Weeks 17, 18, 19, and 20

Friday, January 31, 2020

We just finished week seventeen (Jan. 6 – Jan. 10), week eighteen (Jan. 13 – Jan. 17), week nineteen (Jan. 21 – Jan. 24), and week twenty (Jan. 27 – Jan. 31) in portable two and here is a glimpse of what we’ve been up to: the writing process

SPEECHES AND THE WRITING PROCESS – We have been writing our speeches during the month of January. Each year, students at Waterford Public School write a speech for the Royal Canadian Legion Speech Contest. It’s a great opportunity for students to work through the writing process and build their confidence as a public speaker. The date that your child will be saying their speech in front of the class is listed on the February Classroom Calendar of Events. In the competition, the grade 3s compete against students in grades 1 to 3 (primary) and the grade 4s compete against students in grades 4 to 6 (junior).

MONEY MONEY MONEY – During the month of January, we have been focusing on money. The grade 4s are learning to work with money amounts up to $100 and the grade 3s are learning to work with money amounts up to $10. Along with all of the work we have been doing in class to build our math muscles, there are two money card games that we’ve been playing to become more familiar with adding up money and develop our mental math skills. You just need one deck of cards to play either game. The first card game is called. Dimes. The second card game is called, Quarters. Ask your child and they can teach you how to play it. Oh and don’t forget …. if you want your child to practice math at home, your child has their online math prodigy account information in their agenda. They can log in and practice their math skills at home anytime.

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READING – We continue to work on many skills during our reading lessons. One thing that we work at on a daily basis is communicating our understanding of a variety of texts and expressing personal opinions about it. For example, each child has a chapter book in their desk and they read a bit of it each day. After reading each chapter, they write a chapter reflection to demonstrate their understanding. After they finish the whole book, they write a book review. Writing the book review gives them a chance to practice summarizing what happened in the book and stating their opinions about the book. They are required to use evidence from the text to support their opinions which is something grade 3s and grade 4s need a lot of practice doing effectively. The students are working very hard and I’m so proud of them. Their hard work is paying off as they build their reading muscles (accuracy, fluency, and comprehension).

CONFIDENCE IS GROWING ON THE SHARING STAGE – The sharing stage is a place where we speak to an audience about what we’re reading and writing. Students usually get to use a microphone when they’re sharing but since speeches are coming up, the students have been sharing without a microphone. They will not be able to use a microphone during speeches so, they need some time to feel what it’s like to project their voice for all to hear. They are listening to my feedback and applying it. They each have important things to say and the audience needs to hear it. We are building the confidence to speak up and be proud of what we have to say!!

SCIENCE AND SOCIAL STUDIES – We are working on researching and writing scripts for episodes on our class youtube channel. The channel is called, The Canadian Kids News Network (CKNN). The youtube channel gives us an engaging way to share non-fiction information that we discover during social studies and science class. The first episodes produced by grade four students will stem from a strand in the Grade 4 Science curriculum, Rocks and Minerals. The first episodes produced by grade three students will stem from a strand in the Grade 3 Science curriculum, Soils in the Environment. We have not published anything on the youtube channel yet. That will take some time.

BUCKET DRUMMING ROUTINE – A song has been chosen for our official bucket drumming routine. The song is called, Zero by Imagine Dragons. It is from the movie soundtrack, Ralph Wrecks the Internet. We are currently in the process of choreographing the routine and getting a feel for the music. It will be a performance that combines all of the arts in our curriculum (dance, music, visual art, and drama). I’m excited for everyone to see it when we’re done. basketball

PHYSICAL EDUCATION – During gym, we have been focusing on basketball skills (passing, shooting, dribbling, footwork). Basketball is great exercise for the body and the brain!!!

MR. SHOOLER, MR. SKYLER, OR MR. SHYLER? – We have enjoyed getting to know our new principal, Mr. Schuyler. FYI: his last name is spelled Schuyler but it’s pronounced like this: Sky-ler. Here is a blurb that he posted on the Waterford Public School facebook page about himself:

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RAZ-KIDS AND STORYBOARD THAT – This is just a friendly reminder that each student has free access to two online language programs called Raz-Kids and Storyboard That. Their login information can be found in their agendas.

HAPPY RETIREMENT MS. VAN DEN HURK– A teacher at our school retired on Friday, January 31st. Her name is Ms. Van Den Hurk and she has been teaching at WPS for may many years. Our class made her a book to thank her for everything she has done and honour her retirement. Here are two pictures of the class with Ms. V and the book we made her for her retirement:

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