4A & 4C students had a great time walking to Vivo and participating in swimming lessons everyday this week. It culminated today in buying tasty treats at the food trucks, and then going for an hour free swim! We are also looking forward to decorating pysanky eggs next Friday (more information about this on the team home page). In math, students continued our work around time concepts, and continued to review telling time to the hour and to the half & quarter-hour. This week they also learned to tell time to the five minute mark, and finally to the minute. Students practiced their skills by using the mini-clocks and working in a practice booklet to both read and record times on a clock. Ask your child to tell the time a few times this weekend using an analog clock! Students also learned about writing and reading calendar dates in numeric form, and telling time using a 24-hour clock. On Thursday, students used the laptops to practice their time skills either on provided websites, or on Prodigy where they were assigned time-related questions including elapsed time problems. In science, students have been continuing to learn all about plants and have participated in some experiments in class. We started an experiment to do with optimal growing conditions for plants (using grass seed) and will continue to monitor this next week. Students also were able to investigate what is inside a seed when they dissected a lima bean. After looking at a dry seed and forming a hypothesis on what they thought was inside, they were then given one that was soaked in water for 24 hours. Students peeled off the seed coat and looked at the inside of the seed with a magnifying lens. We were able to see the plant embryo (the beginnings of a plant), and the cotyledon (the food supply for the embryo). We are continuing to care for our bean plants we planted last week with many having sprouted.
Enjoy the first weekend of May! —Ms. Jagger
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Try out the online games below to practice telling time:
https://www.education.com/games/time/ http://www.abcya.com/telling_time.htm http://mrnussbaum.com/clockworks/ http://www.free-training-tutorial.com/telling-time-games.html http://education.abc.net.au/res/i/L9642/index.html It was an extremely busy week with lots of fun activities and learning happening at Nose Creek! Some highlights this week was our field trip to Shepard Landfill and the composting facility, and our grade 4 design challenge task. We’re also looking forward to going swimming next week at Vivo. Some items discussed with the students was:
In math this week, students started learning about time concepts, in which they will be working on reading and recording time using digital and analog clocks. We watched an informative video about many of the topics we’ll be studying including units of measure, reading an analog and digital clock, and reading and recording calendar dates in a variety of formats. Students learned how to tell time to the hour, half hour and quarter hour, and practiced this skill in class. In science, we celebrated “Green Week” by planting some bean seeds on Monday. Students watered & cared for them throughout the week and by Friday a few had noticed their seeds already have a taproot growing. It will be exciting to see if any bean plants will sprout over the weekend! Students also used the laptops to research some general questions about plants. This will be good background knowledge for many of the topics we’ll be studying in the next few weeks. As well, both classes learned about the main components of plants — the roots, stem and leaves; and the functions of each one. Students sketched a plant and labeled the parts in their visual journal, and included the information we discussed in class. On Tuesday, 4A & 4C visited Shepard Landfill and the composting facility. Students (& adults!) learned a lot from our tour facilitator Michelle about how our waste is stored and treated in Calgary. We learned that the City of Calgary set a target of 70 per cent waste diversion by 2025, and their vision is to lead the community towards zero waste through innovative recycling, composting and diversion programs. Some things that students learned was:
“Nothing in a landfill breaks down.” “That putting used oil into the sewers is illegal.” “They use sensors to detect leachate under a landfill cell.” “Some people throw out perfectly good things at the landfill.” “China stopped taking our recycling and landfills are very expensive.” “They use vessels to compost.” “Telus Spark is built on an old construction landfill.” “I learned what to put in the compost.” “It takes 60 days to make compost.” “Shepard Landfill is 50 years old.” “I learned that everything that was once alive can decompose.” “Composting can make soil for gardens and farms.” “Nut shells can go in the compost bin.” “One thing I learned is that under the garbage hills is gross juice water that can get in the ground water.” A big thank-you to the parent volunteers who were willing and able to attend with us! Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the beautiful weather! —Ms. Jagger Use the website below to help you answer some questions about plants:
https://www.dkfindout.com/us/animals-and-nature/plants/ It was a shorter week with lots going on in the classroom and around the school. Field trip forms were handed out on Monday for our upcoming week of swimming lessons from April 30th to May 4th. Please return the completed forms and fee by Tuesday, April 24th. Our swimming times will be the following:
