class, as they and the kinders, are the only ones in the school who do not get computers from me, to do a computer project.  Mr. D took my class and did a cartooning project based on creating characters with tracings.  The class really enjoyed working with Mr. D.

 There is no regular weekly spelling test tomorrow.    See you all tomorrow.

How Many Ways and Story Writing

We had a fantastic morning :-)

After Handwriting, students completed a "How Many Ways" Math activity that we did often in term 1 and 2. Students chose #43, 72, or 137 and made as many math questions as they could that equaled one of those numbers. They could work with a partner.

Their challenge was to use +, -, x, and divided by in each question. For example, (10x5) divided by 1 + 25 - 3 = 72. About 75% of the class was able to write questions like these. The students who found this difficult were allowed to use each operation (x, -, +, etc) seperately, like 30+10+3=43.

Some students presented their animal research projects to the class before and after recess, and took their project home. The rest of the students will present next week.

After presentations, they had time to work on creative writing. The majority of the students are really into their stories, super focused, and excited to share what they've written so far.

I can't get this pic to resize smaller. Sorry!

Keep up the hard work. Report cards come out in a few weeks!



Concrete Poetry (in an animal shape) and Art Inspired by Andy Warhol

 Mrs. Schneider

The Science On My Cereal Box

Addition, Graphing, and Probability Dice Game

No spelling today because we are finished the spelling units. The students cheered :-)
We started the day with a partner dice game that teaches probability, quick adding, and graphing.

They loved the game and recorded their answers on a graph using colour. Then they completed a 2 page worksheet on probability (Is it certain, likely, unlikely, or impossible? Why?). We marked the pages together before recess time.



After recess everyone started a story writing project. Everyone enthusiastically completed a planning page and started writing today. Several decided to write a sequel to the last long creative story they wrote with me. Some students worked in partners or groups of 3 to bounce ideas of off each other and help with the creative process.

Math game

After lunch was Silent Reading, then groups of students rotated through stations to learn about the Science on My Cereal Box. Throughout the stations, there were 15 intact but empty cereal boxes for students to use and get information from. At one station, they found out how many teaspoons of sugar are in 1 cup of Frosted Flakes and measured the 16 g (4 tsp) into a measuring cup. The visual shows how much sugar 4 tsp actually is in a serving size of 1 cup. Some students were surprised and a little disappointed because they said Frosted Flakes is their favourite kind of cereal (although I don't know how often they are allowed to eat it at home).

Students also learned about whole grains, the % of your daily intake of vitamins and minerals in several brands, and how to read an ingredients list.

From a nutritional standpoint, we did not mention or look at calories. Instead, we discussed whole grains and low sugar content as healthy choices.

We ended by talking about how healthy choices help our bodies. Students shared their personal knowledge and insights. J. is diabetic and shared his knowledge. Thank you J! Also, T. insightfully and wisely commented on a game on the back of one of the boxes that told kids to flick a flake of cereal at the goal on the back of the box. T. said that parents wouldn't be happy about cereal being flicked everywhere. This could lead to a whole other discussion about advertising, which we only briefly talked about.
Students also had fun reading the Science facts, games, and advertising on the boxes!
We finished the day with Gym outside.
My archaic point and shoot digital camera that I use at work has packed it in (I've dropped it too many times!) so I wasn't able to take pictures of the Science stations this afternoon :-( I have another I can bring for tomorrow.
Mrs. Schneider

Last regular spelling test, + and - math review, Debate, Writing and P.E.

We began the day with our regular weekly spelling test.  This is the last of our regular spelling tests as we have reached the end of our Spelling Unit.  Next week we will administer the Schonell spelling test to find out the actual spelling age/grade of each of the students.  The students do not  study for this test.  For all those students who study week to week we will probably see an increase in their spelling age/grade since the beginning of the year. 



