This morning students wrote Spelling Pre-Test 24, then in Math did multiplication and division practice until recess. Students were given 2 pages of questions and about half finished in class. Unfinished work is assigned for homework, due tomorrow.

In Science, students finished our class Beaver Research Project (which is a larger model of what students will do for their own animal research project), and completed a Beaver Food Chain.

In Language Arts, we marked poetry work from last week and read several 2 speaker poems as a class (in 2 groups and with individual volunteers to read parts in front of the class). These poems play with language in fun, silly, and entertaining ways with rhythm, rhyme, and repetition. The class's favourite was "It's Time To Go To Bed: I Don't Want To Go To Bed." You can imagine how the poem goes!

After lunch was a Library book exchange, Silent Reading, and 20 minutes to finish work (title pages, Math so they didn't have homework, and Science) before Gym. 

Station 1: S. is a great skipper!





Station 2



Gym was shorter than normal by 15 minutes because of disrespectful behaviour but once we got to the gym quietly, students loved the 3 stations they rotated through (skipping ropes, basketball, and balance activities with beanbags on balance beams). 

Station 3: Can you walk forwards and backwards on the beam with beanbags on your head?



See you tomorrow!

Enjoy this sunny day!

Mrs. Schneider

Basketball

Handwriting, Math, and Insect Poems

Notice: Recognition Assembly tomorrow at 2 pm.

B.N., L.O., E.W., H.C. and M.T-B. are receiving awards. Please invite your parent to attend.

Our class is also playing the recorder at tomorrow's assembly.

Thank you to parents for donating these Spring Fair Gift Basket items. Let's fill the box!

On Tuesday mornings, the students' handwriting practice has evolved from practising letters and small words to handwriting their name and phrases. Today's phrase was from a poem we read later in the morning about an inchworm, "I inch, I arch, I march along." Students write the phrase 3x and their name 1x, followed by letter practise in their booklets until it is time for math (around 9:15).

In Math, students worked on unfinished homework from yesterday (please remember to finish unfinished work at home!), a new page showing the relationship between multiplication and division facts (see picture with the triangle), and some easy division questions.

After recess Ms. Koch came to help us with literature circles. She worked with 2 groups in the hallway (one group at a time), while I worked with the remaining students. Dividing the students into small groups and having another teacher for this time enables us to help more students one on one. Students love  the literacy games they play with her and (perhaps without them knowing) are learning and practising positive social skills. The groups change each week and students who don't spend time together are often put together during this time.



Figuring out the rhyme scheme in "The Inchworm"



By lunchtime, all students read, talked about, and completed activities on William Blake's "Tyger, Tyger," (yes, that is the way tiger was spelled in 1794), Valerie Worth's "dog" (yes, the title does not have a capital letter - a good lesson about the freedom of poetry and how it differs from short stories and novels), and 4 of Douglas Florian's poems from Insectlopedia, a collection of rhyming, rhythmic poems about insects.

We finished the morning by reading more from Love That Dog to find out what Jack (the speaker) thinks about the poems we studied this morning and his latest poetry assignment at school.

The morning flew by. Students were very engaged, interested, and excited about the material, which is contagious!

Mr. Wilson was at a meeting this afternoon and students had a TOC. They had Silent Reading, Music (recorder practise for tomorrow's assembly), and drama skits at the end of the day.

See you next Monday!

Mrs. Schneider

Multiplication, poetry, and Beaver research

This morning students wrote Spelling Pre-Test 23, followed by 45 minutes of multiplication practise. Since Spring Break, we've been spending a lot of time on 2 digit x digit multiplication (as well as harder questions) as students learn the procedure and their times tables. On Mondays and Tuesdays, we've had 45 min to 1 hour math blocks where the students have worked very diligently and quietly. Great job everyone. The majority of the class is now able to tackle these questions and today I gave out challenge questions that about 1/2 fo the class attempted (and got right!). Some were questions that had to be done in their heads, like7 x 7 x 100 =  (written horizontally), while other questions were 3 digit x 3 digit questions or 6 digit x 2 digit questions.
From recess until lunchtime we worked on poetry. Students wrote a cinquain poem (rough and final copy with a border and picture), then read, analysed, discussed, and wrote a response to Robert Frost's "Stopping in the Woods on a Snowy Evening." We reviewed rhyme scheme (the rhyming pattern of the lines) too. Before lunch, I read aloud from Love that Dog by Sharon Creech (a book made up of a series of poems written by a grade 4 boy named Jack who is not very happy about studying poetry at school) and we learned about how Jack (the speaker) responded to Frost's poem. Jack wrote about and commented on Frost's poem, along with some other hilarious things. Students quickly picked up on Jack's reference to William Blake's "Tyger, Tyger," which Mrs. Awalt and Mr. Wilson studied with our class earlier this month, and were able to recite the poem.
After lunch students had a Library book exchange, silent read, then finished their individual parts for our class Beaver Research project and other unfinished work. We finished the day with Gym.
See you tomorrow!
Mrs. S

Mr. W away... Substitue Teacher... Here are notes I left for Substitute.

