Welcome to the 30th week of school at NCS!
This week, we did a variety of different tasks in humanities. We've started to present our creation stories to both 4A and 4C students in flex time. Students are reading their stories and sharing their artwork! We will present in flex a few times a week over the next little while -- in order for everyone to present their stories. Students in 4A and 4C had their First Nations quiz on Tuesday, April 17th. We spent Monday, April 16th in class studying -- some students made flash cards or games, some students read through their notes, studied with a partner, etc. They used this time really effectively, and study practice is a great skill to work on! We've been continuing to read in class for 20 minutes daily, and also working on creative writing! We've mainly been focusing on idea generation, and different types of writing that can be used. Students have also been reading some of their short-stories (from creative writing time) in class, as presentation skills is another great skill to work on! Students in 4A and 4C have also begun our next unit - learning about the people of Alberta. We've already learned about the First Nations that lived here, and now we're learning about the other people that have come to Canada/Alberta. We've learned that there were European explorers that came to North America, and the Fur Trade that moved throughout Canada, and into Alberta. We've been discussing key words, looking at timelines and maps as well. As we continue in this unit, we will learn about who else has traveled here, who stayed, what they did, what communities were formed, and more! We'll be continuing this unit throughout April and May. Stay tuned for more information as we progress through! Important Information: -No School tomorrow (Friday, April 20th) as it is a PD day. -Field Trip Tuesday April 24th - Please see the note that went home on Wednesday about the small changes to the itinerary for the day. -Next week is Green Week! There are different challenges everyday. They will be recorded in student agendas. Monday, we will decorate our door with recyclable items. -Gluten Free Pizza will now be sold in the office on Fridays (When there is pizza) - if your child wants to purchase this! -Please return swimming forms by Tuesday, April 24th. -Triathlon forms (separate from the swimming forms - we've had a few people double check with us. Triathlon is optional and happens after school, swimming is a part of the P.E. curriculum and will take place in school hours). -No more RRJs - unless your child is still working to catch up on week 20 or week 21. Week 22 is optional. Have a great long weekend! -Ms. Clark
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Welcome to the 29th week of school at NCS! This week students finished their "creation story" project, which we've been working on for a number of weeks! Students finished typing up their good copies of their stories, and did a little bit more editing and revising with a partner before printing their final copies! Students then started the artwork for this project, which was inspired by First Nations artists and "buffalo robes," a traditional way of communicating past events in history. The students have been working quite hard on this! We will soon begin to present our stories to both 4C and 4A! Below, you can see a few photos of the "in process" and finished artwork pieces! This week we also did a small research project on a First Nations group that can be found in Alberta! Students used computers to research, and recorded their information onto a graphic organizer (yet another way to organize and manage information and ideas). Students were allowed to pick from a list of Alberta First Nations groups, and complete a "tic-tac-toe" research grid (where they had to pick 3 topics to research). This project allowed them to begin to get more in depth information on a First Nations group and to keep on practicing their research skills! We also continued to read for 20-25 minutes and even worked on some creative writing and sharing of our stories! Week 20 of RRJs were due this week as well. Next week, week 21 is our last week of RRJs for the year! I have told students that they can choose to hand in week 22 of RRJs as an extra mark. Grade 4 students in 4C and 4A will have a test on First Nations in Alberta on Tuesday April 17th. Today, students received a study guide today. Monday, April 16th will be a study day in class, where students can ask questions and use the time to read through their information. Please make sure you have your study guide and duotang here on Monday! Then, we'll be learning about other people who have settled in Alberta! Important Information -Social Studies quiz on Tuesday - Study guide and duotangs home today! Please make sure duotangs come back monday as we have time to study in class! -No School Next Friday, April 20th (Professional Development Day for teachers) -Field Trip on Tuesday, April 24th -bring your lunch, backpack (as part of the day will be a regular school day) and dress for the weather! -We are looking into ordering some gluten free pizza on Friday for students who can’t eat wheat. If this is something that interests your child, please email Miss Malayko ([email protected]) so we can gauge numbers. -Green Week is coming April 23! Stayed tuned for activities, challenges, prizes and the bake sale information. Have a great weekend, Ms. Clark You can use the websites below to help you start your research! There might be other great websites that you can find and use too.
