Bus Info for Friday Dismissal

Friday Dismissal is 12:00.  Two important bussing changes for Friday only.  Students who normally take bus 104 in the PM will take bus 81 on Friday.  Also, students who normally take bus 99 will take bus 98.

Spelling Words December 19th

Santa's Workshop!

It was a great day at Santa's Workshop.  Thank you to all the volunteers who made it possible. If you want to see some of the favorite moments from the kids in this class, click on the comments at the bottom of the post.

Mr. Carr

Government Visit

Comic Create by Bob - Technology in the classroom

Today we had people from the government come in to see what effect the netbooks have on our learning. I believe they have a positive effect and I hope that the government thinks so too.
     When we have the netbooks we can play math games on the class website, write on Microsoft word and listen to reading on tumble books. Not to mention lots of other things that we can do on the netbooks.
     We have lots of fun, we enjoy ourwebsite, and we hope you liked being a part of our class as we used technology to help us learn.

From: Mr. Carr’s Class

Typed by:
Arthur

Our Blog - A Bulgarian Post For Some of Our Visitors

Уважаеми, посетителиБих искал да Ви посрещнем в нашия клас 4 клас блог. Ние имаме публикации в блога ни от началото на годината под файла нашия блог. Ние се публикуване на блог от първата седмица на училище. За домашна работа, ние просто трябва да се учат нашите правопис думи, но ако ние забравяме или искате да сортирате играе играта и проучване на думи, можем да отидем към блога, в долната част на страницата има кръстословица, която има нашата правопис думи. Ние първо трябва да разбера думата, след това го въведете, след като всичко, което прави натиснете проверите, за да се види, ако ги има право. Блогът ни помага да се научи, защото можем да прочетем на барабанни книги, Научете математика по математика връзки, и г-н Кар дори пуснати на Google Translate, тя ни помага със социални изследвания, защото можем да учат други езици, повечето от тези връзки са на една от двете страни в блога. Има още една връзка Харесва ми, тя се нарича Новини децата, че е почти като нов доклад, но по думите на децата, така че е интересно да.Блогът е наистина интересно, защото почти всеки ден има нов пост, за да коментирате. Харесва ми блог и се надявам да направите за да.

Student Writing Samples Coming Home Today

The student will be bringing home sample of a narrative today, as well as a sample of an appropriately written piece from another grade 4 student in New Brunswick.  The studenst were to write down the following instructions on their page, and we discussed the steps in class.

1.  Read your story to your parents (rough copy)

2.  Parents are to read "Butterfly Dancer" (photocopy)

3.  With your parents, compare both stories

4.  Directions will also be on the blog (and here they are)

First, I would like to draw you attention to the fact that the "Butterfly Dancer"  meets the expectations for the end of grade four.  We can use this example to help gauge the progress of each student, and make recommendations as we move forward with the lessons about writing.  With this piece of writing, there is a description of each of the 6 writing traits we are working on, and the rationale for "Butterfly Dancer being labeled "Appropriate".

In this assignment, student began with a comic strip to organize their ideas into a beginning, middle and end.  As well, they were instructed to create a problem and a solution.  From here, students used each block of the comic to generate paragraphs for a story with each paragraph focusing on only one block of the comic.  In some cases, students had to combine more than one block in a paragraph.

Students, with the exception of a couple, are bringing home a hand written rough copy.  This is a valuable piece of the writing process as it allows you to see the revisions and edits that may have been made.  If students were able to complete this process in due time, they were able to use Microsoft Word to publish it and/or an internet based program for publishing comics.

There have been numerous conferences with peers and the teacher during this writing process.  Students bringing this sample home is a continuation of this process since it is an opportunity to evaluate their own work.  Please return the signed writing samples, and on Monday the students will write in their journal about the home conference to record their thoughts.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Have a great weekend.

Mr. Carr

Quotation Corrections - After a Technical Adjustment

For those of you who use various technologies often, you might appreciate the way one technology can malfunction only to be replaced by another technology.  Today, our projector decided to play dead, so our lesson on quotation marks hit a snag.  Luckily, our classroom blog is an established part of our classroom routine.  After making a quick, on-the-spot post, the students were back in business.

