March 22, 2017- Yay it is Spring Break!

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Homework: tipi story planners and sacred bundle journals
Family dance raffle basket donations to be collected March 20- April 5th
School resumes April 3rd

What did we do today?

• In math, group B had adding and subtracting decimal problem to solve.  Group A got six perimetre questions to solve while group C had to measure how many centimetre cubes could fit in their desks and how many soccer balls could fit in a cubic metre.
• This morning in gym was our choice!  We decided we wanted to play King's Gold.  For the last five minutes, we played Fishies in the Sea to celebrate World Water Day.
• After recess, we had project time!  If we had finished our word work, we could do more research on our topics.
• Did you know that all the fish near Garbage Island have at least 5g of plastic inside of them?
• Before lunch, Mrs. Wilkens had changed the rubric for our iMovies so we went through it before planning our videos.
• In music, we practiced a song for our learning celebration.
• At the end of the day, we got to work on Daily 5 activities. Ms. Jones had three activities we had to do before we could work on our projects.

March 21, 2017- From One to Ten

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Homework: practice multiplication facts, word work is one day overdue. Students need to create four new words using the given suffix (two for -oy and two for -ment) using any letters of the alphabet.  They also need to write a sentence for each new word.  Read to Self or work on writing assignment due tomorrow.  Page 162-163 #2,3,5,6 &7 due tomorrow
Tomorrow is World Water Day- please dress in something blue
Treat day tomorrow- bring 25¢
Family dance raffle basket donations to be collected March 20- April 5th
No school Thursday & Fri
School resumes April 3rd

What did we do today?

• In the morning, group A & B measured the perimetres of their shoes and finished their work from yesterday while group C built a life size cubic metre using interlocking cubes.
• In gym, we played prisoner's base.  There were two jails on each side.  If you were hit with a foam ball, you went to one of the jails.  To get back in, you had to hit a player from the other team.
• After recess, we had social studies and we continued to work on our sacred bundle writing.  We also wrote together as a class a paragraph about what a sacred bundle is.
• During Read Aloud, we read a couple of chapters form Wonder.  Auggie met a new friend named Summer during lunch.
• In Daily 5, Ms. Jones put up an order of what activities we had to finish.  We had to work on our tipi writing plan, our timeline picture and our read to self choice before we could do anything else.
• At the end of the day, we continued to work on learning celebration projects.
• Fun fact of the day: Candy wrappers can not be recycled because they have polypropylene.

Questions:

Will Summer still have some of her friends after speaking to Auggie?

March 20, 2017- In my sacred bundle

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Homework: practice multiplication facts, word work due tomorrow. Students need to create four new words using the given suffix (two for -oy and two for -ment).  They also need to write a sentence for each new word.
Treat day tomorrow- bring 25¢
Family dance raffle basket donations to be collected March 20- April 5th
No school Thursday & Fri
School resumes April 3rd

What did we do today?

• Today in math, we started with multiplication ninja Monday.  Ms. Jones is having us use a different site to practice our basic fact skills. We also finished our perimetre work from last week. http://www.multiplication.com/quiz/multiplication-self-correcting-quizzes 
• In gym, we played dodgeball.  It was called Star Wars Dodgeball.  You had to try and knock over the Death Star and it's two moons.  Two students had light sabres to protect their star.
• In social studies, we worked on our sacred bundles write ups.  We had to write what is in our sacred bundle and tell why it is important to us.
• Before lunch, we planned out characters and started a script for our Unthinkable iMovies.
• After lunch in Daily 5, we had to work on a number of assignments, including our social timelines, our personality popper and our sacred bundle writing.
• At the end of the day in art, we continued to work on learning celebration projects.
• Today's presentation teaser:  Africa is the place with no record of using the atlatl.

Questions:
1. Will we be sharing our Unthinkable videos with the class?

March 17, 2017- St. Patricks DehAoine

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Homework: practice multiplication facts, second and third page of tipi planner due Monday
Family dance raffle basket donations to be collected March 20- April 5th
Treat day is Tuesday

What did we do today?

