This morning in the gym, the grade fours were amazing helpers. They created an obstacle course for the TASC class which they then helped the students complete. It was wonderful to see our older students acting as leaders to help other students.
Next we moved onto writing. Before we began, Mrs. Otterson read aloud the book "The Gruffalo". As we listened we had to sketch the monster in our visual journal. Students then had the opportunity to create their own piece of descriptive writing about a Halloween monster. Reading their writing aloud to a friend who had to draw the monster that was described. Some friends did a very good job and the monster looked like the description provided. We carved our pumpkins today. Again we focused on describing what it felt like, smelled like and looked like. Some students said:
We also sketched our pumpkins and Tommi, our resident artist, showed us different techniques like smudging, how to add shading and highlight where the sunlight is reflecting. During guided reading we had to go to an alliteration station, descriptive writing and research center. Ask me about the one I completed today. In science we will explore if the seeds we scooped out of our pumpkins will grow now that we know the things that plants need (carbon dioxide, water, light energy, time, space and soil) to survive. Reminders: Knitting Club - tomorrow Pictures and book orders were sent home today.
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This morning students worked in IRIS. We posted artifacts that show the progress of our learning and explained why it was a good example of what we have done. Some of us posted documents, others posted photos and some even were able to try videos. We also described ourselves as learner. We are either visual, auditory or tactile. Some of us are a combination of more than one.
We talked about how to choose an appropriate book at our independent reading level. This is a book that I read a few paragraphs of on my own without much difficulty. If there are five or more words on a page I can not read, I choose another book. In social studies we finished our fictional islands. If we were not able to complete them at school they were sent home as homework and should be returned on Monday. They need to include a title, legend, compass rose, symbols, pathways, roads, mountains, capital city, etc. Reminders: Halloween/Fun Lunch - Monday Another busy day in room 145! We began by finishing our research around plastic pollution and the effects of using one-time use water bottles. This information was shared with our grade 2 buddies later in the afternoon. Our friends then gave us a star and a wish (one thing they thought we did well with our writing and one thing they felt we could improve upon). We also created a piece of visual artwork in our visual journals that corresponded with our research/writing.
In math, we reviewed all of the concepts that we have been covering in school. We have already been in school for 37 amazing school days - weeeewhooo! Ask me if I can tell you about what concepts were covered. Mrs. Otterson will look at these over the next day or two and return them so I can see where my gaps are so I can help myself stay on track. We listened to a song called Homeless Blues by a blues singer "Bessie Smith" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VvGGSX3YtA). We had to listen closely to hear if there were guitars, base, etc. This tied together with a history lesson about the slavery that occurred in the United States one century ago. In the gym we played a good old fashioned game of dodgeball. We were on two teams and we had to lay on our stomachs at the black line to begin the game. We ran as fast as we could to get the ball and then ran to the wall to "activate" the ball. If we were hit we had to run two laps around half the gym! A piece of expository writing was sent home. It focused on students identifying all the different components of a good piece of expository writing. Some students completed this assignment with the help of a teacher. If you have questions please feel free to contact me. Reminders: Please bring a donation for the Veteran's Food Bank Pumpkins Please :) Halloween/Fun Lunch - October 31 During writing students conducted research to find examples that support the reasons we listed in our persuasive writing. The purpose of writing is to convince individuals to stop purchasing one time use plastic water bottles. We have learned about plastics devastating effects on the environment.
Some grade 3 students came for a visit to tell us about the Veteran's Food Drive. Below you will find a list of non-perishables that students can bring to school before Wednesday, November 9.
In guided reading we continue to practice making sense of what we read. We will be opening the research center this week. Social studies had students continue their mapping. We watched a funny video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QlJn_iMeAg) that taught us all the important mapping skills:
If your child was chosen to participate in knitting club a form was sent home. Please return signed tomorrow or Friday. Reminder: Fun Lunch Orders - Due Tonight (October 26) Halloween/Fun Lunch - October 31 Today in writing we were introduced to a new kind of writing. We saw several short videos about what persuasive writing is and how to complete a good piece of writing. We recognized after meeting with our buddies the last few weeks that our lives may be too plastic. We are working to convince people to stop using plastic water bottles.
In the gym, Miss N had us do a drawing relay. We had four people on each team. Two people would travel across part of the gym to see a picture, then run back and describe it to another friend drawing it. We had to our sense of direction to explain to our partner where to place our drawings on our paper. We worked on our communication skills. Math was a blast! We learned the math game "Farkle". Students had to use dice to score 500 points to begin the game. We had to add all of our points to get up to 10,000. Ask me if I remember the rules. "This game was a lot like Yatzee!" said one student. During read aloud, our artist friend came for a visit. She helped a few of our students work on their multimedia artwork. We continued to get into our story of "The Secret Garden". After a week being indoors due to the rain, our main character Mary, has now returned to the garden to see Crocuses, Irises, Lilies, coming into bloom. We looked at a few pictures of these flowers to help us visualize what Mary would see. Social studies had us learning about mapping again. We are going to apply our skills to create a fictional island. It has to include a title, legend, compass rose, landmarks, etc. Reminders: Halloween/Fun Lunch - October 31 Happy Monday! Today was another busy day of learning. I think students are finally getting used to how hard we have to work in grade 4. We are really developing rigor and learning to persevere!
