Christmas on Candy Cane Lane

After lots of hard work and practicing, the K-4s got to perform "Christmas on Candy Cane Lane" last Wednesday.  What a fantastic show!  We had positive comments from all who watched.

Here are some student quotes from our Concert Reviews:

"What a great show! We rocked! It was awesome!"   -Alyssa S.

"Everyone did a good job last night.  The costumes were really nice." -Morgun M.

"Last night was so, so fun but it was also nerve-wracking when I sang by myself." -Leah

"The best play ever.  Parents said it was awesome!" -Taylor T.

"The set was fabulous!" -Emily M.

"What a great show. What a fantastic set-up!  The lights, the awesome stage." -Brooke

"My favourite costumes were Santa, Elves, and soldiers." -Andrew

"The trees did a great job!"  -Hailey

"The singing was very good."   -Taylor P.

"My favourite part was where the soldiers came on stage."  -Cole

"Santa really rocked!"  -Ariel

"The soloists did a very good job and Ms. Knoll did a very good job too."   -Jerrett

"The highlight for me was when the soldiers came out." -Ryan

"I loved the show on Dec. 12th, 2012! I think 'tree 4s' line was funny with her accent!" -Haley J.






I'm still looking for photos from the show!  But here's some of the students in their costumes before the performance.

T.W.A.S.

T.w.a.s December, 14, 2012

This week at school we had our CHRISTMAS CONCERT! We practiced Monday, Tuesday and the Christmas concert was on Wednesday. I got to be Mrs. Claus. I was so nervous! On Wednesday we had to do the concert THREE TIMES. It was tiring. It was our last time to do Christmas concert.

On Friday it was my BIRTHDAY!! J Alyssa s brought cake for the whole class. It was a blast! Everyone had so much fun eating cake they loved it!!! J They sang happy birthday.

In ELA we finished the book “Frindle” and started to read the best “Christmas Pageant Ever”. It is a really good book and it is funny too. We also did read to someone and read to self it was really fun when we did read to someone everyone loved it!

By Taylor t and Taylor p JJJ

Christmas Cheer!

Just a reminder at our Christmas on Candy Cane Lane Concert, there will be two ways you can contribute to those less fortunate.

1. Ms. Wasney and Mrs. Tresoor have worked with S.P.I.N. club (Support People in Need) to make holiday gift tags.  Click here to see some examples of these awesome tags!  All funds raise will support people in need in Nicaragua.  $3.00 will get you 10 handmade tags.

2.  It's Christmas Hamper time!  If you are able to, please bring a non-perishable food item for donation.  This will support families in need in Winnipeg this holiday season.


Thanks in advance for your contributions! 

Arctic Scenes

   For our most recent winter art project, the grade fours created some fantastic Arctic Scenes.  They used many steps to create a beautiful icy terrain and colourful horizon.  First we cut out a polar bear template out of Contact Paper (clear sticky paper) and positioned the bear on our page.  We used tempera paints to paint our land and sky.  To add texture to our sky, we sprinkled salt on the wet paint.   To create a crackly ice look, we used Saran Wrap on wet paint, and then left it to dry.  After everything was dry, we peeled off our sticker, and voila! we had our snow-white polar bear. 

 Check out our gallery on Artsonia by clicking HERE.

 

Word Work Homework Activities

To make studying spelling more fun to do at home, I've compiled a list of fun ways to learn our words.  Students should complete at least two activities per week to get them ready for their next spelling test.  You can also find the document on my teacher website. Happy spelling!

Here are a few examples:

1.      Rainbow Words - Write your spelling words with a pen, pencil or crayon.  Trace over the word at least 3 times.  Use a different color each time.  Do this for each of your words. 

2.  Ransom Words - Look through magazines and newspapers to find the letters that make each of your spelling words.  Glue them together to make your spelling words. 

3.    Word Frames - Draw a letter frame around each word.  Pay attention to the tall letters, short letters and letters with tails.

Artsonia!

Well, I've finally gotten around to getting some artwork up on Artsonia.  I've added almost half of the classes Snowmen/women and hope to get the rest added in the coming days.  Click here to get to the Artsonia page for Bird's Hill School and have a look for our artwork! 

T.W.A.S. by Taylor P.

T.W.A.S

This week at school we had ELA. In ELA we did reading and writing we read to ourselves.  It was lots of fun. We also did writing.  It was fun too. We also did word work it was very, very fun too.

We also worked on portfolios and it was hard work and it took lots and lots of time to do them. We also made portfolios just for our art so it has its own little portfolio. We had lots of fun doing are portfolios, it was awesome!

We also had girls’ choir and boys choir we were practicing for the Christmas concert so that is why we have to go. But it is fun so it doesn’t matter that much as long as we have fun doing it then it’s okay. The people in the play had to practice for the Christmas concert it was fun to. Some of the students have their lines memorized already so that is great.

by Taylor P.

