Mrs. Phelan

 This week in Grade Four:  We had Buddies twice this week. Yesterday we helped our Buddies find a book in the library and today we worked to create a collaborative art project. We used strips of paper to make a 3 dimensional paper sculpture together.  We are learning about early settlements in Canada. We learned about New France and are going to research Montreal, Port Royal, Montreal and  Trois-Rivières. Coming Up:  We have Spotlight Reader Presentations all next week!  The Book Fair is coming! Our class will be previewing the Book Fair on Tuesday and then purchasing on Wednesday.  Parent Teacher Conferences are next week on Thursday, November 27 from 3:30 to 7:30 and Friday, November 28 from 8:00 to 12:00. Please book a conference online. Bookings open tomorrow.  Students are bringing home their Writing Offices so you can read their writing before conferences. Feel free to write a note to your child right in their journal. Please return on Monda...

  This week in Grade Four:  We finished our name art! It's inspired by graffiti artists and students worked with pencil crayons, sharpies and paint to create their masterpieces! We also completed a writing assignment using our notes from our Name Research.  We talked about hazard symbols in Science and are done our first unit. Students will be bringing their Science Notebooks home to review the important vocabulary in this unit. We will be having an assessment next Thursday, November 20. Please return your child's notebook to school before next Friday.  We're working on arithmetic sequences in math! We can identify increasing and decreasing patterns and write rules to express how they change. We also looked at patterns that grow in different ways including the Fibonacci Sequence.  Coming Up:  We are excited to welcome a Student Teacher to our classroom. She is a first year education student at St. Mary's University and will be working with us for the next 3...

 This week in Grade Four:  We're learning about Canada's history in Social Studies. Our Guiding Questions are: How did Canada become a country? and How did colonies influence the formation of Canada? This week we learned about 4 early explorers who visited Canada. We worked with our table groups to learn facts about the explorers and then played a game to see if we could identify them.  We're working on Patterns and Sequences in math. We reviewed increasing and decreasing patterns and how to write a pattern rule. Then we examined the Fibonnaci Sequence in numbers and in nature. For skills we reviewed subtracting across zeroes.  Coming Up:  Happy Fall Break! Classes resume on Thursday, November 13.  Please bring your indoor shoes to school! We took them home before the strike.  Please dress for the weather! Several students were not comfortable today because they weren't prepared to be outside.  Finish Up:  Thank you for supporting your child ...

  This week in Grade Four:  Happy Halloween! We started some computer science this week and will be using Code.org to learn some basic programming starting with Blockly. This week we worked without the computers give our classmates instructions using symbols, which is what programmers do.  We are almost finished our Statistics unit in Math. We talked about scale today and students examined different data sets and chose an appropriate scale for pictographs, bar graphs and dot plots.  Coming Up:  Thank you for saving your Halloween candy at home instead of sending it in your child's lunch kit!  Brrrrrr. It's getting chilly outside. Please make sure your child has appropriate clothing for the weather including jackets, hats and mittens.  Finish Up:  Students who were in school today have no Finish Up. If your student was absent today please look in their backpack next week for some tasks to complete:  Canada Map: Complete labelling and colouring...

  This week in grade four:  We've been learning about mapping skills in Social Studies. Students completed a map of Alberta which showed the major rivers, lakes and communities. We're be looking at a map of Canada next!  In math we have finished learning about three types of graphs: bar graphs, pictographs and dot plots. Students surveyed classmates, created tally mark t tables and created each type of graph.  You'll find some addition and subtraction review in your child's backpack. Completing this would be great practice for some of our friends who are still a little rusty on their grade 3 skills. 

  Looking back!  We've been learning about genre in Literacy! This week we learned about some of the fiction and nonfiction genres and completed a scavenger hunt and a Book Tasting. Students will be bringing home their Independent Reading Logs from the month of September to share with you. We've been working on choosing a longer, grade 4 chapter book, committing to reading it and sustaining independent reading for up to 20 minutes. Students have been filling out their reading logs as an accountability activity.  We are learning about Waste in our World in Science. This week we identified types of waste and started to talk about how to safely dispose of some items.  Looking ahead!  Students Writing Offices are coming home today! Each month I like to send your child's journal home so you can see what we've been working on in writing. This month our I Can Statement is: I can write independently! Please feel free to write an encouraging note to your child in their n...