Blackfoot http://projects.cbe.ab.ca/ict/2learn/mmspeight/blackfoot/html/people.htm http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/blackfoot-nation/ http://www.canadahistory.com/sections/Eras/prehistory/plains/blackfoot.htm http://www.glenbow.org/blackfoot/ Cree https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/settlement/kids/021013-2161-e.html https://www.ducksters.com/history/native_americans/cree_tribe.php http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/cree/ Dene Suline https://www.katlodeeche.com/index.php/38-rokstories/rokstories-frontpage/95-who-are-the-dene http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_groups/fp_subarctic2.html http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/chipewyan/ https://epicureandculture.com/cultural-encounters-a-look-at-the-traditions-of-the-dene-first-nations/ Dunne Za http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/beaver-native-group/ http://what-when-how.com/native-americans/beaver-native-americans-of-the-subarctic/ Tsuu T’ina http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sarcee-tsuu-tina/ https://www.quiltofbelonging.ca/blocks/sarcee-tsuu-tina/ Nakoda http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/stoney-nakoda/ http://www.rockymountainnakoda.com/who-we-are All http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_groups/fp_plains1.html Welcome to the 28th week of Grade 4 at NCS!
I hope everyone had wonderful spring breaks! This week we got right back into the swing of things, and have been busy in the classroom thus far! We've been working on our "creation stories" -- and the writing process this week! All students are currently working on their good copy (with the exception of a few students who have been away). Our good copies are being typed on the computer, so it's also been a great opportunity to practice logging on to the computer and work on our typing skills. After our good copies are done, we will begin our artwork! We've also continued to read for 20-25 minutes daily, and have done a small amount of creative writing and sharing our stories with the class. We'll be finishing up with our First Nations unit in the next few weeks - and we will have a quiz (information to come), before we begin learning about other settlers in Alberta! Important Information -Currently, 4C has filled the needed amount of volunteers for the upcoming April 24th field trip. -Information will go home soon about a fundraiser that students will take part in -RRJs - week 20 will be due next week -Fun Lunch next Wednesday Have a great weekend, -Ms. Clark Welcome to the 27th week of Grade 4 at NCS!
This post is early this week, as Thursday and Friday of this week are non-instructional days, due to Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences. Hopefully you have had a chance to book a time slot to see us! There are still a few times available if you still need to book in! This week students worked on 4 main things in humanities. Reading (for 20 minutes each day), creative writing (for at least 15 minutes daily), sharing these creative stories with the class, and working on our creation stories! Students have worked very hard this week on these tasks. The creation stories are coming along nicely! Most students are working on their rough copies or onto the editing process! We set a goal of having our rough copies completed before the break. That way, when we come back, we can get started on editing/good copies, and then move onto our artwork for the project! We will be wrapping our First Nations unit after that. Students also had a chance to visit with some grade 8 science buddies this week for a tour! They were able to Important Information -No School Thursday or Friday this week - due to conferences (students are encouraged to come too!) -Spring Break is upon us! Students come back Tuesday, April 3rd. ENJOY the break!! -Today, students cleaned out their lockers, so they might be bringing a few extra items home (if needed). -Reading Logs went home for Spring Break -- 20 minutes daily reading if possible! Have a wonderful break and looking forward to seeing many of you at conferences, Ms. Clark Welcome to the 26th week of Grade 4 here at NCS! This week, students worked on lots of different tasks in humanities! Students continued to read for 20 minutes in class each day this week. We also continued our creative writing/stamina writing activity - students can write for 15 minutes without interruption, when given a variety of story prompts! Students have also continued to share their stories with their peers. There are lots of hilarious, creative, and exciting stories that students have shared! We also have continued to learn about First Nations in Alberta. We had a chance to talk about scared places and sacred items. We looked at 4 different perspectives that each shared their point of view about what should be done with sacred/special cultural items. The 4 perspectives were the museum visitors, the museum curators, First Nations Elders, and antique dealers. Each had a different point of view about how cultural items should be kept and shared. Students had a chance to discuss in both small and large groups, and then work individually on a few reflection questions regarding this topic. Students also worked on another "sequencing comic" this week! We read the story "The Great Race" and students had to select key plot points, and organize their thoughts into 6-8 sentences/visuals. They had to colour in their images and work to create an organized and concise account of the story that they listened to. This story also had beautiful and inspiring artwork, and was a cultural story from a First Nations Group. Below you will see a few images from this task! Students had a chance to begin our next project! On Wednesday, I read 3 stories to the students - "How The Fox Got It's Crossed Legs," "How The Turtle Got It's Shell," and "The Loons Necklace." The students were able to figure out the theme between these stories, which was "how the animal got it's ________" or, creation stories. This connects to our learning of Alberta's First Nations, as it is a style of First Nations stories! We spent some time on Wednesday and Thursday working out our outlines for our stories. Friday, will begin our rough copies, and continue this into next week. After that, we will tackle peer editing, good copies, and artwork!
