Ms Elder's Grade 4/5 Class

Remember those letters we sent to the Government back in December? ( click here to see our old blog post ) Well, we've got responses! On Wednesday, a letter arrived from the Prime Minister's office, and today four letters arrived from the Premier!  Parents, be sure to ask your child all about the responses and what we've learned about having our voices heard! "I feel good because Premier Kenney went out of his way to write me back instead of having his Communications Manager write back. His letter was very descriptive and it gave me lots of information of where to find more information." ~ Lawrence "I feel very surprised and really happy that Premier Kenney acknowledged my letter. He actually read my letter." ~ Hudson "It was pretty sad when we noticed that the two letters to Jane and James were exactly the same. Jason Nixon needs to read his mail more carefully because Jane and James wrote were about different topics." ~ Callie "He did no...

Today, we shared our Amusement Rides with Ms Rowland's Grade 1/2 class. Here are some photos; they said they loved it!  There is a video of a few students in our class sharing their rides in our Google Classroom. Check it out! :)

Social Studies: I can make a personal connection to Alberta's/Canada's land and how people use it; I can explain how our stories contribute to our identity; I can develop research skills Language Arts: I can retell what I've learned in my own words; I can use text features to access information This year, we have been learning about Canada's regions through a variety of media. For each region, we have always started off by reading some of the Voices of Canada textbook. The textbook gives us an overview of the region, shows us maps and pictures to understand where it is and what the land is like, and tells stories from the different groups of people who have lived there.  After each textbook introduction, we break into small groups (usually 3 kids) and we are each responsible for reading a 2-4 page section of the textbook. We need to take the information, turn it into our own words (paraphrase), then write jot notes on a sheet of paper. We use these notes when it's ...

Meeting with support groups to share problems and get solutions Science: I can test designs and make changes to improve them; I can develop skills for problem-solving and teamwork Personal Development Through Learning: I can engage in learning with confidence and persistence. Over the past two days, we have created our Amusement Park rides. Here is a look inside our 'workshop,' along with quotes from us as we built. We are excited to share our final designs on Thursday with our official buddy class, Ms Rowland's Grade 1/2s! Building Day One :  A class hard at work! Thanks to Ms Dool, and several parent volunteers for helping us cut cardboard and hot glue! "So far, my biggest challenge was finding places to attach the tubes so it's stable." ~ Lawrence "The challenge I've had was having trouble with the tape because it kept on falling off so I couldn't attach the board to the Kleenex box." ~ Toivo "A problem I've had is getting the scr...

Hello Students, This is a reminder that you have a Multiplication Quiz on Thursday this week. As we talked about in class, you need to be prepared to:  Represent a multiplication equation as a picture (by drawing groups) or an array (rows and columns) Write a number equation to match a given picture or array Describe multiplication using math language, such as:  3 x 7 = three groups of seven Multiplication is making groups When multiplying whole numbers, your answer gets bigger In the equation 7 x 8 = 56, 7 and 8 are called factors , 56 is called the product You can switch the factors and the product will still be the same Describe strategies for solving or checking your equations up to 9 x 9 (like the multiplication posters we made in class) Solve multiplication word problems (by showing an appropriate picture, number equation, and sentence answer) Create a multiplication word problem If you are looking for ways to practice, I suggest re-reading our blog entry from our Mu...

Students: Remember to bring your planning sheets back to school on Monday, along with any materials from home you need.  Parents: Please review the Parent Note I sent home last week. (It's posted on the Google Classroom if you can't find it). :)

PE: I can explore a variety of movements and equipment; I can practice fair play The school purchased a Gaga Ball pit! We learned the rules from our Student Council members: Hazel, Jane, and Maria. We tried out the new equipment and we loved it!  Next week, we will explore different variations of the game like competitive one-on-one, competitive team, for-fun practice (1 in, 1 out), and maybe more!  We realized we have space on the other side of the gym we can use, too, for free time with equipment while we're waiting for our turn. :) We learned that hitting a Gaga ball feels different from hitting other balls. It's heavier. We connected it to Dodgeball because the rules are similar.

The "tree" group sorting our natural materials Social Studies: I can make a personal connection to Canada's land; I can value Indigenous people and stories; I can connect with the land Art: I can explore different materials; I can create work based off a model artist This year in Social Studies, we have been studying the regions of Canada, the land, and how people live. We have been using artwork from artists of each region to show our understanding. For the first time this year, instead of making our own individual art piece, we are going to use our collaboration skills and create one classroom piece. Here are all of the things we've done over the past month to prepare for this project:  - Learn about the Canadian Shield by reading textbook sections and sharing that information with the class - Look at other artists' work from the Canadian Shield (we were inspired most by Lisa Myers, Indigenous Artist) - Community Walk to gather materials - Plan our art piece - D...

  In Math, we are working on Multiplication. To help us learn our basic facts (up to 12x12), Ms Elder put us into small groups. Each group was given a times table. We had to think of strategies to help us know that times table (like, x3). Each group made a poster to show the strategies and patterns. For example, for the 9 times table, you can use your fingers, the number in the tens place increases by 1, the number in the ones places decreases by 1, and if you add the digit in the ones place and tens place, you always get 9! One way we've been working on learning our times tables is by seeing the facts we already know. Ms Elder gave us a multiplication grid and asked us to fill in the facts we already have memorized. This has helped us see the facts we most need to practice. Each day, we do a warm-up game that practices our facts (like, multiplication rap, rock-paper-scissors-multiply, Multiplication Luck, multiplication dice, or our Multiplication Houses).  "The posters are v...

  This week, we watched a presentation that was shared with us by Sebastian K's mom. We learned that our body parts are levers and pulleys. The levers are our bones and the pulleys are our muscles. The presentation is used with university students but there were lots of vocabulary words we knew like, first, second, and third class levers ! Then, we went into the gym to test out the simple machines in our bodies!  We had a couple of different stations in the gym. One had wiffle balls, scoops, and lacrosse sticks. We tried throwing the balls, using the scoops, and using the lacrosse sticks to see which would go farther with the same amount of effort. The other station had hockey sticks, mini hockey sticks, and pucks. We discovered that the longer the lever, the less effort is needed but more distance it needs to travel.  "This was really fun because we got to test out the simple machines in our bodies!" ~ Callie "It was really hard to use the small hockey sticks beca...

Science: I can test designs and make changes to improve them; I can develop skills for problem-solving and teamwork Personal Development Through Learning: I can engage in learning with confidence and persistence  As a culminating project for our Simple Machines unit of study, we are creating our own model Amusement Park!!!  Each of us is designing our own ride that uses simple machines. We are allowed to use our imaginations to create something that wouldn't necessarily work in real life. To prepare for this, we have:  Learned the names of and explored all of the different machines ( lever, wheel, pulley, gear, incline plane, wedge, screw ) Learned how to test different designs and materials (ex: wheelies, catapults, pulleys) Practiced persevering even when it was tricky (ex: wheelies, catapults, pulleys) Shown that we can use simple machines to solve problems (ex: simple machines quiz) Watched videos of Rube Goldberg machines for inspiration (Wonderpark, OK GO, Baking Im...