Friday April 12th

After attendance

M.E. Morning exercise:  Assign “Winning the lottery”  one page report (the students work in their ME dou-tang )  [They know the drill …. picture border color…] give them each a handout on things people spend money on, talk each item over with them and have them check off which things they might spend money on.  Encourage  then put a border, title before they start writing…. Remind them about paragraphs and grouping similar ideas in a paragraph… new house, fix house, second house, cabin in the woods

After 15 minutes switch over to spelling test… they can go back to ME after spelling

Spelling test Three lists Green Yellow and Pink

Read words in that order.  Put the words on the overhead projector for the students to correct and hand in marked after test. (Lily knows how to turn get it working)

9:55 – 10:00 Have students get snack recess 10:05 – 10:30

10:30 until lunch 11:50  Socials: In the same groups that the students make their long house dioramas (on front board) Have them do a report on the Long (Big) house.  Those not finished diorama should also finish them… (S and J to work in class not in cloak room… you can monitor them… they did not get much done last Socials period… they can work at a table….show them this note to prove it is my idea.. ha ha) Clean up 11:40 – 11:45  (Long House hand outs  on desk)

Afternoon:

Reading for 10 15 min then we go to buddies… Line them up and take them up.. stay and watch or help out as needed… usually not needed…

Work Period….. catch up time to finish long house project or other work … 200 Clean up … pile chairs then go to Gym… you can introduce a game you know ... the kids are great... have fun

Virtues quiz, Disney World Book, computer lab, Music and Early Dismissal

Remember our Spring Fair Gift Basket collection box

Early Dismissal Today 145

We began the day talking about Virtues and how to think objectively about someone when thinking about the virtues.  We talked about the balance of saying what you think, without trying to flatter someone or not trying to insult someone, actually seeing them as they are.   The students then filled out a form on the virtues with a 10 scale rating form, then, continuing with our writing recipes, writing a recipe based on the virtues for person using the virtues form.

The 10 rating scale of virtues

Two students shared with the class today J. shared her picture book on the overhead page by page and told us stories and answered question and took responses.  T shared a string trick. 

J sharing with the class

J's Book of her vacation to Disney World

T shared his string trick with E as a volunteer

In math we continued to work on multiplication.  The students had:

10 questions on 10 x a two digit number (10 x 24)

10 questions on 11 x a two digit number (11 x 24)

10 questions on 12 x a two digit number (12 x 35)

10 questions on 20 x a two digit number (20 x 24)

Many of the students are excited as they are getting the algorithm, the steps of this level of multiplication.

E excited about multiplication

 After lunch we went to the computer lab and worked on a poster using Microsoft Word and a Wordle using he Wordle website.  The students then finished up the day in music practicing for the presentation and awards assembly next Wed.  Four students from our class will be receiving awards this time around as the assembly is for Odd divisions.  And yes, we are odd.  We then dismissed at 1:45 for student led conferences.

I am away tomorrow but will post the information I left for the substitute. 

Writing, Long Houses and Student led Conferences

Early dismissal 1:45

today and TOMORROW

for Student-led conferences

We began the day we looked a quiz titled "The 101 favorite things Quiz."  We looked at all the questions and tried to figure out how someone figures out and remembers their favorite things.  We then did a writing assignment on Favorite things. 

This was followed by Social studies where we talked about the Long (Big) houses of the coast.  Longhouses were built by native peoples in various parts of North America, sometimes reaching over 100 m  in length and 5 to 7 m (16 to 23 ft) wide. The students then worked in groups using popsicle sticks,  paper, recycled materials and imagination to create their dioramas.  They did an amazing job and we will put some of them up in the main hallway by the office for the whole school to see.

After lunch we prepared for the student led conferences.  The students organized their duo tangs, desks, art folders and work they are going to show you, their parents.  We dismissed at 1:45.  We look forward to seeing you all later today.  If you are unable to make it in please drop us a note or drop in anytime and see what your children are doing.

Take care, see you all tomorrow for more fun and strange happenings.  Note: remember that tomorrow is early dismissal at 1:45

What on earth are they doing?  Be sure and ask them.  I never totally figured it out aside from the laughing.

Multiplication, Red Wheelbarrow, and a Giant Beaver

Notices: Early Dismissal tomorrow at 1:45

Student-Led Conferences Tomorrow 2 - 5 pm (come with your child)

Food For Fun form for Friday April 19

In-Progress Class Research Project on Beavers

Students started the morning with handwriting practice (their name and a phrase), followed by multiplication in Math. We marked yesterday's homework and they were assigned more practice. Students chose between 2 digit x 2 digit questions or challenge questions with 3 digits x 2 digits.

On Monday, an Educational Assistant, Melissa, started working in our classroom. She will spend 45 minutes with our class daily, assisting students who need help staying on task and those who need extra help with a concept. She is already very much appreciated for assisting students during math yesterday and today, allowing her and I to help many more students one on one than I could have by myself.

After recess, Ms. Koch and I continued with our Tuesday literature circles.

She took 2 groups (one at a time) into the hall to play a literacy game while the remaining students read, discussed, and completed activities on William Carlos Williams' "Red Wheelbarrow" (1923) with me. By lunchtime, everyone completed the poetry activities with me. "Red Wheelbarrow" is short, easy to understand, and does not rhyme (contradicting some students' perception that all poetry must rhyme and all lines must start with a capital letter), and also sparked discussion about what "so much depends on" could mean. Students wrote their own poem based on the format of "Red Wheelbarrow," with amazing, articulate, and thought-provoking results.

When all students were back from working with Ms. Koch, I introduced one of my favourite books called Love That Dog by Sharon Creech.

This brilliant book is about a boy in grade 4 who is scared of poetry and worried about the poems his teacher asks them to read. The entire book is written in a series of funny poems where Jack, the speaker, learns about poetry and responds to the poems he reads in class, like "Red Wheelbarrow." Many classical and iconic poems from various literary time periods are referred to. We will explore the poems Jack alludes to and talks about, learning about them when Jack does :-)

Mr. Wilson was away this afternoon and I taught the class after lunch too. They had Silent Reading, Music, and Science, where every student worked on a part of our class research project on Beavers. They will finish it next week when I teach them again. This class collaboration requires teamwork and also serves as a model for the research project they will do later on.



Hope to see you at Student-Led Conferences tomorrow from 2 - 5 pm. Please come at anytime and bring your child with you.

  

Mrs. Schneider