Happy Diwali to all of our families that celebrated this weekend and Happy Halloween to any of our families celebrating Halloween tonight! Today we started our day with a review of our 12x tables. Usually, today would have been our Kahoot! quiz for our 12x tables, but our internet was working this morning so we played the Noisy Game to help us practice instead. We'll play Kahoot! tomorrow morning.

We also got some new letters from our pen pals - our new pen pals. We have already been writing to our pen pals in Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba, we also have pen pals in Sexsmith, Alberta. Today we opened our first letters from these new pen pals. These students are from a small farming community outside of Grande Prairie. Our class was amazed at the number of animals these students own: horses, cows, chickens, etc. We can't wait to write back! How wonderful to be making so many new friends across Canada this year! This is the most pen pals I've ever written to with a class, and I think two classes is our limit, but the students are always really excited to read letters from and send letters to their pen pals. 

Students also worked together in groups to create their healthy Halloweed inspired treats today. Thank you so much for all of the generosity from families in supplying our ingredients! Our treats turned out great. Some of them were a lot harder to put together than we initially thought, but they turned out great. Each groups was unique and delicious! 

Continuing our technology woes from this morning, we couldn't seem to get "A Series of Unfortunate Events" to play on my system today. We watched "Zootopia" instead. I will investigate further and we will reschedule a day to watch Lemony Snicket, I promise. Thank you for your patience everyone. 

Agenda
Language Arts:
- Read 20 minutes

Math:
- Practice 12x tables

Health:
- PEAK Basketball (Wednesday)

Picture Retakes - November 16th
Tech & Trades Academy - Mondays (3:00-4:00 pm)
Grade 5/6 Volleyball - Mondays, Wednesdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Grade 5/6 Guitar Club - Thursdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Recycling Leaders - Day 1 (lunch recess) 

In Math today, the students began using their ability to recognize patterns and to write patterns rules to help them to solve problems. For example:

Sam earns $6 an hour babysitting. How much will Sam earn if he babysits for 5 hours. 

Students can recognize that Sam earns $6 more each hour and use the pattern to solve how much money Sam will earn in 5 hours. Or if Sam can ever earn exactly $31. What do you think?

In Social Studies today, students continued to develop their understanding of map features. Today we added latitude and longitude to our growing understanding of maps. Remember, lines of latitude run east to west but they measure whether somewhere is north or south of the equator. Lines of longitude run north to south but they measure whether somewhere is east or west of the prime meridian. We will continue to work with latitude and longitude next week. 

Agenda
Language Arts:
- Read 20 minutes

Math:
- Practice 12x tables
- pgs. 11-12 #2-4

Health:
- PEAK Basketball (Monday)

Picture Retakes - November 16th
Classroom Halloween Celebration - Monday
​Remembrance Day Assembly - November 10th (10:15 am)
Tech & Trades Academy - Mondays (3:00-4:00 pm)
Grade 5/6 Volleyball - Mondays, Wednesdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Grade 5/6 Guitar Club - Thursdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
​Recycling Leaders - Day 1 (lunch recess)

I have a meeting at District Office today at 4:00 pm, so tonight will be a short post. Sorry! 

Agenda
Language Arts:
- Read 20 minutes

Math:
- Practice 12x Tables
- Pg. 8 #1 (NOT FOR HOMEWORK - Day 1)

Health:
- PEAK Basketball (Monday)

Picture Retakes - November 16th
Halloween Family Dance - Thursday (6:00-8:00 pm)
Spirit Week for United Way - Thursday (PJ Day)
​Snack Shack for United Way - Thursday (Yogurt Tubes, $1)
Grade 5/6 Volleyball - Mondays, Wednesdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Grade 5/6 Guitar Club - Thursdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Tech & Trade Academy - Mondays (3:00-4:00 pm)
Recycling Leaders - Thursdays (lunch recess)
Classroom Halloween Celebration - Monday (see email/note in Agenda)

In Math today, we learned a new game to add to our Math Centers. Today we learned how to play "The Spiral Game." To play this game students need a deck of cards, a dice, and game pieces. Students use the cards to build a spiral shape. The goal of the game is to move your game piece from inside the spiral to the outside or vice versa. Students begin by rolling the dice. Students then multiply the card they land on by the number they rolled. If they get it right, they get to stay. If they get it wrong, they have to go all the way back to the start. This is a great game because it has students practicing multiple times tables at one time. 

