Country of Origin

Hello Room 75!
What a busy day after being away for a long weekend!  Students were eager to share their stories about what they did on the weekend with the class.  In Math, we worked on comparing large numbers.  Students chose two numbers randomly and then had to say whether one number was greater than or less than the other number.  Students used the greater than and less than symbols when making their number sentences.  < or > or =.  Ask your child to share with you what they learned in Math today.

In gym students learned how to control the ball when shooting.  We will be working on basketball over until the end of next week.  Students have come up with specific goals they have in basketball that they will be working on over the next two weeks.  This is a great way for them to see what it means to set a goal, work towards achieving it (strategies), and then evidence of having achieved their goal.  Students chose to set a goal on shooting, passing or dribbling the ball.  Ask your child to share with you the goal they set for themselves, what they are going to do to achieve it, and what evidence will they have to prove they achieved it.

We listened to three different picture books today and students got to choose which one they wanted to write a response about.

We started our next big project today in class.  This project will involve working at home and at school.    Students will be exploring their family's origin.  They will be asking you where their family was before they emigrated to North America.   This year our Social Studies program focuses on Communities Around the World and developing an understanding of Global Citizenship.  We will be conducting our Inquiry through the lens of the Child.
The purpose of this project is to assist our students in making personal connections to this curriculum.  Each student will explore their own ancestry and how it affects who they are, where they came from, and how they fit into our global community.  This will also be a great opportunity for your child to explore images from their country as this connects to our overall inquiry question, “How Do Images Impact How We see the World?”

We ask that you discuss where the members of your family originated from and when this move to North America occurred and if there is a story that goes along with their emigration.   If there is more than one country, please select one for this project.  If your family's origins have Aboriginal or First Nations roots, your child can focus on that origin, if that is what you and your child chose.

Today the students generated a large list of questions that they are interested in learning more about in regards to their country of origin.  Ask them to share one or two of the questions that they came up with or were shared during class.  We will be sorting these questions into groups and then sharing them with room 75 families with specific expectations for this project.  Students will be expected to choose a certain amount of questions that they would like to research more about their specific country.  For now, please talk with your child about their countries of origin and decide together which one they would like to research further and share with the class.

Important information:

Friday, November 15th- Ms. Handelsman in First Aid training all day. Mrs. Hofer in to teach.

Friday,  November 22nd- NO SCHOOL PD- 

Friday, November 22- Due date for submitting on the blog your child's country of origin for the project.

Homework:

-Ask a family member to quiz you on your words (both lists).  Words that you spelled incorrectly please re-write 3 times. 

-read 15-30 minutes

-Mathletics 15-30 minutes 

Question for the Blog:

What are your countries of origin? Which country are you choosing to research for your project?

See you tomorrow,

Ms. Handelsman

Ms. Hofer

Hello room 75.
I hope that you worked hard for Ms. Hofer on Friday!
I was busy on Friday and Saturday at the Early Childhood Education Conference in Kananaksis. I had a wonderful time and learned a great deal.  One of the workshops I went to was all about how I can work with you to help you become even better writers! I am very excited to share with you some of what I learned as we continue to work together to write poems.

I look forward to seeing you tomorrow and hearing all about your weekend and your Friday with Ms. Hofer.

Homework:
Read 15-30 minutes
Mathletics 15-30 (please let me know if you have finished the assignments and I can give you new ones to work on.)
If you have time practice your words, (the second list). Write each one out 3 times and create at least 3 sentences using them.  Remember when you are writing them in a sentence to try and use a version of the word that is different than what is on the list, so that you can practice writing them with different endings.

Question for the blog.
What did you do on the weekend that you would like to share with the class?

See you tomorrow,
Ms. Handelsman

Remembrance Day.

