Thursday, January 29

 Classroom Update

Math -  Our focus this week was on measurement.  We choose a variety of items in the classroom and hallway to measure using millimetres, centimetres, and metres.  We also continued to work on ordering fractions.

Home Practise:   Students can work on multiplication and division facts to increase speed and accuracy.  They are encouraged to quickly review some that they already know and spend more time with facts they find more challenging.

Language Arts - During word work this week, we focused on words with the prefix "mis".  In words like misunderstand, misbehave and mislead the "mis" prefix changes the meaning of the root word.  For the book Ollie's Odyssey, we designed a Junkyard Friend and continued created storymaps of Ollie or Billy's "odyssey". 

Science and Social Studies  - We started working with the robots this week.  We learned how to use programs on the ipads to code instructions that are sent to the robots.  The robots then move, make sounds, flash lights based on our programming.  Next week, we focus on programming the robot to travel on a map of Alberta (a map taped on the floor in the hallway). 

Upcoming Dates

FRIDAY                                    Non-Instructional Day - NO SCHOOL

February 11                              Wear Red and Hearts for Valentine's Day

February 12 & 13                     Teacher Convention - NO SCHOOL

February 16                              Family Day - NO SCHOOL

Friday, January 23

 Classroom Update

Math -  In math this week, we continued working with fractions.  Our focus this week was comparing three or four fractions and putting them in order from smallest to largest.  Students used fraction strips and circles to compare the sizes so they could be put in order.

Home Practise:   Students can work on multiplication and division facts to increase speed and accuracy.  They are encouraged to quickly review some that they already know and spend more time with facts they find more challenging.

Language Arts - We continued reading Ollie's Odyssey.  Students began creating storymaps of Ollie or Billy's "odyssey".  In language arts we also focused on homophones this week.  Many words in English sound the same but are spelled and mean different things "weak / week", "their / there / they're" etc.

Science - In science this week, we focused on coding.  We talked a little about what some of the very first codes looked like for computers.  We also spoke about how our robots will only do what we program them to do next week.

Social Studies - Students continued working on their are slideshow about how they fit into Alberta.  The focus this week was on learning about 3 kinds of distinct communities in Alberta.  Students researched an Indigenous, Metis and Francophone community.

Upcoming Dates

January 28                               Fun Lunch - Subway

January 30                               Non-Instructional Day - NO SCHOOL

February 11                              Wear Red and Hearts for Valentine's Day

February 12 & 13                     Teacher Convention - NO SCHOOL

February 16                              Family Day - NO SCHOOL

Friday, January 16

 Classroom Update

Math -  In math this week, we continued working with fractions.  Our focus this week was comparing two fractions to see which one was bigger and placing fractions on a number line.  We are working on remembering that in a fraction, the top number is called the numerator and the bottom number is called the denominator.

Home Practise:   Students can work on multiplication and division facts to increase speed and accuracy.  They are encouraged to quickly review some that they already know and spend more time with facts they find more challenging.

Language Arts - We continued reading Ollie's Odyssey.  Students created a "creep" and then wrote the history of how their "creep" came to be.  In language arts we also focused on the silent "w" at the beginning of words like write, wrap, wrist. 

Science - In science this week, we focused on the water cycle.  Students had to show understanding of evaporation, condensation and precipitation.  We also discussed how different substances have different melting, freezing and boiling points.

Social Studies - Students continued working on their are slideshow about how they fit into Alberta.  The focus this week was choosing pictures from Alberta's past.

Upcoming Dates

January 28                               Fun Lunch - Subway

January 30                               Non-Instructional Day - NO SCHOOL

February 11                              Wear Red and Hearts for Valentine's Day

February 12 & 13                     Teacher Convention - NO SCHOOL

February 16                              Family Day - NO SCHOOL

February 25                              Fun Lunch - Coco Brooks Pizza

February 26                              PINK Shirt Day

Friday, January 9

 Classroom Update

Math -  In math this week, we worked on division with remainders and started working with fractions.  Our fraction work was focused on parts of a whole.  Students played a fraction game where they made two fractions and then had to figure out which one was bigger.

Home Practise:   Students can work on multiplication and division facts to increase speed and accuracy.  They are encouraged to quickly review some that they already know and spend more time with facts they find more challenging.

Language Arts - We have started a new read aloud called Ollie's Odyssey.  Just like Ollie is a favourite toy in the book, we did some journaling and writing about our favourite toys.  We were able to celebrate our favourites by bringing them to school.  Next week we will be creating our "creeps" so remember to bring recycled materials.

We also focused this week on words that start with a silent "k" like knot, knock, knew, knowledge.

Science - In science this week, we focused on Matter.  Students reviewed what makes up a solid, liquid and gas.  We also discussed the scientific words for when states of matter change (example - a liquid to a gas is evaporation).  We completed a science experiment where we created borax crystals.

Social Studies - We are now focusing on the history of Alberta and the groups of people that originally populated our province.  We started to look at old fashioned pictures and try to place the pictures on our map of Alberta.  Students are creating a slideshow about how they fit into Alberta.  We started with family, special things about McKenzie Towne and special things about Calgary.  Some students were able to begin choosing 3-6 old pictures that they would like to focus on.

Upcoming Events

January 28                               Fun Lunch - Subway

January 30                               Non-Instructional Day - NO SCHOOL

February 11                              Wear Red and Hearts for Valentine's Day

February 12 & 13                     Teacher Convention - NO SCHOOL