September 30, 2016

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Please bring donations for Terry Fox Run-$2 (school goal: $1800, we are at $909.35)

Homework: complete sleep chart next week, journals due Monday
Big Box Fundraiser

What did we do today?

• First thing this morning, we had a catch up time to finish our word problems for math and our book box journal.
• Ms. Jones read us a book about Terry Fox and how he was determined to work on a challenge.  Some of those challenges were getting on the basketball team in high school and running across Canada to raise money for cancer.  At the end, he was awarded many high honours, such as the Order of Canada for his dream and hard work. 
• We ran the Terry Fox Run today.  Before the run, we had an assembly to warm up and the Terry Fox club gave us some stretches to do.  Our class ran 118 laps, which is 118 km!  That is the distance from Calgary to Innisfail.  The school ran a total of 876 laps (not including Room 5's total).

Questions:

1. Which class has brought in the most donations for Terry Fox?
2. How old was Terry when he first got cancer? - 18 years old
3. How far is where the school ran to?

September 29, 2016

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Please bring donations for Terry Fox Run-$2 (school goal: $1800)
Dress for the Terry Fox Run tomorrow- we are running rain or shine.

Homework: complete sleep chart next week, journals due Monday
Big Box Fundraiser

What did we do today?

• In gym, we practiced the Terry Fox route.  Most of us did two laps in 25 minutes, but some of us were able to do 3-4.
• After recess, we had science.  We had a science scavenger hunt where we had to choose five places to measure the noise level using a decibel app. 
• Today after science we had health and we had to talk about our sleep charts.  It is very important that we complete them this week and hand them in.
• In Daily Five we got a chance to finish our journals and rewrite our good copy.
• At the end of the day, we had a special visitor, an author named Shane Peacock.  He talked to us about his books, how to write a good story with suspense and how more interesting reading is.  A book order form has been sent home, however many of the books are leveled for older students and may not be appropriate for grades 3/4.

Questions:

Not enough time today.

September 28, 2016

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Please bring donations for Terry Fox Run-$2 (school goal: $1800)

Homework: complete sleep chart for tomorrow, math mystery case due tomorrow
Big Box Fundraiser

What did we do today?

• In math, we learned about using an organized list as a strategy to solve word problems and we tried solving a couple on our own.
• At the beginning of gym we played a game called Roll the Dice where somebody rolled two foam dice.  If the numbers multiplied were 1-9 we ran, if it was 10-24 we jogged and if it was 25-36 we walked.  We also played Cat and Mouse where we were had to travel as a cat (in red) or a mouse (in blue) as a pair or group.
• In science we learned how to measure sound.  Ms. Cowdy and Ms. Jones showed us an app that measured how loud we can be.  We also watched a Bill Nye video on sound waves and how sound travels.
• During Daily Five we practiced reading with someone. We tried practicing our stamina for ten minutes.  
• This afternoon we had language arts and we continued to work on the COPS method. This time we also had to find words in our writing we used often.  We circled them and changed them to improve our journal writing.  Then we re-wrote a good copy to fix all of our mistakes.
• We wrote rhythms using five notes on whiteboards in music class.  We had to use four of the five notes. We also got to use instruments after Ms. Stephure took a picture of our us and our work.

Questions:

1. How far can our combined laps cover compared to how much Terry Fox ran in one day?
2. We have an author visit tomorrow! What will he talk about and what books does he write?

September 27, 2016

Agenda:

Read 30 min

See communication folder for forms- Fun lunch forms
Please bring donations for Terry Fox Run-$2 (school goal: $1800)

Homework: complete sleep chart for Thursday, math mystery case due Thursday
Big Box Fundraiser

What did we do today?

• First thing this morning, we got to finish our nature art.
• Today in gym, we played a game called King's Gold.
• For the first time we went to the library this morning to try and change our passwords for a Google account, but the technology was slow. :(
• In music, we used cups to make a tee tee and ta rhythm.  We did the rhythm to the poem Bubblegum.
• After lunch, we had math and we got some time to catch up on our pattern problems and we got a new one about cats and dogs.  We also started the afternoon with a brain stretch, which we usually do in the morning.  During this time, a few people went with Ms. Jones to do a reading test.
• We also had book exchange.
• In language arts, Ms. Jones introduced us to COPS.  The C means check for capitals, the O is for organization, the P is for punctuation and the S is for spelling.  This is a way we can check our writing.