• We started the day with Project dehAoine (jay- HEEN-yeh).  This is the Irish word for Friday.  Some of us have started to print information for our presentations.  Here is a snippet of what you might learn...
• there is a special place in Canada that can actually recycle one use wrappers.
• did you know the buffalo only allowed single white wolves near their herds. You can learn about this on April 13th at our learning celebration.
• After that, we reviewed what a sacred bundle was.  We then went on a vision quest through the school ground to find items that represented the animal kingdom, the plant kingdom and the mineral kingdom.  We brought our items back into our classrooms to create our sacred bundles, which we made from fabric and twine. Traditional sacred bundles are often made of buffalo hide and sinew.

Questions:

1. What was the easiest item to find?

March 16, 2017- Amoeba, chicken, dinosaur, super hero- the evolution of badminton

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Homework: practice multiplication facts, second and third page of tipi planner due tomorrow
Family dance forms due tomorrow
Family dance raffle basket donations to be collected March 20- April 5th

What did we do today?

• At the beginning of the day, we learned about how to measure perimetre.  After measuring each side of a shape, you add the sides together.
• A student brought in an interesting article from the paper about how bison have been in North America for 130 000 years!  They roamed around the same time as the wooly mammoth!
• In gym, we played games of badminton with the nets up.  We had an amoeba court, a chicken court, two dinosaur courts and two superhero courts.  We moved courts depending if we lost or won the game, like in superhero tag.
• After recess in language arts, Ms. Jones read us some of the book Wonder.  After a few chapters, we completed a Personality Popper activity, where we had to choose five personality traits and write how we know they have those traits.
• During Daily 5, many of us chose the listen to reading choice or we worked on our tipi story planners.  
• At the end of the day, we had Project Thursday time!  Some of us brought tri-folds to show our cool and interesting facts.  Speaking of which...
• an owl can turn its head 270º
• did you know there is a fungi that can break down plastic?  You can learn about this "fun guy" on April 13th at our learning celebration. 

Questions:
We were so busy again that we ran out of time!

March 15, 2017- Hannah and the Magic Eye

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Homework: practice multiplication facts, math mystery #19 due tomorrow, science title page, first page of tipi planner due tomorrow
Family dance forms due Friday
Please look for writing journals at home- we are missing 2!
Fraction math quiz sent home today

What did we do today?

• At the beginning of the day, Tyler Enfield visited our school.  He is the author who had written the novels Wrush.  He has written a new book called Hannah and the Magic Eye. It is set in the city of Jerusulem and the characters were being chased by thugs.
• Ms. Jones went over our fraction tests, which is going home today!  Check our backpacks!
• In Wonder, Auggie has decided he wants to go to school and his mother is really worried.
• After recess in gym, we played games of badminton with the nets up.  We played two player vs two player games.  We had to hit it only once to get it over the net.
• We started to work on our iMovies in health.  We have to pick an Unthinkable and make a skit about how to defeat them.
• In language arts, we worked on completing our tipi story planners.
• During Daily 5, many of us chose the listen to reading choice or we worked on our tipi story planners.  
• In music, we played poison rhythm and we had to clap out rhythms.  If we clapped out the "poison" rhythm we were out.

Questions:
We were so busy again that we ran out of time!

March 14, 2017- Tipi sharing with our buddies

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Homework: practice multiplication facts, math worksheet questions due Wednesday, math mystery #19 due Thursday, science title page
Author visit tomorrow morning
Family dance forms due Friday
Please look for writing journals at home- we are missing 3!

What did we do today?

• Today in math, we started our measurement unit by finishing a centimetre and metre scavenger hunt.
• In gym, we played games of badminton with the nets up.  We played two player vs two player games.  
• In buddies, we brought our tipis to the learning commons and we shared our tipi projects.  They asked us questions about how many people lived in them and how we designed and painted so well.
• We got some new ukeleles. We learned how to tune the ukeleles using tuning pegs and listening to the piano.
• During Daily 5, many of us chose the listen to reading choice or we worked on our tipi story planners.  We also ha library exchange at this time.
• At the end of the day we got time to work on our learning celebration projects.
• Did you know that dinosaurs means "terrible lizard?"  To find out more, please clear your calendars April 13th for our learning celebration!

