Our new "class pets" have arrived at school. Today we received about 500 red, wiggly, slimy worms to add to our compost bin. However, we also learned that our plans for the worm bin were incorrect! But thankfully we can learn from our mistakes and make corrections. Our guest, Robin from Princess Dirt, was able to speak to us about the importance of red wigglers, how they play a part in our ecosystem and how we can take care of them. Ask your child tonight something that they learned about red wigglers. Maybe it is about the food we can add to the compost bin, maybe its what we did wrong in our compost bin or maybe its why they are important to our ecosystem. For the next month we will be exploring how the small actions of these decomposers can make such a big difference in such a short time. Reminder that tomorrow is heart to heart. If students are interested in participating in the activities, please bring in your donations. Doors will be open to parents at 1:30pm and we will be stopping the activities at 2:45pm.
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Today I challenged the students to make higher learning connections with the information they have learned about different animals, their adaptations as well as the habitat in which they best survive in. As students worked through their "Where Would you Go Books?" they had to reflect back on what they have previously learned about the land of specific countries. What is the climate like? What natural resources are near by to support the wildlife? Where is the water located? Then they had to look at specific animals that live in those countries and make connections. The guiding questions of "Why is _____ one of the best places for _____ to live? What adaptation does the ______ that helps them live in the habitat of ______?" Some students are finding these to be very challenging questions. We will be working through these for the next couple of days and putting writers workshop on hold.
In math students are exploring the connection between fractions, decimals and percents. They used words today as well as base ten blocks to practice building and representing fractions in different ways. Grade 4 students will need to know up to the hundredth place value. We will be working towards adding and subtracting decimals as well as converting some types of fractions into decimals. Grade 4 Farewell I have had some parents begin to ask me about the grade 4 farewell. Teacher are still working on the minor details of this day but once Heart to Heart is completed, we will give more information. I can tell you it will be on June 26th. The assembly will be in the morning so all students can attend and then there is a planned activity for the grade 4's in the afternoon. More information will come once we can scratch off this first event. Yesterday was an amazing day to go to the Ann and Sandy Cross Conservation. The weather may have been a bit hot, but overall it was a great day. The biggest take away from all the day was understanding how everything is connected in some way. For example we learned that trees are important to us, not only for the oxygen they provide, but they provide different necessities like shade and nutrients for the plants and animals we rely on. Some of the key connections we focused on were trees, foxes, Alberta rose, great horned owl, deer, bear, and cougar. Today students reviewed the information we learned yesterday, recreated the web and wrote about the different connections between each resource. Reminders
Students were sent home with the last field study field trip form. We are going to Telus Spark again to learn about water waste. Please send these forms back to school by May 31st. Students can start bringing in their quarters for Heart to Heart starting on Monday, Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser is due on May 30th. Any envelopes should be brought back to the school and delivered to their teacher. RTA will be hosting a RTA amazing race next week - Friday, June 1st: 1:45 - 2:45 event This is an opportunity for grade 4 students moving to RTA in September to explore the building with their families. There will not be any presentations. Today students worked hard on preparing a procedure for creating a vermicompost bin. We reviewed our research from last Wednesday, added more information and watched a video on how another person created their bin. As a collaborative, we created a 9 step procedure for creating a worm bin. 1. Drill 15 holes on each side of the bin and drill 6 hole on the bottom 2. Put 15 scoops of soil in the bin 3. Add a layer of leaves and twigs and dead grass 4. Add a layer of shredded newspaper 5. Mix up the wasted food Repeat # 2 - # 5 one more time 6. Bury the worms near the soil 7. Spray the top of the bin to make it moist 8. Replace the lid 9. Continue to add wasted food each day and check temperature Now we wait for our worms to get here next Wednesday! Tomorrow we are heading out to Ann and Sandy Cross Conservation area. Students were reminded today that tomorrow will be hot with lots of bugs. We spoke about bringing a water bottle, a garbage-less lunch and a hat. Students will be outside most of the day so wearing sunscreen and bug spray is encouraged. They will be carrying their materials all day.
