Lions, Tigers and Bears Oh My....

Welcome Back! With technological difficulties behind us, we are back with updates in Room 502!

Since the last post, the children has been actively working on their diorama. They are very excited to work on this during Science class and I have been blown away by such enthusiasm and creativity demonstrated in their boxes. During this time, we will continue to explore what a level 1-4 diorama is, and ensuring that they are following the guidelines provided in their project package. 

Gathering of information

This week, we will begin literacy centres. The centres consists of guided reading, library visit, reading response and critical thinking. I am most excited about our critical thinking centre as it is a centre where a video (the videos are previewed to ensure age appropriateness) will be posted and the group will discuss the video and write a response to a question that has been given. Using media in the classroom today is a great way to have students engaged in their learning. Also, I believe this is one of the many ways for children to critically think about news today and having an opportunity to express their thoughts. We are learning how to express our thoughts using guidelines posted in the classroom to help them be successful at this.

In Social Studies, we have been working on the 7 Physical Regions of Canada. Using computers, they have been researching the areas specifically looking at how the make up of the land connects to the natural resources.

Drawing of landform region 

In language, we continue to practice writing summaries and we will be wrapping up this unit in the next few days. The children has been practicing summarizing what they have read to show their understanding and as a organization strategy for writing.

In math, we are wrapping up the unit on patterning. Over the last couple of days, the children have been working on problem solving questions with their math partner. They are partnered up in order to be able to discuss, come up with strategies and utilize the strategy that best help them solve problems especially in everyday situations. These strategies have been taught throughout the unit.

Important Dates: 
October 19th - math unit test
October 24th - BORC field trip
October 29th - science diorama due

Happy Thanksgiving To You and Your Family! 

This year I am thankful for many things! Firstly, I am thankful for having a loving and healthy family, one whom is always there with smiles and hugs! Secondly, I am thankful for having a wonderful class this year. Every morning, I enjoy seeing the smiles on each child's face upon entering the classroom.  This is truly an awesome way to start each day! Also, I truly am thankful that each child has a smile at the end of the day, heading out the door for home. Have a wonderful weekend!

Thursday's Posting...

First off, I would like to THANK all the parents who came to visit the classroom last night. It was wonderful to meet new parents and get reacquainted with the others! It is going to be a wonderful school year!
Today was a busy day. We had worked straight through the day, starting with Social Studies and ending with gym! In Social Studies, we took a trip to the East Coast, looking at the Appalachian Highland Region which is one of the seven physical regions found in Canada. We had a look at a video, through Discovery Education, that gave us an idea of what the Appalachian Highlands looks like. Then, we came back to solve problems looking for a pattern in mathematics. With this, we will discuss our findings tomorrow in class. Hence, there are some children with homework tonight as it wasn't completed in class. After a busy first part of the morning, we had a nice recess break. Afterwards, it was time to have a group of children visit the library for book exchange. We continued to look at the Appalachian Highlands, but learning how to take the main ideas of the reading and creating a brief summary. This model will help children succeed in their future writing tasks. We like to get in as many practice and feedback from the teacher and our peers in order to be successful at it. To take a break from the summary writing, the children were given a writing topic today, "If you could be anyone in the world today, who would you be and why?". They were given suggestions such as friends, families, heros, or celebrities. Also, they were asked to write what their day would look like if they were that person.
After lunch, we did some review on our map, "Major, Non-Capital Cities in Canada" that we had used an atlas for. Using our doc camera, we were able to share our answers, ensuring we have the correct names of the cities in the correct Provinces & Territories. Next, we worked on major roadways through Canada and then closed it up with a mapping of Ontario's physical region. The children by then were grateful for a closure of the day by continuing our hockey tournament in gym. During this time, the children are learning how to hold a stick, and working co-operatively as a team. They are enjoying this tournament immensely as they are showing great team spirit by cheering on their opponents!

Just a few housekeeping notes: 

Borc field trip will be happening on Wednesday, October 24. Your child received a permission form this afternoon. Please note, this trip is FREE. Yes, it is free! The school has made arrangements for bus cost. During this trip, we will be continuing our study on Habitat & Communities.

Spiritwear - A handout was given to your child this afternoon regarding the sale of the school's clothing such as t-shirts, sweatshirt, hooded sweatshirt etc. All information and prices are found in the handout.

