Ms Burton Snow's Blog

One of my students left for Brunei right before school closed for the Christmas holidays.  Mrs. F took the time to come to our class to give an excellent presentation on Brunei, Asia.  We look forward to writing to our dear friend, it will give us plenty of opportunity to hone our letter writing skills. You can see Mrs. F in the photo below. Learning about the continents is one of the outcomes of our new Social Studies program.  Has any parent been to Europe?  I would love to have a speaker come to the class so that the students could learn a little more about Europe.

I'm just getting a few minutes to post photos of the dioramas that we made prior to the Christmas break.  I think they look great!

From the smallest Snow... Merry Christmas!

I delivered all the food, money and gift cards that you gave me for Christmas on December 24th.  Thank you everyone!

Today was such a busy day.  We are trying to tie up a number of loose endings before our Christmas break.  We spent part of our day working on Christmas diaoramas.  We are constructing nativity scenes which hopefully will be displayed in your homes year after year. The better late than never title??? I forgot to write Music tomorrow on the homework... it is now 9:00 p.m. so perhaps a few parents might read this post before they retire for the evening.

Decorate gingerbread cookies, have physical education, technology and art class.  After a gruelling day yesterday I decided that my little elves needed a much deserved reward today. We spent part of our day in the computer lab learning about Asia.  One of my students is moving to Brunei next week and his mother is coming to our class to give a presentation on Monday so a bit of background knowledge was essential.  You can see what we worked on by looking at the Links and reading the tasks that we completed today.  This afternoon we worked on the gingerbread cookies that Ms. R so generously donated to our class.  We had a blast!   Since I knew the cookies would never make it home, I made sure to take a photo of each creation.  Have your child show you their special treat. My, your green eyes are quite large! This guy is certainly red in the face! Lovely polka dot trousers! The green pants and white vest are quite creative! The art...

Today we spent a large portion of our day finishing up our Math unit on Patterns and beginning our unit on Data Management.  The students have now interpreted two bar graphs and two pictographs for me.  We have also surveyed two other classes about their favourite sports so tomorrow we will begin our pictograph and bar graph construction using that data.  So far so good!

Today I would like to congratulate the students in my class who participated in our school musical.  I know we really enjoyed seeing you perform for the school today. Keep up the good work, guys! Madame

Today was another busy day in Grade 4!  We spent part of our day in a Kindergarten class.  Each student in my class was paired with a Kindergarten student.  My students were responsible for writing a letter to Santa on behalf of their little buddy.  This writing activity helped to reinforce the concept of letter writing and how to follow the format for letter writing.  The letters turned out quite well.  The Kindergarten students added their own touches by signing their names and drawing a picture.

It seems like everyone is quite busy.  Many thanks to all the parents who somehow found the time to come and see me today.  I know it is a hectic time of year and everyone has their plates full.  Good News... after this week there will not be any Spelling or Math facts until the New Year.  More Good News.... I am not giving a test on our Math Patterns chapter.  We are now finished the chapter, but, I already have plenty of work samples from the children.  You can expect to see the Math Patterns work come home before the Christmas break.

Today we learned our French prepositions.  Tonight you can ask your child to sing the song to you... hopefully they will remember it all.

Today the students went to see Scrooge at the Arts and Culture Centre.  A good time was had by all!

Today marks the beginning of Hanukkah.  One of the three religions that we study in Grade 4 is Judaism.  We learned about the menorah, helper candle, latkes and the dreidel game.  The students have just started to make their Hanukkah booklets.  In order to test how well your child was listening you may want to ask them to tell you about Hanukkah tonight. On another note, our work on Math Patterns continues.  Today we used triangle pattern blocks to model a growing pattern.  We are now on Lesson 5, Equations.  There are only 7 lessons in this chapter so the students will likely have a test the week after next.  The final chapter before Christmas is Data Management.  I always find that the students enjoy this chapter the most.  There will be no final test for Data Managment.

Today was the official start of Literature Circles in our class.  The circles worked very well, especially since it was the first time many of the students had participated in this type of activity.  I am happy to report that everyone was prepared for their roles. One quick note... could you please sign the tracking sheet in the front of the dua-tang as that will let me see who has completed the necessary reading with a quick glance. Additionally, the Illustrator role requires that the students color their work too. Hope this is going well at home.  The Connector sheets are the most difficult so they might take a little longer.

