Thoughts of the day- March 31

What did we do today?

• In science, we started to build our second prototype of a boat that can hold a can of pop.  Most of the boats tested yesterday could float but could not hold the weight.
• We continued to work on our recorder belts- one person even reached his black belt.  We are one of two classes who has someone at that level...pretty cool!
• Today in writing, we continued our spring break journal, some of us are ready to type them out.
• It was a catch-up day this afternoon in social.
• Ms. Jones taught gym today and played a game called pirate ball.

What questions do we have after today?

• I wonder who will get their recorder black belt next?
• Will anyone's boat be able to hold a can of pop?  Which group will be the first one?
• How many prototypes will we build to accomplish our challenge?
• What game will Ms. Jones teach us next time?

Thoughts of the day- March 30

What did we do today?

• In science we started building our boats.  These boats are our first prototypes and and a lot of groups figured out that four feet of tape is not much!  Many of our boats floated, but sank with the weights.
• Today in math, we started division.  Some strategies we learned were repeat subtraction, arrays, drawing equal parts, using fact families and using a number line.
• We played a game called Poachers and Chimpanzees.  There is 5 poachers and they had to pull the chimpanzee's tail and send them to jail.  The other chimpanzees had to rescue the jailed chimps, get their tails back and take them to "Jungle G".
• In social, we learned about Tunisia's symbols and sights.  Some of these were: a camel, the flag, dates, oasis, date palm tree, a mosque, the minaret, and the coat of arms.
• We continued to write our spring break riddles and finish our pictures to go with it.

What questions do we have after today?

• What will be the next game we play in gym?
• How many boats will stay afloat with the pop can?  For how long?
• I wonder if we will like the movie more than the book for the City of Ember?
• When will we start our centers for Tunisia?  How many centers will there be?
• Will we learn other strategies for division?

Thoughts of the day- March 29

What did we do today?

• In health/ LA, we shared what we did during our spring break.  We are writing riddles about what we did, and will have a picture which we will flip over to go with it.
• In gym, we played Pip, Squeak and Wilbur as well as toilet tag.
• Today in music, we continued to practice and record our recorder songs for our recorder karate belts.
• We started a really cool project in science, where we have to create a boat out of 25 popsicle sticks, yarn and tape.  We will also have to create a container and a bridge for the boat to float in and under.
• The big word this week was: observations.
• In social, we came up with many questions about Tunisia today and found out some of the answers too.

What questions do we have after today?

• When and are we going to watch the City of Ember?
• What will the centers for Tunisia be like?
• Will we succeed with our science project?

Agenda- March 29-April 1

Read 30 min
Spelling test Fri
POW due Fri
Bring shoebox/ milk carton for Friday
City of Ember permission letter
Fun Lunch forms due April 7
Book orders due April 8
Library Thursday
Bring home recorders and music.  Videotape yourself playing 3 belt songs and email to Mrs. Lim at colim@cbeedu.ca.  If possible, title your video with your name, room number, grade, and the belt you are testing for.

Thoughts of the day- March 17

What did we do today?

• In music, we worked on our recorder belts.  Most people got to practicing their red belts.  Mrs. Lim would like us to practice and send our videos over the spring break.
• During math, most of us finished our multiplication course centers and our array art.
• We had some catch up time during library to finish any unfinished work.
• We played dodgeball in gym today.
• This afternoon, we played the The Poverty Game.  The game was about poverty in India.  You had to work a basic job for minimum wage and you had to pay for schooling, immunizations, food and water.  People living outside the village also had to pay to get in, sometimes with their shoes.  It had two rounds.  In the first round, you had to cut up perfect triangles.  In the second round lots of people went to jail because they were not wearing shoes and a new law was passed.

Thoughts of the day- March 15

What did we do today?

• We had a visitor named Michelle from CAWST.  She gave us a story with a problem to solve and we had to design a solution using play dough, popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners. After in language arts, we looked at a girl's life in Zambia and we learned that a lot of people don't have clean water and that they must use bio-sand filters to get rid of viruses, bacteria and tape worms that could be in the water.  We compared how much water an average Canadian uses (327 L) in a day to someone in Zambia (20L).  It would take 85.5 hours for one of our classmates to gather water for their family of 5, if one round trip to get 10L took 30 min.  It would take the family in Zambia 5 hours.  Many children and women travel farther, sometimes as far as one kilometer.
• In math, we continued to work on our array art.
• This afternoon, we started Tunisia by mapping where it is and its cities.  It's capital city is Tunis.
• Today in gym we played three games: one called hot dog tag, another called ladder race and lastly crows and cranes.
• Ms. Lim helped us pass our white, yellow and orange belts for our recorders.

What questions do we have after today?

• What games will we be playing in gym tomorrow?
• In the future, will more people be using a bio-sand filter to clean their water?
• How will CAWST spread its knowledge to the rest of the world?
• How many people have a tippy tap to wash their hands in Zambia?
• What percentage of people in the world use a bio-sand filter right now?
• Will everyone finish their recorder belts/ unit?
• Will we find an answer to get rid of pathogens in all the world's drinking water supply?
• How many countries use a bio-sand filter?

Thoughts of the day- March 14

What did we do today?

• In art, we did a project with math.  We made buildings with arrays on them for windows.  You could also make arrays out of stars. An array is a visual strategy to represent multiplication.
• Today in gym, we did different types of relay races, such as bear crawl, keeping a fluff ball on your head, running, and using a scooter.
• The big word in word work today was arrangement.
• In math, we practiced our multiplication skills through three stations: on the computer, using cards to play cover up, using dominoes and dice to play flip flop domino and multiplication scramble.
• For journal writing, we wrote about what we are looking forward to during our spring break.

