Category: Current News

New Unit! Machines and Technology!

Hello Everyone!

We started a new unit last week, so here are some details to share at home!

Unit Focus Statement: People use their understanding of natural laws to create technologies that have an impact on our world.

Areas of Inquiry Nov-Dec:

  • Scientific forces behind machines
  • The role machines play in our lives
  • Social change as a result of technology and machines
  • Innovation and creative thinking
  • Math Makes It Work: Measurement, Perimeter, Area, Mechanical Advantage
  • Using technology to learn languages and to share physical education ideas

We also have some continued work going on!

  • Thank you to everyone for the beautiful Remembrance Day POPPY art made with charcoal and acrylic paint. They are hanging in both the primary and intermediate hallways of the school, and Ms. D is planning to put pictures of some of them on the blog soon. Thank you, too, for our wonderful poppy wreath made with a quilling paper technique! We will use this art technique again!
  • TED TALKS! Everyone began transferring their written drafts to Google Docs today. After typing, self-editing, and peer editing, then the final drafts will be due to Ms. D on Friday afternoon. Presentations will be Thursday, November 23rd, so start practicing as soon as yours is written.
  • MATH SURVEYS! Everyone has their questions 1-10 done, and tomorrow we will transfer them to Google Forms if anyone is not already finished. Once complete, groups will share a link with Ms. D for distribution of the surveys. This project will allow everyone to show their data collection and analysis skills from the first unit for assessment.
  • BC Core Competencies — COMMUNICATION: This week you will see a form come home for students and parents to reflect on communication skills, so stay tuned!
  • CLASS MEETING: As we continue to work on class communication, we had a meeting to revisit the essential agreements we made together at the beginning of the year. We chose to rewrite them after a group reflection on how the first two months in MACC have been, so we can strengthen our community overall. Everyone created stickman drawings of the 12 agreements, which are now posted in the classroom to remind us of what kind of class community we want to have in MACC 4/5.
  • MATH FROM UBC: Ms. Melania Alvarez from UBC Mathematics came to visit today and taught us a lesson on pentaminoes (which was really a fun activity to begin learning about things like perimeter, area, geometry, and more.) We had a great time and the end activity was very challenging! Thank you to everyone for your enthusiasm.

REMINDERS:

  • Caribou Math on Thursday afternoon. Everyone has paid, so we are all set for everyone to participate.
  • Please bring runners on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, even when there is bad weather, so we can do gym inside!
  • Library Books are always due on Wednesdays, our library day.
  • Optional math activities I gave you to do over the weekend are due by Friday if you want a prize. The Diseases challenge is due tomorrow morning, though, as we will mark it together.
  • We will definitely still do the rock art as planned (we just took a break to do Remembrance Day art activities) so give your rock to Ms. D if you have it so she knows we have enough. We will plan to do this on Monday.
  • FYI, if you have paper towel and toilet paper rolls, please save them in a bag and bring them in when Ms. D asks for them in next two weeks. We are going to be doing a lot of building!
  • FYI, we will be doing messy art over next little while, so please bring a paint shirt on Mondays if it is a concern for you. Some of the black ink we will use 2 weeks from now is hard to get out of clothes.
  • PRO-D Day on Friday, November 24th. 

Have a great week!

Ms. D

What a great unit! Finishing up and reflecting….

Hello Everyone!

FINISHING UP OUR FIRST UNIT!

We are almost at the end of our first large unit! Today we spent a lot of time working on our end-of-unit project — creating a fun game to help educate others about how personal choices impact the health of the human body! I have been impressed with how students have been working together and look forward to seeing the end products tomorrow!

We will also be honing our writing skills and creating a TED Talk to share on a topic of passion. Last week, we wrote a practice paragraph on our favourite game, identifying the qualities of a strong paragraph. Today, we began the steps toward writing our first, five-paragraph essay. Ms. D will be taking everyone through it a step at a time! Tonight, make sure you have written your introduction, with a thesis statement. Also, please make a quick outline of what you will talk about under the three points of your thesis statement. I look forward to your interesting talks! A rubric for the essay was distributed today.

Thank you for taking the end-of-unit quiz online. I will go over these with students tomorrow and pass out marks in agendas. As the quiz is online and to conserve paper, I won’t print out the quizzes; however, I will go over them with students one-on-one.

