Hello students and parents,
Thanks to all the family members who made it out to our holiday lunch and presentation of 'First Stop Ellis Island'. It was a fun way to begin the holiday season.
Here's what we'll be doing this week in Grade 4:
Math:
We'll be learning how to multiply with factors that are at least two digits using the classic algorithym method. We'll then practice solving multiplication problems using both of the methods we've learned, as well as creating arrays and word problems to represent these problems. We'll also be learning to solve word problems using an organized list as a strategy.
Reading:
We will begin reading our latest class novel, "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever". While we read we'll be learning about plot conventions such as introductions, conflicts, rising action, climax, and conflict resolution. We'll be writing our weekly 'reading letter' about the second chapter of our new book, which students will read independently for home work. We'll also be having our second 'reading buddies' sessions with our friends in grade 1 where we'll be discussing our favourite holiday stories.
Writing:
We will start working on our narrative writing skills this week. This will correspond with what we are learning about plot conventions during reading lessons. The students will be asked to create a 'story map' of the narrative that they plan to write, including all the key plot points, before they begin writing and editing their story. We will then work on writing, sharing, and editing our stories together in time for our Christmas holiday.
Grammar:
We will continue discussing and working with prefixes and suffixes. This week our focus will be the prefixes un- and pre- and the suffixes -able and -less.
Spelling
We will be focusing on the J sound at the end of words, as created by -ge and -dge.
Our words for the week are: wedge, bandage, bridge, fudge, sausage, garbage, lodge, badge, cabbage, edge, manage, luggage, judge, damage, package.
Character Studies:
We will be focusing on the character trait of fairness.
Science:
We will be checking our progress with the science project, and discussing the next step we need to finish. We will also be beginning our new science unit on Motion and Design.
Here's to a great week in grade 4. All the best,
Jordan Rose
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Activities for the Week of November 22nd-24th
Important Reminders:
This Wednesday is our holiday lunch. We will be having two presentations of our class play, 'First Stop Ellis Island' at 11:30, followed by our holiday lunch at 12:30. I apologize for changing the time of the play, (originally I wrote on this blog that we would have the performance after lunch). But after reconsidering the effect of pie on grade 4 students I decided that we would be better off having the play before we eat. I look forward to a fun lunch with parents and students before we head off for our four day Thanksgiving holiday.
Our science projects are moving along nicely. Over the holidays if you have some time at home with your child you might want to check how they have been progressing on their science fair logbook. Most of the students have completed the first three steps....creating a question, coming up with key words and related questions, and doing some background research on their topic. Step four will require them to think about how they will design their experiment and what their hypothesis and variables will be. The information is contained in the logbook, but if you have any questions about how to proceed please contact me.
Classroom Activities:
Writing:
We will be discussing the concept of perspective, and the importance of seeing things from other perspectives. To practice this we will work on writing our weekly reading letter from the perspective of one of the characters in our play. The students will be asked to write about what it might have been like to immigrate to a new country such as America.
Social Studies:
We will be spending most of our time practicing our play and getting it ready for our parents on Wednesday. The students are in charge of deciding how they want to stage their play and making sure that it is presentable.
Math:
We are in the beginning stages of our new chapter in Mathematics. This week we will be learning how to estimate the product of two, two digit factors, and learning how to use the break apart method with these larger numbers. We will also work on representing multiplication problems using arrays.
As this is such a short and busy week we will not be having spelling or grammar lessons this week.
Here's to a great week and our holiday lunch,
Jordan Rose
This Wednesday is our holiday lunch. We will be having two presentations of our class play, 'First Stop Ellis Island' at 11:30, followed by our holiday lunch at 12:30. I apologize for changing the time of the play, (originally I wrote on this blog that we would have the performance after lunch). But after reconsidering the effect of pie on grade 4 students I decided that we would be better off having the play before we eat. I look forward to a fun lunch with parents and students before we head off for our four day Thanksgiving holiday.