As you will see from the sentences below, not all correction are quotation marks.  This generated quite a few questions from the students, and required them to look closely, and think critically about the use of quotation marks.

"Have a great night!" exclaimed Mr. Carr.

Please correct these sentences:


Ryan said that he and Matt would play basketball after school

Mom said while you play basketball, I'll bake cookies

Ryan asked when Matt could come over to play

Mom answered that Matt could come over after lunch

Spelling Words December 5th

Sid The Kid Makes His Big Comeback

Click on the image of Sidney Crosby to read the news article.

What is this?

Can you explain to me what this is?  Try to think of as many different ways to explain it in one comment.

Math Question

Look at the squares in this picture.  The pattern of squares is as follows: 1square, 2squares, 3squares, 4squares, 5squares.  Count the number of dots on the perimeter of each grouping, and put this information in a chart.  Do you see any patterns in the information you listed in your chart?  Please comment and explain your pattern rule if you do.

Patterns in Math

Hi Everyone,

Here is a sample of a little review lesson on using a table to record information from a pattern.  After drawing and labeling the triangles, we counted the dots around the perimeter, recorded the information, and found two pattern rules.  Then we used this information to predict how many dots would be on the perimeter of the 20th triangle.

Spelling Words for November 28

Good Morning Everyone!

Here are your spelling words for the week:

Canada has a New $100 Bill!

Click on the "Teaching Kids News" title to the right, and read about our new $100 bill.

Have a good weekend!

Mr Carr

Thinking About an Array and Multiplication

Hi Class,

I spent the day today, Tuesday, in class and I will be in class again on Wednesday! I was at a meeting learning about some new strategies for my job. I thought it would be interesting to change the way we do our journal entries since I am not there, and this way I can communicate with you during the class a little bit. Instead of answering the following question in your Math Journal, I would like you to post a comment to this post. Remember to sign your reporter name so I know who you are!

Watch this video first and watch how the different arrays are made right in front of your eyes! Remember to comment on the math questions, not just about the song.



If I had the question 8 x 7, how and why would an array help a person answer this question? Try to use key words like factor, skip counting, grouping, visual, and product in your answer/comment.

Spelling Words November 21

Map of the Regions of Canada

Below this map is a link to a little interactive map of the Regions of Canada.  You may notice that the titles and regions from the link and from this picture look a little different than in our books in class.  However, the descriptions are still valid and may help you visualize Canada from coast to coast.  It is important to realize that different people have different opinions, and it is important to listen to the reasons why the opinions are different.  Can you find the differences from what we have been talking about in class?

Regions of Canada

Mr. Carr

Friday Tests...

We will have our Spelling Test tomorrow, and we have also be having a multiplication test tomorrow as well.  The students have started learning about multiplication and about different ways to represent a multiplication equations using arrays and word problems.  Tomorrow, Students will have 3 minutes to answer 25 questions that have 3 as one of the factors.  Good Luck!

My name is jacob b

my favorite subject is gym,and I am really happy that I can report this.

My Name is Mary

My favorite subject in school is gym. I love reporting things, because its fun.

My Name is Michael T

My favourite subject is Math and Art too.

I'm so excited to report to you .

My Name is Rose

Hi, my favourite subject is Art, and I am really looking forward to reporting about this.

My name is Dawn

My favorite subject is gym class , and I am really looking forward to reporting this.

My name is Bob

Hi, I'm Bob my favorite thing to do is art do you like art? if you want to be a reporter it is super FUN!!!

My name is John

Hi, my favorite subject is gym, and I like being a reporter.

My Name is MICHAEL

Hi my name is MICHAEL and I like Gym as my favorite subject.

my name is ross

My favorite subject is social studies because I like learning about my country. I am also

looking forward to being a reporter.

My name is Marie

Hi! My Favourite subject in school is Art. I am very EXCITED to be a reporter for the class.

My name is Alice

My favorite subject is art because it can express my feelings on paper, and I am super exited to be a reporter.

My name is James

My favourite subject in school is p.e.  I am excited to be a reporter because you get to tell people stuff.

What is Bullying?

Today, as part of Bullying Awareness week, the class brainstormed ideas about what bullying means to them.  After we generated the ideas, we discussed the different kinds of bullying; social, physical, and verbal.  As part of the discussion, emphasis was placed on how the bully and the person being bullied might feel.

My name is Robin

Hi,my favourite subject is art. I am so so excited to be a reporter.

My name is Jade

Hi, I like reading and I am so excited to write to our class blog.

My Name is Katherine

Hi ,my favorite subject is art and gym, and I am really looking forward to reporting on the Blog.

My name is Catherine

Hi,my favorite subject is reading and writing and I am really looking forward to reporting for the class.

My Name is James

My favourite subject is Art, and i'm looking forward to being a great reportour.

mynameisRobi

My Name Is Cathrine.H

My most loved subject is art and gym!!!!!!

I am so exited to be a reporter on this blog and i hope you love my post and i hope that you can read all my posts

HI my name is jacob

In school my fvorit thing is gym and i am ecsited to be a re porter.

My name is Elizibeth

Hello my favorite subject is reading and writing I think it is writing and reading is awsome and I am looking forward to reporting for the class!

Spelling Delay

Yesterday we had an assembly that went longer than expected.  The students are just getting their words today for the test on Friday.

Weekend Reading?

Here is an interesting site that writes about current events around the world.  The difference with this site compared to other current event sites is that this one is targeted for young people.  If you want to, you can even search the content by grade level, and the tag will list all the articles that are suggested for that specific grade.

Teaching Kids the News

Happy Reading!

Mr Carr

Social Studies Quiz Postponed

Our Remembrance Day Ceremony went longer than expected today, so we didn't have the opportunity to do the Social Studies Test.  Not to Fear boys and girls, Monday is a new day and we will do it then.

Have a great long weekend!

Mr. Carr

Canada Quiz Coming Up

Hi Everyone,

We will be having another quiz on Canada on Thursday.  I have attached a link to a map of Canada to assist the students who are interested in studying at home.  The students will receive a blank map of Canada, and they will be required to label the provinces and territories properly.  Some students have already completed this quiz without making any errors, and those student will not be require to rewrite this quiz.  Good luck to everyone, and please let me know if you would like me to make some more time available during the school day for studying.

Map of Canada

Healthy Snack

Every Tuesday at the beginning of our first recess we tally our healthy snacks in the classroom.  We did pretty well last week, but there was some tough competition from the Halloween treats.  Congratulations to Mrs. Genge's grade three class, and to Mrs. O'Neill's Kindergarten Class to taking the October Healthy Eating Trophy.  I visit the winners each month and show them how to make a healthy smoothie; an of course, we get to try it out.

See our Health Snack Guide by clicking here.

Florida Part 3

This will be my last blog. Tomorrow I am on my way home. I am going to tell you about what I did today . I went to Universal Studios and the Island of Adventure. I went to Harry Potter and Jurrasic Park. I did the Jurrasic river adventure which was scary at the end because it had 1 Velcoraptor,2 that sprayed water at us and 1 T-Rex head followed by an 84 foot drop and we got really wet. We went on 2 rides at Harry Potter and one was scary because it was in the dark and there were spiders that spit water at you, dementors and 1 dragon that srayed fog at us. I also went on Flight of the Hippogriff and you got to see Buckbeak and Hagrid's house. We tried butterbeer ( not real beer ) and it was delicious. It 's been great to have this big vacation and I will see you all Tuesday.

Volcanoes in British Columbia?

Today in Social Studies we were talking about the different geographical regions of Canada, and we were surprised to learn about volcanoes in British Columbia.  Here is a link to a PDF file from Simon Fraser University that talks a little bit about this topic.  It might be difficult reading, but you should be able to find some interesting facts.

Volcanoes in BC

Hope you find this interesting, and have a great weekend!

Mr. Carr

florida part 2

I haven't blogged until now because I was up too late! On Halloween, me and my mom and dad all dressed up as Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach. We went trick or treating in the magic kingdom and tehre was a big fireworks show! There was a big halloween parade that started with the headless horseman. I met a boy from British Columbia, his name was Thomas. Mickey, Minney, Donald and Daisy were all dressed up. Donald was a Knight and Mickey was a Jester. Minney was Wizard and Daisy was a princess. It was really fun. After the parade and when I was done Trick or Treating, when we came to our hotel room, we found a big surprise of halloween treats and toys! I was REALLY excited! I thought somebody messed our room up because of the sign on the door and spider webs!

Here's a picture of me at Legoland!

Spelling Test Tomorrow

In case students need these words again for one last study session, here are the 10 common words for the students:

always

another

new

very

your

array

factor

product

double

multiplication

Healthy Snack

Every Tuesday at the beginning of our first recess we tally our healthy snacks in the classroom.  We did pretty well today, but there was some tough competition from the Halloween treats.  Congratulations to Mrs. Genge's grade three class, and to Mrs. O'Neill's Kindergarten Class to taking the October Healthy Eating Trophy.

See our Health Snack Guide by clicking here.

Florida part one.

On Saturday we got up at 3 AM and got on 2 planes 1 bus and then we arrived at Walt Disney World. Then we went to EPCOT and only saw 3 countries which were Mexico, Norway and Canada. It was late at night so we could not see any others. We did 7 rides and then saw awesome fireworks! In one we were in a viking ship with no oars or sails and it was in water. we got stopped by a three headed troll, we saw 3 polar bears, we went downhill in the water then saw oilrigs. It was Epic!

Today, we went to Legoland and saw almost all of it. We went on two scary roller coasters, one was called the dragon the other was called Coastasaurous! On Coastasaurus we saw 5 dinosaurs made out of legos! My mom and Dad got us lost in the rental car on the way back to the hotel! when we came back we went in the pool, my Dad said I was crazy!

Tomorrow I will try to add some photos.

Jacob

Homework

Some students did not complete a list of provinces and territories with the corresponding capital cities today, so they are bringing home their list and an atlas to finish it tonight. Also, the spelling test is tomorrow so check out the crossword puzzle at the bottom of this blog page for a fun challenge to help you study your words. By the way, the students were excited today because we have our first beetle, be sure to ask them about the details. You can use the "mealworm" label on the left of the page to see a picture from earlier. Beetle pictures will be posted soon.

Have a good evening!

Art Class - Learning About Perspective

This is a challenging task for people to learn, but our class did an excellent job trying it out. If you want to talk about the process with your child, some key words are perspective, vanishing point, horizon, bird's eye view, eye level, and worm's eye view. Great job everyone!

Crossword Puzzle at Bottom of Page

I have created a crossword puzzle at the bottom of the page using last weeks spelling words. Simply scroll down and you will find it. Click on any space in the puzzle to get started.

I have also hidden one spelling mistake in the clues for the words, can you find it?

Have Fun!

Announcements

UNICEF

During the days leading up to Halloween, we would like to encourage fund raising for UNICEF by having the following special activities/ days:

Tuesday, Oct. 25 - Colourful, Mismatched Socks Day

Wednesday, Oct. 26 – Halloween Face Day (no masks)

Thursday, Oct. 27 – Wild Hair Day

Friday, Oct. 28 – Crazy Hat Day

Monday, Oct. 31 – Black and Orange Day

Students will need to pay 50¢ to participate in each day’s event (total for all five events would be $2.50). We hope everyone will be able to take part in the activities.

It has been a busy start to the year for fundraising, but your support is greatly appreciated.  If you would like to take a more active roll in fundraising for UNICEF, pledge forms are available in the classroom upon request.

Students are encouraged, however, to bring in some spare pennies for our class penny drive.

Spelling Test on Thursday

before, into, I'm, off, our, reading, Social Studies, writing, gym, French

Student Blog Posts!

Our students have begun posting to the Class Blog!  Please check out the kind of Math we are doing in class by reading the post from our class reporter Jade.  Her post is one example of the kinds of word problems our students created today - see if someone in your house can explain how to solve it.  Great job today everyone!  One Last question for the day...Can you help Calvin out a little bit?

