SCI-FI Workshop on Sound - Videos from today!

Today, we had university students from the University of Saskatchewan come teach a lesson called Super Sonic Science. We learned about sound! Here are some videos of activities the students were involved in this afternoon. They had a lot of fun participating in hands-on demonstrations of how sound works. The program that organized these activities is SCI-FI, and they offer a variety of week-long science camps in the summer time. Visit this link: http://scifi.usask.ca/costsavailability.html to check out the kinds of camps that are available, costs, dates, etc. Over half the class seemed to be really interested in going!

We tried to point out where sound was coming from without being able to see its source.

It was tricky!

We got to make kazoo instruments out of straws - what a noisy classroom!

Pink Day

Last Friday in the afternoon grades 4-8 enjoyed an afternoon of anti-bullying activities and presentations. We went for pizza lunch in the Student Centre and everyone got a pink t-shirt. Then we grabbed some pink balloons and marched around the field outside to make a stand against bullying. We came back to the school and headed into the gym, where a Saskatchewan Roughrider player, Keith Shologan, did a presentation about bullying. He talked about what bullying is, how it feels to be bullied, and how to react if you or someone you know is being bullied. Here are some pictures from our afternoon!

Track Meet

Here are some pictures of us at the track meet last week. We spent all day at the Gallagher Centre, participating in 50m and 600m runs, shot put, long jump, and high jump. We had a blast, and some of our classmates even made it to the showcase meet because of there performance. Congratulations, and good luck at the next competition!

Kerpoof Story Writing

Check out a story made by one of our students on the computer today!

http://www.kerpoof.com/#view?s=2gs11b^jigo3cwi1l000-d-3903bd-x

www.kerpoof.com to make one of your own at home!

From Mrs. Trost's Grade 1 Blog

Check out the link to Mrs. Trost's blog, where she took an awesome video of HOJA performing a very entertaining version of Single Ladies in our very own gym!

Mrs. Trost's Class 1.2: Hoja: We thought Hoja was awesome!

No Bullying - Pink Week Next Week

Next Monday to Wednesday will be known as the DAYS of PINK. April 4 is the official Day of Pink, a day symbolizing fairness, respect, understanding, tolerance, safety, and bully free environments. Yorkdale has had two recent presentations and a constant school message that our school is one of respect and safety. As the principal, Mr. Beatty wishes to continue to promote the role of the bystander. As a school, when we see unfair treatment, it is reasonable that we confront it with words. Sometimes, this is all that is required, and this message can be very stronger when it is a pair or group of bystanders that are vocal that something does not look or feel like fairness. When this does not work, an adult should be sought to assist in sending the message. Student Council’s theme is “Imagine No Bullying.”

Students are encouraged to wear pink all week, and Student Council will be randomly handing out buttons, bracelets, bookmarks, and tattoos every day.

**On Monday, Student Council members will be presenting to each K-6 classroom an activity related to the effects of verbal comments and name calling, including those comments that may be “just kidding.”

**On Monday and Tuesday, students will be permitted to use chalk to share “no bullying” messages and drawings at the cement/asphalt at the front (K-4) and back (5-8) of the school. This will be at noon.

**Windows at the library and office will be used as canvases for messages as well. We will use window markers to share messages support safe and respectful schools and communities. This can occur during teacher arranged moments, library classes, and outside class time.

**Students are also encouraged to share an acrostic poem on “Imagine No Bullying”. This template is available from all teachers and the office. Submissions can be by students, pairs, or early years classrooms. HOJA CDs and T-SHIRTS can be won with the best submissions.

**Finally, Wednesday is the big push. PINK OUT YOUR CLASSROOM, OR BETTER YET THE ENTIRE YORKDALE SCHOOL. WIN A DQ CAKE! But be ready with an extra message. There will be no ties, so a little skit or performance could give your class an edge.

A “How to Make a Pink Shirt” memo has been attached to our emailed announcements.

Cheerleading Announcement

The Raiders Gridder Alumini Cheerleading Clinic for Ages 6 to 9 years of age will be on April 28th. The deadline for registration is April 20, but space is also limited. Information and registration sheets are in the office.

4th Grade Place Value Rap

Here is a fun video on Place Value. We have learned up to thousands place, and in the next upcoming months we will be learning about thousandths (to the right of the decimal place). Both are mentioned in this rap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWgZsJmATsI

HOJA Performances Online

For the studens who were away the day HOJA came to our school, here are some videos of the group that are from youtube.com.

Beyonce's Single Ladies - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywHbC6Wg7v0
Party Rock - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbCGijI4bE&feature=relmfu
Lady GaGa Bad Romance - http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=C1NsVEqmJNs

Friday Reminders

On Friday, students will enjoy a pizza lunch! One of the students in our class' mother has generously offered 4 medium pizzas of our choice to enjoy for lunch! You can pack a snack for the morning, but no need to pack a lunch.