In Language Arts today, we continued to look at verbs. Today students were introduced to some games that they can use to practice identifying and classifying verbs. These games are from TurtleDiary and can be found on our "Grammar" page. We also learned a new reading strategy today - inferring. Inferring is very similar to the strategy that we have currently been working on; making predictions. However, there are some small differences: 

Predicting
- part of inferring
- can check your accuracy as you read
- can find if you were right or wrong

Inferring
- more precise
- reading between the lines
- filling in (in your head) what's not written on the page
- comes from you

Think about it this way, when you infer you use evidence directly obtained from the text. You use what the book tells you. You are like a detective looking for clues. When you see a clue, you can infer what has happened. We can infer feelings, why things happened, where characters are, what is happening, etc. 

We also received letters from our Pen Pals in Manitoba today. It was so nice to finally receive them and to learn a little bit about them. They also sent us pictures of themselves that they drew as well as a pin from Manitoba. We began working on part of our reply right away. Since they are also reading "The BFG" by Roald Dahl right now, we are sending them a dream jar. In "The BFG" the BFG collects dreams and stores them in jars. We drew a dream that we have had or that we would like to have for our buddies inside a printout of a jar. We are going to include these dreams with our next letter. 

Agenda
Language Arts:
- Read 20 minutes

Math:
- Review 12x tables

Health:
- PEAK Basketball (tomorrow)

Halloween Family Dance - Thursday (6:00-8:00 pm)
Classroom Halloween Celebration - Monday (see email)
Spirit Week for United Way - Wednesday is Cowboy/girl Day (bring $1)
Snack Shack Sale for United Way - Thursday ($1 for yogurt tubes)
Picture Retakes - November 16th
Poinsettia Orders - due November 25th
Tech & Trades Academy - Mondays (3:00-4:00 pm)
Volleyball - Mondays and Wednesdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Guitar Club - Thursdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Recycling Leaders - Thursdays (lunch recess) 

In Math today, we continued with our study of Patterns and Equations. Today we were continuing from our lesson on Thursday. Students were asked to identify and then write pattern rules from a set of numbers or a model of a patterns. Students were given time today to practice. I was also able to conference with approximately half the class today. There a few different types of conferences that we will be using throughout the year in both Math and Language Arts:

- Compliment Conferences: Teachers use these conferences to motivate young mathematicians or to lift the spirits of discouraged learners.
- Comprehension Conferences: The focus of these conferences is on assessing and then extending the degree of student comprehension of mathematical concepts.
- Skill Conferences: The aim of these conferences is assessing and then extending the skills of students, including both process and computation skills.
- Problem-Solving Conferences: These conferences are used to explore the problem-solving strategies being applied by students and then to strengthen their toolbox of strategies, if needed.
- Self-Assessment and Goal-Setting Conferences: Together, students and teachers review progress toward meeting learning targets and establish learning goals.
- Recheck Conferences: Teachers use these conferences when they want to see if students are using what they learned during earlier conferences.

Today was a Comprehension Conference; I met with students and assessed their comprehension of what we have been working on. I try and conference with students 1-2 times a week at minimum, so that I am better able to plan our lessons and can gain understanding on student needs, strengths, weaknesses, etc. Typically conferences will be in small groups or one-on-one. In order for me to be able to effectively conference with students, the class has to be able to work independently and mindfully. It is a testament to their growing independence that we were able to conference for so long today. Well done everyone! 

In Language Arts today, we added another entry to our Writer's Notebook. Today's question was: 

"If you could have any round object in the world, what would you choose?" 

Students had some interesting answers today! This question seems simple at first, but you quickly realize that it can be difficult to brainstorm round objects. I chose a globe as my example. Students were creative, using the shape in different ways. One student chose a charm bracelet! Remember, if you ever want to check how our Writer's Notebook is progressing, you can always view our digital exemplar on the "Writing" page. Students also completed their "Idea Wheels" summarizes our learning on nouns. This meant that we were able to introduce our next Grammar topic - verbs. Today we discovered that verbs are action words. Some examples are skip, jump, run, to be, etc. Verbs can be placed in the past tense, usually by adding an -ed to the end (eg. skipped, jumped) but some irregular verbs have their own unique form when placed in the past tense (eg. ran, was). We will continue to look more closely at verbs in upcoming lessons.

