Dec 20 - Cheesecake!

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Tomorrow is FAF, we will be going outside, so please dress for the weather.
3 Please take home your water bottles to get washed out over the holidays.
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We have been doing math centers that help us to practice fractions, rounding, addition, subtraction, and fact families. Some of us got to go and play Christmas Treasure and Grow A Christmas Tree Farm.
How did you show what you learned?
We completed the activities and played the games.
What do you need to learn next?
We will be starting multiplication when we return in January.

Dec 19 - Making Sounds with Our Mouth. NOT CHEESECAKE!!!!!

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Polar Express Day - wear PJ's or festive wear. We will be going to the learning commons at 2:30 to listen to the Polar Express story and we will have hot chocolate.
3 
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned about beat boxing today which is making drum sounds with our mouths. 
How did you show what you learned?
We had to make a rhythm on a sheet and then we could share it if we wanted.
What do you need to learn next?
We need to go on winter break. - Erik A.

Dec 18- Fact or Opinion

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Thursday is Polar Express Day
3 
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned the difference between a fact and a opinion. An opinion is when you think something and a fact is the real information or the truth.
How did you show what you learned?
We read out different examples from the story, The Polar Express. We then decided if they were a fact or opinion.
What do you need to learn next?
We are going to be looking into the issue of the Alberta tar sands and we will need to understand the difference between a fact and an opinion. We will need to be able to find out the facts before we can make an opinion.

Dec 17 - Northern Lights Techniques

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Thursday is Polar Express Day
3 Caroling in the Learning Commons at 9am starting tomorrow. Parents are welcome.
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned a technique for doing northern lights with chalk pastels.
How did you show what you learned?
We watched a video showing us how to do the technique and then we tried one ourselves.
What do you need to learn next?
We need to add trees with black paint.
Here is the video link:

Dec 14 - Bins Don't Sort Recycling -You Do!

Agenda:
1 Read
2 WOW #10 good copy is due Monday
3 Literature Circle People (Group 1 and 2) are sharing their roles on Monday
4 Wordwork was due Thursday - you need to complete it for Monday so can change your incomplete status on powerschool
5 Watch the video about Christmas recycling here: 

Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned that after the festive evening waste examination, Dr EW Coffin's community is still not sorting waste properly.
How did you show what you learned?
We talked about how we can help. Ask me about that.
What do you need to learn next?
We need to teach people about what we know and use our new slogan:

Dec 13 - Oil and Sand

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Festive Evening tonight - some of you have signed up to do a shift on the waste bins, please check the sheet in the hall to make sure you are on time.
3 Tomorrow is FAF please come dressed
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned how to do some Christmas cursive writing. We also learned about the oil sands and the tailing ponds.
How did you show what you learned?
We read some information in our duotangs and then helped Ms Cowdy highlight where the answers in the text were and then we wrote an answer in our books.
What do you need to learn next?
We talked about how the oil sands are a controversial issue and we need to learn more about why.

Dec 12 - A Festive Pitch

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Spirit Day tomorrow - wear your festive stuff
3 Festive evening tomorrow at 6pm
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned about our animals lowest and highest frequency of hearing. 
How did you show what you learned?
We looked it up on a chart. Some students figured out that animal hearing is better than human hearing, usually by about 10 Hz.
What do you need to learn next?
We are going to be learning about pitch next.

Thanks to Leo S, Evelyn and Erik for sharing their work!

Dec 11- I Lobe your Animal Projects

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Word Work is due Thursday
3 Spelling Test Friday - try and do some sorts at home to practice your focus words.
4 Thursday night is Festive Evening 6-8pm
5 Spirit Day on Thursday - dress in your festive stuff
6 Fill a Sock campaign is still going on - please bring in your donations by Friday
7 Unfortunately, Dr EW Coffin did not make the top 10 for the CBC class music challenge, but we had some incredible competition. Great work everyone on all your efforts.
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned about our focus animal's hearing.
How did you show what you learned?
We researched about the animal's hearing using different sources (books and websites provided by Ms Cowdy)
What do you need to learn next?
We need to find 3 interesting facts and supporting details as well as the range of hearing our animals have.

Dec 10 - Countdown to Holidays!

