December 19, 2019

Today was a day full of excitement and energy!  We played holiday themed games in Gym, worked on puzzles and word problems (some of them really had grade 4s stumped!) enjoyed to the wonderful choir performances and ended the day by finishing our read aloud, The One and Only Ivan.

I would like to thank each of you for your kind words and thoughtful gestures.  I appreciate all that you do to support your child's learning and adore spending my days with the wonderful students in room 5.  I hope you all get to enjoy this holiday with the people you love the most

Merry Christmas and all the best in the coming New Year!

Mrs. Bowers 🎄🎅🎁

December 16, 2019

Thank you to everyone that came to our Celebration of Learning on Friday.  Grade 4s enjoyed sharing their inventions with students, staff and parents.

Today we were visited by the grade 3 classes.  They were able to view our projects and ask questions.  We also had the opportunity to view other projects in grade 4 to get a sense of all of the different problems and solutions that were shared.  Tomorrow, students will be completing a reflection about the process and setting goals for future projects.

Reminder:  Field trip forms are now due.  Please return forms tomorrow or let Mrs. Bowers know if your child is unable to join us at the Glenbow Museum on Wednesday.

Tomorrow is the grade 4 talent show at 2:30.  We look forward to seeing many of our classmates perform. 🎭🎩🎤🎶🎹👏

December 11, 2019

Grade 4s have been hard at work putting the finishing touches on their simple machine inventions.  Students were asked to identify, in their own words, what were the most important aspects of the project.  They said:

• There has to be at least one simple machine that works (MH)
• Building the simple machine comes first, decorating it comes last (CS)
• You have to make sure that what you're building has not already been made (NT)
• You have to make sure your invention fits on a table (MS)
• Remember that you can make adjustments and if you do, you record them in your visual journal (GPC)
• Remember that it has to work (MF)
• You have to answer 5 questions that need to be included on your poster (SD)
• You have to make sure that your writing is done (AS)
• It is now too late to start over (AC)
• You need to refer to the Success Criteria and Rubric throughout the project (Mrs. Bowers)

We look forward to presenting our inventions on Friday at our Celebration of Learning 

*Note:  The Success Criteria and Rubric have been added to the Dec. 9th blog entry

**A note from Ms. Hebenton:

Just a reminder that if you were going to purchase a recorder, the last day to order will be Dec. 20.  

At the bottom of the ‘pay page’ on your CBE/PowerSchool account there should be an optional fee that is for recorders. This fee is not with the rest of the regular fees because it is optional and not mandatory.

Hope this info helps.

December 9, 2019

Room 5 has been busy completing their paragraphs about tools they use to return to the green zone.  The paragraphs have been self-edited and received feedback from a peer before being handed in.

This afternoon we continued to work on our simple machine projects.  We looked closely at our rubric, then discussed the questions that we need to address in our written presentation.

Ask me the following:

• What are the parts of a paragraph?
• What simple machine has been included in my project?
• Does the simple machine work?
• What work will be my focus tomorrow?

December 5, 2019

Our R.T buddies joined us this afternoon for an hour of building and feedback about our inventions.  Here's what some of the grade 4s had to say:

• "It was really fun building and decorating." (CS)
• "It's sad that it was their last day today." (KK)
• "It was really fun working with our RT buddies and giving us feedback and helping us work." (GPC)
• "Our RT buddies helped us persevere through some of our problems." (MF)
• "Our RT buddies found some solutions to our problems and helped us build what they thought might be better." (LM)
• "Our RT buddies helped us through it but they didn't do the work for us." (MH)

Our buddies from RT will be joining us on Friday, December 13th to view our learning celebration.  We look forward to sharing our inventions with everyone.  

See you tonight at STEM night!  6:00-7:30pm

December 4, 2019

Highlights from today's learning include:

• students continued to build their simple machine prototypes for their design projects
• in writing students were writing a paragraph and giving feedback based on the success criteria we wrote together
• in Math we tried to place years in order based on the dates that appeared on the bottom of a  number line 
• we had a fire drill today and we were very successful at lining up quickly and quietly

Tomorrow our RT Alderman buddies will join us to help as we continue to build our inventions.

Reminder:  Book orders are due tomorrow.  Please check on the Scholastic website if you would like to place an order.

Tomorrow is our STEM night.  Hope to see you there! 

December 2, 2019

We have a new carpet!  Thank you to Parent Council for making this possible for room 5 😃

This afternoon the grade 4s narrowed down their design options and chose which design they would like to build.  We made a list of materials that we will need and visited the iLab to see what is available to build with.  Students are encouraged to collect materials from home if they were unable to locate what they need in the iLab. 

Ask me what materials I need to build my device and what simple machine I will incorporate into my final model.  We will begin building tomorrow. 

Please continue to send food bank donations this week.

Scholastic book orders for Dec. will be due Thursday, Dec. 5th.  Please look online for any books you'd like to order.

November 29, 2019

Yesterday we were visited by our grade 8 buddies from RT Alderman.  They came to give students feedback on their initial designs for their Science device.  Next week Grade 4 students will begin to build their devices that use simple machines.  Please ask your child what materials they would like to gather at home to make their creation. 

Today was our final round for Follow Your Passion.  We will resume FYP in the new year.

Save the Date!  Grade 4s will be sharing their devices at our Celebration of Learning on December 13th.  More information will follow next week. 

Reminder that food bank donations can be dropped off in the large box near the office. 

 

 

November 27, 2019

We were busy writers this morning.  We reviewed the parts of a paragraph, learned about transition words and highlighted words from a list that we felt we could use in our writing.

