October 29

We did a lot of different things today.  We used K'nex to explore simple machines.  We started off with the correct number of pieces for our machine, but they were the wrong ones.  We had to trade with other groups to get the right pieces.  The trick was we had to do our trading - silently.  When we finished we had to explain our machine to the class.  We had gym this morning - we played Murder Ball.  In the game we have to hit as many people as we can with the balls.  In French today, we recorded ourselves reading "Napoleon" in French.  We also looked at the graphs of precipitation and temperature on our islands.  We started writing conclusions about the graphs.  We are looking forward to tomorrow and the Halloween parade.  

October 28

Today we learned many new things.  We reviewed the Seven Sacred Teachings, each one has an animal that represents it.  We made sketches for our sculptures that we will be doing next week.  We started a new problem solving strategy, draw a picture.  We had gym this morning.  We played two Halloween games.  After recess we had French.  We learned a new room - the dining room!  We are super excited for Friday and our Halloween party in the afternoon.

Homework for Friday - the write up on the first few days on our Islands!
Also we have our second book review due on November 9th.

October 27

Today was a very busy day.  We worked on a lot of things and finished many of them.  We had music.  We had to write down notes on paper.  Then we had writing.  We read a chapter of Hatchet and then we did a "Say Something" about a connection we made in that chapter.  After recess we had a finish up period.  We worked on a couple of different writing assignments that are in progress.  After lunch, we had theme, we worked on our precipitation graphs for Winnipeg, and our island.  Next we have class meeting.

October 26

Today we had a substitute for the morning.  Her name was Mrs. Kennedy.  She did Math, French, and Writing with us.  In math she gave us questions and we had to solve them using the carroll diagram method of long multiplication.  In French we got together with a partner and we talked about the rooms in our house.  In writing we were editing our letters to Ms Pattie.  After writing we played the Geography game with Mrs. Kennedy.  After lunch Ms. Pattie was back; we had theme.  We made a food pyramid for our islands.  We included insects, plant eaters, meat and insect eaters and a top predator.  We are looking forward to gym.

October 22

Today some of us were at an important Choir meeting.  We did a lot of moving today.  Going places and doing stuff.  We had a lot of fun.  We read with our buddies.  We learned a new song in music.  We also played on the instruments in music.  After recess we talked about and then made a poster about connections when we are reading.  We had health.  We learned about parts of our brain and what they do.  In theme we looked at what animals could be on our island.  Next we have reading.  We are looking forward to our long weekend!

October 21

Today was a catch up day.  We had math, we finished the math sheet from yesterday.  We are working on double digit multiplication using an array.  We had gym, since we had finished our soccer unit, we played bench ball.  We had french, we wrote about our living rooms, independently!  We played "Old Maid" to practice our counting.  For two periods of theme, we spent catching up on a variety of assignments.  After recess, we graphed the temperatures for our islands.  We are looking forward to finishing the chapter of Hatchet from yesterday.

October 20

Things are rolling today.  We are making a lot of progress.  We started the day with Math.  We reviewed multiplying with arrays, then we looked at using a Carroll diagram.  Then we had gym, we went outside to play soccer.  We got to go on the structure while we waited our turn to play.  After recess we had French.  We reviewed all the rooms that we can talk about in French.  We also learned some new vocabulary.  At lunch recess some people went to a presentation on vermicomposting.  They got to play with worms.  After lunch we had theme.  We worked on graphing the climate of Winnipeg.  Next we will graph the climate of our island.  We are excited for early dismissal today.  In our school, the Conservatives won the election - we were wrong!

Student Vote results

Last week 94 students in grades 4 and 5 cast their vote in the Student Vote election.  They voted for the same candidates as we're running in our riding.  Our results were as follows:

Liberal - 21

Conservative - 41

Green - 22

NDP - 9

From conversations in the hallway, there was one issue that swayed a lot of the student votes here.

Manitoba wide the results were:

Liberal - 8 seats

Conservative - 5 seats

NDP - 1 seat

Green - 0

31 151 students across Manitoba voted

Nation wide - over 800 000 students voted from nearly 6000 schools

At this point as I am logging off for the night, the Liberals are winning our riding with 51.8%;  90/180 polls reporting

October 19

Today we started off with music.  We continued to work on the song with the Orff instruments. We had writing; we wrote a letter about ourselves to Ms Pattie.  This afternoon we had a substitute for two periods while Ms. Pattie was in meetings.  We worked on responsibilities on our islands and the story of the first few days on our island.
We are looking forward to hearing the results of our school's Student Vote, after the polls close tonight!

October 16

Today we had two teams counting the ballots in our ballot boxes from Student Vote.  Yesterday we held voting for the other 4/5 classes in our school.  We had jobs such as poll clerk whose job was to cross student's names off of the elector's list.  The Deputy Returning Officer folded and initialled the ballots before handing them out.  We also had someone at the door, guiding people to the correct line.  The ballot counters have to keep their totals a secret all weekend and Monday.  They aren't allowed to tell anyone what their totals were.
There was choir at lunch on Thursday.  They are learning songs for Rememberance Day.
Today we had French.  We made up a board game using our vocabulary words.  We also played Old Maid - a counting game.
We worked on our islands again.  Our islands were to be finished and we have written scripts.  We then used Explain Everything to record ourselves talking about our island.  Miss Pattie will make QR codes to go with our maps.  We are looking forward to gym next.

October 15

Today was Student Vote day, we were very busy and ran out of time to write our blog:(
We'll be back tomorrow!