We also spoke about ticks and there is the possibility of getting a tick where we will be going as we will be walking through a forest and long grasses. I suggested to students that they do a head to toe check tomorrow when they get home from school. There has not been any mention of anyone finding a tick out at Ann and Sandy Cross this year yet, but we want to prepare ourselves to be safe. As students dive into their next exploration unit of waste in our world, new questions begin to arise. What is waste? How can we reduce it? Where does it go? Why do we produce so much of it? Students began exploring this unit stating words that come to mind when we say waste in our world. The following wordle is what was created. From there we explored possible questions, problems, issues and concerns that we have about waste. Many topics like ocean waste, effect and affect of waste, compost, recycling and so much more were brought forward. Once I had a chance to explore this more, I realized a common theme from most groups questioned ways we can get rid of waste - composting specifically. I dived deeper into the topic and realized we can create a type of compost right here in our class to explore and investigate. We will be creating a vermicompost right in our classroom. Today we researched some of the things we will be needing for this project. Students listed a big container with a lid, leaves, twigs, newspaper, soil, and worms. Well . . . little do they know, we are getting worms in two weeks but we must get our bin ready for this new classroom pet!
If you have any of the following that you are willing to donate, please send it in with your child. We will need it for Monday. A small bag of old leaves and small twigs, and NEWSPAPER. In interest to our waste in our world topic, today we had a classroom presentation which a guest spoke to us about landfills. As we explore the composting side of things, we will also be exploring landfills and other ways to get rid of our waste. HEART TO HEART May 16th , 2018 Bring your quarters! At Maple Ridge School we believe that developing citizenship through helping others is part of who we are. If you are new to our school, the Heart to Heart Market is a way for kids to think on a more global level and find ways that they can contribute to others in the world. This year the Market will be held May 31st from 1:30-3:00. Students in grade 3 and 4 run the Market and vote on a cause they would like to give the money they make. Last year, it was The Calgary Food Bank This year, we have decided to give all money raised to the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society. Each year the Grade 3 and 4 students create crafts such as bracelets, bookmarks, art cards, etc. that they can sell at the market. Some students have chosen to make other arcade type games that students or parents can play. A few days before the Market, Grade 3 and 4 teachers will distribute “Tickets” to each of the Homeroom classes. Any student who brings in money for the Market will be able to get 1 ticket for each 25c they bring in up to a maximum of 20 tickets. Students will get to go ‘shopping’ at the Marketplace on May 31st. (If you are unable to donate this year, each student will still get 4 tickets. We still want each student to experience the excitement of the Market. ) On the day of the Market, the grade 3s and 4s will be setting out a table or an activity where items may be purchased or played in increments of 1-3 tickets (any donation will be accepted). Students will get to go ‘shopping’ at the Marketplace using their tickets- with ALL proceeds going towards Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society. Parents and family are invited to come on the day of the Market to purchase tickets to buy items or play games and just experience the energy and excitement the students have for this cause. Start saving your quarters! They all add up. We look forward to being able to send our love and support…from our hearts to theirs. Maple Ridge students have an opportunity to really make a difference! Hope to see you all there. Sincerely, All the Maple Ridge students and teachers of Grade 3 and 4 Students in room 8 have been exploring fractions. We have used different types of manipulatives to understand how the numerator and the denominator affect the size of the fraction. Students were able to determine that when the denominator is the same, the bigger the numerator the bigger the fraction. They then discovered that when the numerator is the same the opposite happens. The bigger the denominator the smaller the fraction. We will be working towards comparing fractions that do not have like denominators or numerators.