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Many students are not finishing their work and handing it in. I have started tracking it on PowerSchool. If you have the phone app, scroll down to the assignment status and click on incomplete. It will show up there if any assignments are incomplete. If you go in through the powerschool link on the CBE website, click on Language arts or social Studies and click the [i]. It will show you there also. If you need any more help, please let me know, as I think this is a great communication tool for parents.
3 Treat Day tomorrow bring $0.25 to purchase nibbles.
4 This week we are wanting to fill a sock, so please bring in your donations. See this week's worth mentioning for a complete list.
5 Festive Evening is this Thursday at 6pm
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned how to draw Frosty the Snowman on the cartooning4kids website. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQjeN9I4z0o
We also learned about the Christmas math centers that we will be doing over the next two weeks.
How did you show what you learned?
We followed the directions from the guy on the video and we drew our own AMAZING Frosty's.
What do you need to learn next?
We would like to try out some of the other festive drawings and we need to start our new math centers tomorrow.

Dec 5 - Finding Information about Hearing Can be Ear-itating

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Pj day tomorrow
3 Form going home about Festive Evening next Thursday night. Please RSVP online. 
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned how to fom jot note into our own words.
How did you show what you learned?
We started to research our animal's hearing and will be doing jot notes when we do Science next.
What do you need to learn next?
We need to continue our research. Research is based on facts not opinions.

Dec 4 - Summarizing Information and Jot Notes

Agenda:
1 Read
2 No School on Friday
3 Thursday is PJ day
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned how to summarize information and how to take jot notes.
How did you show what you learned?
We went to a website called "Into the Book" and we practiced summarizing different pieces of information on how to be a pirate. Tell your parents about the yardarm and the sail. Then when we learned about jot notes, we took some information about the Eurasian Red Squirrel's hearing and we were only allowed to write 3 words per sentence. 
What do you need to learn next?
We need to take our jot notes and put them into our own words. 

Dec 3 - Legit LGEL

Agenda:
1 Read
2 If you have a Powerschool app or you could login to your powerschool on your computer, could you check in the assignments area and see if anything has shown up? I am trying to indicate to parents when assignments have been handed in and are complete or they are incomplete or missing. I am not sure how this looks on the parent's end, so I would appreciate some feedback.
3 Thursday is Pajama day, so if you want to wear your clean pajamas, you can!
4 Please bring back your green folder tomorrow as we have Word Work!
5 Tomorrow is library day, please bring your books back!
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned a new subtraction game invented by 4 of our classmates!
How did you show what you learned?
We watched a demonstration of the game by LGEL called Robber Subtraction. Some of us played the game after. Ask me how to play. Some us played, Knock It Off and Slide Over. Ask me what I played!
What do you need to learn next?
We need to learn clue words that will help us learn how to solve word problems.

Nov 30 - Fraction Action!

Agenda:
1 Read
2 If your word work duotang is in your backpack you did not complete your activities. They were due yesterday. Please complete and hand in so I can change your mark.
3 Social Studies Park Research is also due Monday. Please hand in so I can change your mark. (black duotang)
4 Next Wednesday is PJ day. You are welcome to wear your clean pj's.
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned about fractions.
How did you show what you learned?
We went outside and found fractions in nature. We had to identify an example of fractions of a set and fractions of a whole and take a picture of it.
What do you need to learn next?
We need to discuss the pictures and the fractions people found.

Nov 28 - Music Challenges

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Social Studies Homework due for next Monday. These are the websites you will need:
https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/recherche-parcs-parks-search
https://www.albertaparks.ca/
For the About section, talk about climate, landscape, animals, history, plants, waterbodies, size. Fun Activities are things that you can do there. Remember, you have to have at least 4 points for each. Use the rubric in your duotang to mark it when you are done.
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We watched our video for the CBC music challenge.
How did you show what you learned?
We learned that we could improve our timing, singing louder and a spot for production crew.
What do you need to learn next?
We will try and do this for next year's production.

Nov 27- Subtraction Attraction!

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Spirit Day - you know what you have to do
3 You can try the nlvm website: http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_155_g_1_t_1.html?from=topic_t_1.html
It may not work, but you can try and if you are successful you can do the subtraction activity.
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We were working on subtraction in math.
How did you show what you learned?
We used a whiteboard to show how we did our subtraction questions. We also completed work in the textbook.
What do you need to learn next?
We need to continue to practice subtraction.

Nov 26-Don't Take Away My Sheckles! You Can Borrow!

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Tomorrow is treat day, so bring your sheckles. ($0.25)
3 Library Day tomorrow - bring back your books
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned about how to estimate differences and subtracting with borrowing.
How did you show what you learned?
We used whiteboards and we wrote a subtraction question and showed how to subtract using base ten blocks and showed the traditional way. Ask me to show you how to do 95-9.
What do you need to learn next?
We need to figure out which method makes the most sense for us to use when we do larger number subtraction.

