Today was a day packed full of science! As we study plants and learn about all the things necessary for them to survive, we have also been curious about the inner workings of plants. Learning new science vocabulary words like photosynthesis, chlorophyll, capillaries, etc. Conducting a science experiment to learn how quickly capillaries carry water through different types of plants required us to use food colouring, celery (thick stem) and flowers (thin stem) and observations over several days.
Our music specialist is being a choir club. If your child was interested a form was sent home in their backpack with further information. Being the leaders of our school meant we assumed the responsibility of collecting the recycling for the entire school every Thursday! We will be pairing with some our grade 2 buddies in Mrs. McDougall's class to do some teaching about how our recycling program will work this year. We continue to look at number patterns in math and utilizing counting on strategies for adding and subtracting. Short daily practice at home will also help with recollection at school. In the gym, Miss N taught us a game called Mr. Mars where students had to run across the gym without being tagged. Students called by colour or by an item they were wearing. Lastly, we wrote acrostic poems that required us to used a variety of descriptive words to tell about ourselves.
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One of our students turned 9 today. We will celebrate by singing Happy Birthday and providing each child with a birthday pencil and Smarties. Since there are nut allergies in our classroom we are asking that you don't send treats to share at school at this point in time.
Students shared their circle stories after writing with small groups of 2, 3 or 4. This was opportunity to share thoughts and ideas. When working on a piece of writing it is important to go back and re-read what has been written to ensure that our stories make sense. This is a key component in the self-editing process. We have also been focusing on where to use capital letters in our writing so that our writing is clear for our readers. In math, we reviewed a lesson about counting on. This is useful to find the difference between two numbers. Practice counting on with your child. Give them two numbers and have them find the difference using this strategy. One of our students introduced us to the game "Fruit Bowl" in physical education. It was a blast! Now that we have done lots of research about plants we will begin an experiment to see how plants grow and work. We will also use all the amazing information to write a paragraph or two about plants. Important: Meet the Teacher night is tomorrow (Thursday, September 15) from 3:30 - 5:30. ![]() Today we learned two more new games in the gym. One of them was called Rock, Paper, Scissors. In this game there are two teams. Each has to work together to decide if they will be rock, paper or scissors. Then everyone comes to the middle of the gym and if another team beats your choice you need to run back to your starting point. In writing, learned about Circle Stories. We discussed all the different ways that stories can be told. Stories can be explored verbally, using pictures, and with writing. We are working with our table groups to create a circle story where each person takes a turn to add a word/piece of the story. Math was a challenge! Students had to work with a partner to play the game "Race to 100". We used mental math to add numbers to 100, recognizing if we had ten ones, we could trade them for a ten stick, or if we had 10 tens sticks then we could trade them for 100. Some friends were able to go as high as 400 or 500. Ask me more about this game. Today we had important discussions about the things that we like and dislike about reading. Discuss them with your child and set a goal for reading at home. I encourage you to read every single day! Bill Nye taught us some interesting facts about plants. Mrs. Otterson has brought some plant books from the library so that we could complete research about plant facts. We will continue this research tomorrow.
Please send in a magazine or flyer, etc. for an art project that we will be doing. These will be cut up so don't send things you would like returned. ![]() Students working hard in groups to represent four-digit numbers in different ways. ![]() Today was another busy day in grade 4! In the gym, Miss N taught us a new version of octopus tag. If the words tidal wave were said then all students tried to tag their classmates. We are really building our physical fitness with all this running! Our knowledge about place value continues to grow. We are understanding different ways of representing numbers using words, pictures, standard form and expanded form. This will be important as we begin to solve problems that require three and four-digit addition and subtraction. As well, basic fact practice continues to be daily practice so that students can quickly and efficiently recall information necessary when solving problems. We also had the opportunity to work with our music specialist today. She had us working in groups with boom-wackers to keep a beat to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Scientific exploration around plants had us using lots of big words. We worked at our table groups to brainstorm all the things we think we know about plants. Scientific vocabulary such as carbon dioxide, photosynthesis, coniferous and deciduous were discussed. Ask your child about one new thing that they learned. Lastly, our compound now has lines painted on it! Students will be introduced to various playground games to play during recess. Mrs. Otterson loves to play four square :) We have been working on place value in math. As part of our learning, Mrs. Otterson is asking each student to show one 3-digit number in four different ways (using pictures, standard form, expanded form and words).
In writing most of us have completed a short paragraph that describes our feelings the first week of school. Have your feelings changed? If so, what new feelings about school is it that you are having? Sit with your child and talk about how their first week of school went. At the end of the morning we worked to create lovely pieces of visual artwork to decorate our classroom. It is meant to represent working together. It will also make our classroom a little brighter. If your child has a book from home they would like to read at school please feel free to have them bring it in their backpack. Water bottles will be sent home every Friday to be washed out. Reminder: student demographic returned by September 16, 2016 This is the conclusion of a awesome first week of school!! Today we met our music and physical education specialists. In music we played a game that taught her about us. In the gym we played revenge tag. It was a LOT of running! And lots of fun.
In science we made observations about leaves. We will be using the scientific terms, "I see, I think and I wonder". Ask me about my observations. As the month continues we will be learning more about plants. We focused on paragraph writing in language arts. When to use capitals, punctuation and using sentences that all related to the topic. Tomorrow is a half day. Students dismiss at 11:45am. If you have not returned your envelop with your student demographic please do so by Friday, September 16. Student demographic information has been sent home in your child's backpack. Please check the information and return by Friday, September 16, 2016.
A parent letter welcoming your child to the classroom was also sent home. It will direct you to the classroom blog and has contact information for Mrs. Otterson. We discussed and practiced the important task of silent reading (D.E.A.R.) Please ask your child to tell you what this stands for and why it's important. In math we reviewed how to use base ten blocks. We talked about hundreds, tens and ones. We played a game called Make My Number. Basic fact review will be a daily practice in this classroom. Today was our first day in the gym. We played tag and a cooperation game. Ask me about it. Each student created a name tag using a technique that was an optical illusion. Lastly, we wrote a letter to our teacher. We learned the 5 steps to letter writing. Today in grade 4 we did an art project about our emotions. We talked about lots of different emotions that we sometimes have. Those emotions sometimes make us think of different colours. Ask me what emotions I chose to describe my first day of school.
We also took a tour around the school so we know where everything is. We are lucky because our classroom is located near everything! Every day we will listen to a read aloud because to learn new vocabulary, to use our imagination, to help us calm down after lunch, to get our brains into learning mode and to help students learn about comprehension. We played a game to get to know each other and we completed a survey so that Mrs. Otterson can get to know the students. You can visit the "About Us" section to have your child tell you about the 3 pillars that will guide our school year. Overall, it was a pretty good first day! Please comment that you have seen this blog. As we look forward to the beginning of a new school year, I am hopeful about all the wonderful things that my students will work to achieve. Setting reasonable learning goals with your child will provide direction and self-awareness for the year.
Enjoy the rest of the long weekend. See you Tuesday! |
Mrs. OttersonTeacher at New Brighton School and lover of the great outdoors! Archives
June 2017
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