Music Video Stars!

This week the students got to be part of video making with Ms. Mitchell, our teacher librarian.  We had three bands  that each got to choose their own song to play along to.  We had very interesting choices: "Electric Avenue" by Eddy Grant, "Thriller" by Michael Jackson and "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" by Leslie Gore. 

The students met with Ms. Mitchell in their groups and filmed about a two minute music video.  Students filmed from some groups with Ms. M's guidance.  On day two, the same groups met to edit their videos.  They added special effects and credits.  I watched the final product and they look great!  What a fun way to end our unit!  We look forward to sharing these videos at our Student-led Conferences this week.

T.W.A.S. by Braelyn

TWAS

Hi everybody!  Today we got a new kid.  It’s a boy his name is Devlin.  If you see him, talk to him! He’s new! 

We did gym in the library. We did cup stacking for gym. We had lots of music. The girls had choir, the boys had choir- lots of choir! We did math. We practiced subtraction strategies, mental math and problem solving.

We had indoor bussing.  The office called each bus. 29 got called when bus 3 left the bus loop. And we also did read to someone and read to self.  In French we learned to say: summer, fall, winter, and spring.

By Braelyn S.

Bullying Awareness week

This past week was Bullying Awareness week.  We recognized this by taking part in presentations, discussions, watching videos and listening to stories about bullying.  Bullying takes on many forms and our students are becoming aware of all the many bullying behaviours.  We went over physical, verbal, relational and cyber bullying and what each looks like.  We discussed what to do if you're being bullied and ways to stop a bully. The class had many positive solutions for bullying and came up with ways to stand up for themselves and for others.  They came up with safe solutions that keep them out of harms way, like coming to a trusted adult. Please take the time to talk with your student about bullying and let them share just how knowledgeable they are!  You may be surprised!

Here are some links with great information on Bullying:

Redcross.ca/Standup


Bullying.org



Do Something.org

T.W.A.S. By Brooke and Alyssa S.

T.W.A.S.

Dear parents,

This week at school we did ELA. In ELA we read for 25 to minuets. Reading is fun. We also did writing. We like to write! ELA IS FUN!!!!! 

 

In gym we did tennis. We did self-rallying. It was so fun! We’re not really the best at it. We also did it off the wall. When we hit it off the wall it goes crazy! 

 

In social studies we learned and looked for all of Canada’s 18 rivers. It was really hard! It was hard because they were so tiny on the map. We also got our tests back. I think we did well!  

By Alyssa S and Brooke S JJJJJ

Our Musical Designs!

We finished our Sound Design Projects and just wrapped up our presentations of them last week. The students put in a lot of effort and created some fantastic musical instruments! The instruments varied, we had: guitars, drums, a banjo, shakers, a tambourine, up and down whistles, maracas, water xylophones, and even chimes! It was great to see the amount of effort the students put in. They were very proud of their instruments and excited to present them to their classmates.  Great job grade fours!! Our next step to celebrate their hard work is to create fun music videos where they "play" their instruments.  Now this will be interesting!

 

T.W.A.S. by Emmy S.

  T.W.A.S   Nov 2^nd,2012 

 Dear Mom, This week at school… in ELA we were reading the best Halloween ever. It is a really good book. To celebrate the BFG book that we finished we made a BFG dream jar. The dream jar is where we write dreams and put them in the jar. We were doing word work and I gave Andrew a spelling test. He got all the words right!!!

In science we had a science test review so it can help us for our real test on Tuesday. We were handing in our science design projects. Araya already presented her guitar to the class. She did a great presentation!!

In music/choir we were singing a song called imagine.We got in to groups and practiced recorder song called skin and bones. Me, Alyssa and Hailey.B are in group together. We listened to our opening song to the concert.

Emmy  

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween celebration in our class yesterday.  The students came some with some hilarious, and some spooky, costumes!  We had a fun afternoon starting with our costume parade and ending with snacks and a movie.  We watched "The BFG" which is based on the novel by Roald Dahl.  We finished the book in class about two weeks ago.  I think we all agreed that the book had many more great details, but the movie was funny and we enjoyed it.  We all appreciated the wonderful snacks sent by some of the families in our class.  Thanks to everyone for contributing!  Check out our great costumes!
 

Make your own photo slideshow at Animoto.

T.W.A.S. by a student!

T.W.A.S.

Dear parents.

This week at school in ELA we started a new book. It is called, “The Best Worst Halloween Ever.” It is by Barbra Robinson. It is about a kid that is telling the stories about Halloween with the Herdsman’s. The Herdsman’s are trouble makers that always sabataush everything and steel everything that is not nailed down.

