May 29th, 2015.

The Our week got off to a fantastic start with our guided tour of Confederation Park.  We learned about the stream within the park and the different plants that filter the water.  We saw a variety of wildlife including a small duckling.  We played a game that taught us about the needs of animals and and what things are essential to their survival.

In Math, we continued our work with division.  This has been a challenging concept for many and we have been reviewing that division is the splitting into equal parts or groups.  The students practiced division and the concept of "fair sharing" by playing the game listed below.

http://www.mathplayground.com/visual_division/dare_to_share_fairly.html

The site is also has a number of games that provide practice with basic multiplication and division facts.  We encourage the students to practice these facts at home.  Multiplication and division of larger two and three digit numbers is very challenging when students do not know their basic facts.

We began the first steps in a descriptive writing activity on animals of Alberta.  The students each selected and began researching an animal that calls Alberta home.  We looked at images and pictures, read articles on the internet and listened to audio of our animals.  We collected the information into a planner that will be used when writing our paragraphs. 

It was fantastic to see the wooden shapes go up onto the fence leading up to the school today.  The students had a great time searching for their creation within the display.  It looks incredible!  Be sure to stop by and have a look.

May 22nd, 2015.

You We kicked off the week with our new units in Science, "Wheels and Levers" and "Building Devices and Vehicles that Move".  We opened by reading the book, "Iggy Peck, Architect" by Andrea Beaty.  We looked at different building techniques as we worked collaboratively to complete the "Marshmallow Challenge".  You can learn more about the challenge at the following link: 
http://marshmallowchallenge.com/TED_Talk.html 

We then read another book by Andrea Beaty, "Rosie Revere, Engineer" and began exploring the different ways that small machines and objects in our lives move.

In connection with our new science units and our "Tea Tuesdays", the students were asked to come up with a solution for getting the excess water out of a tea bag.  The students worked in their visual journals, generating amazing solutions to this problem including intricate machines and devices.  It was wonderful to see the students work through the problem by brainstorming, sharing, developing and critiquing.  Here is some of the work that came out of this create writing activity:

In Math, we continued working on the concept of division.  This has been a tricky concept for many.  We also worked on solving problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  The students have been working on reading questions to determine what the question is asking and how to solve the problem. 

A highlight of the week was working on painting the wooden shapes that will go on the fence leading up to the school.  Each student is painting either a butterfly, bird or bunny.  It has been wonderful to be able to be a part of something that helps us to come together as a school community and adds beauty to our space.

Please remember that we have our trip to Confederation Park on Monday afternoon.  During our guided walk, we will learn about the history of the park, explore the habitats within the wetlands of the park, play nature games and record our discoveries in our journals.

May 14th, 2015

It was great to be back together as a class after our grade 5 week at Outdoor School.  The grade 5's shared songs and games that they learned during our time away.  The grade 4's were excited to present their powerpoints on Alberta's endangered animals.  Please enjoy some of the highlights from the week:

"I liked painting birds and butterflies and bunnies for our school fence." A.D
"My favourite part of the week was recovering from camp and getting to paint our beautiful fence art.  They all look amazing."  W.L
"This week, I liked learning a way to do division because I LOVE to learn."  S.H
"I liked teaching  GaGa ball to the grade 4's because it looked like they were having a lot of fun!" J.J
"Some of our class got to write a letter to the Calgary Flames."  J.N

Please remember that there is no school tomorrow or Monday.  I hope that you all have a wonderful long weekend.