Popcorn & Chip Sale - A yellow notice was also handed out this afternoon notifying you that your child may purchase a popcorn or chip snack at morning recess for $1.

Crime Stopper - On Monday, we had a visit from York Regional Crime Stoppers. We learned how to report a crime through email, phone and text. Also, we learned that we shouldn't be providing personal information on the Internet and to be careful with webcams. It was an interesting assembly.

October 1st Already?

Where has the month of September gone? I am sure we are all wondering this as we had once again been quite busy here in the classroom.
We have continued to work on our summary writing that helps us determine what information is most important and not. We will continue with this in our non-fiction unit.
For math we have continued to work on patterning. We have been focusing on using t-charts as a strategy to help us organize our thinking and to use proper mathematical language to express our answers.
In our Canada studies, we have continued to work away with mapping and have learned how to use an atlas. We will continue to do this for the remainder of the week.
Your child has chosen an animal for the habitat and communities project. At present, we are still wrapping up our understanding of structural and behavioural adaptations, food chain, and will learn about producers and consumers. Your child will receive their project package next week. It is important that the children understand the foundations of habitats and communities before we begin this.

Please note that we have homework this evening. Your child will need to work on mid-chapter review from the math textbook. This was assigned on Wednesday and unfortunately some children are behind and was not completed this past weekend. We will need to get caught up, hence, homework this evening. Also, in science, your child will need to complete their science homework, which consists of Food Chains on Isle Royale. This is due on Wednesday.

Just a reminder, this Wednesday evening (October 3rd) is the Meet the Teacher night! I am looking forward to meeting you all!


Happy Monday!

Mrs. Sauder

A Wet Soggy Day!

Family of ducks

I hope this post find everyone safe, dry and warm at home this evening! We couldn't believe how much rain received today! So much so, that at lunch time we realized we had a family of ducks visiting in the school yard! It may be hard to see, but it's below the seagull, over to the left!

Reminders:
a) Please send in the form package that needs to be signed.
b) Duo-tangs or binders for subject areas...Please see last post for specifics.
c) For French, please also provide a binder or duo-tang for your child.
d) Markers for classroom art.
e) Please check over your child's verification forms. Please make changes. If no changes are needed, please still sign it and bring it in.
f) Pizza form for Meet the Creature...I mean, Teacher night :)

Some children has been asking, I will be handing out Scholastic sometime this week. When ordering from Scholastic, please make sure you check for the Ontario pricing and that a check is written instead of cash.

Have a warm and dry evening everyone!

Mrs. Sauder

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!

First Week Down!

Morning view from Room 502

What an incredibly busy week it had been! It had been an exciting but definitely an exhausting one! Between setting up routines at home and at school, there didn't seem to be enough time during the day and night to relax! This week, the children were able to experience just about all of their subjects and met their music teacher, Ms. Maidenberg and their French teacher, Mdm Ricci. They loved it! 

Next week, we will be visiting the library for a quick orientation with Mrs. Buchanan. Already, the children have been asking when we would be visiting, and I'm glad to tell them on Monday that we will be visiting during the week. A specific time has not yet been established just yet. 

On Friday morning, we had an assembly with the Junior and Intermediate grades discussing the rules and expectations within the school and the portables. Some of the discussion that were brought up were:

* No entry in the portables during recess time.

* Cell phones MUST be turned OFF at all time...students are to use the office phones if they need to call home.

* Students must have a clothes pin/clip from a teacher to gain entry in the school during recess time.

* Students need to review the dress code found in the York Region District School Board handbook. 

* If you are dropping off a lunch, please make sure you drop it off at the OFFICE. We don't want any children running to the parking lot and back to the portable as it is too dangerous.

Here is a sneak peek at some of the things we have been doing in the class. 

Letter writing with All About Me Graphic Organizer

What are all the things we know in math? A group reflection mindmap

Optical Illusion art project...

We have also started Habitats and Communities for Science and Canada for Social Studies. Hence, it has been a BUSY four days! 

We have been in a need of duo-tangs!!! Please, if you can, your child need 1 of each...a yellow duo-tang, dark blue duo-tang, red duo-tang and a green duo-tang. This will greatly help the organization of your child's work. We are experiencing a shortage of this and it will be greatly appreciated if your child can get this next week. Thank you!!!!

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