Very Important Dates Coming Up - Please note, meditation is held every Wednesday Morning at 8:05 and Popcorn day is every Wednesday! November 30 - Lego In School Field Trip December 1 - Crazy Christmas Dress Up December 7 - Early Closing December 16 - Christmas Concert for 4S - Afternoon Show @ 1pm, Evening Show @ 6:30pm December 23 - P.J Day and last day before Christmas Holidays January 9 - Return back from Christmas Holidays We have been busy with our Grade 4 curriculum and routine for November. The students have all been arriving each day with smiles on their faces and ready to take on what the day has in store for them. We continue to work hard with our Daily 5 routine in the mornings. We have almost completed our novel "Rule" during read to someone and are nearing the end of our first novel study "Wonder" - ask your son/daughter what kind of life lessons we have been learning from these two books. We have also started working on Persuasive Writing. Be sure to check out our google classroom to see all of your son/daughters different writing. A couple of different topics that we are working on this month are, Elf Applications (Hire me for the job), Nice List (Santa, this is why I am on the nice list this year) and Santa Quit (How can we convince him to come back to work) In math, we are finishing off our second unit called "Number Sense" - we worked on estimating, double digit on top multiplication, coins, and lots more work with numbers. We have focused a lot of our time on Multiplication and we are starting to see some great improvement with their quick math facts! Keep practicing kicking it math at home and don't forget to sign onto xtramath once in a while. We also started working with a new game called "Skoolbo" - ask your son/daughter to show you how it works at home! This works on Numeracy and Literacy skills through engaging games. In Social, we started to look at all of Alberta's Natural Resources. How do we use natural resources and what would happen if we didn't have access to these important resources. Come check out our interactive Alberta map in the hallway while you are at school. In Science, we have started working on our unit called "Wheels and Levers" - This unit will be very hands on while we explore the use of different simple machines. Thank you to all the parents that have brought in recycled items for our simple machine creations. We are also going to be building a "Paper roller coaster" this month. A few more fun things that we did this month! Retro Bill came last week Thank you to everyone that brought in a shoe box for Operation Christmas Child! We had a school assembly about "Street Safety"
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We have been very busy in our Grade 4 class these days, please make sure you are connected to our classdojo account so you can see what is happening in our classroom on a DAILY basic. Thank you to all the volunteers who read a short poem at the Remembrance Day Ceremony. They all did very well! Above is a picture of our Remembrance Day art, we also did some fantastic letters to the soldiers that will be coming home with students next week! The students are doing a fantastic job with their writing and editing. Next week, we will have a narrative writing assessment. In Language Arts, we are continuing to listen to "Wonder", we are hoping to get finished by the end of the month. Wonder is a great book for teaching children about social awareness and how to accept everyone for who they are. "Wonder" is also currently being made into a movie! I know the children are very excited. We are also continuing our daily 5 program, the students have shown such great stamina in each center and love when we start our mornings with Daily 5. In our "Read to someone" center, we are finishing the book Rules - ask your student what it is about. In Math, we have finished our patterning unit and the class average on the test was - 85%! Great Job Everyone! We have now started our most lengthy unit called "Number Sense". We will be exploring multiplication including double digit and move our focus into some division. Students will be bringing lots of double digit multiplication sheets home for practice, please support your child in getting these completed as it will help them succeed in this unit. Our kicking it math program is proven to be a success as well! Thank you to all the students (and parents for making them) who are completing these work sheets for practice. We have a few students that have mastered ALL of their addition and are working hard on their multiplication. Subtraction work sheets will be coming home soon! Xtramath.org is also a great program for the students to be doing at home, if you have not had your child show you, please do! The password cards came home at the beginning of the year, but if you can not find them, please don't hesitate to ask! In Social, we have finished a couple of units on Alberta and are starting our exploration into Natural Resources in Alberta. In Science, we just recently finished our unit called "Waste in our World" and will be moving onto "Wheels and Levers" - ask your child about the simple machines we have been learning. This unit is very hands on and we will be collecting lots of recycled items including the following: baby food lids thread spools Popsicle sticks Cardboard paper towel rolls Cereal boxes String Ribbon Straws Pringles Containers Over the last two weeks, we have also been making our cool t-shirt art! November 23 - Retro Bill Presentation - look "Retro Bill" up on youtube! We are excited to have him