Our science projects are moving along nicely. Over the holidays if you have some time at home with your child you might want to check how they have been progressing on their science fair logbook. Most of the students have completed the first three steps....creating a question, coming up with key words and related questions, and doing some background research on their topic. Step four will require them to think about how they will design their experiment and what their hypothesis and variables will be. The information is contained in the logbook, but if you have any questions about how to proceed please contact me.
Classroom Activities:
Writing:
We will be discussing the concept of perspective, and the importance of seeing things from other perspectives. To practice this we will work on writing our weekly reading letter from the perspective of one of the characters in our play. The students will be asked to write about what it might have been like to immigrate to a new country such as America.
Social Studies:
We will be spending most of our time practicing our play and getting it ready for our parents on Wednesday. The students are in charge of deciding how they want to stage their play and making sure that it is presentable.
Math:
We are in the beginning stages of our new chapter in Mathematics. This week we will be learning how to estimate the product of two, two digit factors, and learning how to use the break apart method with these larger numbers. We will also work on representing multiplication problems using arrays.
As this is such a short and busy week we will not be having spelling or grammar lessons this week.
Here's to a great week and our holiday lunch,
Jordan Rose
Monday, November 15, 2010
Lunch Menu for Wednesday 24th
MENU FOR SCHOOL THANKSGIVING PARTIES for Wednesday 24th
Discovery School Cafeteria is offering the following menus for Thanksgiving parties. Order Sheets are placed with teachers in every class. Order for the whole class and get a FREE (1 per class) Menu 2 Adult Plate for your Teacher! All orders must be placed and paid by Thursday 18th.
Thanksgiving Menu Menu 1 L. 70 Child, L. 110 Adult Turkey and Gravy
Cranberry Jelly Mashed potatoes Dinner roll
Menu 2 L. 85 Child, L. 125 Adult Turkey and Gravy Cranberry Jelly Mashed potatoes Glazed Carrots or Green Beans Dinner roll
Add a pie:
Apple or Pumpkin, Slice L 35 Whole Pie L 280
Add a beverage:
Small Juice L. 10 Milk L. 15 Iced Tea L. 25 Cold Soda 2 lts w/ 8 cups L. 40
We will make apple pies , pumpkin pies and Cheesecakes for pick up at school on Wednesday 24th. Also available are pineapple & lemon pies. Price for Pies is L 280 each and Cheesecake is L. 350. We need advance orders by Thursday 18th and we will not make any extra!!!
Activities for the Week of November 15th-November 18th
Dear parents and students,
Greetings from Discovery School. I hope everyone is well.
Dates to remember:
Friday, November 19th- No School! As all of our Discovery School Teachers will be taking part in our 6th annual Teacher's Workshop.
Wednesday, November 24th we will have our class 'holiday lunch'. All parents are invited to enjoy a delicious lunch with us starting at 12:30. Following the lunch we will have two performances of our class play, 'First Stop Ellis Island'. We will be ordering our holiday lunch from the cafeteria for parents and students. I will be sending home a menu and order form this week. If you can make it we look forward to sharing a nice lunch and performance with you.
Classroom Activities This Week:
Math
This Wednesday we will be having our Chapter 5 Math Test. The test will cover all the multiplication and word problems that we've been working on over the past 2 and a half weeks. As usual I will be sending home a practice test Tuesday afternoon for the students to practice and study. Thursday will mark the beginning of Chapter 6, where we will be learning to multiply two, two digit numbers.
Reading
In reading this week we will finish reading for information from our booklet, 'The Story of Immigration'. We will be handing in our 'reading letter' on Tuesday detailing all the interesting things that we've learned about Immigration in America, and how this information relates to the characters in our play, 'First Stop Ellis Island'. We will also be reading the portion of the booklet about the immigration laws that have been enacted in America together, and decide what is fair and unfair about these laws.
Writing
In writing lessons we will practice proofreading and editing our 'reading letters' together to make sure we all hand in our best work. We will also be focusing on the concept of perspective, and the importance of being able to see things from different perspectives. To practice this we will be writing about the experience of immigration from the perspective of one of the characters in our play.
