Ms. Yong and Ms. Ma's Grade 3/4 Class Blog: October 2017

Monday, 30 October 2017

Braille Club

Grade 4 students,

Braille Club is starting again. Are you interested in learning what Braille is? How to Braille a joke? How to read in Braille? How to make tactile pictures (how to draw in Braille). Complete a scavenger hunt in Braille?

Then come out on Wednesday November 01, 2017 to room 25 to sign up.

Braille Club will be normally held on Mondays at lunch.

Family Dance!

THIS FRIDAY, NOV 3, 6:30-8:30 pm (in the school gym)

$10 per family (or $4 for individuals)

Hosted by CJP Parent Association

Last Call for Fall Family Dance Fundraiser Volunteers! We still have a large number of spots to fill. Please sign up here: http://signup.com/go/XdrdGDF

Our bake sale is always popular. Can you donate some baked goods? Sweet or Savory (appetizers) and nut-free/coconut-free!

Donation Opportunities

· Cheek Painting $3

· Tattoos $1 (for one or two depending on tattoo)

· Bake sale $1 or $2 (NUT FREE!)

· Light Bracelet $3 each

· Photo Booth $3 per picture

· 50/50 Raffle: Extra Christmas Cash! Parents only.

1 ticket for $1, 4 tickets for $3 or 10 tickets for $5.

Things to note:

*Just show up and pay at the door! There is no advance payment.

*$10 per family (or $4 for individuals)

*The dance is held in CJP school gym.

*Bring your cash! Loonies, Twoonies, $5 and $10s. We only take cash!

*Please bring a water bottle or use the fountains (no beverages are sold at the dance)

*We always aim to make our Family Dances low waste!

*Coats can be hung in the coatroom down the “Quiet Area” hall. Outdoor shoes/boots can be left here as well. Purses and valuables should be kept with you.

* Remember this is a Family Dance. This is not a “drop off” event. All children who attend must be connected to a responsible adult. You are responsible for your children at the dance.

SEE YOU FRIDAY!

Friday, 27 October 2017

October 27

Literacy

In our inquiry work on Hearing and Sound, students wrote about their experience at the National Music Center. When complete, they assessed their reflection to a rubric to see where they are at and what they can do to improve their written reflection.

Science

Thank you to all the parents who came and volunteered for our National Music Field Trip on Monday. It was a success and students had taken home some fun trading cards about Hearing and Sound. Please come to the school and check out our bulletin board. We have photos about our learning journey as well as videos to show you.

After learning about Sound, students have been working hard making their prototypes on how to amplify or dampening the sound. They spent many hours designing and tweaking their designs to be ready to test on Monday. Some students have taken their prototypes home to tweak, therefore, please have it returned by Monday "to put it to the test." Through this prototyping project, students learned about perimeter in relations to math. Can you please ask your child what is perimeter.

Math

In number representation, students have been playing games on how to round the number to the nearest 10, skip counting by 3s, skip counting by 4s, standard notation, and addition/subtraction facts. Students use a deck of cards to play this game. Please have your child show you how to play it at home.

Grade 3s: They can draw up to three cards (represent numbers up to 1,000)

Grade 4s: They can draw up to 4 cards (represent numbers up to 10, 000)

October 31st:

On the day of the 31st, we will be working on literacy and math activities in relations to Halloween. With respect to students' religion and culture, we will have other activities planned for them if they do not wish to participate.

Students are welcome to dress up in their costumes or wear Orange and Black. The costumes must be school appropriate, therefore, no masks or weapons allowed.

Here is a note from our Principal in regards to the expectations of what will happen on Halloween:

Classes may be partaking in some Halloween themed curricular activities such as estimating how heavy a pumpkin is and then weighing the pumpkin; estimating how many ribs a pumpkin has, then counting the ribs; discussing the concept of symmetry and then carving symmetrical designs in a pumpkin, story writing about pumpkins, bats and witches etc., but they will not be having Halloween parties. There will be plenty of time for children to celebrate and party in the evening with their families.

Students may dress in their regular clothes, or black and orange, but do not need to dress up in a costume. If individual students choose to wear a costume, we ask that masks, weapons, treasured items, or accessories be left at home. We also request that costumes not have blood, gore, or violent themes as we do have young children in the school and we do not want them to be frightened. Finally, October 31st is a learning day so costumes should not interfere with the comfort of students during learning time.

The CBE has policy around healthy treats. Students will have plenty of opportunity to gather treats and consume them in the evening of October 31st. We will not be distributing sweets in class and we respectfully request that children are not sent to school with treats to share with classmates.

Often the day following Halloween becomes a very difficult day for children. Many children are up much past their bed time on Oct. 31st. The typical routine is off just a bit and there is often a tremendous amount of sugary foods consumed. In an effort to make November 1st a successful day for Children we respectfully request parents to limit the amount of sugary treats they sent to school with their children. Children will learn and function much more successfully with healthy foods fuelling both their brains and their bodies.

If you have any questions about Halloween at CJP please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher of the office.

You Are Invited to the CJP Halloween Parade

What:Halloween Parade

Where: Gym

When:Tuesday, October 31st (Halloween)

Time: 1:05 - 1:35pm

Clubs:

Lunch Monitors for Grade 4s

Leadership Club meeting on Tuesdays at lunch in Rm 17

Thursday, 19 October 2017

Sound, Sound All Around

Our Junior Scientist are building away next week to build devices to amplify and dampen sound. We are looking for the following materials:
- Duct Tape
- Masking Tape
- Cardboard
-Tissue Boxes
-Pipe Cleaners
-Bubble wrap
-Foam
-Popsicle Sticks (other wood if necessary)
-Elastic Bands
-Sponges
-Metal (tin foil, etc)
-Plastic
-Felt

If a material is not on the list, but your child would think it would be useful for their project or is willing to share with others in their class please bring it in! Thank you for your support.

Field Trip Information
Please have your child bring a lunch kit and medication if needed for the field trip. They do not need to bring their backpack. Your child is encouraged to have a breakfast prior because they will only be eating lunch and then have their snack after the field trip.

Clubs
Monday - Lunch Monitors will start
Tuesday - Leadership Club meeting at lunch

Upcoming Events:
- All day field trip on Monday.
- Crazy Hair Day on Tuesday
- Photo Retake on November 2
- Family Dance on November 3

Science

Ms. Sharpe came in and talked to us about how drumming is important in the Siksika Nation. She talked about how the drum is made as well as how the beat mimics the rhythm of the heartbeat.

Sandra, an audiologist, came to our classrooms and showed us the model of an ear and talked about the different parts. She talked about how people have a hearing loss and how technology has helped them.

Physical Education

Students learned the volleyball skills from an expert this week. They learned the skills such as volley, set, bump, and spike.

Saturday, 14 October 2017

October 13

Health/ Science/Art / Literacy

As part of our inquiry on Hearing and Sound, we are working collaboratively with Ms. Nair. Students interviewed Ms. Nair this week and some of them wrote about her as an expert.

We also examined different parts of the ear and its function. Please ask your child what they learned about hearing and sound this week.

This week, we explored frequency, high pitch, low pitch, and how to make sound through exploration of different instruments. In groups, they used an IPad to observe the frequency and the pitches.

Students listened to 6 different music pieces and imagined the animals that associates to each of the music piece.

Here is the soundtrack to the Carnival of the Animals. What is your favourite track? How do you know what animal it is just by listening to it?

Mathematics
Students are learning to represent numbers. (1000 for Grade 3 and 10, 000 for Grade 4). They are using math vocabulary such as equality, inequality, greater than, less than, and place value. Through exploration, students represented numbers through number sentence and math manipulatives.

French
Students learned the basic greetings such as hello, goodbye, and feelings.

Health
Students have been learning about the Zones of Regulation. The Zones of Regulation is a way to teach students how to self-regulate the feelings we experience. We learned that it is okay to have feeling in each zones, what is important is the choices we make in the zones. For example, if we are int he red zone, are we able to use strategies to bring us back into the green zone so both others and ourselves are safe? There are strategies we are learning to help us become more aware of our feelings and how to solve our sensorial and emotional problems. Ask your child what the four Zones are and what each colour represents. Discuss what strategies they can use to help them get back into the green zone.

To extend our learning about hearing and sound, Zones of Regulation and the Art element of line, students listened to four classical music tracks and drew lines that best represented what it felt like to be in each zone. Music has the ability to affect our mood. For example, some students thought that the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven made them feel like they were in the green zone, because it sound calming. Others, thought that it sounded more like a blue zone piece because it was smooth and slow.

Upcoming Events:
- PD Day on Monday October 16th. No school
- Field trip forms due October 20th.
- Grade 4/5 Leadership Club Meeting on Tuesday October 17th at lunch. Grade 4 who are interested, please write a short message explaining their interest.
- Volleyball clinic next week
- Field trip on October 23rd. Please return the forms as soon as possible
- Crazy Hair Day October 24th.

Wednesday, 11 October 2017

Leadership Opportunity for Grade 4 Students

We would like to start a leadership team for students in Grades 4 and 5.

Here is a bit about the club and who we are looking for:

- students who can set a positive example themselves

- students who have a desire to make their school a positive and safe place for everyone

- students who will share their opinions and also consider the ideas of others

- students who are willing to give some of their time to make CJP a great place to be

- students who want to have fun and meet new people

We are thinking that the team will be a leadership/advisory council, meaning students will be given opportunities to demonstrate leadership around the school, as well as participate in meetings and discussions to better the school community. Students will be asked to participate in different committees, such as a tech committee, buddy bench committee, assembly set up committee, school ambassador committee, and I'm sure there will be others brought up by the students.

If you are interested, there will be an initial meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 17th at 12:10 in Room 17. Students need to come to this meeting with a short, written statement (no more than a few lines) of why they would like to join the leadership team, and how they feel they could contribute (i.e. really enjoy technology and wants to help with the tech committee, thinks they could contribute to being a good buddy and leading by example...)

Tuesday, 10 October 2017

Field Trip Forms to National Music Center

We have sent an email to you in regards to the field trip on October 23. We have attached the consent forms as well as information about the field trip. Please complete the forms and return it to us as soon as possible.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us. Thank you!

Friday, 6 October 2017

October 6

Upcoming Events:

- There will be no school on Monday October 9th.
- Photo Day on October 10th.
- National Music Center field trip is on October 23rd from 9:10am to 3:00pm. We are in need of parent volunteers. If you are available and has a volunteer clearance, please email us.
- We have forms sent home last week and this week. Can you please fill them out and return it us on Wednesday October 11.

Math
We brainstormed what numeracy is and what it means. In this week's lesson, we discussed the term equality and inequality and how we can represent it using place value and math manipulatives. When students demonstrated inequality between two numbers, they also explained their findings through the use of "greater and less than symbols".

Literacy
Our classes wrote a personal narrative about their special person. Students brainstormed ideas and organized their ideas into paragraphs. We used the hamburger writing organizer and writer's checklist to edit their work. During the process, students gave each other feedback as well as self assessment. They looked for at least one area on the checklist to make an improvement on before they move on to publishing it next week.

Our classes explored various fictional and non-fictional text and discovered some similarities and differences. Here's what they noticed.

On Friday, we spent time with our buddies and here's a quick snapshot.

Science
At the beginning of this week, students did a critical thinking challenge on animal senses. They had to establish a criteria among their group and decide how they are sorted. Here's a few examples:

Students then used this knowledge as well as jot noting skills on their animal hearing research project. They had the choice of learning the sense of hearing about dolphins, bats, elephants,or dogs. Working together with a partner, they looked at books and internet resources to gather information for their infographic.

Health: Zones of Regulations
Students read the book "The Way I Feel" and discussed the different emotions a person can have. Our students shared:
- “Our feelings can change. Things can happen throughout the day. Different things can happen and changes our feelings.” ~ L.M
- "Sometimes you feel happy that you get your way but you know it is not right." ~ D.D

What is Zones of Regulation?

"The Zones is a systematic, cognitive behavior approach used to teach self-regulation by categorizing all the different ways we feel and states of alertness we experience into four concrete zones. The Zones curriculum provides strategies to teach students to become more aware of, and independent in controlling their emotions and impulses, managing their sensory needs, and improving their ability to problem solve conflicts. "

http://heshergott.weebly.com/the-zones-of-regulation.html