Nov 22-See you at Conferences!

Agenda:
1 Read
2 No school tomorrow - Parent Conferences
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We filmed the CBC class music challenge today!
How did you show what you learned?
We had a great time doing it! It took 3 takes to get it.
What do you need to learn next?
Mr O'Reilly will review the videos and he can only choose one of the three takes to enter into the contest.

Nov 21-The Real Deal

Agenda:
1 Read
2 No School Friday
3 CBC Music Class Challenge filming tomorrow! Bring your most musical self for filming!! Production crew please wear black!
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned about all the things that go into filming a music production.
How did you show what you learned?
We did a rehearsal to practice for the filming tomorrow.
What do you need to learn next?
We need to do the real deal.

Nov 20-You Butter Read this Long Blog Before Dinner

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Math homework 
3 Conferences on Thursday 4-8 and Friday 8-12. Thank you to all the families who have already signed up for conferences. The link to sign up is https://sis.cbe.ab.ca/public/home.html
4 It has come to my attention that some students are sharing food. At Dr EW Coffin, we ask that students do not share food, and just eat the snacks that their parents provide them. Please discuss this with your child.
5 Ask me to use the word industry in a sentence. 
6 Students will be bringing home a list with their spelling words on it. Please try to encourage them to practice some of the sorts that I have included here. Spelling tests are every second Friday. Students are also encouraged to find transfer words, which are words that contain the same patterns that the words are sorted by.
1. Word Sort – set up the header cards and sort the words into categories. Can you sort them in different ways?

2. Speed Sort – set up your header cards and shuffle your words. Set a timer, and then sort your words correctly and as fast as you can. Record your time. Do this at least 3 times and see what your best time is.

3. Blind Sort – set up your headers. Work with a partner. Have them read a word to you without letting you see it. Point to the header that the word belongs with. Keep going until all of your words have been read. Then switch roles.

4. Writing Sort – Write the headers at the top of a piece of your Writing Sort paper. Shuffle your words. Draw one word card, and then write that word under the correct header. Keep going until all of your words have been written.

5. Blind Writing Sort – write the headers at the top of a piece of your Blind Writing Sort paper. Have a partner read a word to you without letting you see it. Write that word under the correct header. Keep going until all of your words have been written.
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned a new math game.
How did you show what you learned?
We went to Room 4 and they taught us the game called Round and Round. Ask me how to play it. Some of us were still finishing math, so we will have to learn it at another time.
What do you need to learn next?
We will be working on subtracting next.

Nov 19 - Animal Ears!

Agenda:
1 Read
2 No School Friday - Parent Teacher Conferences
3 CBC Music Contest Practice this week
4 We will be having a quick math check for understanding this week. If you would like to practice for it, it will be on representing numbers and adding of 3 and 4 digit numbers with regrouping.
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned how to draw a boy and girl cartoon.
How did you show what you learned?

We watched Art Hub for Kids on youtube that showed us how to draw the cartoons. 
What do you need to learn next?
We are going to use this to draw a cartoon of ourselves with animal ears. We are going to do a research project on that animal's hearing. We read the book, What if You Had Animal Ears? for inspiration.

Nov 16-Sounds Around!

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Math Homework Gr 4 - P 54#8-10, P57#1-2, P58#3-9
                           Gr 3 - P99#4-8, P105 #1-6
3 Conference Booking for Thursday Nov 22 and Friday Nov 23 starts on Saturday at 6am
4 Rehearsals and filming for the CBC Music contest starts next week
5 Plasticine ears are coming home today! Ask me to tell you about the parts of the ear!
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We played Marco Polo outside today to see if we could identify where sounds were coming from. We also collected mystery items to make sounds to see if people could identify them.   
How did you show what you learned?
When we played Marco Polo we changed it to Dr. Coffin. Ask me about it. Guessing the items that made the sounds when people rubbed them together or banged them was challenging. 
What do you need to learn next?
We need to learn about how the sound travels and how different pitches are made.

Nov 15 - STOP!

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Last Day for Food Bank items
3 FAF tomorrow, please dress accordingly
4 Letter from OT
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We did something called STOP with the OT, Mrs Carpentier today.
How did you show what you learned?
We used the STOP method to help us to write about /draw a car within a time limit. 
S - Space
T- Time
O- Objects
P- People
What do you need to learn next?
We need to use this strategy to help us organize and complete our work.