Important Information -You can now sign up for Parent Teacher interviews. You can do so online, or by calling the school for more information. Parent Teacher (and student!) interviews take place next Thursday and Friday. -Spring Break begins right after interviews, and goes until April 3rd (our first day back). Enjoy the break, hopefully with more spring like weather! -Ms. Clark Welcome to the 25th week of Grade 4 at NCS! This week, students worked on a variety of activities in Humanities class. We continue to read for 20 minutes daily, and students also continued their "creative writing" work in class for 15 minutes each day. This week we had a bunch of funny story starters, including ideas from the idea jar (some ideas were magical shoes, space ducks, and super cats) as well as from our story dice, creative story starter flip book, and our animal flip book (todays animal was part hermit crab, part rhino). Their stories are always humorous, and have been brainstorming so many unique ideas. It's also allowing students to practice different types of writing (e.g., news reports, stories, descriptive writing, movie trailers, etc). Students are continuing to practice their presentation skills when they share their stories with peers. This week students in 4A and 4C continued to learn about First Nations in Alberta. We were able to finish our mind maps that we've been working on for a couple of weeks! They have tons of key facts and interesting details. Students had a chance to discuss why places of historical significance/scared places are so important to the past, and important to people's identity (e.g., Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump or Writing on Stone Provincial Park). Students also listened to a First Nations story called "The Story of the Jumping Mouse" this week. This book is a beautiful picture book. After listening carefully to the story, they had to then pick 6-8 key details/ plot points, and organize their ideas into a "comic" with their key ideas in sequence. They had to draw images to represent the 6-8 key plot points (visualizing), and also write a key sentences describing their scene. This activity incorporates many key reading/listening strategies that we have worked on throughout the year, and it was a great way to apply many strategies in one activity! Students worked quite diligently on this task. Great job Grade 4s! Below you will see a few examples of the "sequence comics" that they worked on! Additionally, this week students were able to learn about different ways that First Nations celebrate their cultures and traditions. We talked about sacred/special ceremonies, drumming, dancing, powwows, the importance of circles and certain images, buffalo hunts, and more! Students were able to relate some of these ideas to their own cultures, histories and identities. We also had a chance to do two different art pieces recently -- the first was the creation of Teepees (last Friday), and learning about First Nations artist Norval Morriseau (and using his style to create our own artwork). Below you will seem some examples of both art work pieces! Important Information:
-RRJs - week 18 happened this week! Most students are caught up with this week. Week 19 next week! -Parent-Teacher-Student Interviews are coming up soon! Stay tuned for booking information -Students are reminded to head outside after lunch! Some students have been spending lunchtimes inside but are encouraged to head outside for some fresh air! Have a great weekend! -Ms. Clark Welcome to the 24th week of Grade 4 at NCS! This week was quite exciting as we had our "Be Brave" Calgary Hitmen Field Trip! All students from grade 4-9 were able to attend the game, as well as all teachers and many parent volunteers! Students were wonderful ambassadors of our school, and really showed Nose Creek SPIRIT! Unfortunately the Hitmen lost the game, but it was still a great experience for our students. This week, we also had other activities, including button making, hat day, pink pop day, and tomorrow (Friday), which is Kodiak gear/red and black day. All money raise is donated to anti-bullying and mental health in the community! Below you will see a few photos from the game! This week, we continued our exploration about First Nations communities in Alberta. Last week, we started a mind map that had lots of important facts and key details about First Nations in Alberta. Students did a great job and got lots of information written in! Students' mind maps included facts about First Nations homes, foods, key tools, and a little bit about art, music, and culture. They know that this will be a tool they can reference later, and study from at the end of the unit! We learned about the 6 natural regions and the different First Nations groups that traditionally lived in these areas. We also created a map that showed the 6 natural regions and the cultural groups that have lived in those different areas. Below you can find a few examples of these mind maps and First Nations maps. Today, we learned about different symbols that have been found from petroglyphs (images) in different areas in Alberta! We also learned about the colours that First Nations peoples used. We learned that these images can be to communicate stories and tell about the past. These images could be found in artwork, on tipis, carved in stone, and other places! Students then had a chance to create their own symbol, that would represent a key part of their own story. Students had to then write a paragraph/story that would explain their symbol (imaging that someone could try and interpret their symbols in the future). This allowed students to gain the perspective of peoples from the past that used symbols to share stories and traditions. We will be using these symbols tomorrow in our special activity! Stay tuned for pictures next week!