Finally, we will be working on a math survey project, using Google Forms, to apply our math skills we have learned. Everyone experimented with Google Forms last week, and today everyone met with partners to begin discussing topics. More work on this tomorrow! I provided a handout and rubric for the project today for your binders.

LOOKING BACK!

When I think of all the learning that has happened the last two months, it is amazing! Let’s take a look back at a few things we did together. What kinds of skills have we learned? Ms. D will write them in “I can” statements, like those from our Core Competencies.

At Science World….What a fun trip!

We went to a Human Body IMAX, we participated in a fun math workshop all about proportions and ratios, and we enjoyed the many exhibits, including one on math and another on Body Works!

I can communicate well with my peers while enjoying fun, experiential activities designed to learn about the human body and other science concepts.

I can express my personal interests by independently choosing activities in Science World that reflect my passions.

I can collaborate with others to do hands-on, inquiry challenges in mathematics around proportions and ratios.

      

Germ Lab!

We had a great time learning as we did a GERM LAB! Our question was: On what surface in the school would you have the greatest chance of touching a pathogen? We wrote a lab, made observations, and used math to make some conclusions!

I can organize my lab materials in a safe and accurate way.
I can record my experiment and investigation using the proper scientific method format.
I can make careful observations and record the data.
I can use critical thinking skills to choose locations for testing in the school where I think there may be the most traffic, and as a result, more pathogens.
I can look at my data in a table and analyze it using fractions, decimals, and/or percentages.
I can think about and record conclusions based on my data.

  

Strawberry DNA Lab!

While not directly in the curriculum, through depth and complexity, and through direct student questions gathered during the unit, we discussed GENETICS! We talked about common genetic traits in humans (rolling your tongue, eye colour, hair lines, etc.) and did a survey of these traits in our class. We watched a video by Bill Nye and Discovery Channel talking about how the study of genetics began through observations of peas! We discussed how some diseases are genetic and non-communicable, while others, like chicken pox, are communicable diseases. Finally, we did an experiment to separate the DNA from a strawberry! Again, we wrote a lab, made careful observations, and used our critical thinking skills to discuss results.

Classroom Visits!

To add to our unit, we had a neurologist come to tell us all about the brain! Thank you to Patricia’s family for making that connection for us! We also had a team of community health nurse students from Douglas College present on personal hygiene and immunizations. 

HALLOWEEN!

Part of using our core competency skills in COMMUNICATION during our first unit involved the student planning of a Halloween Party! Thank you to our Halloween committee for meeting during recess and lunch outside to plan a successful afternoon party. Here are some fun photos to enjoy of our classroom community!

Have a great evening! New unit coming soon. 

Ms. D

Science Games?

Dear Parents and Students:

Some of you already know each year I try to take a team to the Engineers and Geophysicists Association’s Science Games at Science World. This is an extracurricular opportunity for a team of students from the school. The last two years our teams have done very well and the event is a lot of fun for everyone.

This year, the competition takes place on Saturday, March 10, 2018 at Telus World of Science.

We are not guaranteed a spot to compete. We submit an application for one team of five students to attend, and then the Association has a lottery and we keep our fingers crossed for a spot!

Students who are interested in this activity may submit their name for a lottery draw amongst MACC students in grades 4-7 (I open it to both classes.) Anyone who gives their name needs to understand:

  • ​Students need to be available all day on March 10th, so check the calendar please,
  • Students need their own parent transportation to and from the event,
  • Preparation and research study is required, on the student’s own time outside of class, to create a project and to prepare for the challenge activities, and
  • Those who participate need to understand we are judged on creativity, knowledge, and the ability to collaborate as a TEAM to create a solution to the challenges.
If your child is interested, please just have them tell me on Monday. Team selection is by lottery AND we don’t have a guarantee we will have a spot at the competition yet. 
 
Thank you!

Quick Update Wednesday October 25th!

Hello Everyone!

Please see these three sections: Things to Think About Tonight, Events Coming Up, and Field Trip Survey Results!

Things to Think About Tonight!

We enjoyed discussing the results of our science germ experiment (post to come about this soon with pictures) and applied math skills with fractions, division, decimals, and percentages to the job of analyzing data! Please finish the conclusion for your lab in your journal, in paragraph form, with at least 8 full sentences. Questions to answer: What did you learn from the experiment? What would you do differently next time? What would you communicate to the principal about our experiment?