Also, Friday afternoon will involve a school-wide clean up of the surrounding area of the school. Our class has the playground and field area to clean, and it might be a good idea to bring rubber gloves from home.

Pictures from the HOJA Performance

The students really enjoyed listening to the HOJA perform songs and present to the school on bullying. Some highlights: singing the Party Rock Anthem, dancing and singing to Beyonce's Single Ladies, and having a fellow grade 4 peer picked to go up and sing and dance along with the band!!

HOJA Singing Group Performance Today!

Today, HOJA is performing at Yorkdale. They are a 3-person acapela singing group. We looked up their website this morning to listen and watch videos of their past performances. http://www.fatcatuniverse.com/school/

Video: http://www.fatcatuniverse.com/assets/epk/multimedia/assets/video/HOJA_Video_Demo.wmv

Today the class organized a surprise birthday party for Ms. Budz...

What a great Monday!!!! Thanks grade fours, you are the best!
The class put together an amazing surprise for Ms. Budz on the Monday after her birthday. Ms Budz had heard some rumours and overheard some whispering, but did not expect the class to go all out! The room was decorated with balloons and posters and treat bags were handed out to everyone. Thank you for such a special celebration!

Today the class organized a surprise birthday party for Ms. Budz...

What a great Monday!!!! Thanks grade fours, you are the best!

Swimming Lessons Schedule Changed

Yesterday, a letter was sent home with students about a change in the swimming schedule. There will be no swimming lesson on April 4th. To replace the two hours practice that was supposed to be that day, there is two reschedule swim days. The students will be swimming on April 2 from 2-3 and on April 17 from 2-3. The reason we changed the date is because the students in the grade 3/4 classes have been invited to a floor hockey tournament in Saltcoats on April 4 and we did not want to interfere with students who want to participate in that event.

Kidblog Riddles

Today during Centers all of the students had a chance to look at the kidblog. It looks like the riddle has been solved! If you answered: 1. Newspaper, 2. Cold, and 3. Your name, then you were correct! There were some close guesses. Good job, class! You used the clues from the riddles to make an inference, or guess, about what it was! :) The newest post is a story starter that the students will be replying to tomorrow during E.L.A. I think that it will be a lot of fun, and I am excited to see what kind of stories the students create!

Math Test Friday

Students have a math test on multiplying larger numbers on Friday. They will start work on a review today, after we get back from swimming. Tomorrow we will finish and correct the review as a class to be ready to write the test Friday. Some students may need to take their reviews home to finish and/or study. The review is very similar to the test, so it is always important to complete and study from it in order to be successful on the test. If you'd like to practice with you child at home, you can give them some test questions and see how they solve them. We are doing 2- and 3- digit by 1-digit multiplication. So, students are able to solve questions like 597x5 and 86x2 using strategies learnt in class.

Penpals

Letters from our penpals have arrived! We got to see pictures of what our penpal buddies look like. We also learnt all about what they did over February break. We will write back and send our own letters. We have been reviewing how to write proper greetings and closings in letters with correct commas, which we can practice in our real life penpal letters. Pictures of us sharing our letters will be posted on the "Class pictures" tab tonight.

Student work on the smartboard from this morning

Today we learnt about irregular verbs and how to write them in past tense (break - broke). Then we thought about how those irregular words are written when you have a helping verb (has or have) infront of them ("He has a broken leg"). The students caught on quick! Then, we practiced choosing the correct form of the irregular verb in sentences in our workbooks. For example: We (saw, seen) the greatest football game. The verb we would choose is "saw". If the sentence was: We have (saw, seen) the greatest football game, then we would have chosen "seen" because there is a helping verb before it.

 We also did some work with our spelling words. The test is on Friday. Students tried to think of words that were antonyms and synonyms for their words this week. Some students got mixed up with the spelling of "road" and spelt it as "rode" which led to a good discussion of homophones!

Kidblog

Today during E.L.A. half the class had a chance to post messages on kidblog. We learnt how to reply to posts already made by classmates. The students replied to a thread made by Ms. Budz called "Finish the Sentence", where they had to post a message about "My favourite thing to do in spring...". The students really enjoyed replying to one another online! The other half of the class will get a chance to post tomorrow during E.L.A. Center time. If you can think of riddles at home for the class to solve, feel free to post a message under your child's username. The students love to read comments on their posts.

French Today

Today in French class, we were learning the French words for different body parts. We labelled a diagram in our duotangs, and then we played some games online to help us get familiar with the new names. Here are the games that we played today to learn body parts in French (a great way to study!):

Tic Tac Toe - http://www.education.vic.gov.au/languagesonline/french/sect30/no_02/no_02.htm

Beat the Clock - http://www.education.vic.gov.au/languagesonline/french/sect30/no_03/no_03.htm

Tomorrow, we will be learning about turning singular body part words into plural words.