Hello room 75.
Today was our school's Remembrance Day Assembly.  The Peace Triad did a wonderful performing their songs and poems and being MC's.  There were also a few peace ambassadors from our class who participated.  Riley helped to set up and take down the chairs and furniture; Marek and Bruce went up and shook hands with our special guest retired soldier, and thanked him for attending our assembly; Bailey also went up and shook his hand, thanked him and presented him with a gift from the school.   In class we finished our Acrostic poems; REMEMBER;PEACE; POPPIES.  The students did a wonderful job of creating their art projects that are now hanging in the hallway in front of the class.  Ask your child what their work looks like.  A goal for our class continues to be respectful of each other and work using either silence or whisper voices, especially when we are working on complicated projects and tasks that require a great deal of concentration and focus.

Tomorrow I will be away at the Early Childhood Education Conference in Kananaskis.  Ms. Hofer will be in tomorrow.  She is very excited to be working with the students again.  For homework, the students know that they are to write a letter to Ms. Hofer about themselves.  In the letter, they should write about something that they are interested in, participate in, are looking forward, is interesting about themselves.  The students will be sharing their letters in the class meeting tomorrow with Ms. Hofer and with the class.  If they end up including any of their spelling words, they can underline them in the letter.  When writing, students should be focusing on beginning and end of sentence punctuation, spaces between words, and re-reading their work to ensure what they wrote makes sense to them.


Important information.
Monday, November 11- NO SCHOOL-REMEMBRANCE DAY
Friday, November 22- NO SCHOOL PD DAY

Homework:
To write a letter to Ms. Hofer.
Read 15-30 minutes
Mathletics 15 minutes

Question for the blog:
What did you appreciate the most in our Remembrance Day assembly that you would like to share on the blog and with Ms Hofer?

Have a great Friday and a great long weekend.

See you on Tuesday.
Ms. Handelsman

First time with our Buddies!!

Hello room 75!
I cannot believe how fast the day goes!
It was funny, this morning we started with three students absent, and then by Gym we were a full class again!
It was during gym that we had a fire drill.  We were able to practice evacuating the school if we were in gym during the fire alarm!  Ask your child how we evacuate and where we go.

In Math we worked on Mathletics.  Students worked on completing their assigned tasks before competing against each other on LIVE MATHLETICS.  The goal for our students when on Mathletics, is to compete at at least level 2.  Many students are choosing level 1 only, because they feel that level 2 is "too hard".  We talked about how the more we practice and work at something, the more familiar and then easier it becomes.

During our story and snack time, we watched a few videos for Remembrance Day.  Many of the students in grade 4 remember the song they performed for last year's Remembrance Day Assembly and we (tried) to watch the video of this song.  Unfortunately, we were having technical difficulty and it kept freezing on us.  Here is the link to the video if you were interested. Highway of Heroes.

In word work students shared with partners and then the class the many different sentences they created for homework!! We had many students work on their homework and bring it in today! Way to go room 75.  Their homework for tonight is to work with the "My Pattern Words to Study."  First they should write each word three times to become familiar with it.  Then for their sentences, they are to generate a sentence using at least one of the words from their list and try to make a change to their word.  For example: I was framed, but they still sent me to jail.  The word they are working with is frame, but in this sentence they are using it as the root word and adding an ending to it (ed).  This way they are becoming familiar with the words on their list and what they need to do when their word is plural, or the tense of their sentence changes.  They are to write at least three sentences and underline the word from their list that they used.   Here is the list we are working with tonight.

After lunch we met with our buddies from Mrs. Sloane's class.  Room 75 did a wonderful job working with their buddies to create their multi-step poppy for the Hope Wing Hallway's wreath.  Check out the link if you want to see what steps we took to create our POPPIES.

Students in room 75 worked really hard to finish their acrostic poem for Remembrance day!  All students finished writing, editing and then typing their work onto the computer.  Once they had typed their work, they were able to go and edit their work even further.  Ask them what they needed to include in their poetry writing.  Now we will print them and put them together!

