Week of January 27th, 2014

Brr...

Another cold week ahead of us. These cold temperatures still bring many germs, as a result we are running low on a few classroom essentials. A friendly request to those of you who are able to send in kleenex and hand sanitizer. Many thanks in advance.

 

Bus Cancellation 

We had a small class yesterday, but still continued to learn from one another. We missed those of you who couldn't make it, but glad you stayed safe with your families. :)

Curriculum Update

Math: Geometry 

On Friday we began exploring angles, meeting Acute Connie and her friends on our smart board. Our math focus this week is measuring angles with protractors and introducing different triangles and quadrilaterals.

Social Studies

Canada's Regions Project ~ the students' mission is that they have been hired by the Government of Canada to create a new and interesting presentation about their assigned region. The information package was given to the students today. This assignment is to be created during school hours and we will be using the computer lab and the Microsoft Surfaces to research and complete this assignment. Since we will be using many technical resources, it is important that each group assigned will have a USB, jump drive at school to save their work.The USB/Jump drives are to be labelled and to be on a lanyard or ring.
We will be going to the computer lab tomorrow (Wednesday) to begin our research projects.

Weekly Reminders 

Library day is this Wednesday. Please remind your child to return their library book.

Non - Uniform day is this Friday.

Mid-Week Update

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

I hope everyone had a good PD day and enjoyed their weekend.

Another cold week is upon us! Don't forget to dress warmly.

Math:
We have a math test this Thursday. We will be working on adding and subtracting money and making change.

Library Day is this Thursday. Please remember to bring back your library books. :)

                                     Beach Day:
Even though we have a cold week ahead of us, we are going to try to think of the warm places we could be. This Friday is Beach day and the students can dress in shorts, t-shirts, Hawaiian hats and even bring along their flip flops.



Spelling word focus this week is past and present tenses.

It's a New Year!

Welcome Back!

Happy 2014 Grade 4 families. I hope you all enjoyed a restful and wonderful Christmas break and the two snow days that followed. I hope you were able to warm up with a good book, some tea and a blanket. My goodness...was it ever frigid out.

January Curriculum Focus

Religion
The Feast of the Epiphany, Jesus and Scripture will be focused upon. The students are currently dramatizing a modern day version of the Epiphany.

Language
Adventure Fiction: Students will be reading short adventure fiction stories, identifying features of adventure fiction, creating and writing dialogue and expanding their vocabulary word lists.

Spelling will continue this week.  I have been so impressed on how the grade 4's have improved in spelling since the beginning of the school year, but need to continue to practice their spelling words. Thank you for your positive feedback in this area. Here is a fun way to spell. I found a  link that you could add to your spelling practice.

Math
We will be working through a short unit on addition and subtraction of 3 and 4 digit numbers, along with mental math strategies. Please see their family note in their math duo-tangs. As this is a short unit, the math test will be sometime early next week.

Social Studies
Canada and it's Regions continued. 


Health
It's a new year, so why not discuss healthy living? We will learn and discuss ways to keep healthy, making better choices for our lunches and how to be a fit kid.

Family Life
Fully Alive Theme 2, Living in Relationships begins.


Phys. Ed
We will be wrapping up with our volleyball skills unit and move onto gymnastics. Gymnastics is important for both boys and girls, which require attention and focus.

**Please note, students must have gym clothes in order to participate in gym.**

Assessment Folders

Assessment folders went home on Friday with a number of assignments, please sign and return folders and assessments as soon as possible. Please note all first term assessments will be sent home in the near future.

Welcome to the Salgado Family!

A warm welcome goes to Nicholas and his family. Nicholas' first day was Wednesday and has fit right into our classroom. We are so happy to have you. :)