After spelling the students worked on two pages of addition and two pages of subtraction.  The addition questions involved carrying numbers forward and the subtraction questions involved borrowing. 

After recess until lunch we had our debate.  The students were divided into 4 groups.  Two of the teams debated soccer vs hockey, and the other two teams debated hot dogs or hamburgers.  Soccer won out over hockey and hamburgers over hot dogs.    We then had the two winning teams pick one member from each team to have a final debate to see which team was the final champion.  L vs J on Winnie the Pooh or Tigger....  L won for the soccer team and Winnie the Pooh.  Well done everyone.

After lunch the students read for 10 minutes then they worked on their mini books.  We usually go to buddies but, as we are going to help them with a presentation for next Wed assembly skipped it this week.   We then went to the gym and played against Mr. Dessico's class.  It was a rocking good time.  See you all next week.

M.E. fd project, debate, computers, music and class photos

Notices:  

The Wed Express, 

The free class picture 

and 

The awardS for those students in the bike rodeo 

were put into the student mail boxes today.

We began the day working on our father’s day writing project.  Then, because of popular demand, the students wanted to have a debate, like we used to do weekly on Thursday.  The students submitted debate topics into a jar and we then went through the topics trying to narrow it down to two. The suggested debate topics were: lemonade or chocolate milk, fruit flies or normal flies, s'mores or plain marshmallows, ice-cream or popsicles, hello or hi, hot dogs or hamburgers, peanut butter and jam or peanut butter and honey, blue or red, hunt or buy food, soccer or hockey, waffle or French toast and finally, Winnie or Tigger.

WHO HAS FINISHED WHAT

The final four were: soccer vs. hockey, fathers vs. mothers,  hot dogs or hamburgers and Winnie or Tigger.  The final two were; soccer vs. hockey and hot dogs or hamburgers.  The students were broken down into four groups and assigned a debate topic.  The students then worked individually to think of the positive things about their topic and the negative things about their opposite.  We then went to the computer lab and library where the students did more research and transferred their individual notes onto a larger group poster.  The students also had time to research on the computer,  facts and information to support their topic.

After lunch we returned to the computer lab, where students either continued to work on their research, or worked on 'little alchemy,' a program where the students have thing creatively to mix elements to create other elements.

SIGNING THE CLASS PICTURES

This was followed by music then a cleanup period while the students got other students to sign their class photo.  That just gave us enough time to walk to the gym before the bell went.  See you all tomorrow for the last regular spelling test of the year.  There will be one large spelling test, but after that you can look forward to more advanced spelling in grade 5.  See you all tomorrow... .Mr. W

Handwriting in Pen, Pacific Garbage Patch, and Concrete Poetry

Notice:  Please remember to bring back all Library books. This was the last week to sign out books so that the Librarian can do inventory.

Handwriting Practise

Yesterday and today, the students worked on Handwriting (the students who have finished their practise booklets were given a pen and can write with it during Handwriting) and Math (division practise yesterday, and marking,correcting, and more practise today).

Yesterday the students also completed a Science lesson on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

If you are unfamiliar, there are 2 large collections of garbage (mostly plastic) floating in the Pacific Ocean that collectively are double the size of Texas and are held there by ocean currents. The plastic does not biodegegrade and only breaks down into smaller pieces, which sea life think is food. We watched 2 short videos about the situation and talked about possible solutions to this problem. The students then wrote and drew pictures of what we as individuals can do to protect our world, and make it a safer place for us and animals to live. Their responses were knowledgable, thoughtful, and expressed concern for our environment.
Yesterday I introduced the class to concrete poetry and we continued with the lesson today.  Today we read several samples of concrete poems (the words of the poem make the shape of what it is talking about) and then the students wrote one of their own on an animal of their choice, tying into our Science unit.



Concrete poem from Love that Dog by Sharon Creech



I have marked the students' Animal Research Projects, and students can take home their marks and projects next week.
See you on Monday!
Mrs. Schneider