There are only a few short weeks until winter break! Yet, we continue to work very hard in Room 145.... there is so much learning to be done.
This morning student had to take all the information they have compiled about the six regions and begin creating a chart that listed all the pros and cons of living in each region. Tomorrow students will determine which region has the most pros and begin a project that will convince people to live within the region of their choice. They will either create a persuasive letter or a travel brochure. In mathematics we continue to practice recall of basic facts. Ensuring they were following the process of carrying when adding and regrouping when subtracting. Students also had the opportunity to work on the extension activity of looking at the populations of various places within the province and using that data to find sums and differences. If that was complete they were able to play one of the many math games we have learned. In the gym we burned off a lot of energy practicing our dodging, throwing and catching skills with a game of dodgeball. Guided reading was very successful today with all students working on different things at one time, but all on task. Tomorrow is the last day for students to finish their regions map, haiku poem, comic/graphic novel story. If not completed by tomorrow, this will be homework that will be due on Monday. Lastly, we are almost finished our pointillism artwork. The artist, Jim Pescott, that inspired our landscape project even had a piece of artwork at Fish Creek Park. Ask your child if they saw it and you can check out Jim's work at http://www.jimpescott.com/. Reminders:
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Today we had an amazing opportunity to visit Fish Creek Provincial Park! Students had the chance to go on a scavenger hunt outside as part of a small group with the teacher or a parent volunteer. Some groups saw white tail deer, weasels, two kinds of woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, squirrels and a hawk. One of our students found an old wasp nest. There was also a cave and an area where we saw conglomerate rock. This is a type of rock existed before dinosaurs!
We didn't just see animals.... we lots of different types of vegetation. Lichen, moss, poplar trees, chokecherry bushes, Saskatoon berry, Dogwood bushes (identified by it's red bark). Half of the field was also inside the interpretive centre. This was a chance for students to take a walk back in time, looking at the first people (Plaines First Nations), to John Glenn and Adelaide Belcourt (the first European settler), Willam Roper Hull built the a homestead costing $4000 (which was a lot of money at the time considering most homes cost $6 to build), then we met Pat Burns who took over the ranch from Willam Roper Hull. Students heard all types of stories.... from oral story telling traditions of the First Nations people, to the ghost story of "Charlie" (who was one of the cooks at the ranch house). Students sketched, asked questions and learned lots of interesting facts about our amazing province!! Ask your child about what they learned today :) A special thank you to the parent volunteers that joined us and made this field trip possible! We began our day in the gym. We practiced serving the ball as part of our study of volleyball. We also played a game called "Pie Face" where the students had a dot balanced on their forearm. If the dot was knocked off by an opponent, they had to complete 10 jumping jacks.
In writing we had students re-evaluate their comic representing how plastic pollution effects the earth and it's inhabitants. Students participated in a feedback loop where they could ask questions and provide guidance about how to improve the work of their peers. Each piece of work had to include a problem, action and solution. This was the process of visual storytelling. Students practiced basic addition and subtraction processes as a warm up. We then began looking at the population numbers for Alberta over the past 35 years. Ask your child if they remember the population for Calgary in the year 1981 compared to 2015. We will be exploring how populations have grown or shrunk in various regions over the years. Miss Lysak is back in Music! She taught us several different patterns on the spoons. It was lots of fun. Students are working to complete their visual journal pages describing the various natural regions and exploring these different categories for each:
Lastly, in Social Studies, as we explore which particular natural region we think is beautiful, and interesting, we began to create a small piece of artwork using the pointillism technique. We briefly discussed the "Group Of Seven" and then looked at the artwork of Calgary artist, Jim Pescott. His painting style has been referred to as contemporary pointillism. Students used acrylic paint to create their background colour and on Wednesday will use pointillism to add details. Field Trip to Fish Creek - Tomorrow (Tuesday, November 29) Please dress your child for the weather. A portion of this field trip is spent outside doing a scavenger hunt. Wear comfortable footwear and bring along hats, mittens, etc. (layers work best). Also, please try to send a "wasteless" lunch or have your child bring their garbage home. Reminders: Friday, December 2 - Professional Development Day (No School) Today we began our day by reading the story "I Am Not a Plastic Bag" by Rachel Hope Allison. The story is based on the real-life occurrence of The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an island of floating trash in a remote area of the Northern Pacific Ocean more than twice the size of Texas, "I'm Not a Plastic Bag" tells a moving story about loneliness, beauty, and humankind's connection to our planet. We used this an inspiration to begin creating our own visual representation of the story of a single-use plastic water bottle tied to the writing and research we had done earlier. Students began organizing their ideas for their characters, plot, setting, etc. after discussing the elements of a story. We also had a chance to play some math games this morning. Students played addition "Go Fish" by trying to find the sum of two cards to make ten.
