Monday, May 30th, 2016

Thank you to all parents for getting your children to school by 8:05 this morning.  We were off in the bus by 8:15 and heading to the pool.  We received a compliment from the bus driver on our bus riding manners!  Students were equally well behaved in the change room and pool.

When we returned, we headed straight to Mrs. Peterson's room to share our research updates from the weekend.  We are seeing more progress and will be spending our last half hour each morning preparing for our presentations.  Students will work with their groups to compile information and to create their projects which will be shared at our Celebration of Learning!

What an afternoon of thinking!

In math, we finished up our learning about fractions.  We also introduced decimals.  We used the base ten blocks to show fractions and decimals.  We learned that when we you use the ten rods to cover the hundreds flat that we are looking at tenths.  When we use the individual units we are looking at hundredths.  We did some math writing about decimals.  Here are some of the quotes from student thinking:
I wonder if decimals are connected to other math things like subtraction and multiplication or addition or division? ~ Miller
I  noticed that a decimal looks like a period. ~ Isabel
I noticed that decimals and fractions are the same but just written differently. ~ Aliya
I don't know that much about decimals YET! but I do know that if its not a whole that it has to start with a 0. ~ Duncan
I wonder if you can add more zeros there 0.03 ~ Nick P.

We also connected the use of decimals to money.

In science, we watched a video about 10 scientists who lived in a dome on top of a dormant volcano in Hawaii.  They were being studied to see if they could survive being with others for 6 months. They had to live like they would on Mars. If they left the dome they had to even dress up in a space suit. They could only have one  6 minute shower per week and eat food like they would have on Mars.


Then we completed our research on wind turbines.  We had to do a self - evaluation about how we see ourselves as a researcher.



1.)  Swimming tomorrow - please meet in the Hub at 8:05 the bus will leave at 8:15.
2.)  EcoClub - will be planting our planter boxes on Wednesday at lunch


If we had $52.40 how many dimes would you have?  What strategy did you use to find out?

Friday, May 27

Happy Friday Everyone!

We apologize for the late blog.  We had intended to get it out before we left for the Fish Release today but didn't manage to get it done in time! The rain was crazy as we left town, but as we headed west things lightened up and we had a lovely time at Sibbald Meadows Pond.

This weekend, all students in Rooms 79 and 80 will be bringing home their Inquiry book. Students are expected to share their work and current Social Studies Inquiry topic with their parents. Many students need to add information to their book- they can do this through discussions with their parents, searching for sources online (with permission and supervision) and recording ideas for how they would possibly like to present their work in three weeks from now. We have been working on this for about a month, and many students are not where we would like them to be. Please collaborate for about a half an hour on this endeavor. 

Planting event is CANCELLED for Saturday due to weather expectations and will continue at lunch time on Wednesday. Parents or community members are welcome, as long as you let Ms. Goldberg know via email.

Reminder, that all photo orders are due May 31. Please return promptly as these are sent away. 

Reminder, please register for bussing for the 2016-2017 school year before JUNE 6, 2016.

Swimming starts on Monday morning!  Please remember your swim suit and towel.  We swim first and leave the school at 9:00 am sharp.  If you wear your suit under your clothes, please remember your underwear for after!!!

Parents who are volunteering, we will need your signed forms brought back to the school or given to Mrs. Zwack at the pool on Monday.

Thursday, May 26th, 2016

One more sleep until Friday!

This morning we started out with music with Mrs. Jones.  We have been working on composer research and were practicing our presentations.

In Daily 5 we worked on sorting and recording our new words and also took some time to do a Blind Sort.  Students also finished their Writers' Notebook Self Assessments.  After another round of Daily 5 we settled in for snack and some reading of our book Pax.

We had some technology challenges in Inquiry time today but hope to have a good chunk of time tomorrow with the computers.  It will be our last big research time and any groups that have some more work to do will have it sent home to work on over the weekend. We will be doing a stop and reflect time tomorrow to guide this work.


This afternoon went by in a wink of an eye!

In math, we were "Showing What We Know" about fractions. Many of the questions really tested our "Mathematical Mindset." we had to use what we know and figure out a number of problems.  We also had to explain our thinking both with words and pictures.  Many of us persevered and worked through it. We will finish tomorrow hopefully before the assembly.

In our science inquiry, we looked at a rubric to do a self-assessment about how we work as scientists/engineers.  We are deciding if we are a novice or an expert. Mrs. Bowles will also be looking at our research work to see how we are doing.

In gym, we started outside learning about kickball then thunder struck! So we headed back into the school and played a wicked game of scooter hockey.

During our Twitter time we took on a math challenge. See below

We worked out the problem and Tweeted back to him. While we were looking at another tweet he sent us a Tweet back!  We were so excited and he is from Fresno, California.  It was really cool that we could communicate with someone so quickly so far away and he responded to us!

