Weather Report, Shape Poetry and the Benefits of Exercise

This week the students are starting their extreme weather reports. They can choose to report on either tornadoes, hurricanes or blizzards. They each received a criteria sheet and seem very eager to start. In case you wanted to take a look at the criteria for the reports, here it is:

In Language Arts, the students created concrete poems (or shape poems). The idea is to draw a picture, then write words about that topic along the lines of the drawing. Here are a few examples: 

We also talked about the benefits of physical activity. With the beautiful weather we've been having, I hope you get the chance to get outside together. Here are some of the reasons we came up with, as a class, when discussing why physical activity is beneficial: 

Tomorrow all the Grade 4 students will be having an emergency preparedness presentation in the gym. Be sure to ask your child what they learned!

-Ms. D.

Parent Teacher Student Led Conferences Tomorrow (Wednesday) and Thursday 

Early Dismissal both days

Note: On Wednesday you do not have to stick to the times you were given, you can come anytime during the actual time if you want or that work better for you.

Thanks Mr. W

Drawing Shoes, Fractions and Onomatopoeia

This week we continued working on fractions and I must say how impressed I am with everyone. We've started comparing different fractions and the students are all doing very well with this typically difficult concept. You could ask your child if they can name some fractions used in everyday life. Some examples we discussed were in baking (one-third of a cup, half a cup, etc.) or time (quarter after four). We've also been playing a fraction game in class. Each student receives a card with a picture of a fraction on it. Below the picture is a different written fraction. The teacher starts by asking who has 2/3 (two-thirds). Whoever has this picture has to answer with, "I have two-thirds, who has..." and they read whatever fraction is written below. This game requires both excellent listening skills and the ability to recognize fractions pictorially. They sure love it, especially when I time them as a class to see how quickly they can get through all of the cards.

The students also learned about a literary device called onomatopoeia (when words mimic the sound of the object or action it refers to such as buzz or murmur). We created a small bulletin board on one of the window coverings. See if they can remember how to properly pronounce the word onomatopoeia!

For Art on Tuesday afternoon, each student drew a pictures of their shoe. They took one shoe off and placed it on their desk in front of their papers. Essentially, it was a still life drawing; but rather than focusing on lighting and shadows, they paid attention to the details on their shoe. Again, I was really impressed with how these drawings turned out. There were, of course, a few giggles and plugged noses when the shoes first came off. Once they started drawing; however, you could almost hear a pin drop in the classroom, it was so quiet! Here are some in-progress pictures followed by some finished products.

Looking forward to meeting the families at Student Led Conferences next week!

-Ms. Desmarais