April 30 - May 4 from 12:00-2:15: 4C – Ms. Clark’s class (12:45 – 1:30) (Friday 10:45 - 11:45) 4A – Ms. Jagger’s class (1:30-2:15) (Friday 10:45 - 11:45) In math this week, students continued to practice & refine their division and estimating skills in class. Students worked on the journal question: "5 is the quotient. What is the question?”, with some students challenging themselves with 25 as the quotient. We finished our division “Mad Minute” booklets with the majority demonstrating steady improvement in their basic facts. Our next “Mad Minute” booklet will contain mixed facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication & division) so students should continue to practice their basic facts at home on a regular basis. We also focused on problem solving skills this week. Students worked on identifying what operation to use in word problems and then solving them. They also worked on two-step problems involving division. Students wrapped up our division unit on Thursday by writing a division assessment in class. Next week we will move into measurement concepts. In science, we started our new unit “Plant Growth and Changes.” Students will be learning about the structure and growth of plants. We completed a KWL (what they know about plants; what they want to know about plants; and later what they have learned about plants), and watched an introductory video. In the sidebar of this blog I have added a glossary of important terms they will be learning about, as well as some websites to explore at home in anticipation of our new unit. We are looking forward to our field trip on Tuesday to Shepard Landfill and the compost facility. A revised itinerary was handed out on Wednesday due to staffing shortages at their end. The new itinerary is shown below. Please dress for the weather and bring a bag lunch. Our field trip is very fitting as it is Earth Day on Sunday and NCS will be celebrating “Green Week” with daily activities next week! Enjoy your weekend! —Ms. Jagger In math this week, students continued to work on multi-digit division with remainders. Students were taught a couple of strategies to divide and practiced their division skills in class. They are encouraged to utilize the strategy they like best to divide. We also learned how to estimate quotients and continued to practice our basic facts in our "Mad Minute" booklets. We will be wrapping up division soon with an assessment task in class to demonstrate their understanding of the division concepts we have covered. In science, students worked throughout the week on building, testing and refining their balloon rocket cars. Students did a good job at problem solving and adjusting their designs to make their cars faster and travel further. I was also impressed how well students supported and helped each other in the classroom, and the tenacity they had when encountering problems. Today we put everyone’s designs to the test when we raced their cars. Many were successful while others required some further refinement & improved stability of its parts. Students learned a lot about how wheels and axles work, as well as problem solving through issues they encountered such as making sure the wheels were straight & aligned, making their car balanced, and increasing the thrust by changing materials & weights. When finished, students completed a self-assessment, and sketched a final diagram of their car and the materials they used. Students also watched a video today about another method to move devices by using water.
There will be a test on the topic “Wheels & Levers” next Monday, April 16th. The test will be multiple choice and short answer. To prepare for the test, students should study the following information below:
—Ms. Jagger I hope everyone enjoyed their break and is ready for the final stretch to the end of the year! Field trip forms went home on Tuesday for our upcoming trip to Shepard Landfill & the new composting facility on April 24th. Please return the completed “Acknowledgement of Risk” form and fee by April 10th if you haven’t already done so. Thank-you to the parent volunteers who will be attending the trip with us—we are really looking forward to our visit! We also attended the annual magazine fundraiser assembly this morning and students were given an envelope today with all the information included inside. In math this week, students continued to work on practicing their division skills & strategies, and learning their division facts. Students practiced their facts by playing the game “Burst the Balloons”, and two new games they learned called "Big Bats Bump" and "Pizza Bump.” They also started their new "Mad Minute" booklets focusing on division basic facts. Students learned how to divide two-digit by one-digit numbers with remainders using subtraction, and worked on some practice questions in class. In science, students completed a scavenger hunt in class on Tuesday to refresh their memories about the simple machines we have been studying before the break. Students also worked on brainstorming and designing their balloon rocket cars in their visual journals this week before starting the building process today. Students learned that the pressure of the balloon pushes the air out through the nozzle, which creates thrust that propels the car forward. Today students used the available materials from home and in the classroom to begin constructing their car. Students got a good start on their car and will continue to build, test, and adjust their designs before the final races next Friday.
