Ms Burton Snow's Blog

We have heard seven Health presentations so far and they are all great!  The work that the students (and their parents) put into the projects is terrific!

We enjoyed a wonderful morning of winter fitness in Pippy Park.  The weather cooperated and overall it was a gorgeous day. The City of St. John's Recreation Department employees provided great instruction and we got some good exercise.  Skiing proved to be challenging for some students, however, everyone gave it a go! Winter fun! I have attached a photo for your enjoyment.  For some students and myself the little hills were quite challenging.  I plan on sticking to snowshoeing in the future.

Today two of my students were married in a Jewish wedding ceremony.  We had two guest speakers come to our class to discuss Jewish beliefs and special celebrations.  We all learned a lot! Congraulations on your special day Cam and Rachel, ha, ha!

I will be giving out a paper copy of this tomorrow. Math Test Outline Chapter 6 March 3, 2011 February 24, 2011 Here are the important things to know for your test next week: All Chapter 6 material on the links page of my blog would be great to review. Make sure you review your facts. The key questions to review in this chapter are: Page 173 #4 Page 175 #3 Page 177 #3 Page 180 #2 Page 184 #3 Practice on Page 187 Page 190 #4 Page 194 #4 Page 199 #2 Chapter Review on pages 201-202 You can also review the Math quiz, Problem Solving and the Mid chapter review that I have attached to this note.   I graded the quiz as well as the problem solving.   The mid chapter review is corrected, but I decided not to place an overall grade on it.   I assigned #’s 1, 4, 5 and 6 to be completed on the mid chapter review.   Please note that we still have a little work to do on this chapter.   We completed Lesson 8 today and we will complete the last lesson Friday afternoon.

Today we began writing fables.  Fables are: -short -usually have animals as characters -fiction -have a moral or lesson Each student was responsible for completing two graphic organizers today, one for setting and one on character.  We will use the graphic organizers to construct the fables.  With any luck the fables will be completed by mid next week.

Mme Burton Snow and Dr. T.A. Loeffler Dr. Loeffler gave an excellent presentation that tied in well with our new Social Studies curriculum. Dr. Loeffler gave a presentation to the Grade 4 students today.  She was a wonderful speaker and her message tied in well with our new Social Studies curriculum. Do you want to read more about Dr. T.A. Loeffler...  click on the link below. http://taloeffler.com/

We are busy preparing for the two presentations that I lined up for the Grade 4 students. Today we reviewed Passover - A Jewish celebration and began reading about a Bat Mitzvah. Tomorrow we are going to hear from TA Loeffler, looking forward to hearing about her experiences. Thanks to all the parents who sent in a loonie for her expedition fund.

Today we went to Ms. White's classroom to see her students perform their plays.  All of my students were very impressed with the performances.  We will be inviting Ms. White's students to come see our plays next Friday.

Today we tried some centre activities based on Valentine's Day. Our centres were as follows: #1 Reading Comprehension #2 Valentine Venn #3 Rebuses #4 Acrostic Poems #5 Shape Poems #6 Extra (Make your Valentine's holder and write your secret cupid)

Three cheers for Mr. Walter, you are so very kind.  Here is an Accrostic Poem dedicated to Mr. Walter... M ighty good at Technology I can learn a lot from you K ind E lusive (sometimes you are hard to find) We will be writing Valentine's Day Accrostics on Monday.

We are still studying fables and their morals/lessons.  Today I had a talk with several students about not making a mountain out of a molehill.  Everyone should understand the meaning of this moral now.

February 11, 2011 Dear Parents and Guardians, As you are all aware the students in my class are currently working on two plays.   Each child has been assigned at least one role.   The students selected their own roles in class based on interest. We are going to present our play to Ms. White’s class as well as to several other Elementary classes on Friday, February 25, 2011 .   Many students already have their lines memorized, but there are others who need to continue to review the play at home each night.   We practice each play in school 2-3 times per week. I am also looking for some props and am wondering if you can have a good look around your house to see if there might be a treasure that we could borrow.   Here is a list of the items that we need: a blue suit (it doesn’t matter if it is a little big)   An old blue blazer would work out nicely. a yellow or gold colored vest a red blazer a hat that we could poke a feather in a dummy head (I was thinking about one of those la

Today we tackled some rebuses, they are a combination of pictures and words.  The pictures and words are grouped together to make sentences.  Some students find them fun while others find them pretty challenging.  We will continue with some Valentine's Day rebus work on Monday.

I have arranged for TA Loeffler (the mountain climbing lady from MUN) to come to speak to our class about the challenges that explorers face and how they overcome these challenges.  I am asking those interested to donate $1.00 toward her expedition fund.

Today we looked at a Health project that a student created in Ms. White's class.  We discussed ways to make titles stand out as well as the effective use of color.  Projects are due a week from tomorrow.

Today we used counters to help us find a particular product.  The students are being encouraged to use strategies to help them figure out the answers to facts they do not know.  We practiced the strategy of doubling today.   For example, if you know 2 groups of 8 is 16 then you should know 4 groups of 8 is 32.

Yesterday two students brought in postcards from Montreal showing pictures of St. Joseph's Oratory.  I told the students that when I studied French in Montreal I often saw people praying on the many steps leading up to the church.  As promised, here is a photograph of a pilgrim praying on the steps.  There are more than 280 steps to get to the top, that's a lot of praying!

Today we went to see the Spelling Bee.  The students found the "bee" quite entertaining and loved cheering for their Grade 4 peers.  Two Grade 4 students were the big winners!  Congratulations are extended again to Cam and Destiny who competed in earlier rounds of the spelling bee.