Everyone has a topic for their TED TALK, which will be a public speaking project for language arts. Remember, your topic needs to be something you care about! Tonight, please figure out the key idea behind your talk. Then, make a quick outline of the main things you will talk about that support the idea. What do you want to say about your topic? For example, if you are talking about cats, what is it about cats you would like to say? What idea would you like us to walk away with? Due tomorrow.

Reminder to everyone, if you want to upgrade your checking in assignments we recently did, you are always welcome to do so. Any mark that is a check or check minus can be upgraded by adding detail and resubmitting. Ms. D won’t ask you for them, though, so it will be up to you to remember.

We will not be having a math quiz Thursday. Instead, we will do a checking in on Monday.

Disease PowerPoints will be completed Friday, so make sure you are using class time well. Monday we will be talking about final projects that will help bring together what we have done during the unit.

 

Events Coming Up!

On Friday, we will do the PUMPKIN PATCH! Students will receive pumpkins and go collect one of their choice in the field next to the school. It is a good idea to have BOOTS and a PLASTIC BAG, as the pumpkin may be dirty. Take the pumpkin home, wash it, and then clean the insides out. Don’t bring it back until Tuesday morning, Halloween!

On Halloween Tuesday, there is a COSTUME PARADE in the afternoon. Students should not come to school in costume. Bring costumes to school and change for the afternoon. This is so students may carve pumpkins in the gym in the morning! No weapons or very scary costumes, please, as we will be walking amongst younger students for the parade.

Our student HALLOWEEN COMMITTEE is planning a HALLOWEEN PARTY, so stay tuned for more details as they ask everyone to contribute something to the fun!

 

FIELD TRIP SURVEY:

Thank you to the 21 parents who participated in the field trip survey. Here are the results:

  • The majority are interested in a first aid workshop. While not guaranteed, as dates have to work for us, Ms. D will be looking into it.
  • The majority would be okay with additional major field trips, such as Britannia Mines and Museum and Reifel Bird Sanctuary.
  • The majority support participation in Dragon Boating in May/June if it is still available for this coming year.
  • The majority support having an end of year outdoor education event.
  • It was a 50-50 split on how to pay for field trips, so Ms. D will be posting amounts and opportunities as they arise, not as one lump sum.
  • Thank you for field trip and speaker ideas. As we begin a new unit, please think of friends and family who can contribute to our unit with their expertise!

Have a great night!

Ms. D

Go, Slow, and Whoa!!!! Looking at healthy decisions!

Hello Everyone!

We have been talking about the healthy choices we can make that impact the systems of the human body such as diet, sleep, exercise, habits, stress reduction, and more. In your HeartSmarts booklets, you are reading about many things you can do to improve heart and body health!

Next time you go into a grocery store with your parents, take some time to notice. Where are the healthy foods? Many times, the healthiest options are located around the outside areas of the store, whereas processed and packaged foods that are less healthy options tend to be in the centre aisles. Is this true in your store?

Today everyone received a handout about Go, Slow, and Whoa! The idea of this chart is to help guide us in making choices about our foods. You can also use the Canadian Food Guide which we received from the Community Health Nurses who visited. GO foods you have lots of when you are hungry. SLOW foods you should think about first and only have moderate amounts. WHOA foods are the “only once in awhile at a special occasion” foods. Using magazines, we cut out pictures to put up on three posters for GO/SLOW/WHOA to practice sorting foods into the three groups and to have a visual reminder in the classroom.

This weekend, please use your HeartSmarts booklet to do some recording of your own habits to think about healthy choices.

  • pp 34-35:  Write down your food choices for five days and evaluate them!
  • pp. 36: Read about SALT and find the item in your pantry with the most!
  • pp. 51-53: Read about WATER and track SUGAR consumption!
  • p. 73: Track your EXERCISE for three days! Read the pages before it for more information if you need it!
  • p. 83: Do the ULTIMATE SCREEN CHALLENGE to see if you can get through a day without screen time!

Please complete these by Friday next week. In the meantime, you are welcome to do any pages in the booklet for fun. We will be doing a few more of the activities next week. Thanks very much to the Heart and Stroke Foundation for these resource booklets!

Coming UP!: Math Checking In Quiz on Thursday, October 26th. Unit Quiz on Monday, October 30th. We will review for both! We will finish our Disease PowerPoint and share them with one another, talk about paragraphing and write up our TED talk, discuss benefits of SLEEP, talk about bear anatomy in relation to indigenous cultures of B.C., and start wrapping up this unit with some end projects.