Questions:
We were so busy again that we ran out of time!

March 13, 2017- Head smashed in birdie nets.

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Homework: practice multiplication facts, math worksheet questions due Wednesday, math mystery #19 due Thursday, science title page
Author visit Wednesday morning
Family dance forms due Friday
Please look for writing journals at home- we are missing 5!

What did we do today?

• Today in math, we started with multiplication ninja Monday.  Ms. Jones is having us use a different site to practice our basic fact skills. http://www.multiplication.com/quiz/multiplication-self-correcting-quizzes 
• In gym, we played games of badminton with the nets up.  We played two player vs two player games.  
• In language arts, Ms. Jones read us two Blackfeet tipi stories.  This was to help us brainstorm ideas into our tipi design story planners.  Once we have completed these, we can start writing our stories.
• After language arts, we had health.  We made a rubric for our movie projects, which will focus on our Unthinkables.
• During Daily 5, Ms. Jones started word work with us.  She helped us with the 5 letter and 6+ letter words.  After that, we had to finish the activity on our own.  We also had the choice to work on any other Daily 5 activity too.
• At the end of the day in art, we continued to work on our timeline pictures showing        5 600 years ago to the mid 1800's.

Questions:
1. What will happen to Auggie when he starts school?
2. What will our next timeline picture be about?

March 10, 2017- Project Friday

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Homework: practice multiplication facts, science title page, buffalo hunt journals

Author visit March 15th- if you want to purchase a book bring $12

Family Dance April 7th- bring form back for tickets

What did we do today?

• Today we had time to work on our learning celebration projects.  We talked about what we needed for our projects to be complete, which include an introduction, researched facts, an interesting title and visuals such as pictures, artifacts, and models.
• Did you know...
• that there is an island made of garbage floating in the North Pacific Ocean.
• the oldest projectile point weapon the Blackfoot used was the spear.  The oldest point is 12 000 years old!
• To learn more, come to our learning celebration April 16th!
• This morning we also had some catch up time to finish some work such as title pages, measuring scavenger hunts and buffalo hunt journals.
• It was too cold to snowshoe outside, so we stayed inside to work on our projects instead.

Questions:
1. We ran out of time.

March 9, 2017- Project Thursday

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Homework: practice multiplication facts, math mystery #18 due tomorrow

Author visit March 15th- if you want to purchase a book bring $12

Fresh Air Friday tomorrow- please come dressed for the weather and to be outside for a bit
Family Dance April 7th- letter sent home today

What did we do today?

• At the start of the day in math, we finished the show what you know sheet.  After that we had to complete two assigned Mathletics activities before working on a measurement scavenger hunt.
• In gym, we continued to play badminton. Ms. Jones taught us a new way of serving called the back hand serve.  We also played a game where Ms. Jones would call either "underhand" or "backhand" and we would serve that way over the net.  If our birdie landed in a certain spot we got points.  After that, we played Keep the Birdies Out of my Yard.
• After recess, Ms. Jones read us Wonder.  In Wonder, August met three new students on his tour of his new school.  Two of them our nice, while the other student was quite mean.
• In music, we did ukeleles.  We practiced our G7 chord with the song "Someone to Lava". We also played the game Freeze Dance.
• After lunch, we worked on finishing our buffalo hunt journals, with the intent of finishing the paragraph about buffalo jumps and pounds. After that we could choose a Daily 5 activity to work on.
• At the end of the day, we started Project Thursday.  We are working on our projects for our learning celebration.

Questions:
1. We ran out of time.

March 8, 2017-

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Homework: practice multiplication facts, math mystery #18 due Friday

Fun lunch and Jersey/ Sport Uniform Spirit Day tomorrow

Author visit March 15th- if you want to purchase a book bring $12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CWb1NiLpPA

What did we do today?