Agenda
Language Arts:
- Read 20 minutes

Math:
- Practice 12x Tables
- pg. 8 #1-6

Health:
- PEAK Basketball (Wednesday)

French:
- Quiz (tomorrow)

Picture Retakes - November 16th
Halloween Dance - Thursday (6:00-8:00 pm)
Tech & Trades Academy - Mondays (3:00-4:00 pm)
Guitar Club - Thursdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Recycling Leaders - Thursdays (lunch recess)
Volleyball - Mondays, Wednesdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Spirit Week - Tropical Tuesday ($1 United Way donation)
​Halloween Costume Parade/Classroom Celebration (Monday) 

As students' independence has been growing, we have been adding more and more independent work centers to our classroom. Today we added one of my favourites - Tynker. Tynker is a website that allows students to learn the basics of computer programming and coding. This is done through more simplified visual blocks that aim to build students computational thinking and problem solving skills. As students progress, they are able to move into more text-based coding. What can you make with Tynker? Probably some of the most exciting things for students are the ability to make and play mobile games or the ability to learn how to modify Minecraft. My favourite part of the program is knowing that the class is developing important 21st century thinking skills. 

In Math today, we started our new unit on Patterns and Equations. Today we were learning to describe patterns and to write pattern rules. As a class we modelled patterns on the board with counters. I was so impressed with how involved all the students were. Students were helping one another to build the next term of each patterns, sharing ideas, and communicating. It was a great way to start a new unit! 

In Language Arts today, we began to publish our paragraphs from our paragraph books. I shared a Google Doc with students and asked them to type out their finished paragraph. This gives students the chance to create a third draft and to edit spelling and grammar mistakes. Students were also able to add a video or a picture that they wanted to include with their paragraph that was related to the topic. Why practice typing in a Google Doc first? Well, it allowed us to get more practice using and organizing our Google Drives. Today we reviewed where to find documents that have been shared and how to add and organize these documents into students' Drives. Next, we learned how to copy a document that was "View Only" so that we could edit our own copy of the document. I also like typing paragraphs as a Google Doc first so that when students are learning how to use their blogs, they don't have to worry about losing their work. They have a hard copy saved! 

In Social Studies, students continued to work on learning some of the major waterways that can be found in Canada. Today we added lakes to our growing repertoire. We also mapped oceans, bays, rivers, and lakes in our Social Studies binder, as well as added legends to our maps to differentiate between the different types of waterways. Keep reviewing your geographic features at home! Remember, you can play all the games we play in class by using a computer at home. We only have one map feature left before we move on to regions. Stay tuned for our learning about scale next week.

In Science, we have completed looking at clouds. So far we have studied the water cycle (evaporation, condensation, saturation, and precipitation), looked closer at precipitation (rain, snow, freezing rain, hail), and now we have learned about four common types of clouds (cirrus, stratus, cumulus, and cumulonimbus). We have one more experiment to conduct on the dew point to help us to prove that their is water vapour in the air, then we will be moving on to the sun and daily and seasonal weather changes! 

Agenda
Language Arts:
- Read 20 minutes

Math:
- Review 12x Tables

Science:
- Cloud Observations (due Monday) 

French:
- Quiz (Tuesday)

Health:
- PEAK Basketball (Monday)

Tech & Trades Academy - Mondays (3:00-4:00 pm)
Grade 5/6 Guitar Club - Thursdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Grade 5/6 Volleyball - Mondays and Wednesdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Recycling Leaders - Thursdays (lunch recess)

Halloween Family Dance - Thursday, October 27th (6:00-8:00 pm)

Parent Teacher Interviews - November 2nd and 3rd (register at Christina Gordon) 

Spirit Week for United Way - Monday (Wacky Tacky Day) 
​

Short post today. Sorry! I will catch everything up tomorrow.

Agenda
Language Arts:
- Read 20 minutes

Math:
- Review 12x Tables

Health:
- PEAK Basketball (Monday)

Tech & Trades Academy - Mondays (3:00-4:00 pm)
Grade 5/6 Guitar Club - Thursdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Grade 5/6 Volleyball - Extra practice TOMORROW (2:45-3:45 pm)
Running Club - Thursday (2:45-3:45 pm) 
Recycling Leaders - Thursdays (lunch recess)

Popcorn Sale for United Way - tomorrow ($1) 

Halloween Family Dance - Thursday, October 27th (6:00-8:00 pm)

Parent Teacher Interviews - November 2nd and 3rd (register at Christina Gordon)

Today in Math, students completed our ongoing unit problem for Statistics and Probability. You may remember the project from the work that we put into in at the end of September. Students worked to research the daily temperatures for two capitals cities of Canada. Students then created double bar graphs comparing the monthly high temperatures for each city in 2016. Today, we revisited our bar graphs. Students worked in groups to compare their bar graphs. They were asked to record an observation about each graph and then to reach a group consensus about which city they thought had the best weather in Canada. The results... 3/4 groups picked Toronto as the capital city with the best weather. Most groups were focused on Toronto's consistently high temperatures. Good work everyone! Tomorrow, we finish our 3x and 6x tables review and then it is on to the 12x tables and our new unit... Patterns and Equations! 