No School Friday/Monday. PHOTO DAY on Tuesday, Oct. 24th!

ALSO: Please have your parents fill out this survey on FIELD TRIPS, due by next Wednesday. Thank you.

See you Tuesday!

Ms. D

Our Unit, Socials, PE, and Health! Update October 17th

Hello Everyone!

Many things to report today! Here we go….

Unit and Socials!:

In connection with the social studies curriculum and our unit, we are looking at BEARS! Why? We are learning about why bears are important to First Nations in British Columbia, what humans can learn from bears, and how bear anatomy is similar to human anatomy. Looking at First Nations traditional knowledge — knowledge about the land gained from thousands of years living in this region — we discover how important bears were and why they were considered sacred animals. Bear’s have similar organ systems to those of a human, and thus, bears and humans eat similar foods. What is safe for a bear is also safe for us! We can watch bear behaviour to learn where to find food and what foods are safe to eat.

Today, we looked at characteristics of black and grizzly bears and practiced telling the difference between the two types. We learned the white Spirit Bear is actually a black bear with a recessive white gene! We watched a video on the Great Bear Rainforest to see the beautiful lands up north where you can find these bears. We also heard a First People’s perspective about how important the land and the bears are to their culture and way of life.

Tonight, try watching 15 minutes of this video by National Geographic on the Great Bear Rainforest to have a sense of how beautiful these lands are. You don’t have to watch the whole thing.

If you want to know more, you can also find out more information on the B.C. Government Website on the Great Bear Rainforest or Destination BC or this CBC Article on how the Great Bear Rainforest received protection in 2016. 

PE/Health:

Today, Ms. D gave everyone their own copy of a book called Heartsmart Kids which is produced by the Heart and Stroke Foundation. These books are provided by Heart and Stroke to students in grades 4-6 to learn about heart health. Inside you will find activities directly connected to our curriculum. As we investigate personal choices and how they impact the human body, I will be asking everyone to do some activities in the booklet. The book will then be yours to keep!

Tonight, try reading pages 12-13 as a review of the circulatory system and do the activities on pages 15-16. Only spend 15 minutes on this, and if not finished, you can do some in the morning when you arrive. If you would like to work further in the booklet, go for it! But, you don’t have to. I will be pointing out certain pages I want you to look at for sure, and then the rest are optional to do at your leisure!

Math:

Today we did went over some tricks for multiplying simple decimals in our heads! Then, we did some group math, and Ms. D gave everyone math challenges to solve about pizza and fractions. These challenges come from the book United We Solve, which has some excellent cooperative learning activities! We divided into six groups, and students were given a large whiteboard to use to draw pictures and to show their work as they solved the problem. Then, students presented their results to one another.

Art, Language Arts, and Core Competencies:

We recently finished an art project which is currently displayed on the bulletin board in the school across from the music room. Students used fine-motor skills to carefully divide a piece of paper into sections and to collage the sections in different colours using a variety of paper and other media. They then looked at a list of adjectives in either English or French for new words to describe themselves. This involved some language arts thinking, using a dictionary to look up new words, and some reflection. Who am I as a person? What are the personality characteristics I bring to the classroom? We all learned new words, and I was impressed as everyone practiced the Core Competencies of Communication and Personal Awareness. Check out our art when you get a moment! 

Caribou Contest:

We will be doing the Caribou Contest either Wednesday or Thursday. If you want to practice, go to the Caribou Tests website to do it before tomorrow.

Diwali Assembly Tomorrow:

Students will be participating in an assembly designed to learn about Diwali, which is a holiday celebrated by members of our class as well as other students at our school. This is one of many assemblies we will have to learn about cultural celebrations, as we also do one for Chinese New Year, and we have holiday celebrations in December. Thank you Anisha for sharing with us what you will be doing tomorrow during assembly!

HAVE A GREAT EVENING! BRING LIBRARY BOOKS TOMORROW!!!!!

Ms. D

Focusing on the positive choices we can make for good health!

Hello Everyone!

Here is a quick update of what we have been doing in class. Hope you had a lovely weekend with the sunny, October weather (not today, though!)