Enjoy your weekend! —Ms. Jagger It was a very short week with parent-teacher conferences on Thursday and Friday. Ms. Clark and I enjoyed meeting with everyone and look forward to seeing students back at school on Tuesday, April 3rd. In math this week, we started learning about division and how it is just the opposite of multiplication! We discussed what division is, and vocabulary associated with it (dividend, divisor, quotient, remainder). We watched a great video about some strategies we can use to help us with our division facts. One strategy we have worked on is multiplication and division fact families. If you know your multiplication facts, then you know your division facts too! Students worked on a group division/word problem activity in which they needed to divide fifty apples into different numbers of groups depending on how many were in each group. It was a good visual to see how groups needed to divide evenly with some remainders left over. We also played the game “Burst the Balloons” to practice our division basic facts. Students went on laptops on Wednesday to play “Prodigy” or to play the division game “Demolition Division.” If students have some extra time over the break, they should continue to practice their multiplication/division facts. In science, we discussed building balloon rocket cars after spring break. Students watched a video about how balloon cars work and some ideas on how to build them effectively (the video is attached below for review). We will brainstorm, plan, build and test them after the break. Students were encouraged to look for recyclable materials over the break that they could use for the body of their car and for the wheels (cardboard, water bottles, lids, etc.). I will supply other materials like wooden dowels/skewers, straws, popsicle sticks, adhesives like tape, sticky tack, & glue, and of course the balloons to power them! We also enjoyed visiting the grade 8’s on Wednesday when they led us through some science centres as they are currently studying “Light Optics” which links in with our previous unit on “Light & Shadows.” Centres included refraction, reflection, shadows, optical illusions, convex/concave lenses, and the terms opaque, translucent & transparent. This was a great review for grade 4 students and I think the grade 8’s were impressed with their knowledge!
Have a fun and restful Spring Break! —Ms. Jagger Let's hope this is the last blast of winter as we welcome the first day of spring next week. This also means spring break is just around the corner to refresh and recharge our batteries! A reminder that Parent-Teacher Conferences are next Thursday & Friday—please book a time to discuss your child’s progress. We enjoyed touring the grade 8 “Invention Convention” today in the gym and viewing all the creative and innovative projects. Grade 4’s were impressed with all the great ideas! Our monthly letter also went home today for you to read and discuss. In math this week, we reviewed multiplication concepts and students wrote their test on Thursday. They will receive their test back next week to go home for a parent signature. Students had a game day on Monday and Tuesday to practice their multiplication skills by rotating through a number of games in class that included: “Multiplication Snap”, “Helitimer”, “Hangman Multiplication”, “Cover All”, “Wrap-ups”, “Fortune Tellers”, and “Four-in-a-Row.” Students should continue to review their multiplication skills and facts at home. We will start division concepts next week. In science, students examined the inclined plane, the wedge and the screw in more detail. Students learned the inclined plane has no moving parts, and there are examples of inclined planes everywhere: in ramps, stairs, and slides to name a few. We discussed how the wedge and the screw rely on the inclined plane for them to work. The wedge is just two inclined planes put together to make a triangle, and the screw is an inclined plane wrapped around a central post. We demonstrated this by making a screw with paper and used a pencil as the post the inclined plane was wrapped around. Real world examples of these simple machines were also discussed. We also watched an entertaining video in class that showed the simple machines in action.
Have a great weekend! —Ms. Jagger Learn more about Pi at the website below:
http://www.piday.org/learn-about-pi/ |
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me at:
[email protected] Here's to a great year! Archives
June 2018
CategoriesNeed extra practice? Below are math printable e-books for extra practice at home:
Patterns and Algebra Reading and Representing Whole Numbers Addition and Subtraction Multiplication and Division Time Length, Perimeter & Area Fractions “Math Makes Sense” Practice and Homework Book: Can be found at the Virtual Learning Commons under “Student Links”: http://nckodiaks.ca/lc/ Username: kodiakstudent Password: M@th15fun! Practice Problem Solving Questions Math Dictionary Math Websites: Demolition Division Multiplication Games Multiplication Interactive Games Subtraction Games Hour of Code Prodigy Abcya.com Math Facts Games Math Fact Fluency Activities & Games Plant Growth & Changes: Plant Growth and Changes Glossary of Important Terms Seed Survivor Plants for Kids Easy Science for Kids Plants Elementary Science Wheels & Levers Resources: Wheel and Levers Glossary of Important Terms Simple Machine Facts Simple Machines Interactive Sites Light & Shadows Resources: Light and Shadows Glossary of Important Terms BBC Light & Shadows How We See Things Light & Shadow Activities Interactive Tutorials Waste & our World Resources: Waste and our World Glossary of Important Terms Recycle City Game EekoWorld |