Middle of December

We have been working hard on mental math strategies, problem solving, and a new writing project. As a class, we are writing a shared persuasive piece to convince people to come to Linwood School. Once we publish this piece, it will be displayed in the school office for visitors to read! Students are also working on individual writing pieces. Each student chose a place in Canada and is writing a persuasive piece to convince readers to visit or live in the author's chosen place.

We have also worked on our dream paintings, backpack projects in French, as well as holiday themed activities. Our student team bloggers, Liam and Ruby, have a highlight to share with you from mid-December:

This week we learned about light in science. There are three different types of light: transparent, translucent, and opaque. We also had jungle gym and, "I was shaking Liam, Sophia, and Nathan off a net." said Ruby, "It was the funniest thing ever." Liam said, "I was scared, but it was fun. I thought I was going to fall." Liam had the funniest face ever!!!!!!!

Science and Social Studies Links

Habitat Diorama Videos
https://goo.gl/Mcs5My

Photos from Assiniboine Park
https://goo.gl/Cyjfxa

Light Video
http://goo.gl/7D3MYs

*The last link for the light video has been fixed!

Winter Concert Lyrics

These lyrics for the Winter Concert have been posted so that students can practice at home. Any questions, please ask our Music teacher, Mrs. Versteeg, who sent the lyrics to me for posting. The lyrics below include the songs for Grade 4/5 and the choir.

GRADE 4/5 SONG LYRICS           Here Comes the Snow

                              Here comes the snow.

                                          It's fallin' down.
It's fallin' gently upon the ground.

Here comes the snow.  It's fallin' down.

It leaves a blanket
Upon the ground, ground, ground.

                      Snow, snow, snow, snow!

                               Snow, snow, snow, snow!

                                    Snow, snow, snow, snow!

Snow, snow, snow, snow!

Peacefully the flakes of white are falling down on us tonight.

Stay in by the fireside or bundle up and go outside.

Down the road upon a sleigh,
just having fun this winter day.

Down a hill upon a sled then snuggle in a winter bed.

Falling... 
down, down, down, down.

Falling... 
down, down, down.

CHOIR SONG LYRICS

O, Ilaw (O, Light)

O, i-law, burning bright in the night,

Like a star, there is hope in your light.

O, i-law, I can see in your beam

Every wish I’ve wished for,

Every dream I have dreamed.

Oh!  You’re my inspiration, lighthouse in a dark sea,

  Flame of hope in the night, shining brightly for me.

       Candle in my window, you are always guiding.

  You are always with me, for you are my shining light.

  You are always with me, for you are my shining light!

End of November

Our Class Crayon Quilt

Thank you, families! We had a great show of support at our Open House last week and the students were excited to share their learning. Recently, we spent time preparing for the Open House and finished our classroom community crayon quilt. We have enjoyed working with Mrs. Quinn-LaFleche, a math resource teacher in our school division, on problem solving activities, such as Math Playground, to promote logical and mathematical thinking. Check out our photos for examples and to see the group habitat dioramas our students made in Science. Our student team blogger also has an entry to share below.

Problem Solving

Problem Solving

Team 15's Science Dioramas

Our student team blogger, Kryztofer, has a highlight and photo he would like to share with you:

People are ripping the downstairs wall! 

The Wall by the Music Room

You should see it, oh wait, you just did! Ha ha! Sorry, let's get back to the point: it's cool. Just so you know, they're ripping up the wall because the paste under it is melting.

Mid-November

Working on the Money Problem (first day)

Mid-November has been about finishing up projects, final assessments, and preparing for our Celebration of Learning. We hope you can join us for our Open House on Thursday, November 26th from 4:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m., so we can share some of our work with you! Families can also make individual appointments for the morning of Friday, November 27th, either through the Linwood Conference Manager or by contacting the office or me directly.

Working on the Money Problem (first and second day)

I have included photos of the class working on one of our more challenging math problems in problem solving, the Money Problem, which we will share at our Open House. Students worked in teams to figure out how to make seven bills distinguishable by touch, all the same size and shape, with the only difference being a maximum of one diagonal cut, the same size and depth, per bill corner. We certainly had moments of frustration, but the class was able to stretch their thinking and build their stamina in math by trying a variety of strategies! We documented, shared, and reflected on our work afterwards.
Also, photos of students practicing their spelling words during our word work time are included in this post. Our next spelling test is Monday, November 30th!

As always, readers are encouraged to comment on our blog posts!

Our student team bloggers from last week, Xander and Avirey, wrote a highlight on November 19th:
Hello, we are the bloggers of this week. Today it snowed a lot. Today we are finishing up our autobiographies. We all made up a different animal in Science today and it was fun. Now, some of us are doing our autobiography thumbprints. Thank you for reading our blog post!

