Math - Geometry Start / Reviewing Right Angles

We have started a new unit in geometry! We started Tuesday with learning about the different ways that we can classify shapes.

We opened up with the following question:

From there, students recognized that we could sort them by their sides and points. We looked at six different types of families (triangle, quadrilateral, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, and octagon!) along with a few common quadrilaterals.

Today we were learning all about angles inside shapes. Students worked with partners and went on an angle hunt in the classroom to find different types of angles. They needed to find at least 6 angles in total and 1/2 for each grouping. Here's what they found, differentiated by grade level:

January 17 - January Update + Half-day Wednesday

Hey there! We are back! January has been quite busy in the Junior class as we've readjusted back to school after the winter break. Here's a few things that we've been working on in class and that we have coming up.

Reminder - Half-Day (Wednesday, January 20)

Wednesday will be a half-day for students as the 2nd half of the day is a PD day. School ends at noon on that day. 

Social Studies

We have started into our new Social Studies units! Grade 3s are working on Living and Working in Ontario while the Grade 4s are working with Ms. B on Political and Physical Regions of Canada. We started the unit by looking at coordinates and practiced by playing a few whole-class games of Battleship. Students worked together to help figure out and guess coordinates against the other team.

Language / Math

Upon returning to school we set some new academic and personal goals for the rest of the school year. Students have been working on using visualization strategies while reading to picture what they are reading. We have been reading books and drawing images as a class to help us to picture what a scene looks like. In math, we have started area and perimeter. Students are measuring using standard units of measurement (millimetres, centimeters, meters) and non-standard units of measurement (lego pieces, cards, popsicle sticks). Tomorrow we will begin some math art by making our own drawings using post-it notes and finding the area / perimeter of the drawing.

There will be more updates tomorrow that will include photos of what we have been working on as well! Stay tuned!

Dec. 4 - Time to make some beats!

Today we started into our music program. Over the next couple of weeks, we'll be using Boomwhackers, a drum kit / percussion equipment and some music apps to make our own creations. Today we played some Christmas songs on the SmartBoard and guessed what they were. We also had some time to experiment with the website "Incredibox" that allows students to make their own beats.

Here are a few examples of beats that they have made. Check them out on our soundcloud page!

https://soundcloud.com/steps2music

Dec. 3 - Media / Art

Language / Google E-mails / Typing

In Language, students have been learning about Media and have been identifying examples for the 3 different types of media. Next week, the students will be creating either persuasive advertisements using print or creating a video advertisement for a product.

We also spent some time this week setting up our brand new school board e-mail accounts (expect to see students writing blog posts soon!), exploring Google apps (Google Draw, Google Docs, Read and Write) and some students spent time practicing typing. Considering the amount of time that students are using technology - both in and outside of the classroom -  it's incredibly important that they become proficient at typing and using two hands to type their work. We have been using the website BBC Dance Mat to have students practice their typing in a fun manner. We've also been playing some games to practice our typing speed. I highly recommend checking them out if you would like to have a student practice typing at home.

BBC Dance Mat: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z3c6tfr

Free Typing Games: http://www.freetypinggame.net/play.asp

The Junior class has been working on using and differentiating between Warm and Cool colours in our art class this week. After having a discussion about the differences between the two, Mrs. B had the students creating landscapes that differentiated between the landforms and the sky using Warm / Cool colours. They turned out really nice!

Nov. 18 - Social Skills / Math Update

In Ms. Ayesha's STEAM group today, the students learned about what is waiting for them as they participate in social skills.....

PIZZA!

After each positive STEAM class, students are able to choose toppings to put onto the pizza. Once the pizza is full, the students will be getting to make their own pizzas for lunch. 

In social skills today, students made their own hand fidgets using a balloon and flour and discussed the benefits of using hand fidgets and how to use them properly.

Math

In Math, students are learning about all of the different strategies that can be used to add and subtract. While we still teach the traditional method of placing numbers over one another and regrouping, we also learn about different ways that we can add or subtract that may make it easier for us to solve problems. We have been thinking about subtract as taking away but also the difference in-between two numbers and how that can help us to solve a problem.
Many students like to break number down into their Place Value when they add or subtract and are becoming comfortable mentally breaking them down in our Math talks that start the class.

Nov. 17 - Predicting!

This week in the Junior class we are working on using the reading strategy of Predicting! We have been reading texts as a class and looking at the context clues to make a prediction about what will happen next.

We started by reading a picture book, The Day the Crayons Quit, to make predictions as to why the crayons would be upset. As an introductory text, students were familiar with ways that the crayons would be used and made some spot-on predictions based on what they know.



We also watched a few clips from a "Good Idea, Bad Idea" video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dJOIf4mdus) to use context clues from a "Good Idea" to predict what the "Bad Idea" might be and have looked at how we use specific clues from texts that don't have pictures.

Connected to the idea of predicting, students were asked to choose an animal or character (from a video game, movie, or TV show) that they could provide some context clues so that other students would have the opportunity to predict it. We looked at providing sufficient and precise details when we were doing our writing so that students would have the ability to predict what the object might be. The clues will be hung up with a picture covered of the person / animal so they can check their answer. Here are a few of our classroom examples:

Nov. 10

We've been very busy in the Junior class at Steps the last couple of weeks! Here's a few things that we've gotten up to:

Health

In Health we have been examinig the food that we eat in more detail. After discussing the difference between processed and unprocessed food, we began to look at the actual sugar content in one serving in some of the food that we eat and weighed it out in actual sugar. The results were pretty surprising (and, truth be told, kinda disgusting!). Everyone was pretty grossed out by the amount of sugar that was in a single coke.

Art

We have been talking about Remembrance Day lately with it coming up tomorrow. Along with reading a book about "Flander's Fields" and discussing reasons why we celebrate Remembrance Day, we have also created some works of art with Ms. B. They are located next to our comprehensive "Wall of Honour" that highlights families at Steps who have had a member serve in the military. 

Language - Procedural Writing

Last week we started Procedural Writing and made a list of steps that we needed to do in order to make Pancakes (after we made them in Breakfast Club of course!). This week, we started on Monday with Procedural Writing by creating houses on Minecraft and taking pictures of the various steps. Today, we arranged the pictures in order, added in transition words between the steps and wrote a brief description of what you have to complete in each step. Throughout the week, we will look at including additional details into our writing as students will have the opportunity to describe how to create / do something of their choice.

Here are a few works that students created and their steps: