Proulx Farms

We had a really fun day at Proulx Farms today! Students really enjoyed checking out the animals, going on the wagon ride, playing on the hay and structures, and going through the mazes. Everyone who came back to school was absolutely exhausted. Very fun and successful first Field Trip!

Oct. 26 - Field trip Reminder, Descriptive Monsters + Pumpkin Inquiry!

Field Trip

Tomorrow will be our Field Trip to Proulx Farms! The students have been asking lots about it and are looking forward to it! Just a heads-up that the weather will be rather chilly in the morning (-2) and eventually warm up in the afternoon (+10) so the students are encouraged to wear layers and dress properly for the weather. They should also pack a lunch for the day as it will not be provided.




Language - Descriptive Writing using Monsters

Last week the students had the opportunity to create haunted houses and do some descriptive writing. They used interesting adjectives to describe their nouns and to provide more detail using their 5 senses. This week we will continue our descriptive writing by creating monsters!

The students today created their monsters and then wrote down a variety of adjectives that could be used to describe their monsters. Over the week, we'll be taking those words and writing a paragraph to describe in more detail how the monsters look. The goal is to be able to read the paragraphs and have other students be able to draw a semi-accurate portrayal of their monster.

Math - Pumpkin Inquiry

Today we also began our pumpkin inquiry. After reading the book How many seeds in a pumpkin?, the students began to inquire into ways that we would be able to estimate the amount of seeds in a pumpkin. Today we filled in this chart and scooped out our pumpkin seeds. We took estimates about the amount of pumpkin seeds and will come up with some strategies to test our estimates and find out how many pumpkin seeds there really are in there!

Week of Oct. 23 / Field Trip Form Reminder!

Language / Art
This week we got up to a lot of Halloween in language and art!

Mrs. B came in to help out with Art and the students had the opportunity to make some very spooky haunted houses! The kids quite enjoyed making the houses and putting some monsters in their houses.

The rest of the week, we began to brainstorm some ways that we can describe our houses and the monsters that lurk in them. We used our 5 senses to begin to identify some words to describe the monsters and houses. Students then either set out to write a descriptive paragraph or begin to pair some of their interesting adjectives with their nouns. As students finish their paragraphs, they begin to edit their writing using a checklist. Students are almost all done!

Health

In Health, we began to learn about the difference or processed and unprocessed foods. We ate some apples and applesauce and described differences between the two. We also read a book about how food is processed. We then looked at some of flyers and cut out foods that would fall into both categories. Next we'll be looking at sugar content in processed foods.

Science

The Grade 4s this week got to work with Mrs. B as they sorted some rocks and minerals and began to identify the differences between them. They also began to chart down what they know and what they would like to learn in the unit.

Field Trip Reminder

A reminder that we have a Field Trip next Tuesday (Oct. 27) and need student's permission slips returned back to school as soon as possible. 

Hope that everyone has a great weekend and stays tuned for some fun Halloween themed activities that will be coming out next week!

Starting Descriptive Writing with.... Pop Rocks!

With the change of colours and decor taking place outside, it's the perfect time of year to begin some descriptive writing!

At the start of this unit, we're focusing on our 5 senses to add details to our writing. We'll be looking at adjectives and using similes / metaphors in the upcoming weeks to add details to our writing.

We started the unit by tasting a very bubbly candy - Pop rocks!

 Students used their 5 senses - taste, touch, smell, sight, and listening - to describe their experience of eating Pop Rocks candy. They were encouraged to write down a number of descriptive words that we'll be putting into sentences to write a paragraph about the experience. Here are a few students' ideas:

Five Point Scale / Oct. 15

Five Point Scale

Every morning we have a classroom check-in where we review students' personal goals, they can share something that they did the previous night, and we ask them to identify where they're feeling on the 5-point scale. 

We use the 5 point scale in the classroom to help students to identify their emotions and stress levels, as well as identifying corresponding physical signs. We try to use the language of the 5-point scale throughout the day. Many of the students in the class are interested in Minecraft so we've also incorporated a Minecraft version of the scale. Ms. Kelsey is working individually with students to help them to identify appropriate and effective strategies that they can use at different points in the scale (Ex:"if you feeling you are at a 2, what can you do?"). 

Oct. 15

Today in Math we continued our investigation into Place Value. After discussing some of the work that we completed yesterday about showing different ways of representing numbers and standard form (ex: 5180 = 5000 + 100 + 80), we played a new game today that combined Place Value and Probability.

Gr. 3 students used the attached sheet while students in Gr. 4 had a thousands column included. The game was played by students taking turns rolling dice and deciding which column they needed to place the number in so that they could make a number that was larger than their partner's. The whole class did a great job thinking about placing value, considering the probability of dice rolls, and working really well with their partners. It's a game that could also be played at home for some extra practice to think about Place Value and to work on thinking about representing numbers in standard form.

Reminder - Tommorow's Parent STEAM Information Session / Oct. 13

Steam Information Session Tomorrow
Hope that everyone had a very nice Thanksgiving weekend.

Just a reminder that the Steam (our social skills program) Parent Information and Open House is tomorrow!
The Steam session runs from 1:30 - 2:15 with an open house afterwards from 2:15 - 4. It will be a great time to see what we have been working on at the start of the year.

October 13

Today was the beginning of our Place Value unit in Math. Much of our math program will eventually be based in problem-solving that will begin with an open question that allows students to navigate their own approach.
Today, students were instructed to roll a dice to create either 4, 3, or 2 digit numbers, place them in order from greatest to least, and write how they knew that that was the correct order. Here are a few examples of student work:

This student used a chart to organize their works and were able to recognize that they needed to look to the hundreds column when organizing their answers.

 This student decided not to use a chart but was able to show the two different ways that they could organize their work.

This student very effectively used a chart to show their work and was able to identify in writing how they would use a chart to order numbers from greatest to least.
Today we ran out of times to compare results so tomorrow we will be looking over our results and discussing the benefits of creating a table when looking at place value.

Also, since it was indoor recess today, some of the students worked together to piece together the first puzzle of the year!

Welcome to the Junior Class Blog!

Hello and welcome to the Steps Junior Classroom Blog!

This site will be kept up to date throughout the week and will serve as a way to show what we are working on inside of the Junior class. You will be able to see what we are learning about in the class and some of the language that we use to discuss topics, what educational apps we like to use, see examples of student work, and some of our classroom projects!

The calendar will be updated regularly to inform you of upcoming school events such as PD days and holidays, special days (Spirit week, Field Trips), and other dates of importance (ex: STEAM meetings). In the "Contact Information" tab you will find phone numbers for the class and to contact student transportation.

There are a number of educational links at the side that connect to a variety of sites that we use or will be using in the classroom. Future blog posts will expand on some of these educational apps and how we use them.

Junior Class Art

At the beginning of the year, we always like to begin with some line art and the different ways that we can use lines. The Juniors constructed some really neat pieces 2-d and 3-d pieces of art that show some of the different ways that we can use lines!

With the beginning of fall, we also started some fall art. They took some inspiration from Van Gogh with our "Wheatfield with Crows" as they added their own personal touches to some of the Van Gogh's work. We also decided to use pastels to create pumpkins and give the pumpkins a nice warm colour and feeling compared to the cool colours that we often used in our backgrounds. 

With Thanksgiving this weekend, we hope that everyone enjoys the holidays and has a wonderful break. With the blog up and ready to go, we'll be posting much more about the class next week!