Nov 14 - Parktastic!

Agenda:
1 Read
2 If the black journal is in your backpack, you have homework. In your WOW#8 you are going to write:

Do you think Calgary should host the 2026 Winter Olympics? Yes or no and three reasons with details to support your decision. In a second paragraph, tell me what your favourite olympic winter sport is and give me four- five reasons why.

3 Fun Lunch is tomorrow

4 Scholastic order is due at the end of the month

5 If the red duotang is in your backpack, you have homework

6 Try and bring 2 or 3 non perishable food items for our food drive. We have 62 items to date from our class! We would like to try and get up over 100. 

Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned about the National and Provincial Parks.
How did you show what you learned?
We had sheets that have three sections, a map, an About and a Fun Activities section.
What do you need to learn next?
We need to fill out our pamphlets.

Nov.13 - Constable Rich uses his 'Wits'!

Agenda:
1 Read 
2 Fun Lunch on Thursday
3 Math H.W. Gr. 3 p.98 #1-3 Gr. 4 p. 53 #1-7
Highlights
What did you learn today?
From Constable Rich, we learned about different emotions that people have and how to react to them. He said to use your 'wits' when dealing with anger and frustration.
How did you show what you learned?
We filled in an emotion scale worksheet, about our own emotions. 
What do you need to learn next?
We need to practice dealing with our own emotions, as well as, the emotions of others.

Nov 12- Cartooning

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Visit from Constable Rich this week
3 Library tomorrow - please bring your books to return or renew
4 Fun Lunch this week
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned how to sketch cartoon animals.
How did you show what you learned?
We used a how to sketch booklet to practice drawing our animals.
What do you need to learn next?
We need to pick an animal to research how it hears and then draw a cartoon sketch of ourself with the animal's ears.

Nov 8 - 2018-Pitch Perfect

Agenda:
1 Read 
2 Finish math stretch homework
3 Please wear Girl Guide or Cub Scout Uniform to Remembrance Day Assembly tomorrow if you are one.
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned about parts of our ear and about sound, vibration, and pitch.
How did you show what you learned?
We watched a short video about vibration and did an experiment with a ruler. 
What do you need to learn next?
We are going to go outside and measure decibels for Fresh Air Friday.

Nov 7 - Will You Remember Me

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Tomorrow (Thursday) is photo retakes
3 We are still accepting food donations
4 Remembrance Day Assembly is on Friday
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned about the National and Provincial parks in Alberta. 
How did you show what you learned?
We played a game of identifying regions using various pictures of the regions in Alberta and then watched a video of the regions. We then had a discussion about how diverse the land, people and activities are in Alberta.
What do you need to learn next?
We need to investigate further by researching the parks in Alberta.

Nov. 6 - "Rouestimating" Up and Down!

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Red Duotang HW- please make corrections to questions that are marked with orange circles 
3 Photo retakes are Thursday - please return portraits if you are retaking yours. 
4 Remembrance Day Assembly on Friday - if you are a part of Scouts or Guides please wear your uniforms.
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned about rounding numbers to estimating sums of numbers.
How did you show what you learned?
We watched a video on rounding and estimating and then applied those strategies as a class to sample addition questions. We continued practicing our skills by answering questions in our math textbook.  
What do you need to learn next?
We need to finish up our math questions and learn how to round and estimate with decimals.

Nov 5 - Messy Poppy Art

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Individual photos are being sent home. Please order portraits online at www.mylifethouch.ca
If you would like to retake your individual photo please return it to school tomorrow and let us know. The photo retakes are this Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018
3 Souper Can Competition runs Nov 6th to 13th. Donations will go to the Calgary Food Bank. Check out this video for an overview of the food items to donate:  http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1107074115587/

Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned that Remembrance Day is important as it honors those that served in the war and shows respect and support for those that were involved.  We read a book about a character who was in the war and learned that a war is an experience that can never be forgotten.
How did you show what you learned?
After reading the story, we brainstormed different words that come to mind when we think about Remembrance day and discussed the connections.  We also started creating a poppy art project for Remembrance day.
What do you need to learn next?
We will take the words we brainstormed to create an acrostic poem that will be showcased at the Remembrance Day assembly. We also need to finish making our poppies. 

Nov 2- It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's a Blog!