October 14

There were a lot of kids involved with music today.  Part of the Brass section of the
Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra came to play for us today.  We learned about the trumpet, the trombone, and the french horn.  There was no tuba there today.  They were playing music written by Bach as well as other artists.  We also had music class today.  Mr Bychuk showed us a couple videos about the brass family so we were ready for the orchestra presentation.  We learned that playing a brass instruments involves buzzing, not blowing!  In Health we did some yoga poses and reviewed what we talked about last week.    It seemed like a long time since we saw our reading buddies, we were glad to see them again.  In theme we presented our Keynotes on the Aboriginal groups of Canada.  We took patrol cards to the different classrooms and had them signed.  We then brought them back to be laminated.  It was a fantastic, busy day.

Multiplication Strategies

In class we have moved beyond basic facts and are learning different strategies for long multiplication.  I have created a couple of videos showing what we have been doing in class.

The following is multiplication using base ten blocks on a t-chart

https://youtu.be/0GqJ6vPiWiQ

The following is multiplication using an array

https://youtu.be/8oO80GZY9Q8

stay tuned for more strategies in the upcoming weeks

Miss Pattie

October 13

The day for Student Vote is getting close.  We are voting on Thursday.  We practiced and then started presenting the four political parties to the other classes today.  We have started out second long multiplication strategy.  We used base ten blocks and built arrays to help us multiply larger numbers. In theme we worked on our islands some more.  We talked about the responsibilities of our citizens and the rules/laws that they had to follow.  We are hoping for some more "Hatchet" today.

October 9

Today there were a lot of kids doing a lot of things.  We had a math sheet in math today.  In gym we had a Thanksgiving themed game.  We had Bus Ridership with Bus Driver Bob.  He gave us all bracelets that his Brother-in-Law made.  We had theme this afternoon.  We wrote scripts for our presentations of our islands.  Our maps have to be finished by Tuesday.  We are looking forward to our long weekend.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Criteria for a Great Book Review

We looked at a number of book reviews, we decided that they had several things in common.
1.  The title and author were at the top
2. The book review started with a hook - just like our writing.  We need to hook our reader.  Often with a question.
3.  We need to tell a bit about the story, not too much though!
4.  We need to tell a bit about the main character.
5.  We need to ask some leading questions - things the reader will want to read to find out.
6.  We need to recommend the book to an age group or grade; we might even give it a rating.
7.  Finally we need to take credit for our work - we need to sign our name!

Here is a sample from the book Miss Pattie is reading to us in class:

Hatchet
by Gary Paulsen
Could you ever make an emergency landing of a small plane and then survive weeks alone in the wilderness?  Brian is on his way to meet his father, when his plane crashes into a lake in Northern Canada.  He is alone with no supplies and no way to get help.  There are bears, porcupines, turtles, and other creatures all around him.  Will Brian get out of this alive?  I recommend this book for kids in grade 5 and up.
by Miss Pattie and students of room 12

(finally - don't forget to hand in your good copy - edited!)

October 8

Today had kids running races, working on ipads, and discussing issues here at school.  We are getting ready for the election, preparing our posters to present to the other classes.  We had a lot of jobs getting done, and due dates coming up for some of them.  We read some book reviews and discussed what they have that makes them great.  Now it is our turn to write a book review.  Stay tuned for criteria.

October 7

Today we had another great day.  First off, we had math.  We had to promise that we wouldn't freak out about multiplying larger numbers.  Once we broke it down with a strategy, it wasn't that hard.  After that we had writing.  Some people had to work on finishing their Terry Fox paragraphs.  After recess we had French.  We had to write down what was in our room.  After lunch we had theme.  We continued on our projects about the Aboriginal groups.  Once we have finished our research, we will plan out how we are going to design our Keynote presentation.  Next we have reading and then we will end the day with Gym.

October 6

Today was a busy, but fun day.  We started out with problem solving to warm up our brains.  Before we could start, we had to do 100 math multiplication fact questions.  After recess we had library.  Then we had music.  In music we learned how to play Rise Up, on Xylophones.  We also played four corners.  After lunch we had theme.  We started researching the different First Nations peoples of Canada.  We got into groups of four and each group had a First Nations group.  Today will be early dismissal.

October 5

Today we did something new!  We were talking about elections.  We looked at the different political parties.  In our riding we have representatives from the Green Party, the Conservative Party, The Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party. Miss Pattie told us that we are taking part in Student Vote.  The grade fours and fives get to vote.  There are almost 2000 schools across Canada taking part.  We separated into groups to work on posters to represent the four parties in our riding.  We will be presenting these to the other classes, to help them decide how to vote.  We had to research on the ipads, and record information about the party platforms.
We had our pictures done today.  We had Health with Mrs. Danyluk today.  We did some Yoga poses and focusing our brain.  Today we had Music after lunch.  We are hoping for some "Hatchet" today.

October 2

Yay, today we were the first class into the school.  We started off with math.  Then we had a second jungle gym.  We got to pick our favourite station for our last station.  After recess we had a substitute for period three and four.  The substitute told us stories about his brother.  After lunch we had theme.  We measured, drew and cut out all the items we had on the list for our sea chest.  After recess we had a fire drill.  Next we have reading.  We are looking forward to our weekend.

October 1

Brrrring, That's the sound of the bell, telling us to line up for class.  We had a blast in Math, we learned a new game "Numero".  Math was followed by gym; it was jungle gym today!  It was the first jungle gym of they year.  It was exciting for everyone.  After recess we had French.  We are starting to communicate with each other in French!  We played the game "j'ai... qui a..."  In theme today we talked about simple machines.  They are screw, wedge, inclined plane, pulley, wheel and axle, and lever.  Then we watched a couple videos about simple machines.