Thursday, October 8, 2015

Thursday October 8



Thanks to Mrs. Dagg organizing the turkey trot and Mrs. Burley's support a students from each class won a turkey.  I caught N's mom lugging the heavy load to her car.   I offered to help but she said carrying this turkey and laundry are the only heavy lifting exercise she gets.  Enjoy the exercise and the turkey and Thank you Mrs. Dagg and Mrs. Burley
 


Notices: 

Book fair notices went home today
 

We began our day with a writing assignment in our M.E.  The students had to write a two part response today.  We are still talking things we are thankful for  so part A was The best gift I ever received and Part B was the best gift I ever gave.

As It was picture day I showed one of my favorite  Calvin and Hobbes series of strips where Calvin has his school pictures.  I laughed and laughed, not sure if the students did.    




We worked on our writing until 9:30 when we went to library where Mr. K talked about the bookfair that will be held at the same time and days as the parent teacher interviews.  Next Wednesday and Thursday the 14 and 15th of October from 11:45 to 5:00 pm.  Mr. K also told us that part of the proceeds go to buying books for the school library.



After recess we went to get our pictures taken.  Many students dressed up, and many did not.  Some that dressed up even had nice new shoes.  Others even wore clothes they did not really like but wore them anyway... Either way memories are being made.  Our Calvin and Hobbes for the day reminded us that like Calvin's picture day we are making memories not just taking perfect pictures



 









Once we got back from picture the students were off to music



After lunch and silent reading   we continued our discussion about Canadian themes by looking at designs submitted for the 150 anniversary of Canada
Today we looked at things Canadians are passionate about.  The students chose one of the 5 designs and wrote about why they liked the design they chose.  We believe that these designs might be for the 2017 nickle because of the First Nations beaver design in the mix.


You can vote online for your choice up until tomorrow, Friday the 9th
http://www.mint.ca/store/coin-design-contest/contest-vote-form.jsp?lang=en_CA&rcmeid=van_CoinDesignVote





In our SongOff contest: 'Can You Feel the Love" from the Lion King beat "Halloween" from the Nightmare Before Christmas.  Because we had missed a few days we had a second challenger from Shrek the musical.  M's choice from the Lion King has won again so if it beats tomorrow's suggestion it will advance to the finals.

After lunch the students had Gym with our P.E. specialist.  


After Gym we moved to science.  I have combined two similar science themes, one from grade 3 and one from grade 4 from the mandatory curriculum for next year. 
Grade 3:  

We talked about the shrimp noting that:

Note: All underlined words will be on tomorrow's test
they will have to be able to pick crustaceans out of a list and match the other words to their best definition.
There will be no Socials on tomorrow's test just some addition, the usual spelling words (next, left, help, please, believe, many, very, been, seen, she, between, three, easy, sea, leave) and the Science above.
We listened to Elvis sing a song about shrimp and shrimping, then the students completed a food web for shrimp in their Science duo-tangs.


Everyone is quite excited because we are going to do shrimp dissections tomorrow.

Great day everyone.... see you tomorrow.
 






Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Wednesday Oct 7



Notices:

School Photos Tomorrow
Wednesday Express
(the school weekly information sheet with all you need to know about what is happening at school)


Don't Forget to Support our School Coupon books
a very good deal, to all your friends and family




We began the day by taking the list we filled in yesterday and wrote and drew 10 of the things they are thankful for  in their ME.  The list included 17 things from the  smells and sounds they are thankful for to foods and people.  I am always impressed with the insightful understanding children have about themselves.

Melinda, our school counselor visited the class and took our students through the book "What is a Thought"  This picture book is a poetic and engaging book that introduces children  to the amazing, creative power within us all: thought. It is not a book about changing thoughts or changing behaviors, but rather a story to help children (and adults!) see how their own thinking creates their lives, moment to moment, day to day.




After recess the students continued on their 3d art project they began with Ms. K on Monday.  This activity takes way more time than I am used to with the older grades, however, the students are doing an amazing job so it all balances out.  You can get a view of our finished results at parent teacher interviews.



 At 1133 today the students went to music where they had a chance to play musical instruments.  Very Cool Mrs. Awalt.



After lunch we read for 25 minutes, worked on handwriting. Almost everyone is keen on handwriting and one or two students have amazing handwriting skills even for an adult, and these students are just in grade 3 and 4.







This was followed by a whole school assembly.




Great day everyone... See you tomorrow
  

Tuesday Oct 6




Notices: 

Picture day Thursday
Please send in this form (or fill out online)



OUR NEW PARENT ASSOCIATION FUNDRAISER
COUPON BOOKS 
please support this project


Food for Fun notices:

We began the day thinking about those things we are thankful for.  The students worked on filling out their answers to the following information:

I am thankful for the taste of:         
I am thankful for the feel of:
I am thankful for the smell of:
I am thankful for looking at:
I am thankful for the sound of:
I am thankful for dreaming about:
I am thankful that I can pretend that:
I am thankful when:
I am thankful how:
I am thankful for what the:
I am thankful for being where I can:
I am thankful for thinking about:
I am thankful for being allowed to do:
I am thankful for being:
I am thankful for giving:
I am thankful when I get: 
But most of all I am thankful for:

After working on the I am thankful sheet we stopped and began our fraction unit.  The students were given some shapes. Yellow shapes to represent 1 whole, Red shapes to represent halves, and Blue shapes to represent thirds. The students were then posed the question 1 yellow = how many red? and how many blue.  They then had to prove that 4 red = 6 blue.  The students then worked with the pieces to make patterns. 










This activity gave us a lot of talk and discussion using math words.






After recess we went to the computer lab and the students typed out their M.E. writing assignments.  Those students finished typing their stories worked on the computer drawing pictures to go with their stories.  

Mrs. Awalt came at 1133 and took the students to music.

After Lunch the students had 15 minutes of silent reading then we went to Social studies.  We are exploring Canadian themes based on the Canadian mint looking for designs for the 2017 Canadian dollar.
There are five categories for choosing a new Loonie.  We will examine one of the topics a day for the next 5 days.  Each topic and design  talks about us as a nation. 

Our Passions
Our Wonders
Our Achievements
Our Character
Our Future
 
After lunch the students read for 15 minutes then we moved into our social studies.  We are looking at what Canada stands for.  We are doing this through a vote taken by the Canadians on coins for the 150 th anniversary of Canada in 2017.  By looking at the coin designs we learn about different aspects of Canada from exploration, first nations, to Canadian achievements and about our shared values and diversity that define us as a nation.
 
 
 
Go to 
 
 http://www.mint.ca/store/coin-design-contest/contest-vote-form.jsp?lang=en_CA&rcmeid=van_CoinDesignVote  
 
and vote for your favorite designs. 

The students picked their favorites from the

OUR WONDERS Collection

Beauty is everywhere you look in Canada’s breathtaking landscape, flora and fauna, and drew and wrote about their favorite choice.  Tomorrow we will look at the collection entitled

OUR PASSIONS

Our Canadian passions run deep and keep us driven all year long.