Student Math Word Problem

The Missing Books

Mrs. Oliver owns a library. She has 1256 books and she found 225 more books. How many books does she have altogether?

Scientific Inquiry - How Crayfish Molt

This was the scene last Friday when the students arrived to find that a Crayfish had molted.  At first, many thought that one of our pets had died, but the discussion that ensued determined this hypothesis to be false.

The Book Fair!

Photo Taken by Marie

Yesterday Mr.Carr's class went to the Book Fair. I have never seen so many books in my life! There were , adventure books, funny books,spooky books, mystery books and comic books at every level. Our school book fair also sold bookmarks, fancy pencils, toys and posters, there was even a draw. There was so much to look at but we only had 15 minutes to buy the things that we wanted. The best thing of the school year is the book fair. We get to go Back to the book fair today!''

School Bus Safety

Today Mr.Carr's class went outside on a bus and learned about bus saftey! We talked about the the rules and what to do when there is an emergency. One of the rules was take 3 giant steps away from the bus so you don't get hurt and whisper on the bus so you don't distract the bus driver. We also got to go jump out the back so we would know what to do when there is a real emergency. It was fun and helpful.

Artistic Cooperation

Mrs Goguen's grade 5 class and our class partnered up during a couple of Art classes to create Works of Art using only basic shapes and colour.  Using geometric shapes and a variety of colours for expressive and representational purposes, students were able to create unique examples of artistic cooperation.

Weekly Spelling Words

The students will be bringing home new spelling words for the week, and they will also be bringing home the spelling test from last week to be signed and returned.  If a student spelled a work incorrectly on the test, then those words are added to his/her "Words to Retry" list in their Word Work book.  Then, when the student is choosing words for the "My Words" section of the list, they should choose first from the "retry" list.  Here are the 10 common words for the week:

by, bye, can't, could, don't, regroup, addition, subtract, map, Math

Happy studying!

What Are Meal Worms?

A couple of meal worms...
maybe looking for that perfect piece of oatmeal.

In a little plastic dish in the back of the class sitting quietly beside the fish tank, meal worms lay waiting for their next stage of life while eating carrots and oatmeal.





Go to Mrs. Dick's Class site for more info!

Announcement

Hi Everyone,

Spelling test tomorrow since there is no school on Friday.  Also, Picture Day will be October 18th.

Have a good evening!
Mr. Carr

Spelling Words

Students are bringing home their spelling words today so they can study for their spelling test on Thursday.  The little list sheet in their communication folder can stay at home.  The student will have 10 common words, and they will have 5 words they have chosen for just themselves.  Here are the 10 common words:

Science, habitat, survival, crayfish, shelter, also, everything, laughed, next, knew

Why Do We Regroup?

We will continue to discuss the idea of regrouping in class.  Today, we learned how to use an interactive online application to see regrouping in action.  Ask your child to create an addition question and explain regrouping using the link called "Base Ten Addition" on the top right of the page.  When you open the link, you may have to read the instructions if you are having trouble with it; I had to read them to remember how to work the application.

Addition and Subtraction In Grade 4

Here is another image from the grade 4 curriculum document that speaks to the difference in the Math curriculum between grade three and four.  As you can see from the homework sent home tonight, we still review the addition and subtraction of 3-digit numbers.

The Latest Addition to Our Class

There are two crayfish in our tank now, but they are a little shy.

Terry Fox Walk

Photo referenced from PeacePulse

Today was the Terry Fox Walk at our school.  I always find it amazing how the story still finds a way to make a connection with students who never lived through the experience.  The students truly understand the importance of the Marathon of Hope, and our walk today was an excellent display of our school's support for cancer research.

Visit the Terry Fox Foundation for more information about the organization.

Today the students will be bringing home a notebook titled "Word Work."  In class, we have started creating personalized spelling lists to help create a sense of meaning to the words the students study.  Each student will have the same "Topic Words", and the same "No Excuse Words", and then each student will have 5 words they have selected personally.  In class, we have been practicing different ways to study words, and they are to practice at home tonight.  If you have any questions, please contact me.  Thanks.  Mr. Carr.