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Social Studies due Monday
3 WOW#7 Good Copy due Monday
4 Mrs Yoon will be in for Ms Cowdy next week
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned about a listening walk.
How did you show what you learned?
We went on a listening walk. We had to be quiet so we could listen. We made a sound map. Ask me to describe it to you.
What do you need to learn next?
We can learn about the different sounds in nature, we can sort the sounds we hear, we can figure out how the sound gets from our ear to our brain so we can figure it out and how sounds are made.

Nov 1- Grab It! It's a Habit!

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Social Studies homework - this is coming home if it is not finished. We have had a generous amount of time to complete in class. Please finish and hand in good copy by Monday morning
3 WOW#7 Homework Good copy due by Monday
4 FAF - we will be going outside please dress for the weather
Please see more of our WOW#7, written by Katie, Ezra and Leo A!
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned how to write and count with money and we learned how to stay organized. We also practiced our Green Team PSA. Ask me about it.
How did you show what you learned?
We had Mrs. Carpentier, who is our school's Occupational Therapist, come into our class and show us how to create a new habit. We are going to try to get in the habit of cleaning our desks on a regular basis. Ask me how long it takes to form a habit!
What do you need to learn next?
We need to keep our desks clean because Mrs. Carpentier and Ms. Cowdy are going to be doing random desk checks to see if we are forming a new habit.

Oct 31-Happy Halloween!

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Have fun and be safe trick or treating if you are going out tonight.
3 Please look below for some WOW#7 Student Work Selfies!! Thanks to Dhvani, Akshita, Angelica, Chelsea and Evelyn for sharing their good copies of WOW#7 - Describe your Halloween costume without giving it away.
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We did our pumpkin estimating activity today.
How did you show what you learned?
We examined the pumpkin and then our main task was to take out all the seeds and estimate how many were in the pumpkin. We chose a referent to help us make an estimate. One group was only 7 seeds away from their estimate!!! There are some pictures of our exploration below!
What do you need to learn next?
We made some mistakes today, which is great because we can grow our brains. Here are some that we made and fixed:
-our groups were not as big as our referent group so we had to start over.
-when we made our piles we missed some seeds, so our estimate was way off
-lots of our seeds fell off the table so our estimate was wrong also
-we at first counted the exact number first, when we should be estimating.

Oct 30 - Estimating Jellybeans

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Greg Tang Halloween Challenge - you can fill in the board game at home as well as during school time. Last day to do the Challenge is Nov 1
3 You may bring your Halloween costume tomorrow. We will have time to dress up after you get in from lunch recess. The parade will start at 1:15.
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned how to estimate the number of jellybeans in jars by using strategies of layering for 3D and 2D shapes and using fractions. We also learned that making mistakes makes our brains grow because more synapses are fire. 

How did you show what you learned?
We had to guess how many marbles were in a jar. It ended up being 257 marbles in the jar. A student from room 4 won the prize for closest guess. Her strategy was counting by 25s. 

What do you need to learn next?
We are going to estimate how many seeds are in a pumpkin tomorrow.

Oct 29- Embellishing Our Writing

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Treat Day is tomorrow - bring $0.25 if you would like to purchase a treat
3 Halloween Parade is on Wednesday - please bring your costume to school to wear after lunch
4. Math homework (red duotangs)

Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned about editing our writing with juicy word, different sentence starters, and including an introduction.
How did you show what you learned?
We brainstormed ways to start sentences with transitions, how to write an introductions, and using different juicy words (nouns/adjectives/verbs) for our Halloween costume journal entries. Then we started going through our journal entries to look for areas where we could make them more interesting. 
What do you need to learn next?
We need to edit the journal entries and embellish it with at least one juicy noun, verb and adjective, and make sure our sentences are not repetitive by using different sentence starters. We will then write our good copies.  

Oct 25 - Growing Our Ideas Bank With Juicy Words

Agenda:
1 Read
2 Please remember to bring in your own headphones 
3 No school tomorrow
4 You are welcome to purchase a treat on Oct 30th for Treat Day 
5 You are invited to bring a costume for Oct 31 Halloween Parade 
6 We are still accepting T-shirts for Green Team masks
Highlights
What did you learn today?
We learned about verbs, nouns and adjectives.
How did you show what you learned?
We read a story as a class (The Scarecrow's Dance) and picked out extraordinary verbs for our Ideas Bank. Then, we read a story book to a partner and looked for more juicy words to define and add to our Ideas Bank.
Finally, we identified and sorted various words into the categories of verbs, nouns and adjectives. 
What do you need to learn next?
We might need to learn about other types of words like pronouns and adverbs.