Questions:

1. Will we make something in science?
2. How much money will we make for the Terry Fox Run?

September 26, 2016

Agenda:

Read 30 min

See communication folder for forms- Terry Fox pledge forms (our school goal is $1800.00)
Please bring donations for Terry Fox Run-$2

Homework: complete sleep chart for Thursday, math mystery case due Thursday
Big Box Fundraiser

What did we do today?

• For math, we worked on finishing the word problem given last week.  We sat together as a class to solve one about roses and got our new math mystery.
• Today in gym, we played Superhero Tag, Rock, Paper Scissors Tag and Tunnel Tag.
• In social studies, we completed a map of Canada by colouring Alberta and labeling Canada's borders and oceans.
• After lunch, we learned about what we need to do when we Read to Someone and we practiced it with a friend for stamina.
• Before art, we did a real lap of the Terry Fox Run.  Our times ranged from four minutes to thirteen minutes.
• For art, we went outside to collect leaves, sticks, pebbles, pine cones and pine needles to make a thing or object that makes a noise.  We then arranged the items into a shape and started to glue them.  We will continue this project tomorrow.

Questions:

1. What are we doing tomorrow in gym?-TBD
2. When will we play dodgeball for the first time?- TBD

September 22, 2016

Agenda:

Read 30 min

See communication folder for forms- Terry Fox pledge forms (our school goal is $1800.00)
Please bring donations for Terry Fox Run

Face to face conferences tonight and Friday

Book Fair tonight and Friday

No school Friday
Homework: complete sleep chart for next Thursday, hand art
Big Box Fundraiser

What did we do today?

• In math, we continued to solve math word problems by using tables and finding patterns.
• For gym, we played hospital tag with two games of fish in the sea games in it.  One game had whirlpools while the other did not.
• In music today, we made our our rhythms and we also got to play them on the drums. We also used cups to make rhythms.
• We finished our leaf art to put up for conferences and some of us had to finish our hand art.
• In health we got a sleeping chart to record our sleeping habits.
• We had our first social studies class today.  We had to locate and colour Canada, and other countries our classmates are from (India, USA, Pakistan, England, Netherlands and Iran).

Questions:

1. Will the weather be nicer for the Terry Fox Run next Friday?
2. What will some of the routines be on the sleep charts?

September 21, 2016

Agenda:

Read 30 min

See communication folder for forms- parent viewpoint

Face to face conferences Thursday and Friday- please book with Mrs. Rennie

Book Fair Thursday and Friday

Homework: Math Mystery of the Week to be handed in by Thursday
No school Friday
Fire Safety Week Info

What did we do today?

• For math, we did our brain stretch and after that we talked about using patterns to solve word problems.  We then had one to solve about sick Fuzzies.
• In gym, we played a game called VIP tag.  After that we played a quick game of Fish in the Sea.
• During recess, the members of Green Team had their first big pick up of recycling and paper towels in the school.
• After recess and lunch, we were given some time to finish our two journal entries about the SEEDS Survivor presentation and our book box choices.  Ms. Jones modeled a journal entry to show what she expects.  We also got some time to practice our reading stamina if we finished both writing assignments.
• In music, Ms. Stephure taught us a bubble gum rhyme and we had to use only two notes to write the whole song.
• We had our first fire drill of the year during art.
• We continued to work on our oil pastel layered leaf art project after music until the end of the day.

Questions:

1. What will are artwork look like when everyone is finished?
2. Who will win the Beakerhead Challenge?

September 20, 2016

Agenda:

Read 30 min

See communication folder for forms- parent viewpoint
Big Box Fundraiser

Face to face conferences Thursday and Friday- please book with Mrs. Rennie

Book Fair Thursday and Friday

Homework: Math Mystery of the Week to be handed in by Thursday
No school Friday
SEEDS website www.SeedSurvivor.com

What did we do today?

