This Week's Recap

Happy Friday! It's certainly quiet here at school today which has given me the opportunity to reflect on the productive week we have had! I'm currently surveying farm models & city plans from my desk and it is quite the sight to see!

We have wrapped up our final Social Studies task this week. Grade 5s built city models of Franklin - a 'ghost town' located near my hometown of Mount Albert, ON - based upon the analysis of growth statistics. Grade 4s researched different methods of soil and water conservation and built farm models (with $275,000 in grant money) to demonstrate their practices in action.

Grade 4s worked so well on their models! They are detailed, on-point and creative. I am really impressed!

In Mathematics this week we began our new unit on Fractions & Decimals. Please take time this weekend to review these concepts with students. Pre-testing revealed that - perhaps through 'summer loss syndrome' - there seemed to be a large gap in knowledge regarding fractions. We have taken the last few days to review the types of fractions (parts of a whole and parts of a group) as well as how to write a fraction (numerator/denominator). I have stressed to students that it would be a great idea to review fractions more over the weekend with their new Mathletics subscriptions!

On that note, all students should now have received their Mathletics log-ins and passwords. If you have not yet paid the $10 subscription fee (a discount of $89 from the commercial price) please send the money to school this week.

Please note the following for the upcoming week:

• Trapper Challenge on Tuesday
• Please review the checklist here (bottom of the page)
• E.L.A. product due Wednesday
• See inspiration right
• Keep reading!! 
• Our Read-A-Thon is on (and Ms. Foell likes pizza)
• Battle of the Books on Friday
• Lunches must not require a microwave 
• Check out Mathletics!

This Week's Spelling Words

The pattern? Words with g

guard

zigzag

guitar

guide

shrug

iceberg

dialogue

guilty

catalogue

guest

guidance

vague

league

gauge

language

argue

strong

penguin

intrigue

fatigue

This Week's Recap

Happy Friday!

We certainly have been blessed by another week of wonderful weather! I must say I do feel rather lucky as this is my first Saskatchewan 'winter' experience. I know, though, that there will be some escapes to the south planned. Just a reminder that an advance notice regarding such vacations would be appreciated so that any critical work can be sent along (for the plane ride of course). 

In E.L.A. this week we began our assessment task. Students have been asked to show their creative side and create a product. What sort of product? Well - it needs to fit in a box. Students will be required to create an advertising campaign to accompany their project, consisting of: 

• A logo for branding
• A 3-D model of its packaging
• A poster/billboard advertisement
• A 30-second commercial

The design will need to appeal to their product's target audience. We have discussed how having a limited target age group (5-10) might be easier than having a large range (9-99). This project will be due on February 4.

In Mathematics, we are wrapping up our unit on Measurement. We learned this week that 1 mL is 1 cm3. We also yelled 'Eureka!' while learning about displacement as a means for measuring the volume of irregular shapes.

The unit test will be Tuesday, January 27. Students have a list of review topics & questions.

Our Social Studies presentations were quite interesting. I did not know that Saskatchewan was the birthplace of bioplastics or fibre optics. I also quite enjoyed learning about copper pipes through quite a humorous dramatic skit. We will be transitioning into our next Science units by the end of next week.

National Literacy Week will be celebrated in the coming weeks at Jack MacKenzie. To celebrate, we encourage students to bring in books on Monday and Tuesday of next week in preparation for our book swap on Wednesday. It should be a really great time!

Next week will be busy. Some important dates to remember include:

• Grade 5 Math Test (Tuesday)
• Read-A-Thon kick-off assembly (Tuesday)
• Book Swap (Wednesday)
• Swimming 1-2 (Thursday)
• Professional Development Day - No school (Friday)

This Week's Spelling Words

The patterns this week are soft c, soft g and final s

gadget

challenge

arrange

surgeon

management

luggage

package

garbage

courage

village

office

practice

distance

police

sentence

princess

address

express

compass

possess

This Week's Recap

It's Friday & we've only had one day of indoor recess this week!

We started the week with our first skating venture. It was exciting! It was fascinating to see the range of abilities between the classes (those boards sure got a workout!) I certainly had fun getting out on the ice with your students.

Thank you so much to our parent volunteers -- I can't imagine how long skate tying would have taken without you! You were invaluable.

This week has been full of different activities. In E.L.A., we have been continuing our Media Studies unit. It has really been interesting to speak with students about their views on why we advertise and the effectiveness of different persuasive techniques. We have even been able to discuss colour theory and its application in advertising. This has followed us into Visual Arts where we have been working on logo paintings.

Next week I would like to look briefly at packaging. It would be lovely if you could send any boxes (brand name and otherwise) for us to examine so that we can further apply our fantastic analyzing skills!

Somehow I have gotten even more excited about measurement this week in Mathematics!  We have explored the difference between volume and capacity. We used water to estimate and explore the size of a Litre and a millilitre.

I was happy that our desks got an unexpected cleaning.

On Thursday, we explored the real-world applications of measurement further by baking scones. We also washed dishes. Many dishes. It was wonderful to see your students shine in a new way!

Upcoming next week:

• Social Studies project due (Wednesday, Grade 4 & 5)
• Introduction to the Trapper Challenge (Thursday, in-class)
• Battle of the Books (Friday, Grade 5 only)

And finally - I came in to this on Thursday afternoon. I think it's worth sharing: 

This Week's Spelling Words

Spelling pattern of the week: Within word vowel patterns, ie and ei

niece

grief

shield

relieve

mischief

either

yield

belief

ceiling

weird

eighteen

Science

deceive

freight

weigh

sleigh

receipt

vein

protein

neighbour

This Week's Recap

It has been the week of indoor recess - and your students have been adjusting very well! We have introduced some post-recess yoga sessions and circuits to help make the transition from play to classwork easier. We are hopeful that our projector will soon be fixed so we can use some online resources to help us adjust too!

We have been further developing our Media Literacy this week with 'commercial scavenger hunts'. We looked for ads with specific persuasive techniques, including exaggeration, testimonials and expert opinion, and presented in small groups our findings. Students have been engaging fantastically with this material and have already begun to show their understanding by developing commercials in Social Studies related either to traveling in Saskatchewan or sustainability.

In Mathematics, we have explored volume further. Volume can be a confusing concept, often mistaken for capacity, for students. Units can often easily be confused.  Students developed a city model, with buildings of a given volume earlier this week. I have added a few specific links under 'Math' on the Links for Home page so that students may continue to practice.

We introduced the cubic metre on Thursday. Students created 12 rolls of newspaper, each 1 metre long. They worked in small groups of 5-6 to create a cubic metre. It was as much fun to watch as you might think. Additionally, the visual of a cubic metre has certainly helped us to refine our estimation skills and conceptual understanding of volume as a 3-D measurement.

The question of hockey sticks has come up with regard to skating next week. Students may choose to bring a hockey stick (& gloves) SO LONG AS they also bring a helmet with a face mask. Students whose helmets do not have a face mask cannot be permitted to play hockey for liability reasons.

Upcoming events next week include:

• Recorder order money due ($6) on Monday
• Skating Monday afternoon from 2-3
• Spelling quiz on Friday
• Look-a-Like Day on Friday

Have a great week!

This Week's Spelling Words

Focus: long 'e' vowel sound made by different letter combinations

any

many

only

see

tree

been

asleep

queen

me

be

we

eat

please

speak

teacher

sea