April 30 - Out of time!

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• Hats on for Mental Health day tomorrow - wear a hat!
• Family Dance on Friday
• Swimming next week

What we did today:

• In science this afternoon we used bars of soap to see how different screw threads affected the force and effort required to screw them in - and then ran out of time to finish the blog today!
• We learned to add decimals in Math, played Frisbee relays in Phys Ed, and got new Word Work to work on this week. We also started brainstorming the problems and some possible solutions for our story writing so that we can get to work on our event sequences later this week.

April 29, 2019 - Chagall's Window in Paris

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• Family Dance on Friday at 6pm
• Treat day tomorrow
• Swimming starts next week
• Library tomorrow

What we did today:

• We went to Room 5 carpet and looked at an art piece called Paris Through the Window by artist Marc Chagall who made a lot of paintings with oil. He used elements of real life and his imagination, including a man with 2 faces - one looking at the past and one looking at the future. We had to find the magical elements in the painting. We will be making our own versions of Chagall's window starting next Monday.
• In gym we played the same partner target frisbee-game that we played last week where one partner stood in the hoop and had to catch the frisbee with at least one foot in the hoop. After that we played frisbee tag, odds vs. evens and you had to try to get the frisbee into the other team's goal-hoop. Boys had to pass to girls, and girls had to pass to boys.
• In music we set up the gym for the Simon Fraser Concert Band presentation we had in the afternoon. They played 3 different songs. One was a march, one was a story, and the last one was the song "Happy"
• We paired up with Room 5 again to learn about the problems and solutions in storytelling. Ms. Cowdy read to us from "Christopher, Please Clean Up Your Room" and we had to find the problem and make a list of the possible solutions. The parents thought of ways to make him clean up his room and we came up with 16 of our own ways we would try. One was to give Christopher up for adoption!
• In Computers we did Mathletics

April 26 - Sketching Nature

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• Family dance on May 3rd
• Swimming starting May 7th

What we did today:

• We did our Nature Journals. Ms Cowdy showed us 2 pages from the Nature Journal book and we went outside to sketch something from ground level, eye level, and sky level. We could choose other natural things to draw and write our first impressions, the time, date, weather, and more.
• Today we cleaned up the Whispering Woods for Earth Day. We used tongs and gloves to pick up all of the garbage we found.
• We read for 15 minutes and did the Big Pick Up
• We wrote our spelling test
• Cheesecake!!!!!!!

April 25, 2019 - Early Blog

Agenda:

- Read 20 minutes
- Spelling test tomorrow
- Swimming starts May 7th
- Family Dance May 3rd

What we did today:

- We had our favourite sub in today - welcome back, Ms. Brunsch!

- We read a book called The Great Kapok Tree about a man who was going to cut down a tree and falls asleep so they animals all try to convince him not to cut down the tree. We had to figure out the main message of the book.

- In gym we played a new game in frisbee where there was an area of pylons and we walked around the edges until Ms. Brunsch told us to stop and then we tried to get our frisbees into the hoops in the middle for points.

- In Daily 5, Group 7 did Raz Kids on the computer while other groups had teacher time and worked independently.

- In math we worked on our pixel letters and calculated the perimeter and area of the whole word and made fractions about the vowels, consonants, and colours.

- In computer lab, we got 3 different options of games to play. Puppy Chase, which was a fraction race; Solve Me, which had mystery problems; or Strolling my Gnomies, which was about measurement.

April 24, 2019- Don't put plastics in our lunch

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• Family Dance Invitations sent home with oldest student- due next Tuesday
• Sa'akokoto will be visiting tomorrow! :)
• Spelling test Friday- words sent home

Save the date: 

• On May 3, we are having The Dr. Coffin Family Dance
• Swimming Lessons start May 7, 2019

What we did today:

• Today in science, we learned about about three different types of pulleys: fixed, moveable and the system of pulleys.  The moveable pulley is with the load as it stays up high with a fixed pulley.  We labelled the direction of the forces when each was used.  We also learned that force is measured in Newtons.
• This morning, we had guests from SWC to talk to us about reducing the plastics in our lunches.  They had questions and if we answered them we got a metal straw.  We can reduce the plastics in our lunches by using reusable containers, using paper straws, a choosing items in the grocery store that don't contain non-renewable packaging.
• In language arts, we had time to work on our writing.  We had to write a description of our setting.  After, we highlighted the answers to questions we chose to describe and we looked into changing a couple of words to make it better.
• In gym, we did more frisbee games.  We practiced throwing and catching to each other before playing frisbee baseball.  Ms. Jones asked us to try outfielding close and far and to see which method cut the runners laps quicker.