• We had gym first because we had a presentation this morning.  We played a game called Dragon Tail tag and Amoeba tag.
• Next we had a Seed Survivor presentation.  We learned that 70% of the world is water and 10% of the land is good to grow food.  We also learned about photosynthesis.  Photo means light and synthesis means mixes up.
• After recess, we had math.  We did our brain stretch and we solved a problem where we had to make 25¢ thirteen different ways.
• For language arts, we learned a song to help us remember to choose the right books called I-Pick.  After we broke up into groups of five to come up with actions for each part of the song.
• We went to the library and we all got a wish list for the book fair.  We got to preview the fair so that we know which books we would like from the fair on Thursday or Friday.
• For science, we wrote journals about the SEED Survivor presentation.  We had to include what we learned, why it was important and how it is important to me.  Ms. Cowdy gave us a sheet to glue in our books to help us use good vocabulary.

Questions:

1. Who's sunflower seed will sprout first?
2. What plant would be the first to go extinct?
3. How many fundraisers will be done this year?

September 19, 2016

Agenda:

Read 30 min

See communication folder for forms- parent viewpoint

Face to face conferences Thursday and Friday- please book with Mrs. Rennie

Library tomorrow- please bring your library books

Special presentation tomorrow- SEEDS mobile

Book Fair Thursday and Friday, book orders due tomorrow

Homework: Math Mystery of the Week to be handed in by Thursday

What did we do today?

• First thing this morning we worked on our brain stretch.  After gym we got a new math mystery, which we got time to work on in class.  We also learned about two strategies with problem solving: draw a picture and guess and check.  You can also use mental math.
• Today in gym we played Fish In the Sea.  Ms. Jones put out dots as whirlpool hazards so the fish had to avoid the sharks and the whirlpools.
• After recess, we had our first science class.  We talked about what we know and want to learn about sound.  We started a title page and had a story read about having wild animal ears.
• In Daily 5, we talked about choosing the right book and we practiced reading stamina with a book we chose.  We got to three minutes. We wrote a journal about what books we would love to put in our book boxes.
• We had our first art lesson!  We cut out leaf templates to trace.  Then we had to overlap them and outline with Sharpie.  Some of us started to colour using oil pastels.

Questions:

1. What time is the book fair?  Thurs from 4-8pm and Fri from 8am-12pm.
2. What is the most common book in our class that people like?
3. How much money will we raise for Terry Fox?
4. When is our first field trip? -TBD

September 16, 2016

Agenda:
Read 30 min
Homework: For the next week, make a note of what time you go to bed and wake up.  If you are getting less than 10-11 hours, change one thing in your routine to see if you can sleep better.
For extra basic fact practice, visit http://gregtangmath.com/kakooma 
Book orders due Tuesday

What did we do today?

• After our brain stretch question, we talked about the cardinal directions and some of the landmarks we see in the school.  We then became cartographers, and in small groups we came up with names for the different paths and landmarks in the Whispering Woods.
• As a large group, we voted on a couple of names.  The main path into the woods from the natureground is called Beavertail Road.  The one shaped like a "C" that runs south of the Whispering Woods is called The Big C.
• We played hog call in the Whispering Woods again and were able to be a couple of animals.

Questions:

1. Will we be going to Nose Hill on Fresh Air Fridays? -Yes we will.
2. Why didn't we go to Barrett Park today?- We ran out of time.
3. When will our book orders come in? - Hopefully two weeks.
4. Will we have a listening walk at Barrett Park and Nose Hill Park?- Barrett Park for sure.
5. How many students will go and see Beakerhead around Calgary this weekend?
6. Will we play hog call again next week?- Probably not.
7. What will we do on Monday?-TBD
8. How many times will we go to Nose Hill this year?- TBD

September 15, 2016

Agenda:
Read 30 min
Fresh Air Friday tomorrow, dress for the weather
Hand in school handbook form to be put in weekly draw
Welcome Back BBQ tonight from 5-7pm
Homework: For the next week, make a note of what time you go to bed and wake up.  If you are getting less than 10-11 hours, change one thing in your routine to see if you can sleep better.
For extra basic fact practice, visit http://gregtangmath.com/kakooma 
Book orders due Tuesday

What did we do today?