What questions do we have after today?

• Will we get to watch the movie before spring break? (as Ms. Jones needs to preview it first)
• What does CAWST stand for?  How will their presentation be tomorrow?
• How tall will our beans grow in the greenhouses we will build?
• Who will have the most exciting activity to look forward to on spring break?

Agenda- March 14-17

Read 30 min
CAWST presentation Tues morning
POW and spelling due Thurs
Wear green Thursday for spirit day
No school Fri
Bring 2L milk carton or a shoebox for greenhouse
Lunch Lady forms

Bring home recorders and music.  Videotape yourself playing 3 belt songs over Spring Break and email to Mrs. Lim at colim@cbeedu.ca.  If possible, title your video with your name, room number, grade, and the belt you are testing for.

Check drcoffinmusic.blogspot.ca for more details.

Thoughts of the day- March 11

What did we do today?

• With the rest of the school, we participated in a school wide clean up.  We were responsible for sweeping the sun circle and basketball courts, as well as picking pine cones and garbage from the front area and the nature grounds.
• We decided as a group that we will be building greenhouses in Barrett Park. We will be growing green beans that we will be monitoring and recording their growth.
• At the end of the day, we finished building our trusses and tested one type, which held 2 721 grams of weight.
• Ms. Jones read The Lorax and we discussed being a responsible citizen to the environment.

What questions do we have after today?

• Will anyone notice a difference after the clean up?
• Will any of the beans grow in the greenhouses?
• Which truss will hold the most weight?  The least weight?
• What will some of the differences be in the City of Ember movie?

Thoughts of the day- March 9

What did we do today?

• We had Clay 4 Kids! We made Tunisian plates that had to be symmetrical. We made a snowflake and painted the holes, which made a nice pattern on our plates.  There are certain colours that the people in Tunisia use and the paints were made of clay and minerals.
• In gym, we played a six on six badminton game using the nets.
• Since the Clay 4 Kids interfered with our math time, we played a large tic tac toe game using hoops and pinnies.  We had to roll two dice and multiply those two digits before placing a pinnie on the board.
• Today we finished our letters for social and some of us started to pack for Tunisia.

What questions do you have after today?

• What will our next centers be like for Tunisia?
• Will any of the plates explode?  We hope not!
• What will the plates look like after they have been in the kiln and glazed?
• When will we finally start a new book?

Thoughts of the day- March 8

What did we do today?

• In music, we started to earn recorder karate belts.  We practice certain songs to earn belts for our recorders.
• Today in health, we finished our friendship hearts.  We cut them up and had to find things in common to switch the pieces up to make a new one.
• In social, we learned a little bit about poverty.  Some kids in India are orphans and they wander the streets.  They live amongst garbage.  Two thirds of the kids do not go to school, which would be 16 of us in our class. More than half of the children don't know how to read or write.  The orphans usually beg for money, one rupee is about 2¢.  
• We had CAFE today!  In our class we had three award winning books: Charlotte's Web, The City of Ember and The Tale of Despereaux.
• This morning, we started on or continued to work on our letters for social.
• In gym, we played dodgeball with Mr. O.

What questions do we have after today?

• What date is the next CAFE?
• How many books are considered classics?
• What was the oldest story shared at CAFE?
• How many different series were presented at CAFE today?

Thoughts of the day- March 7

What did we do today?

• In social, most people finished their centers and have started writing a pen pal letter to themselves as a boy or girl from India.
• We got a new assignment in science, we will be testing different designs of trusses to see which one holds the most mass.
• Today in math the grade 3's used arrays on grid paper and number lines to multiply while the grade 4's learned how to multiply a three digit number by a one digit number.
• In gym, we got to choose whether we wanted to play tennis or badminton and badminton won out.
• In word work the big word today was challenges, and Ms. Jones added words that were similar, such as inspire, summon and dare.

What questions do we have after today?

• What books will be presented tomorrow at CAFE?  Will everyone be ready?
• How many award winning books will there be?
• What truss design will come out as the strongest on Thursday?

Agenda- March 7-11

Read 30 min
CAFE tomorrow- have info sheet ready, book
Clay 4 Kids on Wednesday morning- don't wear your nicest clothes
Library Thursday
Book orders due Thursday-cheques please
Spelling test Fri
Please bring 2L carton or a shoebox if you have any for our greenhouses
City of Ember letter
CAWST presentation next Tuesday
See blog for music notice

Students are now earning their Recorder Karate Belts!  Please check http://drcoffinmusic.blogspot.ca for a list of the songs (and their music) students must play through.  To progress from one belt to the next, students will either perform for Mrs. Lim in class or email Mrs. Lim (colim@educbe.ca) a video of themselves playing.

Please entitle your video with name, room number, grade, and belt you are testing for.

Example:  JohnnySmithRoom5Grade4YellowBelt.mov

Then email to:  colim@educbe.ca

Thoughts of the day- March 1

What did we do today?

• This morning we worked on our Fresh Air Friday stools, our props for our learning celebration and finish our journals.  We could also practice our math facts.
• We had a speaker today and he told us about the Blackfoot Blood tribe.  He told us a story about how they were given horses and he sang the Sundance song (a lullaby).  He taught us a few words from the Blackfoot language, and that they don't have the letter L.  He also told us about some Blackfoot games and how they lived. (teepee rings)
• In math, the grade 4's learned three strategies to solve two digit by one digit multiplication problems.
• We had quiet reading instead of Daily 5 today.

What questions do we have after today?

• Will we have another speaker come in this month?
• What other strategies will we learn that will help us with multiplication?
• How much time tomorrow will we have to work on our learning celebration?