April 23, 2019- The Pulley Days Are Back!

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• Family Dance Invitations sent home with oldest student
• Sa'akokoto will be visiting Thursday! :)
• Spelling test Friday- words sent home

Save the date: 

• Our school is hosting a parent-only information session about Cyber Safety and Online Bullying tonight.  This session is presented by the Calgary Police Services Crime Prevention team. This presentation will begin at 6:30 in the gym and the doors will open at 6:15 pm. Please join us as we learn about online safety and how to support your children as they become more connected in the digital world. 
• On May 3, we are having The Dr. Coffin Family Dance
• Swimming Lessons start May 7, 2019

What we did today:

• Today in science, we watched a video about pulleys.  We filled out questions about pulleys, which included a diagram which we labeled, we drew an example of where we see pulleys and how they work.
• In gym, we went outside and started frisbee activities.  Ms. Jones showed us how to throw and catch a frisbee.  We then had time to practice.  After that we got into teams of 5-6 people and we played a game called frisbee baseball.  Ask me how we played that at dinner!
• Before library, Ms. Jones explained and modelled how to write a description of a setting.  We used the questions about the senses we learned last week to help us determine what we would write.  This will be our task during Work on Writing.
• During computer lab, we used the pixel letter program to create a verb.  To make sure our word was a verb, we asked ourselves if we could do that action across a room.

April 18, 2019- Goodbye Ms. Li. :( :(

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• No school tomorrow or Monday

Save the date: 

• Our school is hosting a parent-only information session about Cyber Safety and Online Bullying on Tuesday, April 23.  This session is presented by the Calgary Police Services Crime Prevention team. This presentation will begin at 6:30 in the gym and the doors will open at 6:15 pm. Please join us as we learn about online safety and how to support your children as they become more connected in the digital world. 
  We would appreciate knowing how many parents will be attending. Please RSVP to Mrs. Rennie by replying to this email if you are planning to attend.​​​​​​​
• On May 3, we are having The Dr. Coffin Family Dance
• Swimming Lessons start May 7, 2019

What we did today:

• Today in language arts, we did an Easter Egg hunt about the parts of writing.  We got a pencil as a prize.  We looked for eggs that had questions we have to think about when making up a character and verbs.
• In gym, we started up with our parachute wave warm up before playing games.  We played mushroom, parachute soccer and shark and lifeguards, since it was our favourite game.  It was our last day of parachute games. :(
• In science, we learned about rollers and wheels and axles.  We watched a video about them before comparing the two simple machines.  Then we answered some questions and used pencils as rollers to move a dictionary across the floor.  We ended the class with charades.
• During computer lab, we typed out character paragraphs from our journals before playing games on the Solve Me website.

April 17, 2019- Inclined Planes

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• Fun Lunch is tomorrow
• Math test tomorrow- review will be done in class all week

Save the date: 

• Our school is hosting a parent-only information session about Cyber Safety and Online Bullying on Tuesday, April 23.  This session is presented by the Calgary Police Services Crime Prevention team. This presentation will begin at 6:30 in the gym and the doors will open at 6:15 pm. Please join us as we learn about online safety and how to support your children as they become more connected in the digital world. 
  We would appreciate knowing how many parents will be attending. Please RSVP to Mrs. Rennie by replying to this email if you are planning to attend.​​​​​​​
• On May 3, we are having The Dr. Coffin Family Dance
• Swimming Lessons start May 7, 2019

What we did today:

• Today in science, we started learning about ramps, also known as inclined planes.  We drew incline planes that are in our daily lives.  Then we did an activity where we wrapped a triangular piece of paper around our pencils to create a screw.
• In gym, we played another game of sharks and lifeguards, parachute soccer, floating cloud and a mushroom.
• During language arts, we looked at how stories describe setting and what questions we should think about when writing our own.  We were then asked to draw a picture of a setting that we will describe later.
• In math, we reviewed referents, length, width and height. We got extra help if we needed.  Then we made sure we had all our worksheets done before playing math games.

