We've Been Busy!

This week has been an incredibly busy week as we have been settling into our routines and schedule. We had a visit at the school's library and learned that we can take two books out this year. Oh the perks of being a Junior! The children are very excited about this! I have requested that the children take out one book that is of their choice and the second book to be a Just Right book. By choosing their Just Right book, they are to be able to pass the 5 Finger Test (if they cannot read 5 words on one page, it is not a Just Right book). This past week, the children only took one book out as the library was extremely busy that day. This week, your child will be place in a group and will together walk to the library and will be greeted by Mrs. Buchanan. Mrs. Buchanan will be there to assist the children with their book selection (if needed) and to monitor them in the library. During this time, the rest of the class will be reading quietly to themselves or with me.

Important Notices: 

We are in need of duo-tangs for our subjects:

Blue - math
Green - science
Yellow/Orange - Language
Red/Pink/Purple - Social Studies
Also... Mdm Ricci has requested that the children have a duo-tang or binder for French as well.

Thank you to everyone for bringing in their packages of Forms and their Verification forms! Please keep them coming in!

In our other subject areas: 

Language - Establishing good routines in the classroom provides an opportunity for children to excel in all areas. Because of this, we have been working on getting into the class on time right after recess. Some are still working on this. Also, we are working on making good choices of when it is appropriate to ask to use the washroom, fill up their water bottles, get stuff out of their bags, etc. Unfortunately, we are having problems with this. Often I have turned down some of these requests as it wasn't the appropriate time. I do not want them to miss out what is being taught. Please note however, the children do tell me, if they need to go to the washroom whether it's an emergency or not. 

Writing out their summary

Graphic Organizer

During this time, we are learning how to summarize our reading. I have modelled to the children how to find the main idea in a non-fiction article called "Kitchen Chemistry" by Owl Magazine. Using a graphic organizer,

Busy at work!

we read it together, and I pulled out all the main ideas, reminding the children we are taking out the unnecessary information. In turn, they took the information and wrote the summary. As a class, we will look at the final products and come up with our learning intention and success criteria. 

Math - Patterning has been a lot of fun in the classroom this week! We have been learning the importance of reading the instructions carefully and using Grade 4 language when describing patterns. For example, attributes, growing, shrinking, increasing, decreasing etc. Also, the children are demonstrating their understanding of what a letter model is and the importance of clearly demonstrating the letter model, matching their pattern. We will be looking at number patterns this coming week. 

Science - We have started Habitat and Communities. The children will be introduced the Big Idea. The Big Idea is a question that is posed to help children think critically about their subject. That is, in Habitat and Communities, the children are learning how human and environment changes affect animals habitats. Based on this, the children had to think of an animal that they would like to study for their future assignment. While we are learning about habitats, we are building our background knowledge by working on worksheets and group discussions. Children will later on receive their project package that will be completed in the classroom. This will not be a home based project. 

Art Activity

Social Studies - Locating and labelling each of Canada's Provinces and Territories has been the focus this week in our Social Studies class. We learned how to read a map using our agendas. We also understood the importance of colouring a map neatly in order to demonstrate the importance of Provincial borders and the country border. Also, we have understood the importance of not colouring in the lakes and oceans. This was a challenging activity this week!