Monday, September 30

It was our Dare to Care, Take the Time day today.  Thank you to the parent who volunteered and helped make the day a success.  I will post more details on our day in the days to come.

Reminders:
- Scholastic book orders due Wednesday
- Return Friday Journals
- Orange Shirt Day tomorrow

- Sell ADmazing coupon books! $10.50 from each book sold by individual students will go towards reducing your cost of Outdoor School in the spring

Friday, September 27

Our morning work task today was:
Choose and solve one of the following in as many ways as you can.  Make sure to check your answer.  

George loves to collect rocks.  He has 649 rocks in his collection.  He decides to put his rocks into boxes.  If he puts 7 rocks in each box, how many boxes will he need?  Will there be any rocks left over?  If so, how many?


Paul spends his weekends building with LEGO and other materials.  He decided he wants to build some houses.  He has 5425 Popsicle sticks.  To build each house, he needs 22 popsicle sticks.  How many houses can Paul build?  Will there be any popsicle sticks left over?  If so, how many?

We read the story, Shin Chis Canoe, which deals with residential schooling and watched the video below which explains the origin of Orange Shirt Day.

Friday journals are coming home today. Students enjoyed reading the letters that were written to them.  After our class brainstorming of ideas, students had a total of 35 minutes to write today. Please return your Friday Journals on Monday.  


Our day finished with Thank You Friday.  

Reminders:

- Scholastic book orders due next Wednesday
- Return Friday Journals
- Dare to Care "Take the Time" day on Monday.  Please bring a lunch on Monday if you normally go home for lunch.
- Orange Shirt Day on Tuesday, October 1

- Sell ADmazing coupon books! $10.50 from each book sold by individual students will go towards reducing your cost of Outdoor School in the spring

Thursday, September 26

Our school wide focus this year is to accompany the book, "Say Something", "How can you use your voice to change the world?"  Prior to our Terry Fox Run today, we watched two videos on Terry and his journey.  Students then created a page in their creative journals highlighting, "How did Terry Fox use his voice to change the world?"  

Our Terry Fox run was this afternoon.  Our class raised $60.25.  You can still bring in donations tomorrow if you like.

We completed a concept card for the Standard division strategy.

Thanks to those parents that organized the Special Lunch for us today.

Reminders:

• Last day to bring in a Toonie for Terry is tomorrow
• Scholastic book orders are coming home.  Orders are due next Wednesday.
• Dare to Care "Take the Time" day on Monday
• Orange Shirt Day on Tuesday, October 1

Wednesday, September 25

Our morning work today was:
Choose and solve one of the following in as many ways as you can.  Make sure to check your answer.  

Jayda has 678 bottles.  She decides to put them into groups of 5.  How many groups of 5 bottles does she have?  Will there be any bottles left over?  If so, how many?


Mayah has 7406 buttons to make a snowman craft.  She needs 6 buttons for each snowman.  How many snowmen can she make?  Will there be any buttons left over?  If so, how many?

Students had their final class time to work on their scooter share questions.

In math, students worked in small groups on vertical spaces with 3-digit by 2-digit division using the partial quotient and standard division strategies.  Some examples from today were 658 ÷ 25 and 851 ÷ 22.

This afternoon we went outside and did some sketching of leaves and trees.  Ms. Steeves sent us on a hunt to find items such as a: simple leaf, compound leaf, leaf with a smooth leaf margin, leaf with a serrated margin, single needle leaf, double needle leaf, tree with needles in clusters.  We were able to find examples of all of these in our school yard.  

We discussed the possibility of snow that is coming this weekend and whether snow is good or bad for trees.  Many thought that the snow is always good for the trees because it provides precipitation and water for the tree. When we were back inside, we watched a news story from several years after Snowtember 2014. 

CTV Snowtember News Story

 We paused the video when the branches were all breaking and students thought of reasons why this might be happening.  Some reasons included:
- the tree is still getting energy from the leaves so it is a little weak and not as strong as it would be later
- the snow was making the branches heavy- we wondered why trees wouldn't break as easy with the snow in the winter
- the branches are heavy with the leaves already and are then breaking under the weight of the snow
the bigger surface area of the leaves is catching the snow and making it to . heavy for the branches to handle

We discussed why all of the branches we saw were from deciduous trees- students thought it was because coniferous trees are used to the winter and their needle shaped leaves are thin so they wouldn't catch as much snow.  All of this scientific thinking supported by their understanding of trees and leaves was great to see.  

We finished the day using microscopes and magnifying glasses looking more closely at a variety of leaves and their internal structures.

Tuesday, September 24

Our morning work today was:

Choose and solve one of the following in as many ways as you can.  Make sure to check your answer.  

Lana prints 384 photos from her recent trip.  She decides to put 2 photos on each page in her photo album.  How many pages does she need?

Tim has 635 cookies.  He plans to put them into bags to share with the students at his school.  How many bags will he need if he puts 5 cookies into each bag?

We continued with the questions we started yesterday on the shared electric scooters in Calgary.

In math, we made a concept card on the Partial Quotient strategy for division.  Then we reviewed Standard division and practiced on vertical spaces in small groups before working on our own.  Students now have 2 strategies to choose from when dividing.

We learned about the parts of a tree, parts of a tree trunk and parts of a leaf and created pages in our creative journals.

Some students wanted their Pop Art portraits added to the blog.  If students wanted their work included, it is below.

Reminders:

• Terry Fox Run on Thursday afternoon this week.  Parents are welcome to join us.  Bring a Toonie for Terry if you can.
• Bring in leaves to look at under the microscope
• Dare to Care "Take the Time" day on Monday
• Return choir forms if interested

Monday, September 23

Our morning work task today was:
There are 920 boxes of oil pastels in a warehouse.  Each box contains 24 pastels.  The owner of the warehouse estimates that there are 1800 pastels in total.  Is this a reasonable estimate?  Explain your thinking. 

We discussed ways in which we can read through an article or other text and highlight and make notations about the most important information.  We then used this knowledge as we read about the Electric scooter project in Calgary using information from the City of Calgary website.

In math, we reviewed and practiced the partial quotient strategy for division.  We worked together in small groups on vertical workspaces including the windows!  We then had some time to practice on our own.  We will review standard division next.

We created a web of reasons why trees and forests matter and finished the day reading The Lorax.

Reminders:

• School photos tomorrow
• Terry Fox Run on Thursday this week.  Bring a Toonie for Terry if you can.