April 16, 2019 - Raz kids

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• Homework: art sketch of Mesozoic Era overdue
• Swim forms sent home-due asap
• The next Fun Lunch is scheduled for Thursday.  The food provider will be Subway.  We still need classroom volunteers to help facilitate this in our classroom.  If you can volunteer, please email me to let us know.
• Math test Thursday- review will be done in class all week

Save the date: 

• Our school is hosting a parent-only information session about Cyber Safety and Online Bullying on Tuesday, April 23.  This session is presented by the Calgary Police Services Crime Prevention team. This presentation will begin at 6:30 in the gym and the doors will open at 6:15 pm. Please join us as we learn about online safety and how to support your children as they become more connected in the digital world. 
  We would appreciate knowing how many parents will be attending. Please RSVP to Mrs. Rennie by replying to this email if you are planning to attend.​​​​​​​
• On May 3, we are having The Dr. Coffin Family Dance
• Swimming Lessons start May 7, 2019

What we did today:

• Today in music, we finished up watching our cover song projects. We then talked about song writing and singing. 
• Today in word study, we got new word groups. In Ms. Jones' group we got three sheets of words.
• Today in gym, we had another day of parachute. First, we did the mushroom, then we did the Floating Cloud. We then played Sharks and Lifeguards.
• Today in computer lab, we did Raz kids. 

April 15, 2019- Kahoot!

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• Library tomorrow- bring your books back to return
• Planning form for next year due asap
• Homework: art sketch of Mesozoic Era overdue
• Swim forms sent home-due asap
• The next Fun Lunch is scheduled for Thursday.  The food provider will be Subway.  We still need classroom volunteers to help facilitate this in our classroom.  If you can volunteer, please email me to let us know.
• Science quiz tomorrow- science sent home to study
• Math test Thursday- review will be done in class all week

Save the date: 

• Our school is hosting a parent-only information session about Cyber Safety and Online Bullying on Tuesday, April 23.  This session is presented by the Calgary Police Services Crime Prevention team. This presentation will begin at 6:30 in the gym and the doors will open at 6:15 pm. Please join us as we learn about online safety and how to support your children as they become more connected in the digital world. 
  We would appreciate knowing how many parents will be attending. Please RSVP to Mrs. Rennie by replying to this email if you are planning to attend.​​​​​​​
• On May 3, we are having The Dr. Coffin Family Dance
• Swimming Lessons start May 7, 2019

What we did today:

• In science, we first went over our lever centres from last Thursday.  Then we did a review of what we have learned about levers, force and simple machines using a website called Kahoot!  It was a fun quiz to do because we had nicknames and could see the answers on the board.
• For gym, we used the parachute to play cat and mouse and the floating cloud.  After that we played parachute soccer where the players were put in teams and had to score points by bumping the ball off the parachute on the other team's side.
• During language arts, Ms. Jones read a book called Hilda and the Mad Scientist.  After that we identified the description of Hilda's appearance and personality.  Then we highlighted the verbs, nouns and adjectives before doing the same for our character description.
• In music, we got to do pros and cons about the music project we completed.  Then we got to watch a few of the videos.

April 12, 2019- Lever, Inclined Plan, Rollers

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• Planning form for next year sent home-due Monday
• Homework: art sketch of Mesozoic Era due asap
• Swim forms sent home-due Monday
• The next Fun Lunch is scheduled for Thursday, April 18, 2019.  The food provider will be Subway.  Please order your child's Fun Lunch online at www.healthyhunger.ca no later than midnight tonight.  As well, we still need volunteers to help set up, distribute, and tidy up for this April 18 Fun Lunch.  Please sign up on the Sign Up Genius.  A reminder, too, that you can also order and pay for your child's last Fun Lunch of the school year which is scheduled for Thursday, May 23 with Panago Pizza as the lunch provider.
• Bring back your science duo tangs for Monday
• Science quiz Tuesday- science sent home to study
• Math test Thursday- review to be given next week

Save the date: 

• On April 23, we are having an online safety night presented by Calgary Police Services 
• On May 3, we are having The Dr. Coffin Family Dance
• Swimming Lessons start May 7, 2019

What we did today:

• We had a science class today.  We were put into groups and were given the challenge of using a given simple machine to carry three math textbooks up the risers.  Once we were given an assigned machine, we collected materials such as planks of wood, string, and tape to create our designs.
• For our Fresh Air Friday activity, we played a game similar to rock, paper, scissors tag, but instead of using those terms, we used rollers, levers and inclined plane.  As a team we had to choose which symbol we were going to use against the other.  The team with the winning symbol got to tag the players of the other team before they reached their pylon.