Lastly, some of our work is up and ready for parents to come and enjoy during conferences today and tomorrow. Since we have been learning about the province of Alberta, students attempted to show their understanding through water colour art pieces, with corresponding Haiku poetry, and plasticine maps that outline interesting facts about the six natural regions of Alberta. We hope you will ask us about what we know, how we created our artwork, and ask us about any wonderings you have. Thank you to all the families that have been sending in donations for the Warm Feet for the Street campaign. The grade 2 students have done an excellent job sorting, counting and organizing all the supplies. After doing this, the top four items they are still finding we are in need of include:
Parent-Teacher conferences this evening. No School Tomorrow Field trip to Fish Creek Park - Tuesday, November 29. This morning we had a guest teacher because Mrs. Otterson was in a meeting. We began our plasticine maps that focus on the natural regions of Alberta. We had to have a title, legend, compass rose and later will be adding interesting facts about each region, now that we have conducted LOTS of research.
We completed another practice sheet that had students working through several addition and subtraction questions that were 3 or 4 digits. We should be fairly good at carrying and subtracting with regrouping. The guest teacher commented how quiet and focused we were during this work time - good job great four!! In the gym we played a game of Octopus tag for a warm up. Then we practiced overhead passing in volleyball. After lunch students made predictions about the purple bin that is in our classroom. Students had to determine how the bag of decomposing leaves was connected to what was in the bin. We now have WORMS! These are natures decomposers. We discussed what "biodegradable" means and how it is important to our worms. At the end of the day students wrote Haiku poems that match their beautiful Rocky Mountain water colour artwork. Reminders: Parent-Teacher Conferences November 24 & 25 Thursday, November 24 (morning only) Field Trip volunteers still welcome. Today was another busy day in grade 4! Before we did any writing the teacher read aloud the story Zen Ties by John J. Muth. In this book summer has arrived, and so has Koo, Stillwater's haiku-speaking young nephew. When Stillwater encourages Koo, and his friends Addy, Michael, and Karl to help a grouchy old neighbor in need, their efforts are rewarded in unexpected ways. Students learned that a haiku poem consists of three lines, that very rarely rhyme. The first line has 5 syllables, the second 7 and the last 5 again. We looked at several haiku poems and broke them down into syllables. Tomorrow students will look at their beautiful mountain artwork and attempt to write their own haiku.
We have almost completed the last stage of our research around the six different natural regions of Alberta. Students will be finishing up any research, visual journal pages, charts etc. this week. In math, Mrs. Otterson gave students feedback about the work they have been completing. Students went back and made corrections or completed sections of work that were outstanding. The next chapter of "The Secret Garden" had the main character Colin describing the magic that is happening when he is in the garden. He has convinced himself that he will become well and will grow to be an adult. Mary, Ben (the gardener) and Dickon are all to think good thoughts about him healing in order for the magic to work. Colin is determined that if he is well, his father will feel differently about him. Students are becoming very proficient in iMovie and Gargeband. This Wednesday will be our last day to edit our work and ensure all the necessary components are there. We will work as a class to create a rubric for how this project should be marked. Reminders: Scholastic forms are due. Warm Feet For the Street RSVP due December 1. Remember to book you parent-teacher conference on Nov 24 or 25. Field trip to Fish Creek Park November 29th. This morning went by very quickly! We finished up some of the work we have been doing this week in social studies, math and writing.