Grammar
We will be learning about prefixes and suffixes and how they change the meaning of words, and how understanding prefixes and suffixes can help us figure out what new words mean. The prefixes and suffixes that we will focus on are: un, mis, dis, er, and est.
Spelling
Our spelling words will focus on the CH sound at the end of words. Our words are: fetch, pinch, drench, couch, clutch, torch, ranch, scratch, reach, stretch, branch, twitch, church, patch, sketch.
Social Studies
Now that we have completed writing our additional scene and chosen our parts, both groups will work on deciding and practicing the staging of their play. The students will have to decide how to properly act out the play and whether or not they will memorize their lines. Our social studies topic of Immigration in America is also fully integrated with our reading and writing lessons this week.
I hope everyone has a great week. Thanks for reading and look forward to seeing you all next Wednesday!! Sincerely,
Jordan Rose
Greetings from Discovery School. I hope everyone is well.
Dates to remember:
Friday, November 19th- No School! As all of our Discovery School Teachers will be taking part in our 6th annual Teacher's Workshop.
Wednesday, November 24th we will have our class 'holiday lunch'. All parents are invited to enjoy a delicious lunch with us starting at 12:30. Following the lunch we will have two performances of our class play, 'First Stop Ellis Island'. We will be ordering our holiday lunch from the cafeteria for parents and students. I will be sending home a menu and order form this week. If you can make it we look forward to sharing a nice lunch and performance with you.
Classroom Activities This Week:
Math
This Wednesday we will be having our Chapter 5 Math Test. The test will cover all the multiplication and word problems that we've been working on over the past 2 and a half weeks. As usual I will be sending home a practice test Tuesday afternoon for the students to practice and study. Thursday will mark the beginning of Chapter 6, where we will be learning to multiply two, two digit numbers.
Reading
In reading this week we will finish reading for information from our booklet, 'The Story of Immigration'. We will be handing in our 'reading letter' on Tuesday detailing all the interesting things that we've learned about Immigration in America, and how this information relates to the characters in our play, 'First Stop Ellis Island'. We will also be reading the portion of the booklet about the immigration laws that have been enacted in America together, and decide what is fair and unfair about these laws.
Writing
In writing lessons we will practice proofreading and editing our 'reading letters' together to make sure we all hand in our best work. We will also be focusing on the concept of perspective, and the importance of being able to see things from different perspectives. To practice this we will be writing about the experience of immigration from the perspective of one of the characters in our play.
Grammar
We will be learning about prefixes and suffixes and how they change the meaning of words, and how understanding prefixes and suffixes can help us figure out what new words mean. The prefixes and suffixes that we will focus on are: un, mis, dis, er, and est.
Spelling
Our spelling words will focus on the CH sound at the end of words. Our words are: fetch, pinch, drench, couch, clutch, torch, ranch, scratch, reach, stretch, branch, twitch, church, patch, sketch.
Social Studies
Now that we have completed writing our additional scene and chosen our parts, both groups will work on deciding and practicing the staging of their play. The students will have to decide how to properly act out the play and whether or not they will memorize their lines. Our social studies topic of Immigration in America is also fully integrated with our reading and writing lessons this week.
I hope everyone has a great week. Thanks for reading and look forward to seeing you all next Wednesday!! Sincerely,
Jordan Rose
Monday, November 8, 2010
Classroom Activities for the Week of Nov. 8-Nov.12th
Greetings parents and students!
Important Reminders:
This Monday is our picture day. Thank you to everyone who has returned the form with the money for the photo package. If you have not sent in your form and money yet, we can accept it no later than this Tuesday, Nov. 9th. I will send home an additional form today for any students who think they may have 'misplaced' their original copy.
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
Math:
This week in Math lessons we will be working on understanding when it is best to use the 'old school' pen and pencil method for multiplying, and when it is best to use our mental math skills. We will also take time to review and practice our multiplication skills, making sure we can accurately multiply two, there, and four digit numbers. We will then move on to multiplying money, and understanding how to multiply with decimal points, and understanding factorization. Finally, we will continue to practice choosing strategies for and solving word problems.