• First thing this morning, we did our brain stretch question.  Then we made a subtraction word problem to solve which we worked on before and after gym.  We had to make a problem using three given numbers and answer it using a number sentence and a word sentence.
• In gym, practiced our lap for the Terry Fox run.  We also had caterpillar relays where we had to move items from one side of the gym to another.  We also played cat and mouse.
• We filmed our Beakerhead video part.  We went into the Whispering Woods by the amphitheater.   We used our shakers to play our rhythm while hiding in the trees.
• We practiced our reading stamina again and were able to maintain it for one minute and twenty two seconds.
• After lunch, Mrs. Wilkens came in to teach us a health lesson about sleep.  Kids our age should be sleeping 10-11 hours a night so we can learn better and it is easier to focus.  We also watched a video, which showed Mr. Bean's nighttime routine and how he goes to sleep.
• We got into four groups to sort our answers for four questions our teachers asked about our learning.  The grade 3s had to tally the number the stickie notes we sorted while the grade 4s made a bar graph with the information.
• We watched a video about Beakerhead in Calgary this year.

Questions:

1. What game will we play tomorrow?- Hog call
2. What will we do with the graphs that we made?- put them up in the classroom
3. How many people will have to change their nighttime routine?- TBD
4. How many stickies were counted?
5. How many students will go and see Beakerhead around Calgary this weekend?
6. What was the most amount of stickie notes in one pile?-38

September 14, 2016

Agenda:
Read 30 min
Wear long pants tomorrow for the Beakerhead video, bring extra clothes if needed
Bring green communication folder for forms back- school handbook 
Welcome Back BBQ tomorrow from 5-7pm
Homework: Math Mystery of the Week to be handed in by tomorrow, Beakerhead journal due Friday
For extra basic fact practice, visit http://gregtangmath.com/kakooma 
Book orders due next Tuesday

What did we do today?

• First thing this morning, we did our brain stretch question and after we talked about making our own word problems, which we worked on before and after gym.  We had to make a problem using three given numbers.
• To start gym we played a movement game where we had to perform a type of movement such as skipping.  When we heard the squistle we had to find a called coloured dot on the floor.  We also did a caterpillar race and we did a practice lap for the Terry Fox run.
• In language arts we discussed how to read a book and we saw how to retell a story using the book Sweet Dream Pie.  Using a given picture book, we practiced our reading stamina as a class for one minute after two other previous tries.
• We finished our journal entry about our instruments and how they will connect to nature.
• In science we finished making our instruments for the Beakerhead challenge.
• In music we got to go outside to practice our rhythm for the Beakerhead challenge.  It goes Yummy and a yummy and a yummy and a YUM!

Questions:

1. What time will we be filming for Beakerhead? In the morning sometime.
2. When will we get our math assessments back? Hopefully by Monday.
3. I wonder how the final product for Beakerhead will sound? 
4. Which school will win the Beakerhead ingenuity challenge?
5. When will we start our first science class? Social?-next week

September 13, 2016

Agenda:
Read 30 min
Bring green communication folder for forms back- school handbook
Welcome Back BBQ Thursday from 5-7pm
Homework: Math Mystery of the Week to be handed in by Thursday, finish hand art to put up in class
For extra basic fact practice, visit http://gregtangmath.com/kakooma 
Book orders due next Tuesday

What did we do today?

• This afternoon, we had to answer four questions on stickie notes.  These questions included what we need to learn, what our teachers need to do to help us learn and what we expect to learn about this year.
• We had our first library book exchange time.  Mrs. Kidd went over the library expectations before we were allowed to pick out books.
• We got time to continue building our Beakerhead instruments.
• Today we wrote a journal entry about our instruments and how they will connect to nature.
• Some of us signed up for the Green Team, which will pick up the recycling and compost from the classrooms on Wednesdays.
• In gym, we played a game called Builders and Bulldozers.  We also did our practice for the Terry Fox Run.
• In Daily 5, we talked about stamina, and what it looks like when reading.
• We also got catch up time to finish math and our hand art.

Questions:

1. What are we doing for gym tomorrow? More games.
2. When is Book Fair? September 22-23
3. When will Ms. Jones read a chapter book to us? Starting next month.
4. When will buddies start?  TBD
5. Who in our class will run the most laps during the Terry Fox run?
6. What answers did other students write for the four questions?

September 12, 2016

Agenda:
Read 30 min
See communication folder for forms- school handbook
Homework: Math Mystery of the Week to be handed in by Thursday, think of more ideas for the Beakerhead challenge.

What did we do today?