Students have been focusing on the various regions of Alberta and are looking at persuading people to visit or live in one specific region, as well as the population of many of the cities and towns in our province. We continue our work with both iMovie and Garageband when creating our recycling commercials. Students have been participating in feedback loops with Mrs. Otterson to ensure that their script matches the photos that we will be including. This has been a huge part of our learning! We also created beautiful water colour pieces around the Rocky Mountains. We discussed how objects that are farther away will be less vibrant and smaller. Then we layered the same shades of colour over top as objects became bigger and closer to the audience. If any other parent volunteers would be willing to volunteer for our field trip please contact me directly. Lastly, students are to attend conferences next week as some of their work will be showcased and families can work through some of the activities that we are doing in the classroom. Reminders: Field Trip Forms Scholastic Forms Due Monday, November 21 This morning we began our day by watching a video showing images of all the different regions of Alberta (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThFCg0tBDck). We had to identify all the regions we saw, why the film makers choose these images and what is important to us about Alberta. We decided it showcased the Rocky Mountains because it is so beautiful and people travel from all over the world to visit them.
In writing we learned about the Parkland Region and created a page with all the important information about this region. It will be important to learn these things because later we will be required to persuade someone which region they should live in. We finished up 3 and 4 digit addition and subtraction. We focused on regrouping and borrowing. Students need to be aware of what operation they are using. This will be important as we study the population of different towns and cities in Alberta. Mrs. Otterson was an audience member after the students learned the song "Bundle Up" with choreography. Students came up with the choreography themselves. Ask me to sing the song for you :) We warmed up with a game of "British Bulldog" and then we practiced our volleyball skills. At the end of class we had to roll up our sleeves to see where we were bumping the ball. You could tell if you were hitting it in the right place if your arms were red. In today's chapter of the "Secret Garden" one of the main characters, Colin, was so angry that he stood up out of his wheel chair. This was quite shocking for us because up until this point in the book everyone thought he was a hunchback and not very smart. Boy did he prove us wrong! We also discovered that Ben, one of the gardeners, had been going into the garden using a ladder. Lastly, our grade 2 buddies came for a visit. We showed them how to log into the computer, and access their IRIS account. We helped them type their goals and strategies. We will help enter an artifact another time. Reminders: Field trip forms. Scholastic is due on Monday (cheques). Tomorrow is a half day. Please book your conference for Nov 24 - 25. This morning we had a guest teacher in our classroom because a few of our classmates were participating in a Destination Conservation Workshop. They will be teaching us about all the amazing things they learned about. In writing we had to decide which region was more important to Alberta, the Foothills or the Rocky Mountains. This was a persuasive piece of writing. We had to explore the communities that were there, the natural resources, and industries that exist there. We also focused on our handwriting. We learned about letter "g and h". Math had us looking at challenging math questions. We looked at both 4 digit addition and subtraction questions and practiced the process of carrying and borrowing. Moving forward we will be exploring the population of cities and towns in Alberta and determining reasons why some places are bigger than others and why that might be. In the gym we played a fun game of octopus tag. We practiced pivoting and dodging and working on strategies for tagging. Lastly, we began recording the audio and putting the photos we have taken for our commercials. They are really coming along now!! Reminders: Fun Lunch Tomorrow Conferences - November 24 and 25 (please check online for booking availability) Please return field trip forms! *There are lots of items in the lost and found. Please take a look at the pictures below and see if you recognize any of your child's belongings. Today we had an interesting eye opening activity to kick off our morning! We sketched a piece of coal (at first we didn't know what it was). We had to guess what it was and why it was important. We learned that coal provides energy and it is a natural resource found in the Rocky Mountains.
We worked in groups of two or three to read information about the Foothills Region. Afterwards, we had to share what we learned with our classmates because we were experts about that topic. In our visual journals we created another page about the Foothills Region. As well we focused on Social Studies vocabulary this morning. The teacher gave us a sheet of paper that either had the missing definition or the missing word. We had to work in teams to help each other define things and figure out the matching word based on the definition. This matched the picture we drew. During gym time we played Mrs. Otterson's favourite game! Dodgeball :) The secret was to "activate" the ball. Mrs. Otterson is still looking at the work we completed yesterday in math. We will continue this work tomorrow. Chapter 21 of the Secret Garden left us on a cliff hanger!! Ben, one of the manor's gardner's, has discovered Mary, Dickon and Colin in the garden. Dickon and Mary also prevented Colin from learning about the tree that killed his mother. Colin does not yet know this fact. Dickon was kind and distracted him by having him look at the robin. In science, we have just about completed our second step of our commercial making process. Our next job will be to add the audio. Reminders: Field Trip Forms Fun Lunch - Thursday Feet for the Street Donations Scholastic Book Orders Sent Home |
Mrs. OttersonTeacher at New Brighton School and lover of the great outdoors! Archives
June 2017
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