Tomorrow is our Remembrance Day assembly.  This will be at 1030 in the morning.  Unfortunately as the school is so large and space is limited in the gym, only family members of students who are participating in the assembly are welcome to attend.

Important information.
Monday, November 11th, NO SCHOOL- Remembrance Day
Friday, November 22nd, NO SCHOOL- PD day
Thursday, November 28th- FUN LUNCH!

Homework:
read 15-30 minutes
mathletics 15-30
writing homework (see above for reminder instructions, in case you forgot what was discussed in class).

Question for the blog:
What was your buddy's name?  What did you enjoy the most about our buddy time today?

See you tomorrow,
Ms. Handelsman

John Dunn The Arctic Explorer

Hello room 75.
Today we had a special guest come and talk to us and tell us his story of his amazing adventure in the Arctic.  Through the use of his amazing photography skills, John shared his story, through images of his journey in the Arctic.  He shared his many adventures and challenges he faced as well as some of the discoveries he made, such as the different animals he saw.  Ask your child to share with you their favorite story from the presentation.  Was it the Arctic Rabbit hopping away? Was it how they problem solved to get themselves across the rushing river?  Was it how they could sleep when the sun was shining all day and all night?  If you are interested in learning more, please click on JOHN DUNN to see some of his AMAZING images he captured!

In math, we are continuing to work on strengthening our comprehension of Place Value and its importance in number sense.  Ask your child to explain and give you an example of what they did in Math today.  They were either working with me in class, or in a group with Mr. Southworth in the library.

In word work, we continued out exploration of the different ways to read and write the long a sound.  Thanks to the students who did their homework last night and brought it in to share with the class! Way to go you guys!!  Tonight, the students are coming home with a new journal.  Their "HOMEWORK" journal.  Please help them to remember to return it to school each day.  There won't always be homework, but when there is, this is where they will be working on it.  Today students were given a list of words to focus on that have the long a sound.  There is one list that all the students will be focusing on, and there there is a list that is their second list to focus on.  The students should have marked the first list and then put a circle, or star or heart around their specific list to focus on as well.  We will be writing these words as well as working on sorting them, to help students recognize the patterns they see in the words to help them with either reading or writing them.  SOmetimes seeing a pattern from a word they know how to spell can help them to spell trickier words, or words they are not familiar with.  Sometimes, students just have to learn to read or write a word in a certain way because there are no specific spelling rules or patterns to follow.  Please email me if your child is unsure of which list is theirs.  We will be focusing on these words over this week and next week.

After the assembly students worked to finish their Acrostic Poem for Remembrance day.  Once they had their writing edited, they began to type it up on the computer.  Tomorrow we should be finished typing the poems and then they will be able to print them off and display their work.  Ask your child to share with you where they are in this process.

Important information:

another form went home, please read for date sensitive information.

Homework:

Write at least 3 sentences in your homework journal using any of the words from your word list.  Please remember to bring your homework journal to school with you tomorrow so that we can share with the class.

Read 15-30 minutes

Mathletics 15-30 minutes.

Question for the blog.

What was your favorite part of the presentation today?  Why was this your favorite part? Be specific and detailed in your response!

Have a great night!

Ms. Handelsman

It is boots and snow pants weather out there!!

Hello room 75!!

Please, please, please remember to wear/bring BOOTS and snowpants to school on days like today!  Most of the week, there will be snow on the ground, and when you are outside at recess on the playground, compound and field, you will get wet.  Outdoor shoes for this weather should be boots, sneakers get soaked and then the socks are wet and the shoes become uncomfortable to put back on.

One thing we will work on as a class when coming into the school, is to make sure that we are putting our things away so that we don't lose them; especially our gloves and our hats or toques.  Decide with your parents where you will put these items everyday, so that you know where they are and they don't go walking! EG...You will put your hat/gloves into the outside pocket of your backpack, or your gloves into the pocket of your winter jacket and your toque in your back pack etc...I currently have 2 toques and two gloves (though not the same pair) that were left behind.  We need to make sure to put our things away upon entry in the morning and after lunch! I know that we can take care of our winter clothing, so that we can be warm and comfortable when playing outside.