• In math, we did a show what you know sheet, so Ms. Jones can plan and group us for our next unit, which is shape and space.
• In gym, we continued badminton. Using the benches as nets, we practiced our serving and our rallying.  If the birdie fell, the group had to sit down and Ms. Jones would add the birdies to see who had more on their side.
• After recess, we talked about our learning celebration, which will be happening April 16. We have come up with a name and a project we will be showing in different "buildings" of our learning community.
• We reviewed whether anyone has defeated any of the Unthinkables and we shared with the class.
• After lunch, we worked on finishing our buffalo hunt journals, with the intent of finishing the paragraph about buffalo jumps and pounds. 
• In music, we did a poison rhythm game, where there was a rhythm that you shouldn't do mixed with ones that we needed to perform.
• At the end of the day, we did Daily "4", as we only had four activities.

Questions:
1. We ran out of time.

March 7, 2017- Field trip across the classroom.

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Homework: practice multiplication facts, math mystery #18 due Friday
Fun lunch and Jersey/ Sport Uniform Spirit Day Thursday
Author visit March 15th- if you are interested in pre-ordering his latest book bring $12
Book orders due tomorrow

What did we do today?

• Room 5 and the Destination Conservation students were working in our classroom today on the archeology centres, such as the pot mending station, so we moved to Room 5. Once we moved, we went to the learning commons to practice our multiplication skills.
• In math, we brainstormed all the different ways we can use measurement and we recorded them in our math scribblers.
• In gym, we started a new unit called racquet sports.  With badminton racquets we practiced serving into hoops and dots.  Small hoops were 5 points, large hoops were 2 points and dots were 10 points.  Then we found a partner and practiced rallying underhand.
• In buddies, we helped them go onto Mathletics by giving them verbal instructions.  We could not help them by working the mouse or keyboard.
• Before lunch, we had health with Mrs. Wilkens in the kindergarten room.  We talked about our checking chart.  We decided if any of our classmates earned a bead for defeating an Unthinkable.
• After lunch, we worked on finishing our buffalo hunt journals, with the intent of finishing the paragraph about buffalo jumps and pounds.  After that we had library exchange.
• At the end of the day, we continued to work on our timelines.  This time, we worked on a scene from 5 600 years ago to the 1800s.  It needs to have the prairie landscape, tipis and buffalo.

Questions:
1. We ran out of time.

March 6, 2017- Back in Time with an Artifact/ Ecofact frenzy!

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Homework: practice multiplication facts, math mystery #18 due Friday, will be handed out tomorrow
Fun lunch and Spirit Day Thursday
Science Title page due
Author visit March 15th

What did we do today?

• Today we had a special visitors.  Amy and Alex are archeologists from the Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation.  They showed us that stone was used by many pre-historic people for tools and houses.  
• We had seven centres to visit and a dig site.  One of the them was to re-build Bill the buffalo.  There was a huge foam buffalo and using a poster of the bones, we had to put the bones back into the proper place. There is three bones (phalanges) that make up a buffalo toe. Buffalo also have 7 cervical vertabrae, 13 thoracic and 5 lumbar vertabrae.
• In the pottery station, we had to research the different types of pots.  Then we would try to piece together a Avonlea pot.  It was very hard!
• At the Artifact and Ecofact station, we had to choose whether given items were artifacts, which have been used or made by humans, or an ecofact which has been shaped by nature.
• In the dig site, we got a trowel, two brushes and a dust pan.  We had to dig inside a huge tupperware box to find a number of artifacts.  Once we found an artifact, we had to map, measure and move the item.  There were three possible sites, one was a buffalo kill site, one was a buffalo processing site and the last one was a historical campsite.
• We learned that being an archeologist requires different skills, that they use team work and special tools, and that they need a LOT of patience to do their job.

Questions:
1. We ran out of time.