April 11, 2019- First Class Levers

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• Planning form for next year sent home-due Monday
• Spelling quiz tomorrow
• Homework: art sketch of Mesozoic Era due tomorrow
• Swim forms sent home today
• The next Fun Lunch is scheduled for Thursday, April 18, 2019.  The food provider will be Subway.  Please order your child's Fun Lunch online at www.healthyhunger.ca no later than midnight on Friday, April 12, 2019.  As well, we still need volunteers to help set up, distribute, and tidy up for this April 18 Fun Lunch.  Please sign up on the Sign Up Genius.  A reminder, too, that you can also order and pay for your child's last Fun Lunch of the school year which is scheduled for Thursday, May 23 with Panago Pizza as the lunch provider.
• Science quiz Tuesday- science sent home to study
• Math test Thursday- review to be given next week

Save the date: 

• On April 23, we are having an online safety night presented by Calgary Police Services 
• On May 3, we are having The Dr. Coffin Family Dance
• Swimming Lessons start May 7, 2019

What we did today:

• In gym, we played more parachute games with Ms. Li.  We did the mushroom, we made a floating cloud and we played a game called popcorn using a smaller parachute.  Ms. Li numbered us into two groups.  One group would be at the parachute trying to pop the soft foam balls off the parachute while the other group would run and put them back onto the parachute.
• Today in science, we did stations where we looked at a number of different levers.  We had to draw them and identify them as first, second or third class levers.  It depended on the position of the fulcrum load and force as to what class it was.
• During Daily 5, we worked on a number of assignments, including our guided reading questions, word work, art and finishing our character description.
• In math, the grade fours worked with Ms. Li to learn how to measure the area of different shaped polygons.  You break the shape into pieces and add the area of each piece together.  The grade threes worked on completing their perimeter and area worksheets.  If we were done everything, they played a math game.

April 10, 2019- Twin/ Triplet Day! With Catapults!

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• Planning form for next year sent home-due Monday
• Spelling quiz Friday
• The next Fun Lunch is scheduled for Thursday, April 11, 2019.  The food provider will be Subway.  Please order your child's Fun Lunch online at www.healthyhunger.ca no later than midnight on Friday, April 12, 2019.  As well, we still need volunteers to help set up, distribute, and tidy up for this April 11 Fun Lunch.  Please sign up on the Sign Up Genius.  A reminder, too, that you can also order and pay for your child's last Fun Lunch of the school year which is scheduled for Thursday, May 23 with Panago Pizza as the lunch provider.
• If you are going to send treats for birthdays or special occasions, please ONLY send treats which indicate they are nut free and or school safe. There are severe nut allergies in Room 5, which is the classroom attached to ours .
• Save the date: On April 23, we are having an online safety night presented by Calgary Police Services 
• Save the date: On May 3, we are having The Dr. Coffin Family Dance

What we did today:

• In gym, we played more parachute games with Ms. Li.  We did the mushroom, we made a floating cloud and we played a game called Nascar which had us running around the large parachute.
• Today in science, we used a simple machine to make another simple machine.  We had four cups, which were worth different points.  Using a lever, we made a catapult to launch a base ten cube into the cups.
• It was our final recording day for our ukelele cover song project.  Stay tuned for a link to follow which will have our final projects.  Or we can email Mr. O'Reilly to have them emailed to us.
• In math, we started to learn about area.  They look very much like an array, which we learned with our multiplication strategies.  We worked on a sheet to show Ms. Li what we learned.

April 9, 2019- Lift the teacher!

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• Planning form for next year sent home today-due Monday
• Spelling Words have been sent home- spelling quiz Friday
• Spirit Day tomorrow -it's Twin and Triplet Day. Dress like someone or wear your Dr. Coffin hoodie
• Save the date: On April 23, we are having an online safety night presented by Calgary Police Services 

What we did today:

• In science, we did an experiment as a class, where we looked at how the placement of the fulcrum affects how much force you need to lift a load.  In this case, it was our student teacher!  
• Today in word study, we had time to work on our word work tasks, which is due this Friday.
• In math, we did a worksheet, where we had to make a number of different shapes that had a given perimeter in centimetres.
• During computer lab, we continued finishing our pixel letters.  If we finished early, we could go on Mathletics or Raz-Kids.

April 8, 2019- Parachute Fun!

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• Spelling Words have been sent home- spelling quiz Friday
• Spirit Day on Wednesday-it's Twin and Triplet Day
• Save the date: On April 23, we are having an online safety night presented by Calgary Police Services 

What we did today:

• In science, we watched a video about levers and then we completed a sheet about levers.  We had to explain what they are and the different parts of a lever that includes the fulcrum, the lever arm, force and load.
• Today in music, we had our last day to practice our cover song projects.  We watched a video about how to set up a camera and how to frame the video.  The camera should also be eye level or above.
• In gym, we started parachute games. We played cat and mouse, mushroom and we practiced making waves.
• During computer lab, Ms. Li taught us perimeter.  We had pixel letters to download, which we drew on graph paper.  We then had to measure them.