November 24 - Ringette Presentation during Gym November 30 - Our first In School Field Trip - Lego Building! December 2 - PD Day December 7 - Early Dismissal December 16 - Christmas Concert for 1D, 2P, 4S, 5, 6 December 23 - Last day of School before Christmas Break! January 9 - Return back to school after Christmas! Another very busy week in Grade 4 but another successful week as well! Student have all completely settled into routines of the classroom and their hard work has certainly paid off! I am already seeing so much growth and success in all the children. Keep up the great work! This week was a busy week learning all about new technology. Mr. Maltesis joined us on Monday to show us about Google My Maps and from there, we worked on using "screencastify", google forms, and learned a few more things about google classroom. We are moving towards a fully independent morning in Grade 4. Students are to arrive in the morning and login to "Google Classroom". Student will login to see their morning routine and complete it at their pace. So far the kids are loving the independence and I am loving their ability to work quietly. Ask your child to show you around on google classroom if you have not already done so! Isn Language arts, we have been working on Daily 5 everyday. Students have been reading the novel "Rule" together during Read to Someone. - to listen to the audio version of the chapters please click here Work on Writing - Halloween Narrative Stories Read to Self - Quietly read a novel of choice Word Work - Students are still working hard on their "Words their Way" spelling words Listen to Reading - Students are listening to chapter books with their USB sticks We have also started a reward called "Reader of the Week" - Please check classdojo for updates about our star readers each week! Also in LA, we have been working on our oral reading. Students have been given a short passage to read to their computer. "Screencastify" has been recording them and sending me an update to how they have done. Students are starting at a lower reading level until they get used to the technology that goes along with this form of testing. - All "screencastifys" save to the students google drive if you are curious to see how your student is reading! In Math, we have started patterning - this unit has proven to be easier for the students but it is still the beginning. We are also working lots on our basic math skills. If you have not already seen the 'kicking it' math program come home, please let me know! During Science, we have started to work on our review of "Waste in our World" - students have brought home their science doutangs to study for next weeks test. (Friday October 28) - After next week, we are starting our new unit - Wheels and Levers In Social - we started Chapter 2 - Alberta's Fossil Heritage. We have learned some new words including - fossils, paleontologist, iinisskimm, and fossil fuels.
We have been very busy in Grade 4! As many of you know, last week we had a Musical Ride Show come visit us! It was lots of fun. What a great experience for the children! On Tuesday this week, we got to go plant flowers for the City of Leduc! This summer, Leduc Communities in Bloom entered a contest through the Canadian Garden Council to be one of 150 communities across Canada to receive 1000 red and white tulip bulbs as part of Canada’s upcoming 150th Birthday in 2017. The bulbs are to be planted this fall to become a 150th Birthday Celebration Garden, blooming next spring. We were recently told that we had been chosen as one of the communities to have a Celebration Garden, and have received the tulip bulbs! Both grade 4 classes and their grade 1 buddies walked to the Stone Barn Garden site for a “planting party” to plant the bulbs with some of our Communities in Bloom group along with some members of the community! What an awesome opportunity! The kids had a fantastic time! In Language Arts, we are working hard on our Daily 5 program. Students know the rules and expectations are getting to work quickly. Recently we have been working on each center for about 15 minutes! Work on Writing has been our "We are thankful for" writing projects Listen to Reading - Students have been listening to chapter books on their USB or going on Tumblebooks Read to Self - Students are reading a novel of their choice quietly Word Work has been a mix between working on spelling worksheets or working on Spelling City! Students are working on the "words our way" spelling program during class to earn themselves beads! After every 10th bead, students earn a prize. (see picture below) For those that are unfamiliar with this program, I will go through it a bit more during parent teacher interviews! Read to Someone - will start next week when we start reading the novel "Rules" in small groups together! In Math, we had a "Place Value" Quiz this week. The students should be very proud of themselves as the class average was ....... Next week we are going to really dig into our basic multiplication skills and start using these skills to apply them to bigger numbers.