Reading:
In reading this week we will be reading a non-fiction booklet titled 'The Story of Immigration'. We will continue to practice our reading for information, and note taking skills from last week. Each student will then write their weekly reading letter about what they learned about our social studies topic of immigration from what they read within the booklet. We will also spend our first session with our Grade 1 reading buddies this week.
Writing:
We will be focusing this week on writing a scene from a play. We will discuss the differences between a written play and a storybook. We will also discuss key elements of a play, including setting, directions, and character dialogue. This corresponds nicely with the work we've done with the play 'First Stop Ellis Island' in our Social Studies lessons, and will build to next week's social studies activity where we will be writing and performing our very own scene.
Social Studies:
In social studies lessons this week we will continue to work on our 'read-throughs' of our play. We will also work on trying to settle on who will play each part in each of the two groups. Our social studies lessons will also be integrated with our reading and writing lessons, as we will be learning about immigration in reading classes, and preparing to create a new scene for our play during our writing classes.
Grammar:
We will be working on understanding how to properly use apostrophe S to show possession.
Spelling:
We will focus on common abbreviations such as the days of the week and months of the year.
I hope everyone has a great week. All the best,
Jordan Rose
Important Reminders:
This Monday is our picture day. Thank you to everyone who has returned the form with the money for the photo package. If you have not sent in your form and money yet, we can accept it no later than this Tuesday, Nov. 9th. I will send home an additional form today for any students who think they may have 'misplaced' their original copy.
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
Math:
This week in Math lessons we will be working on understanding when it is best to use the 'old school' pen and pencil method for multiplying, and when it is best to use our mental math skills. We will also take time to review and practice our multiplication skills, making sure we can accurately multiply two, there, and four digit numbers. We will then move on to multiplying money, and understanding how to multiply with decimal points, and understanding factorization. Finally, we will continue to practice choosing strategies for and solving word problems.
Reading:
In reading this week we will be reading a non-fiction booklet titled 'The Story of Immigration'. We will continue to practice our reading for information, and note taking skills from last week. Each student will then write their weekly reading letter about what they learned about our social studies topic of immigration from what they read within the booklet. We will also spend our first session with our Grade 1 reading buddies this week.
Writing:
We will be focusing this week on writing a scene from a play. We will discuss the differences between a written play and a storybook. We will also discuss key elements of a play, including setting, directions, and character dialogue. This corresponds nicely with the work we've done with the play 'First Stop Ellis Island' in our Social Studies lessons, and will build to next week's social studies activity where we will be writing and performing our very own scene.
Social Studies:
In social studies lessons this week we will continue to work on our 'read-throughs' of our play. We will also work on trying to settle on who will play each part in each of the two groups. Our social studies lessons will also be integrated with our reading and writing lessons, as we will be learning about immigration in reading classes, and preparing to create a new scene for our play during our writing classes.
Grammar:
We will be working on understanding how to properly use apostrophe S to show possession.
Spelling:
We will focus on common abbreviations such as the days of the week and months of the year.
I hope everyone has a great week. All the best,
Jordan Rose
Monday, November 1, 2010
Class Activities for the Week of November 1st-5th
Greetings students and parents,
Thank you to all the parents who took the time Friday to come to Discovery for our student-led conferences. It was great to see everyone and talk about everything that we've worked on over this past 1st quarter of school. To the parents who were not able to meet on Friday, could you please contact me as soon as possible with an appropriate time when we might meet. Thanks!
Class Activities This Week:
Math:
Our next chapter in math will focus on multiplying and dividing larger numbers. This week we will continue to practice our mental math skills by working on our break down method of multiplying and learning how to multiply large round numbers with more than one zero, such as 4 X 7000. We will also be practicing our 'algorithym method' multiplying 3 digit by one digit numbers, and learning when it is best to use mental math and when it is best to use the algorithym. Finally we will practice solving word problems using the 'try, check, revise' problem solving strategy.