Our Fish Tank is Ready

Today we learned how to test the Ph of the water in the fish tank.  Everything looks good!  We have a Ph of 7.8, and that is acceptable for tropical fish.  Maybe by the end of this week, (certainly by Monday) we will have some friendly fish in our aquatic habitat.  Stay tuned!

Grade Three to Grade four...What's the Difference?

This is a image clipped from the curriculum document.  Sometimes these outcomes are easy to interpret, and other times they are not, but it will help you see the connection to the math homework that comes home.  After speaking with people tonight at the open house I thought I would try this to see if it helped communicate what is happening in the classroom - I will try to post this when the Math homework goes home.  The nice thing about this little table, is how it compares the grade four outcome to the same concept in grade three.  I will put a few of these up over the next little while to see how well they are received.

Mr.Carr

Open House Tonight

I am looking forward to meeting everyone tonight at the open house.  After the general meeting in the gymnasium at 6:30, I will have a few points about the classroom, curriculum, and our class blog, but mostly it is a great opportunity to meet the "new" teacher, and get a sense of what your child's classroom is like.

See you soon,

Mr. Carr

Information on Grade 4 Reading and Writing

Understanding Provincial Achievement Standards in Reading and Writing

The above link takes you to a PDF file that offers information about the reading and writing assessments this year.  It is difficult to read the student writing sample on this file, but if you would like to see more specific information about writing samples for grade four, please contact me directly.

Social Studies - Canada's Political Boundaries

Image referenced from : Free US and World Maps.com

Today we were identifying the political boundaries within Canada, and a few students ran out of time before they were able to finish colouring their map. This is the map we were using in class to help see a colourful representation of the boundaries, and it was requested that I place the map on the blog as a reference by the students who needed to finish.

For more information, Natural Resources Canada has an excellent selection of maps to explore.

Internet Safety Introduction

Today we started talking about Internet Safety in preparation for when we start using the Netbooks. Although this video is produced in the United Stated, it carries an effective message to for students. Referring to the internet as a large city, this video helps students understand the importance of staying safe, and it highlights some important points that should be committed to memory. Internet safety will be a regular topic throughout the year.

Book Orders Due Wednesday

A reminder: book orders are due Wednesday, September 14th. Part of the morning routine includes the students coming into the class and placing their communication folders on their desk with any contents taken out and placed on top. This helps facilitate efficient and effective communication. The orders will be submitted to Scholastic on Friday.

Lunch orders are due Friday, the 16th. The order forms were sent home on Monday so please contact me if you did not receive the order form or have misplaced it. No late orders can be accepted.

Thanks.

Mr. Carr

Math Game Website

Hi Everyone,

Here is a link to some straight forward math games. Some of the instructions may take a second look to understand the game, but for the most part, the games look effective for general practice.

http://resources.oswego.org/games/

Our First Week of School

"During our first week of school, we met our new teacher, Mr. Carr, and we met the students in our class for this year. It was also nice to see some of our previous teachers. By sharing responsibilities in our table groups, we made literacy posters for literacy day by making large acrostic poems. This week we had two awesome music classes. We learned a new song about Canada, and one about Africa."

The above paragraph is a shared writing lesson where the whole class worked together to come up with the information. As well, they worked together to add details and combine ideas in each sentence. We didn't get as far as we expected since we had to practice a fire drill, but this is a good start. If in the future you ever wanted to filter the posts to see only the shared writing, under the heading on the left "Filter Posts", click on the word "shared" and only the shared writing pieces will appear.

This was an excellent first week of establishing roles, routines and procedures. In Math we explored different ways of representing numbers to 1000. If you would like more information on this, write a number on a piece of paper, and your child should be able to represent this number in a variety of ways.

In Language Arts, we have begun learning procedure for the Daily 5 -a system to help facilitate individualized classroom activity. As well, we have been writing in our journals, and reviewing/practicing the recount form of writing.

Exploration is the theme that runs through the grade four Social Studies Curriculum; and accordingly, we have started to explore the provinces and territories of Canada.

Thank you to the students for making this first week successful, and have a great weekend. Please check the communication folder for new correspondence, and Book Orders are due on Wednesday, September 14.



Mr.Carr