Unit Studies:

Students have finished researching a disease of their choice, and they are now making a 10 slide Power Point to explain the disease. Ms. D spent some time on Friday teaching students who are new to Power Point how to use this tool. For many grade fours, this is a new presentation method. For grade fives who were with me last year, the focus this year is to make your slideshows more aesthetic and effective. We will focus on how to use fonts, colours, pictures, and organization to make them more effective! Here are the criteria for this assignment:

  • Please do 10 slides for your presentation.
  • One slide will be a title page with your name, title, date
  • Title the other slides using the questions from the notes page Ms. D gave to you
  • Spread out the information so you use up 10 slides. Don’t put too much text on any one slide.
  • Use bullets and shortened phrases to present information, not paragraphs.
  • Don’t have a last slide that says, “Bye!” or “Thank you for watching!”
  • Avoid using really bright colours such as red, yellow, or bright blue on top of black — it is very hard to read.
  • Avoid using red, orange, and yellow unless you really want to bring attention to your words.
  • Do use pictures, interesting fonts, etc. BUT please don’t use silly pictures. Pictures should help the presentation, not just be entertaining.
  • Make sure pictures don’t have copyright symbols like “Shutterstock” over them.
  • No bibliography is needed for this presentation.
  • Make a script for your PowerPoint. You can do this in the “notes” section on the PowerPoint itself, or write a separate script for yourself.

We have two more people who need to present their Human Body Corporation letters tomorrow, and then we will be moving on to our DISEASE GUESSING activity in groups, during which you will use some of the human body expertise you have gained.

On Friday, we began a formal lab on GERMS. Everyone dressed in safety glasses and had sanitized swabs to take samples of surfaces we think may have germs in the school. We brought the swabs back to the classroom and swiped them across agar plates (homemade ones). Tomorrow (Tuesday), we will look in on them to take our first data observation and see if anything is growing. The goal is to collect information and answer the questions: Where are there germs in the school? If you touch a specific spot in the school, what is your probability of getting a germ, out of all the places tested? We will be using science, close inquiry and observation skills, and math to analyze our results.

Next up? Looking at healthy choices! Today we talked about how stress and positive thinking can play a role in your health. We practiced mindfulness breathing that anyone can do if they find themselves in emotional situations, to calm the brain and begin to think rationally again. This week we will discuss diet, exercise, and other personal choices we make that help the body. Thank you to our Community Health Nurse Students from Douglas College who came in on Friday to talk with us about some of these personal choices and their impact on immunity!

Some Other Quick Things:

  • October 18/19 we will be doing the Caribou Math Test Competition. It is free for everyone on this first test of the year. You practice ahead of time by going to Caribou Tests online 
  • We are finishing an ART IDENTITY Project which requires everyone to find interesting words to describe themselves and then to present them in an artistic, colourful way. They are looking amazing! If you hadn’t finished the paper gluing portion, it was sent home today. We hope to have these done tomorrow.
  • In Math we did some more review of decimals, converting decimals into Mixed Numbers, and also practicing addition, subtraction, and multi-digit multiplication of decimal numbers. Most people finished the first page in class. Please try page 3 or 4 of that handout for 15 minutes tonight.
  • In Beginning French, students are working on French-Games.net on the vocabulary in the sections on Human Body, Food, and Number Words. Students must finish all the lessons in each section. For example, Human Body actually has three sections to it, and each one has four lessons. If you don’t have earbuds, please get some and have them for class, as listening and repeating the words is an important part of practicing. Once complete, you must take the quiz. Don’t take the quiz until you are ready. YOU MUST TAKE THE QUIZ in class for each section and show the completed screen and score to Ms. D; it can’t be done at home. This instruction was given in class during our last French lesson. If you did a quiz at home you will need to re-do it for class purposes.
  • French Immersion French students were given a booklet from the A la une series to take home for one night only. They are to read it and make a list of 20 new words for themselves in their journal. An alternative choice is to choose one article or story and write a quick French summary of what they read. After they complete some of these booklets, they are to work on French-Games.net using the Advanced settings, which will mean doing more reading and writing of French than our beginner level students.

Let’s have a great week! Remember, we are working on COMMUNICATION SKILLS as our area of the Core Competencies to unpack during this unit. Please continue to work on being active listeners and caring, thinking collaborators with one another.

Ms. D

Communication Skills!

Hello Everyone!

We had a good day today, researching our disease, going to music, playing some more Deal or No Deal to practice fractions and probability, and doing a cool experiment about “patient zero”! Did you find out who patient zero was? Tell me tomorrow if you figure it out! 