Published Autobiographies

Word Work Activities

Start of November

Our Remembrance Wreath

Working on Writing

We have been busy with end of term assessments in all subject areas at the start of this month and have also spent time with our visiting artist. I am particularly proud of our class and how hard they have worked on their artwork and writing most recently. The autobiographies our students are writing are very impressive and I'm looking forward to more students publishing their writing. I'm also excited to see their finished dream paintings in December. Today, we had a touching Remembrance Day service at school and I hope that you will all consider taking time to remember those who have sacrificed for our freedom on November 11th.

Our team bloggers, Walker and Sophia, have a highlight from last week: Last week we had T.I.A. with Claudia Evans-Menard. We made an art piece called Dreamscape. We had a Health test on Wednesday and we also had Library on Wednesday. We had a Science test on Thursday and T.I.A. again. Friday, we had T.I.A. and picture re-takes. Everyone's paintings look great and awesome!

Viewing the Artist's Artwork

Painting our Practice Pieces

Outlining the Colour Values in Our Practice Pieces

Painting our Final Pieces

Demonstration of Outlining on a Final Piece

Painting and Outlining Our Final Pieces

Happy Halloween!

Our student team bloggers, Sara and Zyron, wrote about our Friday Halloween celebration last week:

Last Friday we had a happy Halloween because after lunch we had a parade. It was fun. My favorite costume was Slenderman (Zyron). After recess, we had a party. There was a lot of food like cupcakes, jello, and juice. We had a lot of fun.

Halloween fun

Late October

Working on our dioramas

We have enjoyed wrapping up projects from many subject areas this month. Some students have started to complete their final versions of their autobiographies. Students will have the option to publish their writing by posting it on the class bulletin board and may also post on their kidblogs once all accounts are set up and linked to our class blog. We are working on skip counting strategies in mental math and developing our problem solving skills. In French, we are beginning to write a counting book as a class project and in Health we completed a study guide last week to prepare for our term test this Wednesday, November 4th. Students who have completed their quilt art worked on dream sketches to prepare for our next art project. A professional artist, Claudia Evans-Menard, will be working with our class on our dream painting project this week on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Our student team bloggers, Kaleb and Tipay, wrote an entry to highlight Science work with Mrs. Rogala:
We started thinking of ideas for our diorama. It's for a habitat, like grasslands, arctic, woodlands, and the tropical rain
forest. We worked in groups and we started making them out of plasticine, paint, cotton, and pipe cleaners in pizza boxes. We liked making them and we had fun. Hope you enjoyed reading!

Mid-October

Voting

The middle of October has been an exciting time as we have learned about elections in Social Studies with Mrs. Rogala. Students have been learning about the Canadian government over the past few weeks including the difference between dictatorships and democracies, the roles and responsibilities of different levels of government, and about the main candidates and party platforms in our own riding during the federal election. The other two Grade 4/5 classes also learned about the same topics and we had a rally for the election on Friday, Oct. 16th. Each party leader made a short speech which included a promise for their campaign platform and their party chanted a slogan or sang a song. Students voted by ballot later in the day through a program called Student Vote. Our student team bloggers that week, Izzy and Nathan, decided to write their highlight about this experience:

This week in room 15, 16, and 18 we learned about government and had a school election. We had four different parties including Liberals, Conservatives,  N.D.P. and Green, and those are all the parties. Every Grade 4 and 5 voted and we are still waiting for the results. We will tell you the answers when we find out. (By Izzy and Nathan).

*Update: The Conservatives were elected at Linwood School. They ran on a campaign promise of a bake sale which will benefit a charity/charities chosen by the students. Students discussed the outcomes of the school election as well as the significance of the Liberal majority government in our federal election.

In English Language Arts, students have continued to write their autobiographies and some have begun the editing process. We spent some time this last week for on-demand writing assessments. Students wrote using a writing prompt: convince your reader that Canada is a great country. I enjoyed reading the students writing and found the assessment to be a helpful tool in identifying student writing goals for the school year. In Math, we are working on problem-solving routines as well as math centers to practice fast facts and develop our math vocabulary. In French, we are reading our first basic books and we are using those books to learn about basic sentence structures. In Health of this week we are learning about dog bite prevention and dog safety. In Visual Arts, we will finish our quilt art projects and spend some time on Halloween decorations and choice drawing. As always, our readers are welcome and encouraged to comment on our blog.