In Language Arts today, students were given the opportunity to revise their edited paragraphs. Students have completed one draft of their paragraph. Today, they revised their paragraphs, making the corrections they found during our editing today. Tonight, I'll be reading over students' second drafts and do some editing of my own. Then... you guessed it! A third draft. Don't forget how important it is to edit and revise your work! Think of the improvements that you will make and how much stronger your final draft will be! Students also reviewed capitalization. Don't forget the lyrics to this great Flocabulary video:

"I'm saying, 
When you get specific? Capitalize.
First word of a sentence? Capitalize.
Months and days? Capitalize.
The pronoun "I"? Capitalize. 

When you get specific? Capitalize
Title before a name? Capitalize
All proper nouns? Capitalize"

We are going to be moving on from nouns and proper nouns and begin looking at verbs as part of our next grammar topic. 

In Science today, students finished watching the above "Magic School Bus" episode, "Magic School Bus: Kicks up a Storm." Then students shared their thoughts about the video. Students were asked to record what they learned and what they liked about the video. The information about the weather and the water cycle that we gained from the video help us to write the following recipe:

Then we learned about some variations to this recipe: snow, hail, and freezing rain. Snow is formed when the ice crystals do NOT melt as they fall to Earth. They fall to Earth as ice crystals. Hail is formed when a strong updraft pushes falling/melting ice crystals back into the cloud, causing another layer of ice to form around it. This continues to happen (rising and falling) until the hail becomes so heavy that it is able to fall through the updraft, hitting Earth before it melts. Finally, freezing rain occurs when rain hits a surface that is colder that zero degrees. It freezes into ice! Now that we have mastered the steps of the water cycle: evaporation, condensation, saturation, and precipitation, and we have learned about the different forms of precipitation, we are going to be looking specifically at clouds. 

In Social Studies today, we continued to add major waterways to our growing understanding of Canadian Geography. We added 8 rivers: the St. Lawrence, Nelson, Saskatchewan, Columbia, Slave, Peace, Mackenzie, and Yukon Rivers. We will add these to our maps on Thursday. For now, students were asked to practice their rivers using our "All About Canada" review game that can be found under "Geography" on the "Social Studies" page. Students are also bringing home their Social Studies quizzes today. Still want to improve your score? Keep reviewing at home! We will have one more optional quiz day to be scheduled for next week.

Agenda
Language Arts:
- Read 20 minutes

Math:
- Review 3x and 6x tables (Kahoot quiz tomorrow)

Health:
- PEAK Basketball on Wednesday

Tech and Trades - Mondays (3:00-4:00 pm)
Grade 5/6 Volleyball - CANCELLED TOMORROW
Grade 5/6 Guitar Club - Thursdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Running Club - Thursdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Recycling Leaders - Thursdays (lunch recess)

Popcorn Sale for United Way - Thursday ($1 - email Ms. B if you can help!)

Halloween Family Dance - October 27th (6:00-8:00 pm) 

Parent Teacher Interviews - November 2nd and 3rd (register at: Christina Gordon: Three Way Conferences) 

Today in Math, students had their first test on their "Statistics and Probability" unit. Students worked hard to complete their test. I am really proud of everyone for persevering through the first test of the year. It isn't easy to write a test! Well done everyone. 

In Language Arts today, we continued to work on "Predicting" as a reading strategy. Students were reminded that readers who make strong predictions rely on information from the text AND information from their schema. This might include information based on other books students have read, or similar characters they have seen in a movie, or even a similar experience they have had in their own lives. Today we practiced making predictions using a favourite story of mine, "Strega Nona" by Tomie de Paola. We watched a few minutes of this story, then quickly recorded a prediction about what we thought would happen. Students were then encouraged to pair up and share their predictions, and then to share their predictions with the class. We watched a little bit more, and repeated the activity above. This time we focused on making changes to our predictions. Now that we have more information from the text, we should be able to make a stronger prediction. Students did a wonderful job of using both the text and their schema to make their predictions. Finally we finished the story. At the end, students recorded if they were right/wrong and how they felt about the ending of the story. Everyone worked hard throughout this activity. Students also practiced making prediction in small groups today. Students worked in groups of 2-3 students and selected one of our October picture books. Students examined the covers of these stories closely and then made their first prediction using only information from the cover and their schemas. Finally, they were able to read the story and record whether they were right/wrong. Well done everyone! Next up, "Connecting!" 