Today I introduced the students to the concept of Literature Circles.  Each student chose a book to read (they had 2 choices).  Every night your child will have one or two chapters to read and a worksheet to complete.  The time they spend reading can be counted as Reading Log time.  Here are some photos of the two books you can expect to see coming home over the next two weeks.  Also, please see the note that was sent home to parents to further describe Literature Circles. This website looks like it has some nice activities that focus on vocabulary... not a bad idea. http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0211900/fox/stone_fox_vocabulary.htm This picture is slightly different from the one that appears on the cover of the novels that the students have.  This book would be classified as Adventure. Our second book.  This book  is Historical Fiction. http://museum.gov.ns.ca/blackloyalists/   An interesting site for students who want to learn m...

Today you will see that your child has a list of 20 Spelling words.  This week we are focusing on contractions as they seem to be rather challenging.  We had a pre-test today to assess what the students already know. After the pre-test they highlighted the words on the list that they got incorrect.  Many students knew how to spell words like I'd and I'm, but did not write with a capital letter.  I have some students who are putting capital letters in the middle of words so I am trying to stomp that out as well. There were also two activities sent home.  The first activity gives a list of sentences and the students need to write the contraction on the line.  The next sheet is meant to be a fun game to play with your child.  You will need two different colored leads or crayons.  You choose a contraction, color it and then find the match over on the side.  You color the matches.  Whoever gets a line of 7 first is the winnner!  I...

Today the class was lucky enough to have Dr. Azher, Muneeb's mother, come to our class to discuss the Islamic belief system.  We learned about the 5 Pillars of Islam, Eid, Ramadan and so many other things.  Her presentation was very interesting and it really helped us to learn more about the Islamic faith. Many thanks to Dr. Azher for taking the time to come to our class today.  Your powerpoint presentation was just spectacular! How well did you listen to the presentation today?  Tell Mom or Dad what is happening in this photo. Examples of the jewelry that Muslim women wear during Eid.  The bracelets are made of glass. She even gave out little treats to everyone!  Yum!

Today is Sainte Catherine's today in Quebec, also known as "Taffy Day."  My husband prepared taffy for the class since my own culinary skills are rated at about a 1 (I do burn toast). The sticky confection was enjoyed by all.

There were some interesting answers to the question related to "What is Eid?"  Many answers were quite entertaining (Mr. J) and appreciated on a cool November morning.  Eid is a Muslim celebration that happens after Ramadan.  Ramadan is a period of fasting.  After the fasting ends there is a feast and gifts are exchanged.  One of our parents has graciously volunteered (i.e. I begged her) to come in to speak to the class on Friday to discuss the Islamic faith.  We are all looking forward to her visit.  Here are a couple of pages from the foldable books that the students made about Ramadan today.  Don't you think they are great? Courtesy of Elly Courtesy of Nick Riley drew the 5 Pillars on his cover.

Another Math test was completed today, that makes two under our belts now!  We also talked about Eid today.  Part of the homework for tonight involves the students asking their parents what they know about Eid.  I told them that I did not think that many parents would know what they were talking about.  Please write your response to their question in your child's agenda.  Hint, it has something to do with Religion.

Today we spent a long time reviewing how to approach Mental Math questions.  We worked on the questions on p. 98 which served as good review for the test.  One way the students figured out how to answer 1000-299 was 1000-300= 700 so 1000-299=701.  There was some difficulty with understanding that they would actually have more for their answer in the second example.  I decided to show them how to think about the problem using smaller numbers.  For example 10-6=4 and 10-5=5.  I told them to think about it as if you take away less you keep more.  It is not an easy concept.

On Friday we did a jigsaw grouping activity using talking chips.  Each student is assigned a home group and a working group.  The working groups complete specific tasks and then report their findings back to their home groups.  Since there are some students who like to talk more than others I gave each student 5 talking chips.  In order to speak you have to put one chip in the pot.  When all your chips are gone, you guessed it, you have to listen!  I am delighted to report that this activity went very well.  All students will meet with their home groups tomorrow to share what they have learned. As an added note... I forgot to ask the students to write Photo Retakes in their agendas on Friday.  In case any of you were planning on having your child get a photo retake, the big day is tomorrow.

Today we learned about Sainte Catherine during our French culture class.  Don't be surprised if someone wants to make taffy tonight.  http://www.theworldwidegourmet.com/recipes/st-catherine-s-day-taffy-la-tire-ste-catherine/