April 5, 2019- Measuring Things Outside

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• Spelling Words have been sent home- spelling quiz next week
• Spirit Day on Wednesday-it's Twin and Triplet Day
• Save the date: On April 23, we are having an online safety night presented by Calgary Police Services 

What we did today:

• For Fresh Air Friday, we went outside and we were given a sheet with different measurements, both metres and centimetres.  We had to find objects that matched those measurements and draw them.  We also had to label our drawings.  If we finished early we were given chalk to draw shapes with a certain perimeter.
• We did the Big Pick up first thing in the morning.  The refundables we collect go to the Vecova bottle depot, which uses the money to help people with physical disabilities.  We also filled a full box of our snack wrappers, which we will now send to Terracycle.
• We had some time to work on our art and finish our timeline pictures for the Mesozoic Era.
• We had word work and got our spelling words for next week.  Please check our backpacks for them.

April 4, 2019- Roz the Wild Robot Escapes Back Home

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• Book orders due tomorrow
• Fresh Air Friday tomorrow, please dress to be outside
• Save the date: On April 23, we are having an online safety night presented by Calgary Police Services 

What we did today:

• We finished the book The Wild Robot today!  We liked the ending and hoped their was another book, but one has not been written (yet). 
• In science, we filled out a what do you know about forces and magnets sheet before learning about forces.  The four types of forces are pulling, pushing, gravity and friction.  We then drew the four types of forces before ending the class with charades.
• In math, learned about perimeter.  To calculate perimeter, you add all the sides together.  Then we got questions to answer about perimeter.
• In computer lab, we did Solve Me activities.
• During gym, it was our last class for line dancing.  We danced to the whole song and did a much better job staying in our lines.

April 3, 2019- Reunited!!

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• Bring library books back if overdue
• Book orders due Friday
• Save the date: On April 23, we are having an online safety night presented by Calgary Police Services 

What we did today:

• Today in gym, we had a lockdown drill.  After we got the all clear, we kept practicing our line dancing.  We needed a lot of practice staying in the line!  
• It was the last day to practice our chords for our ukelele songs.  Next week we start filming.
• In math, we got a sheet with all these questions.  We had to decide whether we would measure certain items in the class using mm, cm or m.  We then got a scavenger hunt to find items that matched given dimensions.
• Ms. Jones read us more of The Wild Robot.  Roz met Dr. Molovo, who was her maker.  They had a deep conversation and asked each other many questions before giving Roz a new body.  Roz then reunited with Brightbill. 
• In language arts, Ms. Jones had us draw what we thought an angry rabbit looked like, but she didn't give us much detail.  Then she read an excerpt from the BFG and Harry Potter and we drew those characters.  We discussed how it is important to make a picture with words.

April 2, 2019- Simple Machines with Pulleys, Wheels and Levers.

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• Bring library books back if overdue
• Book orders due April 5th
• Save the date: On April 23, we are having an online safety night presented by Calgary Police Services 

What we did today:

• Today in science, we started our unit about simple machines.  Examples of these are ramps, pulleys and levers.  We started with a KWL chart before watching a Bill Nye video.  We had to complete a worksheet while watching it, by filling in the blanks with words in a word bank.
• In word study, Ms. Jones's group started a new unit about words that have two words together.  These are called compound words.  We discussed how to sort these words, which we will do next class.  Ms. Cowdy's group did a quick spell before we were given our words for the next week (er, ar and or).
• In math, we talked about measuring in centimeters.  We learned how to use the millimeter lines on the ruler as well and how to record measurements with decimals.  In computer lab, we got to do the Gnomie Game.
• Ms. Jones read us more of The Wild Robot.  Roz got captured after being chased through the city.
• We had to partner up with a new partner in library to complete a Listen to Reading activity.

April 1, 2019- April Fool's

Agenda:

• Read 20 minutes
• Book orders due April 5th
• Save the date: On April 23, we are having an online safety night presented by Calgary Police Services 

What we did today:

• Today in art, we started the next picture for our Alberta timelines.  For our pictures of the Mesozoic Era, we had to include a creature/ dinosaur, vegetation, and a title and we had to use pencil crayons and highlight in sharpies.
• We started our week of dance in gym with line dancing.  We learned six different stages for a line dance and we tried it with music.
• During language arts, we watched a couple of videos about how to develop your characters before finishing our character interviews.  We answered questions such as what is their secret and what they would like to do right now.
• We did Mathletics during computer lab, practicing our fractions.
• Today in music, we continued working on our cover song project.  Next week, we will start filming.
• In math, we worked with referents to measure a number of objects in the class.