It's hard to believe it will be March tomorrow!! Where does the time fly? We have a lot of work to do to get ready for and complete our next inquiry. The students have been "commissioned (by their teachers) to create an art installation for the Spring Gala. Their medium is to be photography!!
WE finished the dissection of the pellets and cleaned the bones up a bit. We used a bone classification chart to try to classify the animal that was in the pellet. WE worked on some owl research this morning. After recess, Ophelia the owl came to our class. She is a beautiful great horned owl. I will send pictures tomorrow as i am having some technical difficulties today. She is very skittish around loud places. the students were most respectful and stayed quiet and still throughout the presentation. Ask your children what they learned about owls. This afternoon, Mrs. Ramsay helped our class by giving a demonstration on how to take "good photographs". WE learned about things like: Composition Story Rule of Thirds Perspective Orientation Framing Even with a little practice this afternoon and her guidance, students showed improvement over our last photography session. Good work grade 3s and 4s.
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Please remember to bring filed trip forms of you haven't already. Wednesday is PINK SHIRT DAY. We are wearing pink to acknowledge how we can be kinder and show more care for others in the world today. We started our owl pellet dissection today!! WOW!! How engaging and interesting to hypothesize what we thought would be inside the pellet and then to actually see what was inside! We have a pile of tiny bones which we will try to reconstruct tomorrow to make an animal skeleton and find out the true identity of the animal.. "A wise old owl sat on an oak. The more he saw the less he spoke. The less he spoke the more he heard. Why aren’t we more like that wise old bird.” – Edward H. Richards We wrote our first TWAS in a while. Please look for it in your child's backpack and respond.
We need all field trip forms back as soon as possible. Next Wednesday, we will be having a visit from Ophelia, an orphaned owl from the Bird Sanctuary. If any students might be allergic, please let me know. Wednesday next week (Feb.28) we will be acknowledging PINK SHIRT DAY. As a staff we have had a rich conversation about how we can be a part of this day and still make the message applicable and relevant to our young learners. Collectively, we want to be able to use the day to help students be aware of the issue of bullying but more importantly, we want to consider the day from a positive perspective. By focusing our conversation and actions on what we can do to show kindness, our students become aware of positive things they can do to make our school a better place. Students are encouraged to wear pink on that day. Today we were able to watch 2 bridge presentations. We witnessed some very good presentation skills: clear loud voices, introductions, using graphics in posters to enhance what what said, taking turns, supporting each other, adding on to what other group members were saying- really terrific.
After each presentaiton, students are asked to fill out an "Exit Slip". they have to write 3 facts they learned from listening to the group, 2 questions they may still be wondering about and give 1 critique; either a compliment or a suggestion for the group's next presentation. I think most students who listened carefully had no problem with this activity. We worked on multiplication facts today. The grade 4s are learning about fact families and multiples- numbers that can be multiplied to get a particular number. For example: the multiples of 12 are 1 and 12, 2 and 6, 3 and 4. The grade 3s were working on times table of 2, 4 3 and 5. They are also learning fact families: 3 x 4 = 12.... so 4 x 3 also equals 12. When we know those 2facts, it helps us understand 12 divided by 3 = 4 12 divided by 4 = 3 We also learned that any number multiplied by 1 equals the same number. AND--- any number multipled by 0 equals 0- even if it is 127, 348, 259 x 0- it equals 0! Field trip notices went home today for a field trip to Bebo Grove in Fish Creek Park. This will be an outdoor walking trip and we could really use 4 great volunteers. Students will use this opportunity to practice their photography skills with our artist in residence- Mr. W. We are connecting this work with our study of animal life cycles in science.
Today we had our first Bridge Presentation. They were a very brave group to go first. They were very organized and rehearsed! We learned the importance today of only giving "reliable" information during a presentation and that we should double check all our sources so we do not give out "false information." We also found out that if we do not know the actual answer to a question posed by one of our peers, it is okay to say, "I don't have that information on me at this moment but I'll look into that and get back to you as soon as possible," rather than give information that is made up or incorrect. We are discussing how to ask "Good Questions"- questions that have a yes or no answer or questions that we already know the answer to are Level 1 questions. We are looking for questions that challenge the person we are asking to think deeply and maybe have to look up the answer- Level 2. The best kinds of questions Level 3 are often ones we cannot always google for the answers. They are "UNGOOGLEABLE" We have to ask experts or friends for more information. Most groups made great progress on their posters and have begun to rehearse their presentations. Good work! WE worked again on our passion projects. Student can see their passion slide presentations at home if they log in to google. We will have a short Valentine's exchange tomorrow afternoon at the end of the day. Here is a list of students. There are 26 altogether.
Today we worked on multiplication.
WE worked in our bridge groups and decided how we would make our poster, what it would look like, and who would be responsible for saying what during the presentation. This afternoon- some groups got started on creating their posters. We will start to "present" tomorrow afternoon or Wednesday. Please bring recorders to school tomorrow. We have music first thing. There is no school Thursday and Friday due to Teacher convention and on Monday in recognition of Family Day. Thanks to all of the parents /grandparents who volunteered for swimming. We so appreciate your time and support!!! The grade 4s enjoyed the RT Play today. The grade 3s enjoyed hanging our with the grade 3s from Ms. Langlois' class. We worked on Mathletics. Please practice Times Tables whenever you have the chance to. It really helps! We have focused on multiplication as "repeated addition" and "groups of.." So 4 x 4 = 4 groups of 4 or repeated addition (4 + 4 + 4 + 4)= 16 Wednesday is Valentine's day. We will not have a big party. If students wish to bring in valentines to share with classmates, i will give some time at the end of the day for them to distribute their cards. There are 26 students. Please make sure that all students receive one. I have attached a class list.
Last day of swimming was a lot of fun. Everyone had a chance to go off the slides.
We are putting finishing touches on our bridges and making more definite plans for our presentations. Grade 4 students have been invited to RT Alderman for a performance. The grade 3s will stay here and participate in an alternative activity. They will get to go next year when they are in grade 4:-) Another great swimming day today! The skills are improving so much even in a few days!
Today we worked on google slide presentation with Mrs. Hartmann's class. They are experts and are helping us get better:-) We are coming closer to the end of our Bridge Symposium. We are working with our groups to make our presentations- deciding who will say what piece of information and how we will present it. We decided that because we are making a slide presentation for our Passion Project, we will make a poster to present our bridge information visually. After everyone is finished building ( we're almost there) we will test and modify our bridges. Then make posters and then present to the symposium. |
AuthorI am originally from Nova Scotia. I am looking forward to a great year. Archives
June 2018
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