We started our day this morning by welcoming our St.Mary's College and University Student Teacher, Mrs. Litman to our class. She will be with us everyday for the next six weeks!

In Math we discussed different strategies we could use to get better at Math.  Then we reviewed our exploration of Place Value from last week.  Our class goal in Math is to be able to share with a family member specifics of what we learned in math class.  Today's lesson was a short one, but we did discuss why understanding place value is important.  Ask your child to share with you what they remember from today's lesson.

We were able to listen to Marek share his book project on the first book from the Bone's series.  He was confident and excited to read what he had written in his powerpoint on the 4 characters he felt were important to the story.  He did a great job of summarizing what had happened and of increasing the audience's interest in the book, by asking them suspenseful questions at the end of his presentation.  Way to go Marek. (picture to follow, I am currently having technical difficulty)

Nick finished his project and was proud of sharing written report with the class.  His presentation, though short, was engaging enough that many students are now interested in reading his book! Way to go Nick! (picture to follow, I am currently having technical difficulty).

In word work, we are focusing on the many different ways the long a (the letter name sound) is written.    We talked about the bossy e: a_e; e.g. name; ai e.g. rain; eight; e.g. sleigh; ay e.g. say.  We created a chart and students worked to generate and sort different words they could make with the long a sound.  Ask them to share with you some of the words they came up with.  We will continue to explore the long a sound over the next couple of weeks.  Tomorrow, students will be given some specific words that they will have to sort and learn how to spell in a sentence...

In writing we are beginning our exploration into poetry writing.  Our first poem we will be working on is an ACROSTIC poem about Remembrance Day.  Ask your child to share with you what an acrostic poem is. PS I will give you a hint...They choose a word, this time the words are either PEACE, POPPY or REMEMBER, then they write the poem...
E.G.
Remember those who have lost their lives.
Eleventh month, eleventh, day, eleventh hour, eleventh minute.
M
E
M
B
E
R
Ask your child to share with you the word they chose to write their poem about.  We will continue to work on this tomorrow, when the students will finish their rough copy, edit their work and then type it up for their good copy.  To help the students think of words that are associated with Remembrance Day we looked it up using Wikipedia, as well as we watched a video on Youtube called Pittance of Time. If the link does not work, then just type on the youtube website "Pittance of Time Official Song". The video helped the students to see and think about the importance of why we remember each year on Remembrance day.

We ended our day with French!  They each received their second lesson from the same French teacher. Ask them what they learned about today.  Next French class will be with a new teacher and will be on Monday, November 18th.

Important information:
Many fundraising forms went home today.  Please be sure to go through your child's communication folder and read through them.  If you are interested in ordering any of the items, please do so by November 15th
CHEQUE WRITING CAMPAIGN: DUE NOVEMBER 5TH (tomorrow)
POINSETTIA; COOKIE DOUGH; KNITWITS; COCO BROOKS AND SPOLUMBO'S ARE ALL DUE IN BY NOVEMBER 15TH! ( I think I got them all:)

No School Monday, November 11th- Remembrance Day.

Homework:
-Come up with 5-10 words that use the long a sound and sort them, by a_e; ai; eight; ay, like we did in class, write them on a piece of paper and bring in tomorrow, then we can add them to your list at school tomorrow.
-read 15-30 minutes (you will get a new reading log sheet tomorrow!)
-Mathletics 15-30 minutes

Question for the blog:
What did you learn in French today that you would like to share with the class? Be as specific as you can.(We will be sharing the blog in the morning!)

A demain mes amis!

Mme. Handelsman!

Don't forget to change your clocks on Sunday!

Hello room 75 Families.