This week at school in math we did the rounding song. It helps us memorize how to round thousands hundreds and tens. It is really quite easy if you remember how to do it. We also did social studies we did a lot about landscape and thinking about what landscapes are all the provinces. For instance which provinces are mountains and which ones have coastlines.

This week in music we sang hall of the mountain king. Then we acted it out. The story behind that song is that there is a man wondering a forest and he sees a giant mountain and he walks into a cave and sees a whole city inside. And he stays there for a long time and the people that live there are trolls. And one day the king of the mountain asks the man to merry his daughter. But the man has never met the king’s daughter. So that night he tries to escape from the mountain but he gets caught by Guards and never makes it out.   

          

The Rounding Rap

I found this little ditty online from another teacher blog.  The students are using "The Rounding Rap" to learn the rules of rounding.  Songs like this make it easy for us all to remember new information, aside from being FUN!

The Rounding Rap!

Find the place value and underline the digit.

Move to the right and circle it, get it?

Zero through four—Stays the same.

Five through nine— Add one is the game.

Now flex your muscles, like a hero.

Digits to the right, change to zero.

All the other digits stay the same.

Yo! You’re a winner in the rounding game!

 

 

And here the students are practicing rounding to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000.

  

Science Design Project

Please note that our design project for our sound unit was sent home Monday.  The students are asked to design and construct a musical instrument.  All the work for this assignment is done at home.  Of course, you may assist and guide the student through the process but please do encourage them to use their imaginations and use trial and error to get it right! 

I'm excited to see the instruments next Friday, November 2nd.  Good luck students, I know you'll work hard!

This Week at School...by Ms. D

The week has flown by, yet again!  I think we're all getting used to having four-day school weeks at this point. I was away at a French Professional Development yesterday, so I was only here for 3 days!  The students worked hard this week and completed their first spelling test.  I hope they all had time to study over the last week and a half.
In French, the students are gaining new vocabulary everyday.  They are able to do the calendar in French, and ask and respond to many questions.  Ask your student, "Comment ca va?" today to see how they are.  They may also be willing to share a song with you..."Bonjour mes amis"   The students are using French only to ask to go to the bathroom, or get a drink of water.  They're doing great and we've been having fun!
In science, we completed a design project.  They were asked to design a device to help them hear sound better using only 3 materials.  We had some interesting gadgets!  Most of the students designed objects that not only projected our voice at a higher volume, but also allowed us to hear better if we held it by our ear.  Way to go scientists!  Our next big project is coming home on Monday.  The students are eagerly waiting to begin this...they get to design and build a musical instrument.  I can't wait to see all the imaginative designs that they create. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  Students, see you Monday!

Art-Fall Leaves

Here are a couple of examples of the students' Fall Leaves art.  This was a two-step painting process which means it was quite messy!  (But well worth the mess I might add.)  They created this art by first painting using 3 different colours for leaves, and one for the trunk and branches.  As a second step, they added texture to their colours by using acrylic paint and tools such as sponges, cotton swabs, wooden sticks, etc.  They had a lot of fun with that!  After the paint dried, they had to use only their hands (no scissors!) to tear and glue all the pieces to make a beautiful and unique fall tree.  Here are just two examples of the great artists in our class: 

I hope to get all of our art on Artsonia soon.  I hope everyone enjoys these snowy fall days and has a warm and Happy Thanksgiving wherever you may be!

TWAS Oct 4 By Alyssa P.

TWAS     

This week at school we did ELA.   In ELA Ms. Dodds  read a chapter of the BFG. The chapter was called the palace.  It was a really good chapter.  

This week at school we did math. In math we did a pattern test review for our test on Tuesday.  This week at school we did social studies. In social studies we did mapping provinces.      I finished the first page and me and Nicholas coloured another page. This week at school we did science in science we did sound wave drawing. That meant that it would say what would a soft and low pitch look like?  Then you would draw what you think.  It was fun.             

This week at school we did a little bit of French.  We learned some of the colours.  I know that vert means green.            This week at school we went to gym.  In gym we played 2 games that were the same kind of the same idea but it was called mat ball.  1^st we played with mats and then we played standing on a bench.   It was very fun.  This week at school we had a scavenger hunt in the library and I was partners with Emmy.   It was awesome.      This week at school we had a sub.  Her name was Ms. K.   She was really nice.     I also had flag football on Tuesday.  It was very fun.   We did something where  people on every base line and there were lots of footballs and people in the middle in the red circle  and you tried to throw a football to the other side and the people in the middle need to bloke your throw. 

                  THANK YOU FOR READING      

BY ALYSSA

Cross Country Meet!

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Welcome to our Blog!

The school year is now up and running, and so is our blog!  On this site we'll share activities, observations, artwork and other happenings from our grade four classroom.
The students will also have opportunities to contribute to our blog by sharing some reflections and pieces of writing.
Check back to see what's new as the blog gets going!