For an eye opener today we focused on rounding numbers. We looked at numbers up to thousands. We will review this again tomorrow. You can practice with your child at home tonight so they are prepared tomorrow. In physical education we will work with Miss N next week to help develop a obstacle course for the students in the TASC class. We will help these students complete the course too. We are amazing leaders. We read the book the "The Very Cranky Bear" by Nick Bland as an introduction to the Zones of Regulation. We talked about the meaning of each zone and which emotions correspond to each colour. We had to write all the different emotions we could think of on a sticky note and categorize them accordingly. Students had to write about one zone that they sometimes feel they fall under and the related emotion. They also had to think of strategies/ways to move back to the green zone. Students looked at an expository piece of writing today and worked independently to identify all the different components. This was used as an assessment to determine if students understood how a introductory paragraph, supporting paragraphs and conclusion work together to "talk" about a topic. For music, Mrs. Huston took a video of us doing a four person singing the song dynamite. It was awesome! During math we played subtraction war using playing cards. Each student had to flip two cards and add the total. They then had to subtract their partners total. In social studies we continue to learn about how to tell direction. Students have drawn a map of the classroom. They are now creating lists and describing where each landmark is located in the classroom. We will complete this tomorrow. Next week we will be doing some activities for Halloween. If you would like to send a pumpkin with your child this week, feel free to do so. Reminders: Halloween/Fun Lunch - October 31 What a busy Friday! TGIF for sure! Today we used computers to learn about IRIS. This is a reporting system that allows us to add goals, strategies, learning styles and even artifacts that show/represent our learning. Each student set a reading/writing/math goal and clearly outlined the strategies they would be applying become a better student.
In math we reviewed our subtraction word problems and played a subtraction game. Students had to roll dice and say aloud the number they were building, then solving the problem. We are mapping masters! We are creating maps of our classrooms using our knowledge of a compass rose and next week will use directional words to describe the location of the things we identified on our map. Reminders: Halloween/Fun Lunch - October 31 Today in writing we finished our rhyming poems. These poems are based on our artwork. We also had to include a paragraph that explained both our poem and describe what our artwork inspired us to see.
We are practicing daily math activities that focus on subtraction. As we work on our word problems, we be focusing on reading for meaning. During music, we finished writing a blues song as a class. It was about marshmallows - yum! We also had a contest using four quarter notes. It has us working on our listening skills. When were not doing our jobs Mrs. H erased one of the notes. We are competing against the grades 1 - 5 to win a prize! In the gym we did a "uniadab" warm up with music. If someone was tagged they would have to show themselves as a unicorn. To free a friend you had to do "the dab". We also played reverse football with capture the flag again. It's fun :) During read aloud, our main character Mary and her cousin Colin, are beginning to act like children, instead of a stiff little girl and an ill boy. Mary has suggested that Colin needs to go outside and that perhaps he will become better if he gets some fresh air, like she did when she came to the manor. Next week we will be using a literacy station that will have us use our research skills to learn more about the six regions during guided reading block. Lastly, our grade two buddies came for a visit! They read aloud to us and we read to them. We also watched several videos that showed us about the impact that plastic is having on the earth. Ask me how I felt after watching it. We worked with our buddies to write about what we might do to change/impact our world. Reminders: Tomorrow (Friday, Oct 21) - Half Day Scholastic Forms - Due Tomorrow Halloween/Fun Lunch - October 31 Today was picture day! We were the last class to visit the photographers so hopefully our hair and clothes didn't get too rumpled during the day.
In writing we read the book "Where the Sidewalk Ends" to give us inspiration for our own rhyming poems that demonstrate our understanding of plants and explain the story of our multimedia piece of artwork. We continue to focus on expository writing and today we read several paragraphs about reindeer. Each supporting paragraph provided additional information about the topic we were reading about. Students now recognize how they need to provide details in their own writing. Math had us carrying on with subtraction word problems. We really need to pay attention to when to borrow. You can practice this skill with your child at home. Tommi came for another visit and offered feedback about how to improve our sketches that are based on our plants. Social studies had us focusing on how to use a compass to describe directions of the different provinces in our country. Have me practice this skill at home describing the location of the different rooms in my house. Reminders: Scholastic Book Orders - Due back Friday, October 22 Halloween/Fun Lunch - October 31 In writing we did the last piece of the editing process. Most of us have now completed an amazing piece of expository writing (introduction, supporting paragraphs and a conclusion). This piece of writing was glued into our visual journals and accompanies sketch of the plant that we researched.
During physical education, Miss Nanavaty had us practice our throwing, catching, blocking and running using a mix of reverse football and capture the flag. See if I can explain it to you. She also had us work on our communication skills. Students had to call the name of the person they were throwing the ball to. In math we worked on our subtraction word problems. We learned how important it is to read carefully and to apply the strategy of borrowing. Secondly, we learned a new dice game that had us focus on addition, subtraction, greater than, and less than. "The Secret Garden" revealed a new character named Colin. He is the son of Mr. Craven (Mary's cousin). He reminds of us of Mary when she first came to the manor. We discovered that he is ill and was the one that had been crying in the previous chapters. Lastly our friend Tommi, who is our resident artist, came for a visit! It was great :) Reminders: Chapters/Indigo Fundraiser - Tonight 5 - 7pm (130th Avenue Location) Picture Day - Wednesday, October 19 Halloween/Fun Lunch - October 31 (form sent home) |
Mrs. OttersonTeacher at New Brighton School and lover of the great outdoors! Archives
June 2017
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