March 3, 2017- Our Own Sacred Bundle Search

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Homework: practice multiplication facts, Science title page due Monday
It must have: a producer/consumer or decomposer fact; something about the Green Calgary natural cleaners; a biodegradable fact; something we learned from the biodegradable video; a observation from your waste audit; a fact you learned form the waste videos; one habit you will change from the The Great Trash Bash and three other facts of your choice.  It must be coloured!

Introduction to Archeology-special guest here all day Monday (4 volunteers are needed)

What did we do today?

• We started the day with a fraction and decimal quiz.
• We learned about the sacred bundles that the Blackfoot people used to make.  We then went out into the Whispering Woods to find items to put in our own personal bundle. Each item of nature had to represent a characteristic and have meaning.  One student picked thistle leaves to represent strength, as the thistle is a hardy plant.
• After we collected out items to put in our bundles, we played Sneak Up.  After the first round, Ms. Jones changed it so that every time the buffalo caught someone moving, they would move back further away.  It made the game a lot harder.

Questions:

1. What materials will we be making our sacred bundles from?
2. Which item from nature will be the most common item found in our bundles?  Will they have the same meaning?
3. What is the red substance on the bottom of the trees in the Whispering Woods? (the grade 5/6s are investigating)
4. Will we play another version of Sneak?
5. What will the archeologist teach us and what will we be digging?

March 2, 2017- A Funny Name for a Principal

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Homework: Grade 4s: finish page 216-217 fraction and decimal review for tomorrow
Book orders due March 8
Math quiz tomorrow on fractions  (grade 3) and decimals (grade 3 and 4)
Fresh Air Friday tomorrow- please be dressed for the weather

What did we do today?

• In math, the grade 4s got a review to work on for tomorrow's quiz in our text books, while the grade 3s finished their review before playing a fraction domino game.
• This morning in Jungle Safari, we went around each station. If we made it around all the checkpoints, we got to put our names on the "I Did It!" board.
• After recess, Ms. Jones continued to read the book Wonder.  August was on a tour of the new school he was going to. He met his new principal, who has an interesting and funny name.
• In music, we continued our mid year test.  Then we got some time to work in groups or alone on songs such as "Someone to Lava", "Somewhere over the Rainbow", "Little Tommy Tinker".  Then we got time to share with the class.
• After lunch, we had time to work on our science title pages and tipi story starters.  This continued into Daily 5 as well.
• In social studies, we got to work on our buffalo hunt journals about the buffalo jump and pound.  Ms. Jones explained how the Blackfoot used a buffalo pound to trap the buffalo.

Questions:
1. Will August like his new school?  Will he become friends with the three students in the office?
2. Will August meet anyone else with weird names?

March 1, 2017- Mission Impossible 2 (day 2)

Agenda:

Read 30 min

Homework: practice multiplication facts, math mystery #17 due tomorrow
**There is a typo on this week's math mystery.  The sentence should say there are 3 more rabbits than birds.  So sorry about the confusion!**
Buffalo Hunt Journal due tomorrow- sneak paragraph only
Book orders due March 8
Math quiz Friday on fractions and decimals

What did we do today?

• First thing this morning we finished our brain stretches.  Then we arranged the room differently so it was easier to move around.  After that, we had some catch up time to finish our tasks and to start our review for Friday's quiz.
• Today in gym, we had our second day of Jungle Safari/ Mission Impossible.  Dots were added to the scooter tunnel.  The hardest station to complete is the basketball hoop. 
• After recess, we worked on our Buffalo Hunt journal.  If we did not finish the first paragraph about the sneak game we played Friday, then we have to take it home to finish.
• For health, we talked more how we can monitor our Unthinkable behaviours.  Mrs. Wilkens introduced us to a checklist.  If we are good at not showing Brain Eater, Topic Twistermeister or Rock Brain then we can get a checkmark and another bead on our necklaces.
• In music, we learned a new song called "Little Tommy Tinker" and after that Ms. Stephure gave us a ukelele quiz.  We had to show the g chord and draw a diagram of the ukelele and label 4 strings.
• In Daily 5, we got to work on our tasks for the week.

Questions:
1. No time again!