Things to Remember:

1.) Assembly tomorrow

2.)  Trout Release

3.)  Planting Note

A Message from the EcoTeam, regarding our Garden Bed Planting event:  Our special event on Saturday will need to be postponed due to rain. The forecast reads a very high Percent of Precipitation, and the rains are expected to go all weekend.  With that in mind, planting will be very difficult.

So, because of the rain,  we will be inviting students to help us plant, instead, on Wednesday at lunch time and after school.  If families and members of the community want to join us, they are welcome to stop by at 11:15, but they must let Ms. Goldberg know.

What problem will you be trying to solve when you build your prototype of your wind turbine?

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Wacky Wednesday

What a day!!

Our trip to George Stanley/R.T. Alderman was a success!  It was great t check out the new location and to familiarize ourselves with things like washrooms, the gym, learning commons and the many classrooms and option rooms.  Our trust tour guide (who just happened to be Duncan's sister Cameron!) led us around and calmed our worries with her cheerful sharing of information and advice.  I was also great to see many past students who will be a part of the new school next year!

Our afternoon started off a little late.  We returned from our visit to RT Alderman/Dr. George Stanley. Luckily we returned to our Fun Lunch, Taco Time.  We had a short recess and then back in for music because we missed it yesterday.  We continued our work on pre-recorders.

Our science inquiry, heavily leaned on the A in STEAM  (science, technology, engineer, art and mathematics.) We are in the middle of preparing for our Year End Sharing Night.  We can't wait for your to see it.

In math, we continued our work on comparing fractions.  We took different strips that were divided into fractions.  We looked at greater than and less than.

Things to Remember:
1.) Soccer Forms are due
2.) Assembly on Friday so no community walk.
3.)  Planting on Saturday - see yesterday's blog
4.)
4.)

Question of the Day

After our trip to RT Alderman/Dr. George Stanley - tell us what you are most excited about.

Tuesday, May 24th, 2016

This morning we worked on Daily 5 with a focus on Writing and Word Work.  We looked over our writer's Notebooks and completed a Self-Assessment page.  This assessment looked at some of our basic writing skills as well as how we are doing on the strategies that we have learned recently, to see if we are incorporating them into our writing.  Mrs. Zwack will also be going through our notebooks to complete her assessment.  Most groups received their new words today and the rest will receive theirs in the coming days.

In Social Studies this morning we discussed where students should be at right now in the Inquiry process.  Some groups have been doing a great job cooperating and working together to gather information.  Others have not been using their time so wisely to get their jobs completed.  We will be sending some work home at the end of the week for those that are needing extra research time.

Wow what an afternoon!

A picture is worth a thousand words....

1.)  RT Alderman/Dr. George Stanley Transition Trip tomorrow.  Please bring a one-handed snack that can be eaten on the bus. We will not be taking water bottles on the trip.  There will be cookies and milk provided. If you have food allergies you may want to bring an acceptable snack.

2.)  Soccer Acknowledgement of Risk Forms are to be signed and returned as soon as possible.

3.)  The EcoTeam is excited to invite you to our next event, to inaugurate our garden beds, this Saturday!   We plan to plant the plants, and water the garden. We invite families, and members of the community, to join us.  We thank The Calgary Foundation Neighbour Grants for this opportunity to see our wish, of growing vegetables to serve the community, come alive!  Please let Ms. Goldberg know if you are able to attend or lend a hand in any way – amgoldberg@cbe.ab.ca. Bring a hand shovel and a small watering can, if you have one!  The event will probably last only 1 hour, or so, so please arrive on time! 

4.)

 

Question of the Day

Tell us about the Astrodome and your thoughts.  Please write at least three sentences and make sure that you have edited them.

Wednesday, May 18

We had a great morning in Room 80!  Daily 5 was smooth and full of busy little people reading and writing as Mrs. Zwack continued to work on individual reading assessments with students.  We spent a half hour today working on word work for the quiz tomorrow.  There is no school Friday so please study up this evening!

We read from our book Pax and had a very interesting talk about PTSD (in case your children mention it this evening).  One of the characters was telling Peter that she had been in the war and had some challenges after returning home.  We discussed how living in a military setting took many of your rights and choices away from you and why it was important to follow orders in battle situations. The students were very interested and offered many thoughtful comments and connections.  I was very proud of them.

We also had a short time to discuss changes for the coming year and asked each student to privately write down a few names of students they could work well with in their class next year.  They were not to discuss this withe at other afterward in order to spare hurt feelings.  We will soon be making class lists and want to make an effort to put someone they would enjoy working with in their class.

Well as Attar said, "I am getting a headache I think I have learned too much this afternoon!"  We did get through a lot.