Reading:
We will be switching our reading focus this week to non-fiction books. We will be talking about the importance of being able to read and understand non-fiction reading material, and practice reading books to find information. Our 'reading letter' this week will be used to write about all the information that the students were able to find in their chosen non-fiction text.
Writing:
We will be working on writing using similes, (which we had planned to do the previous week but didn't get to due to all the fun stuff happening at discovery last week). We will also be learning how to properly take notes when reading for information in our non-fiction texts. These 'notes' will then serve as the basis for the material we write about in our 'reading letter'.
Social Studies:
Our current social studies unit is on immigration. Specifically American immigration. To study immigration we will be performing a play based on the famous book, 'First Stop Ellis Island'. We will also be studying a novel entitled, 'In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson'. Both the play and this novel give the students some historical background into immigration in America and perspective of what it meant to be an immigrant in a America. This unit also gives us a chance to draw on some of our own personal experiences of moving to a foreign country. We will also be contrasting 19th and 20th century American immigration with the very first American colonists who came to the new world....just in time for Thanksgiving!!
This week we will continue our discussion about what we know about immigration, and introduce our play, 'First Stop Ellis Island'.
Grammar:
We will be working on creating 'complex sentences' using conjunctions: because, while, before, and after.
Spelling:
Our spelling words are focused on the soft C and G sounds. The words are:
ceiling, giraffe, celery, gem, gentleman, center, citrus, general, cereal, gingerbread, cement citizen, genius, circle, certain.
Character Studies:
Our character studies focus this week will be on INTEGRITY
I hope everyone has an excellent week!! Thanks for reading,
Jordan Rose
Thank you to all the parents who took the time Friday to come to Discovery for our student-led conferences. It was great to see everyone and talk about everything that we've worked on over this past 1st quarter of school. To the parents who were not able to meet on Friday, could you please contact me as soon as possible with an appropriate time when we might meet. Thanks!
Class Activities This Week:
Math:
Our next chapter in math will focus on multiplying and dividing larger numbers. This week we will continue to practice our mental math skills by working on our break down method of multiplying and learning how to multiply large round numbers with more than one zero, such as 4 X 7000. We will also be practicing our 'algorithym method' multiplying 3 digit by one digit numbers, and learning when it is best to use mental math and when it is best to use the algorithym. Finally we will practice solving word problems using the 'try, check, revise' problem solving strategy.
Reading:
We will be switching our reading focus this week to non-fiction books. We will be talking about the importance of being able to read and understand non-fiction reading material, and practice reading books to find information. Our 'reading letter' this week will be used to write about all the information that the students were able to find in their chosen non-fiction text.
Writing:
We will be working on writing using similes, (which we had planned to do the previous week but didn't get to due to all the fun stuff happening at discovery last week). We will also be learning how to properly take notes when reading for information in our non-fiction texts. These 'notes' will then serve as the basis for the material we write about in our 'reading letter'.
Social Studies:
Our current social studies unit is on immigration. Specifically American immigration. To study immigration we will be performing a play based on the famous book, 'First Stop Ellis Island'. We will also be studying a novel entitled, 'In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson'. Both the play and this novel give the students some historical background into immigration in America and perspective of what it meant to be an immigrant in a America. This unit also gives us a chance to draw on some of our own personal experiences of moving to a foreign country. We will also be contrasting 19th and 20th century American immigration with the very first American colonists who came to the new world....just in time for Thanksgiving!!
This week we will continue our discussion about what we know about immigration, and introduce our play, 'First Stop Ellis Island'.
Grammar:
We will be working on creating 'complex sentences' using conjunctions: because, while, before, and after.
Spelling:
Our spelling words are focused on the soft C and G sounds. The words are:
ceiling, giraffe, celery, gem, gentleman, center, citrus, general, cereal, gingerbread, cement citizen, genius, circle, certain.
Character Studies:
Our character studies focus this week will be on INTEGRITY
I hope everyone has an excellent week!! Thanks for reading,
Jordan Rose
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