Tips of the Week: April 27- May 1

The Sound of Music  will be ringing out the doors of the GP room and throughout our school hallways this Wednesday and Thursday evening. Our class will be performing in the choir on Thursday evening (except those who have made requests to change to the Wednesday night performance). Students are asked to arrive to the school library at 6:30pm on the evening of the performance, dressed in white tops and black (or dark coloured) bottoms.

Upcoming next week: Our class trip to the Kortright Centre will take place next Thursday, May 7. Thank you to all of those who were able to volunteer. I will send home a letter with a few pieces of info for our volunteers (on Monday) once all the forms are in.

Language- We will now begin a new procedure for our weekly spelling quizzes. Students have received a small blue journal and a page with a master list of words. On the master word list, is a list of activities for students to do as homework with there weekly spelling words.Every Monday, students will copy down their new spelling words into their blue journals in class.

Spelling Homework:

Grade 3s will have 15 list words each week and are to choose 5 activities from the list to complete as homework. (This week's words are the first 15 on the list. The first word being 'above', last being 'already'). Homework is to be completed in the blue spelling journals.

 Grade 4s will have 20 list words each week and are to TRY to complete all 6 activities on their list. (This weeks' words are the first 20 on the list. The first work being 'able' and the last being 'ankle'). Homework is to be completed in the blue spelling journals.

We are continuing our persuasive writing and have been working hard to use persuasive words to formulate a strong opinion. Please encourage your child to use the anchor chart in last week's post to assist with their in school persuasive writing.

Math- We have started our unit on Measurement, and are currently working on Perimeter and Area. Last week we began by discussing and counting pixels (which grew from the extreme interest in Minecraft). We then then discussed on we could more effectively count the number of pixels in an image, which led us to talking about counting around (perimeter) and inside (area). We then created our own Pixel People! (Images below are from online examples, courtesy of Pinterest):


We then calculated the Area:
A= l x w
and Perimeter :
P= l + l + w + w OR l x 2 + w x 2
of our pixel people, and learned that there is a formula for are as well as for perimeter. We will be thoroughly learning the formulas this week in order to create our own 'Dream Homes'!

Stay tuned... :)
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 A Note from Ms. Manikas in the Library/ Social Studies:

Student's have been working on a mapping unit the past few weeks and their final project is to create a map of their choice. Some students finished during the designated class time and the rest will have 1 final period to work this Thursday. Any student who needs more time to complete their map may do so, and hand it in by Friday May 1.

Students are reminded to include the following on their maps:

- Title

- Map key/legend

- Labels

- Compass Rose

- 3 statements about their map on the back (i.e. My bed is south of my dresser)

- Remember to be as neat as possible (use a ruler, print legibly, colour in the lines)

Thanks!

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Thank you for your continued support with all of our school endeavours!

Have fun working and being together !
Ms. Sullivan

Tips of the Week- April 20- 24

This week we have lots of forms and money being sent into school for various upcoming events. Please help your child make sure that all forms are back by the due date/s:

• Monday, April 20th Scholastic orders (for April) due
• Monday, April 20th tickets for the sound of music begin being sold (they are first come first serve as last year we sold out!)
• Wednesday, April 22 Pizza form and money due
• Monday, May 4th permission form for our class trip to the Kortright Centre and $15 due (Please make sure to note on the permission form whether you wish to volunteer. A short note with information for volunteers will go home prior to the trip.)

Math- This week we will begin our Measurement unit. Students will use various manipulatives and experiment in various ways to build on and extend their knowledge of: 

Grade 3s- estimating, measuring and recording  length, perimeter, area , mass, and capacity

Grade 4s- estimating, measuring and recording  length, perimeter, area , mass, capacity and volume

Units of measure (cm, m, km), (g, kg) and (ml, L) will be our main focus this week, as we refresh/ begin to expand upon our prior knowledge.

Language- This week we are working more in depth on our persuasive writing, and forming solid opinions with support and justification from various resources. We have discussed issues that are relevant for our students, such as "should we have longer recesses"? Why or why not? As well as, "should we support a place like Ripley's Aquarium, or see animals in their natural habitat, thus supporting a place like the Kortright Centre"?

Next week, our Spelling will change. Spelling List #30 is the last list in the familiar/regular format that students will receive this year. Starting next week, each weekly list will be REVIEW words created by previous weeks' lists, handed out on Mondays with a quiz every Thursday (as usual). Homework will be different as well. It will no longer be 3 pages of activities, but rather a list of different tasks to choose from to practice the different words each week.

Thank you for supporting our classroom learning through supporting your child at home!

Kind regards,

E. Sullivan

Tips of the Week: April 13- 17

What beautiful weather we had this weekend! Let's hope there's plenty more of that on the way!

THE MUSICAL: The Sound of Music tickets will go on sale beginning next Monday. Please check for letters home regarding show times, dates, ticket sales, choir and choir attire, and costumes.

CLASS TRIP: Our class will be heading to the Kortright Centre to participate in a Pond study and a Habitat study on May 7th, 2015. Volunteers are welcome. Please look for the permission form coming home by the end of the week.


Math- This week we are working on identifying REFLECTIONS (flips), ROTATIONS (turns), and TRANSLATIONS (slides) using 3D geometric solids. Here are two images to assist with understanding these terms:

Please review these terms at home using various shapes, solids and objects!

Language- This week we are continuing our work on persuasive writing. Students have been practicing being persuasive both orally and in writing, and now are focusing on making their position STRONGER. Here are some words we have been trying to incorporate when stating our opinions/ persuading another person/ group to see our position.

Here is an example of how we are learning to STRUCTURE our persuasive writing:

Please help your child practice structuring their opinions using persuasive words both orally and in writing.

Thank you for your continued support!

Tips of the Week: April 7- 10

I hope everyone had a lovely long weekend despite the winter weather! :)

Since this is a shortened week, we will be having our Spelling Quiz on Friday.

Math:

• Grade 4 Multiplication Quiz will also be on Friday, and will be on the 4 and 5 times tables (to 12). Please kindly remember to sign and send back your child's quiz once you have viewed their final product.

• Grade 3 EQAO homework was due today and will be returned on Friday with NEW work to complete. Thank you kindly for assisting your child at home with their EQAO preparation.

• This week we are trying to wrap up Geometry, as we have not yet tackled all of the details of characteristics of 3D solids. This will be our final focus in this unit!

• *Please peruse (or better yet print off!) previous posts to help your child review the geometric concepts and terms.

Language- 

• Please see the updated Spelling words for list 28 in the tab to the right.
• Poetry was sent home today. Please help your child to complete their poetry homework, even if it means a friendly reminder to complete it and bring it to school every Tuesday. Today, less than half of our class had completed their poetry homework!
• We are really getting into our work on persuasive writing this week. We will be reading persuasive articles, and searching for powerful DESCRIPTIVE words to help us with our persuasiveness (e.g. to clearly articulate a point and/or to vividly paint a picture)

A Note from the Library-

• Ms. Manikas, our current librarian, wishes to thank all students for submitting their Social Studies brochures. She has them marked and ready to return.

Thank you for your continued support! Have fun working and being together!