A key focus during this unit is COMMUNICATION. As part of the B.C. Curriculum students focus on three areas of lifelong skills called Core Competencies. You can read more information about them here. This year, we will be giving special focus to one-two areas during each of our large units. 

On the poster in our classroom, one of the words we focus on to be a lifelong, successful person and learner is COMMUNICATOR. We have brainstormed what this means, we talked about the “I CAN” statements today under Communication, and we discussed how this skill is used in MACC projects and other things we have done in the past, at school or at home.

Each morning, we have are having a special morning meeting (in addition to class meeting) to talk about core competencies and to get our day going! To practice COMMUNICATION, we did an activity from the book ZOOM, read the book I’m Bored, played the game TELEPHONE, and practiced how to have a conversation. In class, while listening to people read their Human Body Corporation letters, we have talked about active listening. What does active listening look like?

All of these things help us in our daily interactions with peers, adults, and our family. I encourage each of you to talk about COMMUNICATION at home. Do your parents have to be aware of communication skills in their work? How do effective communication skills provide you with new opportunities? How does communication help us get our needs met?

Ms. D

Diseases Project Research! Websites to help you, too!

Hello Everyone:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you to everyone who already presented their Human Body Corporation letters. They are very entertaining! 

We had a good time today playing Deal or No Deal to think about probability and chance, having a visit from the school counsellor who read us the great book Invisible Boy to talk about how to build a better community through inclusion of everyone, and working on a new unit task!

Everyone has now chosen a disease or illness they would like to know more about so we can make a quick PowerPoint and inform others! To practice note-taking, Ms. D handed out a list of questions and a piece of paper to keep track of your notes. We are working on understanding how the best research and note-taking begins with a question AND involves writing down the parts you read that help answer that question! So, keep some bulleted notes about what you find out!

Homework this weekend is to spend 15 minutes researching your disease and to check out last night’s blog entry with math websites to go through. Also, please look for a rock (due Oct. 16th) that is flat and round to use for art as I described in class.

Here are some websites to help you with your research. You will need to use four websites during this project. Keep checking back, as Ms. D may add more during the weekend now that I know what your diseases are! If you haven’t given me your disease, email me! Have a good weekend!

Kids Health Diseases and Conditions

Kids Health Parents Diseases and Conditions

Suncrest Elementary World Book Resources

Mayo Clinic Diseases and Conditions

World Health Organization Health Topics

Healthlink BC for General Health Information

BC Cancer Agency

CDC BC Centre for Disease Control

Diabetes.org for Diabetes 1

Hemophilia National Association

Web MD AIDS HIV

Canadian Lyme Disease Association

Canadian Cancer Society What is Lung Cancer?

American Thyroid Association: Hypothyroidism

CDC Ebola Virus Outbreaks

Canadian Cancer Society Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

World Health Organization Smallpox

CDC Influenza Flu Virus

Government of Canada Tuberculosis

Healthlink BC Mad Cow Disease

My Health Alberta Mad Cow Disease

NHS in the UK Rickets

Epilepsy Foundation What is Epilepsy?

CDC Anthrax

International FOP Association What is FOP?

Canadian Cancer Society What is pancreatic cancer?

Canadian Cancer Society What is colorectal cancer (colon cancer included)?

WHO Pneumonia Fact Sheet

Have a great weekend!

Ms. D

Happy Thanksgiving! Thursday, Oct. 4th Update

Hello Everyone!

Sorry for the delay in putting up a post, as it has been a crazy, exciting week full of learning and special visitors or events!

DEVELOPING OUR MEDICAL EXPERTISE, UNIT WORK:

Everyone is done with their letters to the Human Body Corporation, and it was a great opportunity to learn about:

  • Time-management skills and using class time appropriately
  • Using our laptops, Google Drive, and Microsoft Word to type
  • Specific information about an organ of the body and how it works with the other systems,
  • How to find information and take notes while using non-fiction books and internet sites,
  • How to write a business letter successfully, and
  • What makes an effective public speaker!

Ms. D enjoyed hearing the first of our letters today, and tomorrow we will continue hearing more from the various organs of the body who are complaining about the Human Body Corporation’s plans to lay off employees! 

***I noticed during this activity some students need to practice their typing. May I suggest everyone take the time to practice BBC Dance Mat Typing at home, doing all of the levels? Students need to learn to type with two hands. The “hunt and peck method” just takes too long, and this will help them speed up their work process in class.