In Science we have began to look at Waste in Our World. Today we created a definition of what is waste. Together students came up with "waste is the collection of objects and materials that are no longer being used". We brainstormed examples of waste and spoke to the what we can do with waste. A new term was introduced today - vermapost (vermicompost). Students were asked to conduct a mini research exploration to understand what is vermapost and how is it different from compost. They will be sharing their understandings tomorrow, Heart to heart packages were sent home on Friday. All money collected needs to be handed in by May 30th. We are encouraging families to do this online. Heart to heart donations
Plastic cups Small round magnets Glass beads Cardboard (two larger boxes to be like vending machines) Small containers with lids (like you get at restaurants) Pipecleaner String **new** googly eyes (various sizes) **new** toilet paper and paper towel rolls **new** Zip lock bags (small snack size) **New** Brown paper lunch bags In Math this week, we began to look at how to read both digital and analog clocks. Students focused specifically on understanding o'clock, half past, quarter to, and quarter after. We discussed that there are multiple ways to say the same time. For example, 11:45 can also be stated, quarter to 12. Take time this weekend to practice telling time using an analog clock. We will be looking closer at the minutes next week.
This week students had time to work in their small groups for heart to heart and make a plan for their steps in creating their station for heart to heart. Supplies are starting to come in, but we still need quite a bit. Please review the supply list each for each blog as it will change depending on what has been brought in and what new has identified. Next week we start our lacrosse residency. An email was sent out to parents to fill out the acknowledgement and risk and send back with their child. Thank you to those who printed it off and sent it back today. If you did not get this done, that is okay, as I have sent home a hard copy with your child today. Please fill out and bring back to school Monday. Our residency will start Monday afternoon. Heart to heart donations Plastic cups Hot glue gun sticks Rope Small round magnets Glass beads Syran wrap Cardboard Small containers with lids (like you get at restaurants) Borax laundry detergent Pipecleaner Food colouring Straws String **new** googly eyes **new** toilet paper and paper towel rolls Wow . . . its only Tuesday and so much is happening in our class.
Students are working on completing two projects in class this week- their owl stories and their documentary. For the owl stories, students have used their research to create a short story about the life cycle of an owl, a predator of the owl or a prey of the owl, Students had to get feedback from peers and use a rubric to do a self assessment. The second project, the documentary, students researched facts about an animal from one of their four countries. Using this information, students created a script, found pictures, and recorded their voice. Once videos are completed, parents will be able to see the videos on IRIS. This week students have started to think of their ideas for HEART TO HEART. On Monday, students put themselves into groups and began to brainstorm ideas of what their station could be. As a class we decided that the station needs to be interactive and scientific. Some of the ideas include a building a marbles run, solving a puzzle of a marble run, growing crystals, and creating a fooseball soccer table. In order for students to complete these projects for heart to heart, we would really appreciate some supplies. Below you will find a list of the supplies different groups will need to complete their projects. Please note, we have a member within the school community who has a severe allergy to latex. No items can contain latex including balloons. I understand that some students have began to create some of the items for Heart to heart at home, but please note I discouraged this UNTIL I had approved of their station. I only approved of stations yesterday and today. Prior conversations were for students to think of their ideas. Today I handed out mathletics information. I want to give a final push for students to use this tool as a supplement to the activities we are doing in class. Please let me know through email if there is anything that does not work. I have been fiddling around with students accounts adding assignments and taking assignments off. Tomorrow is mental health day. This is a day students can wear a hat to school o show support of mental health awareness. We will e having a small discussion tomorrow morning about mental health and why we need to show support. This can be seen as a sensitive topic, so I may direct students to ask you for more information when they come home if I feel that the questions they ask are not appropriate for the rest of the class. My conversation will be more focused around what is mental health and why we need to support each other and create awareness for others. Heart to heart donations Plastic cups Hot glue gun sticks Rope Small round magnets Glass beads Syran wrap Cardboard Small containers with lids (like you get at restaurants) Borax laundry detergent Pipecleaner Food colouring Straws String I will add to the list as students ask |