In math we worked on comparing and ordering fractions. We used pattern blocks at first to help us with this activity. We also looked at different paper strips and then communicated our thinking and what we noticed when we compared the fractions.

In science, we first got to see Lexi's grandpa's solar powered pop can rover. It was really cool! I will try and get the video up on our blog tomorrow so you can show your parents.  We then ate our snack while we worked on some researching we are doing so we can design our wind turbines for Mars.  We learned about what makes a credible website to use as research. We will continue this tomorrow with Mrs. Gates.

Finally in dance. We were so good! Our warm up is the new song by Justin Timberlake.  We learned some new moves.  On Mrs. Bowles' Fitbit we did over 2000 steps! No wonder we were hot when we were done.

Things to Remember:
1.) We all will be going to RT Alderman on May 25 in the morning.  A parent letter and Acknowledgement and Consent form went home today. IT MUST BE BROUGHT BACK BY TUESDAY.
2.) All Soccer forms and Astrodome forms must be returned.
3.)  Please look at previous blog posts for EduClub Planting Day on May 28 and for the Trout Release

Question of the Day:

Tell us about one interesting thing that you learned or did today. Explain why it interested you.

Tuesday, May 17th, 2017

This afternoon was very interesting.  We started off with music and today we learned about Beethoven.  Share what you learned about this composer with your family.

In math, we continued our work on fractions. Many of us wondered about "why are fractions are important to us."  We watched a video about how we use fractions each and everyday.  We learned a new game today. This game not only allowed us to practice making fractions of a group but also we learned about equivalent fractions.

We had a surprise lockdown drill today. Our teachers were very proud of how we did. We were calm, quiet and new exactly what to do.

In science, we broke into groups of four; two engineers and two scientists.  We will be developing a wind turbine that we can use on Mars.  We are currently gathering information about how they work, and using the information about Mars to design the best possible turbine to generate power.  Today we brainstormed all that we know about wind turbines as well as some of the problems that we think may happen because we are building on Mars.  Tomorrow we will continue our research and then we with all of our information will begin to draw a prototype of our design.

1.) Please return Astrodome and Foothills Soccer Acknowledgement of Risk and Parent Consent Forms

2.)  Volunteer Tea on Thursday morning

3.)  Please check out previous blogs about EcoClub - on Saturday, May 28th

4.)

If half of the people in a family are males.  What might be the number of people in the family and how many would be male and how many would be female?

Monday, May 16

This morning we began with a review of our class meeting from Friday.  Students were asked to think over the weekend of the thing they could do to help our classroom to be a peaceful place of learning for the last 6 weeks of school. The students were very perceptive to what needed improving and they were making plan to work on it.

We then moved on to Daily 5 and students were very focused and on their jobs!  We checked in on our Read to Self books and many students are making progress on their self selected "good fit" books. Our Read aloud of the novel Pax is getting very exciting and the students are making many connections to their own experiences and other books we have read.  The connection between Peter and his fox is very deep and it is interesting to follow their journeys to reunite!

We ended the morning with French with Mrs. Kenna teaching us the days of the week and the French words  for "before"  and "after."  We appreciated the students active participation in the lesson!

This afternoon was filled with activity.  In math, we continued our work on fractions.  Today we investigated fractions of a whole.  We created quilts using coloured tiles.  We started with 16 tiles. From there we identified the fractions of the colours. Then we rearranged the tiles and found equivalent fractions. For example, if we had 8/16 of our quilt red, when we rearranged the tiles we found that half or 1/2 of the quilt was red.

In our science inquiry we did some initial research on wind turbines.  We got a basic understanding of how they work.  While we watched a few short videos about wind turbines we were asked to relate what we learned to the different environment on Mars. We brainstormed a few of the problems that we could foresee occurring. We will continue this work tomorrow and break into smaller groups of scientists and engineers who will take some of these concerns in creating a prototype for their turbine for Mars.

In gym , we had the whole gym to ourselves.  We started our lesson off with  Rock, Paper, Scissors Tag.   We then worked on our teamwork during a relay game.  The object of the game what to run and retrieve red cups, do 10 jumping jacks and build a tower.  Then we looked at our target skills. We played a game called 21.  We had three different shooting lines and had to throw a beanbag into a hoop. We finished up with a game called Protect the Cone.



1.)  Please return all forms signed:  Soccer and Astrodome
2.) Spring Dance ticket orders are going fast get yours in if you would like to attend.
3.)  Volunteer Tea this Thursday
4.)  Check out Friday's blog for information on Trout release and EcoClub festivities.
We have learned that if a fraction has the same number as the numerator and the denominator that it equals one whole.  So if you ate 4 slices of a cake that was divided into 4 pieces you ate the whole thing.  This is called a proper fraction.  What do you think it would mean if you saw a fraction that looked like this  5/4?