Week 12

It was a short week at school for week 12 but that certainly doesn't mean it wasn't full! So much to learn and only so much time!

This week we continued to read "City of Ember" and we got to draw what we think the main characters look like. We figured out that the main characters are Lina, Doon, Poppy, Grandma and the Mayor. We also got to draw what we think the settings look like. It was really neat to see what everyone pictures while Miss Kolb is reading the story.

In gym we played real basketball games! We played 5 on 5. We have some very talented basketball players in our class.

We had Roots of Empathy twice this week. We had a pre-baby visit with our instructors and we learned about babies healthy development. We also had baby visits this week with baby Michael and baby Lena.

In writing we wrote about our weekends and spent the week editing them with all of our new knowledge of what makes a good writing piece.

  

We also did free writing, some of us didn't finish our free writing because our stories are getting so long, detailed and interesting! It is always fun to do free writing!

On Wednesday Ms. Tan and Ms. Smaili came in and read us a story called "Over There" after they finished reading the story we got to write about it. We wrote about the characters and the beginning, middle, end and the setting.

We continued with our guided reading this week. We also started partner reading this week as well.

  

  

In science we made an action plan about how we are going to make responsible decisions about our waste. Our goals are to become less wasteful so we made decisions about what we will do so that we can make the school a better place.

We finished our week off with a peace assembly. To start the assembly the whole school sang "Hello World" a song about peace. It was very cool to see the entire school singing this song about peace and kindness. The advisory group was very important in putting on this assembly, we can even thank two of our very own for being involved, Pary and Aatif, we loved to watch them from the audience! The advisory group will be working hard this year to help make our school a better place. Mr. Southworth read us a story in the assembly called "Be the Change" about Ghandi and how important it is to not be wasteful and to practice peace. Ghandi has said "be the change you wish to see" which means make the world a better place by starting with your own actions.

 

Until next time, peace and love,

Room 7 & 8

Week 11

We went on a field trip! We took buses to Mount Royal University to watch Peter and the Wolf performed by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. Before they played us Peter and the Wolf we got to hear some other animal inspired music pieces one of them was about a swan and the other was about a hen. There was a viola player who made a near perfect hen impression for us! It was hilarious! When they played the swan song, a puppeteer "swam" a swan around the audience. When Peter and the Wolf happened there was some puppeteers making the show on the side of the stage and it was projected onto a big screen so we could watch. The music was so calming that some people almost (or did) fall asleep! We noticed that no one played the harp at the show which made the harp look lonely. When we came back from the field trip we got to write a reflection about the field trip and we talked about the instruments we saw, our favourite parts and what we liked about the show.

  

  

  

In science we finalllllllllly finished editing our Informational Recycling Videos!! It is a very thrilling moment and we will soon share our videos with some other students at CJFS to help them learn how to use the recycling bins properly. We might put some up on the blog, keep your eyes peeled! 

We started to learn about addition in math. We finished our pre-tests and started math addition centers they are so fun! The stations are BUMP! Roll a Tower, Salute! Boxed Out, WAR! Domino Addition, Show the Number and Race to Trace! We also got to teach other some of the strategies we know for addition.

  

  

  

In gym we continued to work on our basketball skills. We played basketball line tag, practicing dribbling by doing laps around the gym, we learned how to shoot using a lay up and other shooting skills, we took tennis balls and went around the gym getting the balls in the baskets, we practiced passing to partners, and we played Around the World it was so fun!! In Around the World we learned about the "key" and had to shoot from all parts of the key around the net we couldn't move on to the next part until we got the ball in the net. We had a substitute gym teacher this week on Tuesday, when Mr. Collins was away at a conference.

Our guided reading has been in full swing. We have been working hard 4 days a week in guided reading times to improve our reading skills. Some students are working on a novel study and others are working in small groups with a teacher. This has been a great time to read good fit books.

  

  

  

In writing this week we focused on editing our work. We had to search for punctuation, capitals, and paragraphs. We learned that we need to start a new paragraph when we start talking about something new.

    

Today, like all Friday's (if we do our jobs well all week) we get to have free choice! We also got to do free writing today. We also had our weekly prize draw today. We get tickets when we do our jobs well and our teachers notice, this is how we get entered into the draw. There are 3-4 new winners every week and they get to choose a prize from our prize bin. On Friday's Miss Klem and Miss Kolb also choose some all star students to go on technology for free choice.

Until next week,

Love Room 7 & 8

Week TEN

Our Remembrance Day Assembly is tomorrow (Thursday November 10)! We have been working very hard on this and made a video all about how important peace is to us that will be shared at the assembly. Please come and watch our assembly at 10:30am in the Colonel J Fred Scott Gym! Because it is Remembrance Day on Friday there will be no school.

We went outside for Free Writing on Wednesday.

     

    

Because the weather was so incredibly beautiful for November in Calgary (20 degrees!) we celebrated by going outside on Tuesday to play and enjoy the sun and warmth.

    

In music we have been practicing the xylophones and practicing singing for the assembly. Mrs. Gunderson has been teaching us tips about how to be better singers. It is important to drop our jaws when we are signing so that we can hit higher notes, and to sit up straight. She also told us how important breathing is when we are singing and told us to lay on our backs and put a book on our tummy and start breathing and see the book go up and down.

We are having a field trip next week! It is important that we bring back our field trip forms ASAP! We are going to the Mount Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to watch Peter and the Wolf. Mrs. Gunderson set up this field trip for us and we are so excited! The grade fours feel extra lucky because they got to go on a similar field trip last year. Thank you for taking us Mrs. Gunderson!

We convinced Mr. Southworth to help us with a cool photo idea that required him to get really high up on the playground and take our picture. We made a human peace sign to go at the end of our video for the assembly. Miss Klem showed us how to model for the camera and gave us very professional, creative and lovely posing tips.

   

We continued to learn about catching and throwing in the gym. We are still doing basketball. We have been improving our skills in dribbling and shooting this week. To practice our dribbling we go around the gym dribbling our basketballs and if we are looking down at our ball Mr. Collins will steal our ball! For a warm up in gym we have been playing Zombie Tag "grrrarrgg!" and running laps to get our blood flowing and our bodies ready for exercising. Mr. L joined us in gym on Wednesday when Mr. Collins was away.

    

This week we have been collecting non-perishable items for the Veterans. We have been graphing our collections everyday this week and we are very close to meeting our goal of 50 items.

In math we started a pre-test for addition and subtraction. We finished up our number sense unit with rounding and learned a cool rap to help us remember the rounding rules. Check it out!

https://youtu.be/pNfz-JU2cKE 

In science we are getting close to finishing editing our imovies! Miss Kolb and Miss Klem are very excited to get to watch them and show the other classes in our school how to use the bins properly.

Until next week,

Love,

Room 7 & 8