Multiplying Larger Numbers

We have been learning how to multiply large numbers in class. Our practice of small multiplication facts has helped us with our computation skills in this unit. This month, we learnt a few strategies for multiplying larger numbers, such as estimating to find an answer, multiplying numbers with zeroes (40x2), using expanded form to multiply, and multiplying from right to left (or as we've started calling it in class: "old school"). The students have practiced these skills using arrays and base ten blocks. There are pictures under March of us practicing multiplying using manipulatives.

E.L.A.

In class this month, students have been enjoying novel studies that they have chosen themselves. We are reading Bridge to Teribithia and Maniac Magee. We are also learning about making inferences while we read texts - we are detectives looking for clues to pieces together information that writer's do not actually tell us in stories. We are also learning about writing using topic sentences (main idea) and details (who, what, where, when, why).

Some students were chosen to participate in a class reading log incentive. So far, the students have read 70 short books/chapters. We are keeping track of our progress in the classroom and are working towards fun class activities as rewards!

IXL.com Achievement!

Your class has answered 5,000 math problems.

Swimming Lessons

Here is the schedule for the grade 4 swimming lessons:

Monday, March 12 - 2-3
Tuesday, March 13 - 2-3
Wednesday, March 14 - 2-3
Tuesday, March 20 - 2-3
Wednesday, March 21 - 1-2
Monday, March 26 - 2-3
Friday, March 30 - 1-2
Wednesday, April 4 - 1-3 (2 hours)

Remember to send swim suits, goggles, towels, and anything else your child may need on these days! We will try to write reminders in our agendas the day before. Pictures of swimming coming soon!

Telemiracle

At our assembly last week, Mr. Beatty announced that our school raised over 2000 dollars for Telemiracle! Our classroom was proud to be recognized as one that raised over 100 dollars. Thank you for your donations!

Exciting Happenings in Grade 4!

On Friday, the students earned a Doughnut Party in the afternoon! A selected group of students were chosen to log their reading at home. With some incentives in place, they were able to read over 70 books/chapters at home and earned us the doughnuts. We will keep up the class reward system in March and see how much we can read with a full month of school!

Today, the students showed their Social Studies plays from a script that they wrote based on readings we had done in class. We all enjoyed watching their performance, and had a few laughs as well.

Tomorrow, we start swimming lessons! The students are VERY excited to get started.

Kidblog Writing

The students typed up a "Guess the Object" paragraph on the kidblog this morning for friends and family to read and take a guess!

Possessive nouns

Today in Grammar we reviewed how to add apostrophes to words to show possession. We are learning that when a word already ends in an "s", we only add an apostrophe.



Grammar Lesson

Today in Grammar we reviewed rules for making singular nouns into plural nouns. Here is what the students did on the Smartboard.

Spelling Lists

Today we will be bringing home 20 spelling words in our agendas. These words have Long O and U vowel patterns. We will be practicing these words for the next two weeks, and then be tested on 10 random words from our lists on Friday, February 3rd. Last week, we started being tested on writing complete sentences with three of our spelling words, using correct capital letters and end punctuation.

Multiplication Test Date Change

Due to weather conditions and the resulting amount of absent students this week, our multiplications facts test will be moved to Tuesday, January 24. We will push the problem solving and division start dates a few days back as well. I hope students are bringing home their multiplication charts to work on! The students have a good grasp of 1-5 and 10 facts, but 6, 7, 8, and 9 are ones that we need to keep working on.

Math and E.L.A. websites that can be used at home!

Yorkdale has recently acquired memberships to www.ixl.com for all students. This is a great practice tool with questions for all levels K-9! We have been using it in our center activities and when a student finishes their work early. So far, we have achieved certificates for 10 hours of practice time and answering 2,000 math problems. Check out the certificates here: http://ca.ixl.com/certificate/WS0xLDEsMTAsMDFfMDY02qfMjAxMixDQSxY02qb3VyIGNsY02pXNz
http://ca.ixl.com/certificate/WS0xLDAsMjAwMCwwMV8wOV8yMDEyLENBLFlvdXIgY02p2xhc3MY01t

Notes were sent home in December with each students' username and password. The reports are easy to see where they are succeeding and where they need more help. I hope that they can find time to use this site to practice their math skills at home.

Another website we have been using in class is www.spellingcity.com . Students type in their spelling words and are able to play games, have the words read to them in a sentence, and be tested all online. This is perfect  for allowing your child to study their words on their own at home.

Welcome back!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful winter break. We are back at it with our first full week back to school behind us, and enjoyed a fun week back all dressed up in our ugly sweaters, jerseys, and P.J.'s. We also started units on light and sound in science, and multiplication in math.

Have a great weekend! See you on Monday.