This afternoon we focused our time on our simple machine projects.  We began by giving and receiving feedback about our specific questions.  We then chose a question to focus on for our designs.  Before designing we looked at examples of journal entries by famous inventors.  We then sketched simple designs and included labels and noted which simple machine the design would need.  Tomorrow our RT Alderman buddies will join us to give us feedback on our designs and help us to make some decisions before we begin building next week. 

Reminder:  Maple Ridge is collecting food for the Food Bank.  Donations can be placed in the box outside of the office.  Our goal is to fill the box by the end of the week.

 

November 26, 2019

It's been a busy Tuesday in room 5. 

This morning:

• We learned a new game called "Colour Tag" in Gym
• Students learned about the "hamburger" plan for paragraph writing and began planning their first paragraph about their favorite season

This afternoon:

• We play some games in Math that focused on place value
• We shared our big question for our simple machine devices and then narrowed our question to 3 more specific questions

Tomorrow students will give and get feedback around their specific questions and begin drawing their designs.

Reminder that it is Indigo Book Night on 130th Ave tonight (see email from Mr. Emery)

Grade 4 Book Lists

Thank you for attending conferences.  Many of you asked about books your child might enjoy reading.  I have found a few websites that recommend some titles for grade 4 students.

https://www.greatschools.org/gk/book-lists/favorite-books-for-fourth-graders/

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/4th-grade-reading-list

https://www.weareteachers.com/4th-grade-books/

Have a look through the list and see if anything catches your eye.  Your child is welcome to write the title down and see if we have it in our school library or they can always check for it at the Calgary Public library as well. 

Happy reading! 📖

“I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.” – Roald Dahl

November 20, 2019

Today we continued our work with levers.  We worked on 2 different stations.  In one station we looked at examples of real-life levers, drew them and labeled the load, force and fulcrum.  At the other station we researched and built catapults using popsicle sticks to see how far we could send a pom pom across the room.  We also identified the parts of a lever in our catapults.

Tomorrow is a half day and no school on Friday.  See you at parent/teacher conferences

November 18, 2019

Grade 4s have been looking at what is needed to write a really great sentence.  We looked at some examples of student work and tried to identify what they needed to make the sentences clearer or more detailed.  Next we will apply this information to our own writing as we create quiz questions about the regions of Alberta.

Reminder:  Student learning conversations will be Thursday evening and Friday.  If you are unable to attend but would still like to connect with me please let me know and we can set up a phone interview at a different time 📞

November 15, 2019

Today was our 2nd Follow Your Passion Friday.  Ask me what I learned in my session today.  For instance, if I went to drawing, ask me to demonstrate what I did.  We also read with our grade 2 buddies.  In Science, we started our exploration of gears and how they work.  We worked in small groups and will rotate through different tasks to learn all about gears.

Each of us is bringing home information about our Indigo Book Night.  Please see my notice. 

 

 

November 13, 2019

Yesterday was our trip to Telus Spark. ❇  On our field study:

• we learned what a cam is and what it does
• we got to make our own cam with different types of materials and tried to design it so it would move up, down or sideways
• we learned that different shapes can allow our designs to move in different ways
• we got to see the Body World's animal exhibit
• we got time to explore the other exhibits with our groups

Today we had a guest speaker that talked about gears on a mountain bike and how the different gears allow the rider to move at different speeds and require different amounts of work (effort).  We tried a new Number Talk in Math where we tried to figure out why each number from a set of 4 did not belong.  Ask me about it.  Finally, we rotated to the next task in our wheels and rollers exploration.  Ask me about the task my group completed today.  🎡

Notes:  Some students requested that the deadline for book orders be extended.  If you would like to place an order please do so tonight (online) or send your order with your child tomorrow 📚

Several students in our room have overdue books.  Please remind your child to return their library books this week if they are finished with them or renew them if they would like more time to enjoy the book.  

Nov. 7, 2019

Grade 4's had a bit of a mixed up day today...

• we began our day with a dress rehearsal for the Remembrance Day ceremony
• we talked about what to do during a lockdown and then had a practice lockdown
• we began finding and sharing evidence with Mrs. Bowers that we are working on our writing goals intentionally
• we started our wheels and rollers tasks in small groups (we will continue this with new tasks for each group next week)

Ask me what task I worked on with my group and what I learned.

Tomorrow is Follow Your Passion.  It is also our Remembrance Day ceremony.  We will be given a poppy to wear at school tomorrow. 

Reminders:  Book orders are due next week (Wednesday, Nov. 13th) and can be returned to Mrs. Bowers or completed online.

Our Telus Spark field study is on Tuesday, Nov. 12th

Nov. 4th Reminders

Parents,

  Room 5 students will be bringing home their patterns assessment today.  They have received feedback about their work and are invited to make any corrections, changes or improvements at home if needed.  Please initial the assessment and send it back tomorrow so that I know it has been shared with you. 

  Telus Spark off-site forms are now due.  Please remember to speak with your child about their comfort level when viewing the Body Worlds exhibit (animals).  If they are uncomfortable they will spend that time with me until their group finishes at the exhibit. 

  Thank you for your support in helping your child complete their plant life cycle artistic representation at home.  Those are due now so if any final touches remained at home please remind your child to return it tomorrow.

  Stay warm!

Mrs. Bowers

October 31, 2019

Happy Halloween! 👻

We spent the day:
-keeping active with Halloween themed games in Phys. Ed.
-showing off our costumes in the Halloween parade
-working independently on a reading comprehension activity about the history of Halloween
-finishing up work in the iLab for our plant project OR doing literacy activities in the classroom if we were already finished
-self-assessing where we feel we landed on the rubric for our plant life cycle project
-working in groups to build a mini pumpkin elevator (with or without a crank) 🎃 . *See pictures below

It was a busy day!

Remember all plant life cycle projects need to be completed and in the classroom Monday morning.  Ask me if I'm finished.
Please return forms for Telus Spark on Monday.