This week we've also continued independent reading for 20 minutes, and our new activity, creative writing! Students have been working to increase their time while writing on a daily basis, using a variety of different story starters/ideas. Some of these ideas are our classroom "idea jar," story cubes, the "remarkable animals" book (which makes us combine 3 different animals), and our flip book of creative writing ideas! Students have also hard the opportunity to share their stories out loud and practice their presentation skills too! Important Information: -This week was week 17 of RRJS, there are still several students that need to hand in their RRJ for this week. -Scholastic book orders are going home today. You can order online, or via cheque. Orders are due March 8th. Have a wonderful weekend, Ms. Clark Welcome to the 23rd week of grade 4 at NCS! My apologies for the post last week -- I'm not sure what happened, but it appears as if it only posted the title, not any of the content. I will re-type that post for you to catch up on. Sorry again! On Monday, students wrapped up our Fossils unit and we began our unit "The Stories, Histories, and Peoples of Alberta." We've begun to learn about the First Nations that inhabited the 6 Natural Regions of Alberta. We've done some readings, heard accounts of First Nations members, had class discussions, looked at maps and more! Students have been able to share prior knowledge and make connections to new information that they have learned. We've started to learn about what life was like for First Nations communities, and how they were able to survive Alberta's climate and regions. We've learned about the buffalo, other food sources, shelters, and more! Today, students started a "mind map" or web, about key facts that they have learned so far. This is yet another way that students can record and remember their information, in a creative, organized and individual way. We will continue to use these mind maps/webs throughout this unit! See below for a few examples of the students mind maps/webs. We will continue to discuss and learn about the First Nations communities found in Alberta, and do a variety of activities over the next few weeks (including art, writing, researching, exploring perspectives, some small quizzes, etc). Students seem quiet engaged and are sharing lots of things that they know! Many students have been participating frequently this week! We've continued to read for 20 minutes daily, but we've started a new daily activity (in place of Literacy Centers) -- Creative Writing! In this activity, students have been getting a variety of prompts (inspired by a few different books that I have). We share the story starters/prompts, and then put a timer on for students to work on their writing -- we are aiming to write for 20 minutes (uninterrupted). Then, students have had the chance to share their writing/stories with the class (usually about 4 students per class are able to share). Students have been very excited to share their creative writing with the class, and have seemed to really enjoy this daily activity (many students have asked to continue this for more weeks)! Below you will see some photos of (example) starters/ prompts and student work! Important information:
-Next week we'll be starting weekly spelling practice (as Literacy Centers usually worked on spelling activities) - this will occur in flex - students can bring home their spelling pages for further practice as needed! -RRJ's will be starting up again next week-- Week 17 -Scholastic Book Orders - will go home next week -Calgary Hitmen field trip on Tuesday. Please Bring a lunch, water bottle, and anything else that you may need for the day -Anti-Bullying activities happening at school next week (The Calgary Hitmen game being one part of it) -- please check the main grade 4 blog page for more info Have a great week! -Ms. Clark Welcome to the 22nd Week of school at NCS!
This week was a short and sweet week here at school, as it was only 3 days long! On Monday, students worked to finish their in-class presentations for "Ms. Moneybags!" They were super engaged, and got to practice both their listening as well as speaking skills. Well done grade 4's! There are still a few grade 4's who were absent and will present next week after Teachers Convention. I will send the rubric home in their assessment duotangs once all students have presented, and I have gone through their research, good copies, and notes! Students continued to work on 20 minutes of daily reading, and at their Literacy Centers too! There were no RRJs due this week. This week we also worked on story writing skills (using story cubes), and inferencing! Inferencing is when you gather clues from what you read or see, and then combine those clues with things you already know (prior knowledge) to help you make a guess, prediction, or inference. Students had a chance to read a small text and gather clues from the reading, as well as, look and analyze pictures. Today, students were able to watch a movie (with limited dialogue) in order to practice their inferring skills. Most students realized that they infer all of the time and in a variety of ways! Next week, we will finish presenting to "Ms. Moneybags" and hear her verdict about if she will donate her fortune to the Royal Tyrrell Museum. We will finish up our fossil unit, and then begin our new unit on the peoples of Alberta! Important Information: -No school this Thursday/Friday (Feb 15/16) as it is Teachers Convention -No school this upcoming Monday as it is Family Day in Alberta. -4C has done an AMAZING job with exploring "community" with me this year! They helped me get ready for my presentation this week! We will continue to explore what community means in our classroom, school and community throughout term two! -Book Orders for March just arrived, and I will send those home in the next week or so! -Calgary Hitmen Field Trip on Feb 27th -our whole class is going! -Please return your assessment duotangs and report card envelopes if you haven't done so yet! Have a great long weekend, -Ms. Clark |
AuthorGrade four Humanities teacher. Archives
June 2018
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