Long overdue, but finally here - April 5, 2019

This blog post has been a long time coming, but it is finally here.  It is one that will bring in some changes as we are fast approaching the end of the year, and we have so many amazing things to still do and learn.  As started before the March Break, I will now be doing a blog update once a week only and this on Fridays.  I will try to capture all the amazing things the students accomplish within that week and give a bit of a heads up as to what will be happening in the upcoming week or weeks.  Should anything change along the week or something even more amazing happens, I will make sure to update the blog then too. :).

Now... a summary of the recent events and a few of the items we covered these past weeks.

Math:
- This week we officially started working on Area and Perimeter and we will continue working on it next week.  We used blocks to help us understand how area can be calculated.  We still love manipulatives :)

- We are also continuing to work in Mathletics, doing our daily multiplication quizzes and working on weekly math word problems to sharpen our reading and understanding skills.
English:
- We finished Wonder and we watched the movie just before the break.  A few tears were shed :).
- We will be starting "A Wrinkle in time" next week.  Do not watch the movie at home!!!!
- We will also start a writing project next week.  More details coming soon.
- We will also continue with our Planet Protectors Academy work.
French:
- We continue to work within our grammar booklets.  We have started correcting many of these together and we will be diving into some French poetry next week.
- Before the break we started talking about "Les bas du pensionnat" and now we will start reading the book too this upcoming week.
Social:
- Finished Kokopelli Flute Player Pictographs (Art) and I finally put them up for display.  These turned out amazing.

- We are exploring the Cree and other First Nations Languages as we continue to explore First Nations and the history of Alberta.
Art / Music:
- Starting next week we will start working with music and electronic composition.  We will finish all our notes as well and will try to challenge ourselves with more difficult songs soon.
Coding:
- This week we also continued working with Scratch.  We now have the groups for the Coding Quest and we started exploring the topics and the types of games we might be creating.  Next week we will have lots more time assigned to this project.
Science:

- We finished wheels and axles and most of simple machines.  We created our own little cars from clothespins and buttons (wheels need better solution than hot glue as these broke off quickly when not used quite as designed :)).  Nonetheless, while I was hot-gluing, the students were designing their own race tracks from recycled (leftover) cardboard.  They then tested their vehicles and made some observations about what made them work better.  Here are some pictures.

In Science we also started an "Escape Room"-type activity I created for the students.  They need to get through a variety of challenges, answer questions, solve puzzles and many other tasks online to demonstrate their knowledge.  I may turn it into a race to add a bit more excitement to the tasks :).

Elections - in the school

Today we had the pleasure of welcoming the Grade 5s and 6s in our class to talk to us about the Alberta elections and to help us create personal Identification.  With these IDs we will be performing our civic duties and voting next Wednesday.  Armed with knowledge on how to vote, we will then encourage our parents to do the same. :)

----------------------------------------------------------------

Spring Variety / Talent Show

APRIL 25, 2019

Please return forms sent home this week for Talent Show so we know how many will be in attendance.  The show will take place April 25th from 6:30 - 8:30 PM.  I will be there to watch 😉

----------------------------------------------------------------

Homework: 

- Raz-kids French books (Assignment April 1 - 5) - due April 8

- Math Homework - Week 24 - due April 8 

- English Homework - Week 8 - due April 8

- Spelling tests for next week will be posted soon: English, French 

Upcoming Important Dates:
Monday, April 8 (Jour 3)

Tuesday, April 9 (Jour 4)
- Library
- Money Mentors visiting

Wednesday, April 10 (Jour 5)
- Popcorn day
- Chess Club @ lunch

Thursday, April 11 (Jour 6)
- Gym
- Math Quiz

Friday, April 12 (Jour 1)
- Spelling Tests

LOOKING AHEAD:

- Thursday April 18 - Holy Thursday Liturgy @ 10:00 AM
- Friday April 19 - Good Friday - NO SCHOOL
- Monday April 22 - Easter Monday - NO SCHOOL
- Tuesday April 23 - PD Day - NO SCHOOL

Have a beautiful weekend! 

Calgary Tower - March 18, 2019

Well, we had an exciting start to the week with a visit to Calgary Tower.  Here's a few pictures from that trip.  At the tower we not only learned a great deal of interesting facts about the Calgary Tower, the city and the surrounding buildings, but we also climbed 802+ steps in the tower (our amazing volunteers climbed even more) and finally we did a scavenger hunt to identify interesting elements in the tower as well as math problems around area and perimeter of the tower glass floor.  It was a very busy day but I think most had fun.  I am certainly going to take the stairs again at the earliest opportunity I get :).

More updates from this week also coming soon.

During the climb we continued to learn.  Amongst others, we found out that the tower is the tallest art gallery in Canada.  Every single wall at each stair landing is covered with art created by artists and students.  These kept us entertained as we also continued to make connections to our Social Studies curriculum.  As we walked up the stairs, we also noticed that there were really two sets of stairs: one going down and one going up.  This design was really interesting for many of us.