What a wonderfully busy week this one was! We had the Halloween Howler on Wednesday night, Halloween celebrations on Thursday and then trick or treating on Thursday night.  Our week was also filled with many students sharing their passion of reading through their book projects!  Everyone was so creative in their approach to presenting their book to the class.  We had a digital presentations, posters, typed projects and 3d projects!  Here is a quick overview of Wednesday and Thursday's presentations. (We had technical difficulties on Thursday, so we will be listening to Marek share his project on Monday!)

Lucas chose to do a diorama on his book, "Bone- Quest for the Spark #3".  He demonstrated confidence and enthusiasm for the book he was talking about as well as being in front of the class.  He enjoyed answering specific questions from his friends as they wanted to know more about the different characters in the book as well as how he he made the boat for his project.  Way to go Lucas!

Cohen also chose to do his project on a Bone book. He enjoyed being in front of the class and discussing one of his favorite books.  Using notes that he typed up, Cohen was comfortable discussing the setting and the different character in the book! Excellent work Cohen!

Riley was very excited to talk about the book he read.  His book was called "The Dark Knight".  He worked hard to make sure that there were both pictures and writing on his poster.  He created a chart that listed the important descriptions of the characters he thought were important in the story.  He shared with the class the plot of the story and how the main problem was resolved.  Way to go Riley!!

Wilson created a PowerPoint to present his book.  He read J.K Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone."  He was extremely excited to share his passion of this book with the class.  His writing was descriptive and helped the audience to see what he was talking about.  Wilson was proud as he shared the illustration of Harry Potter that he included in his project.  He was confident when answering the many questions from his peers and even shared a glimpse of what he has read so far in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets".  His enthusiasm for reading is great!  Way to go Mr. Wilson!

Meghan was proud to share her project on the book she read, "The Lady and The Tramp."  Meghan wrote up her book project herself and also created a display on a poster board for the class to look at as she was sharing.  She was confident as she read her notes that described a summary of the story and some of the main characters of the book.  Way to go Meghan!

Jullianne, who is loves to read Thea Stilton books, chose to do her presentation on  "Thea Stilton the Secret of the Fairies."  Her project was nicely organized into different sections which helped her when she was presenting her book to the class.  Jullianne described the MANY different characters that were in her book, as well as she gave a brief summary of the story.  Her summary made the audience interested in the book indeed!  Excellent work Jullianne.

Ansharah did a wonderful job on her book project! She created a double sided poster board for her project on one of her favorite books that she has read more than once!  The book she presented to the class is "The Land of Stories", by Chris Colfer.  Both Ansharah and the class did a wonderful job with this presentation, as Ansharah was quite shy to begin.  After taking a few deep breaths and seeing that her audience was engaged and respectful of her, she persevered and accomplished her goal of presenting her project to the class. Her project was detailed and included a variety of art that she created herself, including how she artistically created the title for her work.  Her work displayed her passion for reading.  She was proud of creating a project that was unique and was proud of presenting and sharing one of her favorite books with her peers.  Way to go Ansharah!!

Room 75 has been doing amazing work with their presentations and with their audience behavior, questions and comments!  Many students have been sharing a variety of thoughtful questions and comments to their friends.

As I was getting my old computer replaced with a new one, we were unable to have Marek share his PowerPoint presentation.  Marek will share his on Monday! (He and a few others will be excited that  the day Marek shares his book project, will be the day they receive their pre-ordered newest edition of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid!"

Thursday was also our Halloween celebrations.  Students in room 75 did a wonderful of playing games.  Many students rotated around playing different games with different friends.  Everyone was included into the different games and it was fun to watch as some students learned how to play games that were new to them!  Way to go...

                         

Important Information:
Library exchange and French on Monday.
Thursday is our Remembrance Day Assembly.
No School Monday, November 11th for Remembrance day.

Homework:
Read 15-30 minutes
Mathletics 15-30 minutes

Question for the Blog:
What did you do for Halloween?

I hope that you all had a fun and safe Halloween and are enjoying your long weekend.
See you on Monday morning.
Ms. Handelsman