***I also noticed some students get easily distracted by noise. You are welcome to bring noise-cancelling headphones or use the earbuds, which are important to have for class, to listen to music if that helps you focus.

Now, we are learning about microbes, pathogens, diseases, and the immune system, including what we can do to protect ourselves from getting sick! Yesterday, we played a fun game called “Catch the DZ” in class to see what it is like to be an epidemiologist trying to figure out why a particular population is contracting a disease. Students were asked to read two articles on immunity and pathogens before Friday as we continue to talk about this topic.

Last week, Patricia’s grandfather came in to speak with us about his work as a neurologist, and we learned some amazing facts about the anatomy of the brain! Thank you to Patricia and her family for helping us make that connection! After Thanksgiving, next Friday, we will have a group of Community Health nurses coming to make a presentation about their roles in helping educate others about how to stay healthy!

MATH:

Continuing our work on Crunching the Data, we worked on median, mode, mean, and range and talked about how these can help us find the data that is most “representative” of an answer to a question we could ask in a survey or data-gathering experiment!

Students are also learning about and can practice at home:

  • How to read decimals and place values appropriately (tenths, hundredths, thousandths),
  • How to add, subtract, and multiply decimals (and divide, for those who are ready), 
  • How to represent parts of whole using decimals, fractions, or percents, and
  • How to use fractions to represent the chance of something happening, or the probability.

Tonight students are working on some probability questions for 15 minutes only. Tomorrow, we are going to play a version of Deal or No Deal to practice our fractions and probability thinking. Here are some websites you can use to practice the things we are doing in class, only if you need it:

Your Median/Mode/Mean handout should have been finished by now. The Graphing Handout has been marked and turned in. Please check your red math folder. We are also keeping math notes as we go in our JOURNALS.

FRENCH!

Today, we started up our French program. We will be doing French typically twice a week for thirty minutes on Monday and Thursday, although sometimes more often. 

French Immersion Students are currently working in the book Eureka Le corps humain by Scholastic. It is all in French and the exercises, experiments, and questions are all in French. Students will be reading the text, responding to questions, and writing answers in French in their journals. During the year, Ms. D will be looking for texts to connect with our units and that are written, like this one, at the grade 4/5 French level. Lucky for us, the District Library has some French Immersion resources to use! Up next, some readers on a variety of cool science topics! Thank you to the French Immersion students for diving into this work today.

All other students will be working on Core French through three resources:

  • Web Resources: Students need to practice saying their French alphabet and be able to say it to me by the end of October with correct pronunciation. You can practice it here.   We will also be reviewing basic numbers in French, the body parts, and foods. To do this, we will be using French-Games.net which has minimal ads and does a good job of organizing lessons. Students may do more than the assigned sections if they wish. They will go through all parts of the lessons using earbuds in class. Then, they take the online quiz during class time and show it to me when done.
  • Book Resource, Activie 1 Bonne Collation, Bonne Nutrition: This book will provide us with basic French phrases and prompts around food and health related to our unit. Again, the idea is we will be quizzed on aspects of this by the end of October/early November.
  • Book Resource, Activie 1 Au Jeu: This book will provide some basic conversational French phrases for us to practice together in class.

Students will be taking notes in their journals about French and can study this at home.

FREE CHOICE FRIDAY:

If you would like to share a game with your peers, please bring a board game to school tomorrow. It will need to be a game with a shorter timeframe, not Monopoly or Settlers of Catan, as those games are much too long for our Free Choice time. The idea is to observe and to play some new games as inspiration for our end-of-unit game project coming up soon.

CARIBOU CONTEST:

The past two years, we have participated in the Math Contest called Caribou. The first competition is for free for all students, and it takes place at school (must be done from a school computer) on October 18th and 19th. After the first competition, students in grade four may continue for free; however, grade five and up pay a fee. We will all participate in the first competition, and you can go to the website to practice and learn about the competition details prior to the competition!

This competition is completely optional after the first one. We do not use the results or work on this competition in any way toward marks for students. We do this for fun only!

FSA:

We will begin the grade four only FSA process tomorrow. Should you want to practice, please do so here. You will need your PEN that I provided to you in class.

HAVE A GREAT THANKSGIVING WEEKEND!!!!!

Ms. D

 

1 … 10 11 12 13 14 … 19