We are also using the program called xtramath.org everyday in the classroom. Xtramath is a great tool to help students master their basic math skills. Congratulations to Ella, Mujtaba, Cameron, Wesley and Juluis who have already mastered the addition and are now working on their subtraction. Xtramath is a great program to practice at home as well. See the students password cards for login details. Another fun filled 5 day week is finished. We got lots done and I am happy to say that all the students know what is expected of them on a daily basis. In Language Arts this week, we finished our "All about you" projects and presented them to the class. The students did a wonderful job on these and it was great for the students to get to know each other a little bit more. We also continued Daily 5 and listened to wonder. In Math, we continued to work on addition regrouping and began to practice our subtraction. Students will also be working hard with mastering our basic multiplication facts. Please continue to check for math homework daily. We are still studying "Waste in our World" in Science. This week we started our "Inquiry based learning Project" where students were asked how to regrow a vegetable. Next week we will start our landfill inquiry and also learn about some hazardous waste. In Social, we continued working on our "Alberta's Regions" projects on google slides. We will also make a cool 3D map of Alberta next week in Art. Reminders: If you have not already done so, please bring in a usb stick School Pictures are on Wednesday! As requested by some parents, here is the instructions of how to access google drive at home! On a home computer - go to google.ca - on the top right hand side of the screen, there is a sign in tab - right beside it are 9 small squares click on those squares and look for the "google Drive" symbol In google drive - the students need to use their username FOLLOWED by @gshare.blackgold.ca for example - if the student was Bobby Smith Bobby's computer user name would be bobbys5475 (first name, last initial, followed by 4 numerical digits) - this information is on their password cards in their agenda Bobby's Email would then be bobbys5475@gshare.blackgold.ca the password is the same as their password to login to their computers at school Hope this helps :)Another short week with lots done! This week we got right down to business with our Language Arts and Math. We also got a great start on our Social and Science Units. During Daily 5 this week, we continued to listen to the book, "Wonder". I encourage you to ask your son/daughter about how Auggie is feeling about school and something things that they have taken away from the book already. We also started to work on our "All about Me" google slides presentation and will finish them next week with a presentation for the class. Throughout work word, we worked hard on our spelling words and spelling practice sheets. This week we had a class average of 87% on our first spelling quiz. Mrs. Giles and I are busy working on a project that we hope will enhance the students spelling during free writing. Next week we will find out reading level and start our reading level books. Information regarding these books will be coming soon. Some students will have a package to bring home to practice their reading throughout the year. Here are a couple of quotes we talked about this week.
In Math, we continued to work on number sense. Next week we will dig deeper into two digit subtraction. (with regrouping) I strongly encourage students to finish homework assignments when they come home. Xtramath is also a good resource to practice basic math skills. During Science, we continued to work on our "Waste" unit. Social inquiry led us to some discussions about the different regions of Alberta. What a great start to Grade 4. Students are settling into our classroom nicely and understanding the classroom rules and routines. We are all setting ourselves up for a very successful year together. Make sure to check the classroom pictures page for lots of fun pictures from the #bestclassever Important Dates September 12 : Annual General meeting for EEPA - email [email protected] if you are interested in helping out with EEPA this year. September 15 - Terry Fox Run in the PM (Please dress for the weather) September 16 - Professional Development Day - Students can enjoy the long weekend off September 27/28 - Class Pictures September 30 - Mounted Troops Visit In Math we have started our "Number Sense" unit. Students have been working on place value. Students had some homework for extra practice with place value - thank you for taking time to help them get this completed. Next week we will start comparing and ordering numbers. Students have usernames and passwords now for both Prodigy and Xtramath - both are great games to get some extra basic math skill practice at home. We completed our first writing assignment this morning. "Where did my shoes take me this summer?" in Language Arts. I am happy to see the students using capitals and punctuationproperly, while practicing adding lots of details. We also practiced our morning routines by completing some phonics, grammar and spelling practice. Our first spelling test will be on Monday. Spelling Words are Here! During Social Studies, we will be studying Alberta. This week we started looking over the textbook to see what stood out to us, drew our title page and talked about some events that made history in Alberta. Ask the students what they know about the history of Leduc. Next week we will start talking about Alberta's land; including the regions, climate and major lakes and rivers. Students will post any information we are learning about Social on our social studies tab. In Science, We are studying "Waste in our World". We had some chats about inquiry and what that means in science. We took our exploration to the outside classroom to look for animal and plant waste and we talked about important ways to reduce, reuse and recycle. In the near future, we will get together in groups to talk about some different vegetables that we can "reuse". After some online research and inquiry, groups will be asked to try to "reuse" a vegetable. Ms. Smith is going to try to regrow an avocado. I will keep posting projects, pictures and any other science information on the science tab. Keep checking for all our cool updates. Remind App: To help solve the problem of forgetting library books, early dismissals or important events in the classroom, please sign up for the remind app. (handout attached) This program allows me to send a text message to parent’s phone free of charge. For parents that have been signed up with me in the past, (either for Grade 3 or Floor Hockey) I still require you to sign up using the new classroom code. Class Dojo: I am sure by now you are