Election Rally

Start of October

Team 15's Gratitude Tree

We have had a great start to October! In E.L.A. we have continued to revise our autobiographies and will begin final editing this coming week. Students have also had opportunities to work on choice writing projects and have been building their reading skills. We began our word work routines and spelling lists will be sent home today (my apologies for forgetting to distribute them on Friday). We focused on vocabulary and fast facts in Math last week and will focus more on problem solving this coming week.

Learning about soil erosion at Assiniboine Park

In French, we are working on greetings, dates, and school vocabulary and many of us have finished our quilt art in Visual Arts and are working on still life and choice drawing. The class took some time on Friday to share what they are thankful for during our Class Meeting and we also made leaves for our Gratitude Tree. We began this project around Thanksgiving, but I plan to continue it with the class throughout the year, so that we can think and write about how we feel grateful. Many studies have shown that a daily practice of gratitude results in a more positive and happier outlook on life!

We reviewed fire prevention and safety in the home last week during Health, and I hope that students will continue this discussion with their families. Cross-country runners did a great job at their meet on Thursday! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Our student team bloggers, Sarah and Gerald, wrote an entry to highlight our Science field trip last Thursday with Mrs. Rogala:

Room 15 and 4 people from 18 and 16 came with us to Assiniboine Park! On that field trip we learned a lot more about nature, parts of nature like trees, and Assiniboine River flows. We also saw a hawk's nest. We felt good walking in the forest to see different things. We also felt good sharing experiences out in the forest. We also did a play that kicked it up a little bit. Thank you for reading!

Forest plays

Nature photo scavenger hunt

End of September

Our Terry Fox Run and the Following Recess

We have continued with the same themes in all subject areas this past week. Students are working on revising their autobiographies in English Language Arts after I demonstrated a revision of my own autobiography. The students are also organizing the class library, so that the class gets to make choices about the placement of books they read daily. Spelling lists will be sent home for extra practice by October 9th and I will send out a  message on the class Remind service when this occurs.
We have been focusing on our math centers this past week and will be practising to make sure they run smoothly this coming week. In French, we started our calendar routine and we are wrapping up our quilt art in Visual Arts.

This past week, I met with a professional artist, Claudia Evans-Menard, a former teacher who will be working with our class on a painting project in early November. I decided to change the year plan a bit because of this wonderful opportunity and will post an updated plan soon. Our dream study in English Language Arts and dream painting in Visual Arts will take place in November and December.

Our student team blogger, Dylan, has a highlight to share with you as well:

Team 15's Terry Fox Word Graffiti

This week on Sept. 30 we did a Terry Fox Run in the field. We went in a giant oval. We could run, skip and walk. We walked for about 15 minutes until recess. Room 15 did a word graffiti about Terry Fox! I wrote about Terry Fox because he's a really good person!

It's Already Autumn!

We are happy to be in school!
The girls in this photo spent their choice time applying
their knowledge of lines, shapes, and objects to build the
structure in the background.

We have been learning a lot about each other this September as students write their autobiographies. I modeled a first draft of my autobiography after reading and discussing samples with the class, and students are working hard on their own first drafts. We are increasing our reading stamina and are practising our cursive penmanship. Keep an eye out for spelling lists coming home, as I plan to send the first lists beginning of October. In Math, our focus has been on review of key concepts including place value, numbers, digits, and writing numbers in standard, expanded, and written form. The students have also been introduced to mental math games that give them opportunities to master their basic addition facts. We have continued with the same themes in our other subject areas, as well as learning about the W.I.T.S. program in Health. Two of our students, Liam and Kate, were the Team Bloggers this past week, so please continue reading for their highlight of the last week! As always, please feel welcome to comment on our posts!

Playing Jedi

In gym we played a new game called Jedi. It's where someone on your team is the Jedi and he\she has to get you up off the ground when you get hit with a dodge ball and you don't want to get the Jedi noticed by the other team. Liam and Kate were on different teams. Kate has a broken collar bone that week so she didn't really have much playing time. The game went on forever. Liam's team won in the end. Thank you  :)

Starting Up

I have greatly enjoyed getting to know our wonderful class! We have been working hard to establish routines in English literacy and Math and completing academic assessments, so that I can better meet the needs of every student. The class has also been learning basic greetings in French, about personal hygiene in Health, and we have started our first major art project, our class crayon quilt. Please, check back for updates and posts from students of Team 15!

Families who would like can also access my teaching plan for the year at the following link:
Team 15 Year Plan 2015-2016

Blog readers are, as always, welcome to comment with any questions and constructive feedback!

Welcome!

Welcome to Team 15! I am so excited to start the year with a new Grade 4/5 class! A brief introduction will be posted soon. I hope you all had a wonderful summer and are ready for a fantastic school year!