October 21st - 24th

Thank you for attending conferences. It was a great opportunity to hear from you and to share about your child's learning! 

What did students do this week?

The grade fours learned a lot and had many laughs while writing procedural text. They were tasked with writing specific, detailed steps for making a jam sandwich. When they think they had completed a few steps, they checked in and their steps were followed. From there, they decided what they needed to revise in order to be successful.

English Language Arts and Literature Learning Outcomes  (I can...)

• I can understand that procedural writing is organized to share information.
• I can recognize that procedural writing includes recipes or instruction manuals.
• I can revise my writing to make it clearer. 

Possible Questions to Ask Your Child:

• What is procedural writing?
• When is procedural writing used? 
• What are some examples of procedural writing?
• What happened the first time you wrote the instructions?
• How did you revise your work so Mrs. Patry could successfully make a jam sandwich?

Photos

 October 15th - 18th

We had a great trip to Fish Creek Park. Thank you again to our parent volunteers who supported us on this walking field trip! 

What did students do this week?

Reading: Students compared and contrasted the natural regions of Alberta to the treaty map they had previously studied. Then, in their small reading groups, they read about one region: The Grasslands. They focused on highlighting key information and discussing it in their own words.  

Writing: Students continued their work around paragraph writing. They really focused on narrowing down a topic and writing a topic and concluding sentence to demonstrate this. They ensured that their supporting details were clear, flowed, and on topic. Each student chose a narrow topic related to their experiences at Fish Creek Park. 

Math: The grade fours reviewed their understanding of numbers. They worked with place value up to the hundred thousands and different ways to represent these large numbers, including concrete, pictorially, standard form, and expanded form. 

Science: The students had a fantastic time at Fish Creek Park. Down at Fish Creek, students looked for animals or signs of animals. They used their senses to record their observations. They also looked at their landscape and then looked closely at the parts of a plant.

Social: The grade fours learned about The Grasslands Region, focusing on its major cities, natural resources, Indigenous groups, landforms, and bodies of water. 

Science Learning Outcomes  (I can...)

• I can be responsible while studying plants and animals in local environments.
• I can look closely at the different parts of plants.
• I can look for animals and signs of animals in their habitat. 

Possible Questions to Ask Your Child:

• What was your favourite part about Fish Creek Park?
• What signs of animals did you see? What does this sign mean?
• What was your narrow topic for your Fish Creek paragraph?
• What is one important city in the Grasslands?
• How would you write the number 65 402 in expanded form?

October 7th - 11th

I hope you all have a wonderful long weekend enjoying the people and things you are grateful for! 

What did students do this week?

It was another busy week full of learning in grade four!

Students engaged in small reading groups this week. They applied different reading strategies to read accurately and fluently. They also answered and responded to comprehension questions. During our whole class read aloud, students focused on making connections. They first made text-to-self connections and then text-to-text connections. As your child reads this weekend, please have them share some connections they make. 

In their writing, students focused on narrowing down their topics for their paragraphs. Then, they worked to ensure their topic sentence was directly connected to their narrow topic. They also worked to ensure their supporting details flowed together. Lastly, they made sure their concluding sentence used a transition word and directly connected back to their topic sentence and narrow topic. 

In math, students reviewed place value of whole numbers. They also practiced how to build and draw whole numbers using base ten blocks. The students were asked to apply this understanding to a problem-solving task.

English Language Arts and Literature Learning Outcomes  (I can...)

Reading

• I can read texts accurately and with expression.
• I can apply comprehension strategies when reading.
• I can make connections to help my comprehension, including text-to-self and text-to-text.

Writing

• I can write paragraphs that include a topic sentence, supporting details, and a concluding sentence.
• I can write a topic sentence that describes what the paragraph is about.
• I can write a concluding sentence that brings closure to a paragraph without adding new information.
• I can write fluently so it is easy, smooth, and natural to read aloud. 

Mathematics Learning Outcomes  (I can...)

• I can identify the place value of each digit in a number.
• I can determine the value of each digit in a number.
• I can express different ways to create a number. 

Possible Questions to Ask Your Child:

• What text did you read in your reading group this week?
• What text-to-self connections can you make to A Wolf Called Wander?
• What was your narrow topic for your paragraph? What was your topic sentence?
• How many hundreds are in the number 5 893? What value does the 6 have in the number 8 463?

Reading Responses

Thanksgiving Paragraph

Base Ten Math Problem

 October 1st-4th

What did students do this week?

The grade fours wrote a paragraph to demonstrate their understanding of wolves' sensory organs. They included a topic sentence, supporting details, concluding sentence, capital letters, descriptive words, end punctuation, and accurate information. They completed a self-assessment and identified what they were most proud of, writing outcomes they feel confident in, and writing outcomes they would like more help with. This task and assessment was sent home in your child's "My Work Folder" so please make sure to have them share it with you!

In Science, students continued to develop their understanding of science outcomes under the topic of "Living Things". Through continued research and learning, they deepened their understanding and then shared it through a Google Slide with a random partner. Each partnership added their slide to create a class slideshow. The students eagerly put their ideas into the slideshow and then presented it to all of the grade fours! 

Then, to further engage students, Ms. Harris created an excellent Maker task where students needed to design and create a device that would help humans experience the world like wolves. Throughout this process, students demonstrated problem solving, resilience, scientific inquiry, and collaboration.

Science Learning Outcomes  (I can...)

• I can identify the sensory organs of animals.
• I can explain how sensory organs of animals help their survival. 
• I can recognize how sensory organs in animals help them meet their needs in various ways.

Possible Questions to Ask Your Child:

• What are the sensory organs?
• How do wolves' eyes help them survive? What about the nose?
• What was your favourite part of creating a Google Slide?

Working on Their Slides

The Class Slideshow

The Maker Design Task