very familiar with class dojo. This is an online program that I use to communicate with parents regarding behavior, evidence of student learning and of course to send pictures of exciting things that we do in the classroom. Please take sometime to read over the handout attached and sign up. If you have any further questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to ask. Websites used for learning: (for login instructions please refer to student password cards and the classroom blog) Kidblog Parent Join Code: h7nqjda Prodigy Math Game Class Code: CCCNF5 Remind App: Iphone (Open Browser to rmd.at/c464d) Text Messages (Text the message @c464d to the number (587) 409-5794 Google Classroom: Xtramath: - Please see Student Login Codes (Students need to put in my email address - it is [email protected]) Mathletics: Please see Student Login Codes Spelling City: Please see Student Login Codes Homework: Now that students are in Grade 4, we need to start building strong homework and study habits. Students will be given plenty of time to finish work in class, however, any unfinished work will be sent home daily to be finished by Friday that week. It is strongly recommended to get into a habit of going over spelling words and reading every night. Spelling Tests: Just like in Grade 3, students will be responsible to practice 15-20 words each week. Our spelling tests will be written on Monday mornings. Spelling city is recommended to help with weekly spelling words. We are using a program called ‘words their way’ in our Grade 4 class this year, I am hoping to see more success and confidence in the children as we work through the program together. If you have any questions, or need ideas of how to help at home, please don’t hesitate to ask. Celebrating Birthdays: Of course, we all love to have a little snack to celebrate our birthdays, however, I just want to remind you of some severe allergies that we have in the classroom. We have students that are allergic to milk and peanuts. If you would like to send in items for the class to devour on your son/daughter’s birthday, they must be milk and peanut free. Homemade items will not be served to children with allergies. Thank you for your concern in this matter. Microwave Use: Now that the students have officially moved up to the ‘division two’ hallways, they will have access to a microwave at lunch time. This is something that will be very exciting for the children and of course comes with HUGE responsibility. Please take sometime to go over safe microwave use with your child before sending in items to be warmed up. When sending in items for the microwave, please keep in mind the following……
School Supplies: Thank you for sending in all school supplies. They will be stored within the classroom and consumed as students need. Please don’t forget to write names in important items that travel to school with your children. (Outdoor shoes, snow pants and winter coats are things that commonly end up in the lost and found) Please note: Black soled shoes are not acceptable for gym class. (Skate shoes also don’t provide appropriate support)
Library Card: Does your son/daughter have a personal library card? The Leduc Library offers different online, FREE resources for students to access books, audio books and other engaging tools for students. If students have access to their own card, they are able to access online resources on their own account. This allows them to save their page, access books at home and borrow books that I haven’t borrowed. All online resources AUTOMATICALLY return books when they are due which prevents students racking up overdue charges. If you haven’t taken the time to check out our new library in Leduc, I strongly recommend you take the family for a tour. Library cards are free for all Leduc residents. **Please note, students will only be allowed to use their own library cards and will not be allowed to share with a friend** I will also post some information regarding library cards on the blog - this information will be helpful for families who want to access audio books at home. If you are having troubles, please let me know. I can also help the students walk through it at school. Division Two Differences: Grade 4 is a big grade for students as it is their first introduction to the prestige club called “DIVISION TWO”. Some things that your child will see differently this year are:
Black Gold Schools and East Elementary are strong supporters of the BYOD system. In Division 2, students are allowed to bring in their own device (computer or ipad) for use within the classroom. Students can bring in their device and charger into the classroom and use it in classroom. That being said, we are fortunate enough to have a 1:1 ratio of computers to children in Grade 4 and students will have plenty of access to devices when they need. If you are interested in finding out more information about the BYOD program, please feel free to ask. Dear Fourth Grader,
Welcome to my fourth grade class! My name is Miss Smith. Many of you will know that I taught a wonderful group of Grade 3’s last year. Grade 4 will be a fun change for me and I am excited to share the year with you. We have lots of exciting things in store for us next year, including leearning about waste, how we produce and ways that we can reduce, reuse and recycle. We will also learn how to build devices with moving parts and study plant parts. In math, we will work on dividing, multipication and fractions just to name a few. Our Social Studies unit will focus on Alberta History and provinces divisity. We will also be doing a lot of daily 5 in our Grade 4 classroom. During read to someone we will be studying many differrent novels, listen to reading through many diffferent outputs, we will work on lots of writing and of course continue to master spelling. Throughout next year I will be using our blog (MissSmithsfourthGraders.weebly.com), Remind App (see attached) and email to communicate with parents. The students will be using Kid Blog, google classroom and many other fun interactive sites online. (see attached) Over my summer vacation, I plan on doing a lot of golfing with family, spending many warm days at the lake and best of all, finding time to relax. I am looking forward to hearing all about your summer holidays in September. Have an awesome summer holidays and I will see you in September. We are going to have a fun-fulled school year. I will see you in room 9. Miss Jaclyn Smith |
Miss SmithWelcome to my first Grade 4 class. I am excited to take on this new role this year and I am excited to see many of the same faces and lots of new ones as well. It will be a fun filled year. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns throughout the year. Archives
November 2016
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