• Today in gym we played a game called hospital tag.  There were two games of tag going side by side.  If you were tagged, you had to go to the hospital to get better by doing jumping jacks or burpees before returning to the game on the other side.  We also did a practice lap for the Terry Fox Run which will happen at the end of the month.
• After recess, we had our first back to school assembly.  We were introduced to the new students.  Mrs. Polski also introduced the Beakerhead challenge and the materials we will use.
• We started our Beakerhead challenge.  What we had to do was make a musical instrument out of ping pong balls.
• We started our first brain stretch word problem in math and learned the CUBES method.  We used our graph paper book to solve the problem.
• Some of us were assigned classroom jobs for the week.

Questions:

1. Will we have Privilege day this year?
2. What will some of our Beakerhead instruments look like?
3. How will all the class instruments sound together?
4. What other instruments will the other classrooms come up with?
5. What will our final song sound like?
6. What are we doing for math tomorrow?
7. When will we get book order forms?

September 9, 2016

Agenda:
Read 30 min
See communication folder for forms- school forms and Welcome back BBQ
Homework: Find out what the word stamina means? Fresh Air Friday journal about listening walk

What did we do today?

• We read a story called The Listening Walk. We then went outside to the Whispering Woods and did a listening walk.  We journaled about the sounds we heard and added an onomatopoeia to it.
• We played a game like barnyard in the Whispering Woods where we had to find three other animals the same as us by the sound they used.
• We also had time to do some catch up work.

Questions:

1. How many people checked the blog?
2. How many Fresh Air Fridays are we going to have?
3. How many field trips will we have this year?- 2-3

September 8, 2016

Agenda:
Read 30 min
See communication folder for forms- school forms and Welcome back BBQ
Check the music blog to see the Musical Marble Machine
Homework: Find out what the word stamina means?
Fresh Air Friday tomorrow- dress for the weather.

What did we do today?

• This afternoon, we had our first journal writing task.  We had to tell Ms. Jones what the "Golden Rule" is and two important points from the story we read yesterday.  We also had to give an example of when we have practiced the "Golden Rule."
• We played barnyard in gym and in a circle, we had to pass a dodgeball to the person beside us without using our hands or dropping it on the floor.
• We did a math assessment to show Ms. Jones what we remember about numbers from last year and if we could create word problems.
• In music, we made a seating arrangement and with four words we had to make a play.  The goal was to mostly use your body to act. Some people played a beat while we sang a name learning song.
• We put up our coat hook name tags.
• With Room 5, we talked about the three different ways to read a book for Daily 5: read using the pictures, read using the words and retell the story.

Questions:

1. What will we do for the first Fresh Air Friday?- to be determined.
2. What will the definition for stamina be?

September 7, 2016

Agenda:
Read 30 min
Bring indoor shoes for gym, water bottle
See communication folder for forms
Check the music blog to see the Musical Marble Machine

What did we do today?

• We traced each others hands which we will personalize to create class flowers (a masterpiece) to represent our learning community.
• This morning we did mad minutes to show Ms. Jones where we are in math with adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.
• Today was the first day we did gym inside.  We played Fish In the Sea while listening for the squistle, which means Ms. Jones wants us to sit and listen.
• We also had our first music class.  We watched a video showing a musical marble machine and we did some singing and dancing to make our names. The challenge for dancing our name is from the Beakerhead program, which we will be a part of this year.
• We made the rest of our class rules and made class jobs.

Questions:

1. Will we have time to continue working on our hand art tomorrow?- Possibly.
2. When is our first fun lunch?- Sometime in October.

September 6, 2016

Agenda:
Read 30 min
Bring indoor shoes for gym, water bottle

What did we do today?

• We created name tags for our coat hooks and desks.  The ones on our desks are triangular prisms that have our names, an alliteration, 4 favourites and three truths and a fib about ourselves.
• We played a Skittle game to meet everyone in our class.
• We started to create rules for our classroom with Room 5.
• We played Chuck the Chicken in gym.

Questions?

1. Do we have gym everyday?- Yes, at 9:30.
2. Are we going to be starting math and what will we start with first? Starting tomorrow we will be starting with number operations.
3. When is our first treat day?- sometime in October.
4. Will we have buddies this year?- Yes, most likely the Kindergarten students.