​In Science today, we reviewed our water cycle experiment. Students were able to reexamine their plastic bags and record their observations. Tomorrow we will be adding other forms of precipitation and then clouds to our knowledge of the water cycle. Don't forget, you can follow our learning by selecting "Weather Watch" under Science. It is a good idea to review what we have already completed throughout the unit, to keep everyone fresh in your mind. 

In Health today, the students and I worked on selecting a mindfulness activity that we could share with our ECDP Buddies tomorrow. Students have selected the "Wiggleflop" (see video above). This video is a wonderful way to get smaller students started with practicing mindfulness. It turns sitting still into a small game and only has students sitting still for short periods of time. Try it out at home. Remember, take time to enjoy your "flop" and to enjoy being still and quiet. 

Agenda
Language Arts:
- Read 20 minutes

Math:
- Review 3x and 6x tables (Kahoot quiz on Wednesday)

Health:
- PEAK Basketball on Wednesday

Tech and Trades - Mondays (3:00-4:00 pm)
Grade 5/6 Volleyball - Mondays, Wednesdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Grade 5/6 Guitar Club - Thursdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Running Club - Thursdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Recycling Leaders - Thursdays (lunch recess)

Popcorn Sale for United Way - Thursday ($1 - email Ms. B if you can help!)

Halloween Family Dance - October 27th (6:00-8:00 pm)

Today in Math we prepared for our upcoming Statistics and Probability unit test. Our unit test is this Monday, October 17th! Today students worked together to complete the "Show What You Know" questions from the textbook. These questions cover all of the lessons from this unit. Students should take some time over the weekend to further review. Check out the "Statistics and Probability" page under "Math" to get access to resources that students can use at home. Students can also use their Mathletics accounts at home and access the online Math Makes Sense text. Look under "Links." Students also have a copy of the textbook saved as a PDF in their Google Drives.

Today we completed our Art Cards by Kids project. The cards look wonderful. Instead of using a gold and silver sharpie, today we decided to use some gold and silver glitter glue instead. The sharpies were giving us some trouble yesterday. I'm really happy with our solution to this problem. I actually like the glitter much better, so it was win-win. Thanks for your patience everyone! Especially Aayan and Seth! The markers gave out just as they were using them yesterday and I know it was frustrating. 

In Social Studies today we began looking at some of the major bodies of water in Canada. Today we looked at the oceans: Atlantic, Pacific, and Artic. We also located Hudson's Bay and James Bay. We also discussed a new mapping feature today. Thanks to our study of double bar graphs in Math, we are already very familiar with using legends. Today we added a new mapping feature - the compass rose. The compass rose is used to help the reader/viewer of a map understand direction. In order to create a compass rose, students need to have an understanding of both their cardinal and intermediate directions. Our cardinal directions are: North, East, South, and West. Many people use mnemonic devices to help them to remember the order of the cardinal directions. When I was in school we learned, "Never Eat Shredded Wheat." Today, our class wrote our own mnemonic devices:

We also looked at the intermediate directions today: Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest. Students completed a worksheet on both the cardinal and intermediate directions, before we played a DPA game on the topic. Students all faced "North" (the front of our room). I then called out different directions and students worked to face the correct direction as quickly as they could. Everyone did really well! 

Agenda
Language Arts:
- Read 20 minutes
- Fri-yay Reflections

Math:
- Review 3x and 6x tables
- Pgs. 290-291 #1-6, 8
- Statistics and Probability Unit Test (Monday)

Health:
- PEAK Basketball (Monday)
- FRIENDS Home Activity #1A (Monday)

Tech & Trades Academy - Mondays (3:00-4:00 pm)
Grade 5/6 Volleyball - Mondays and Wednesdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Grade 5/6 Guitar Club - Thursdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Running Club - Thursdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Recycling Leaders - Thursdays (lunch recess)

Halloween Family Dance - October 27th (6:00-8:00 pm)