Feb. 9 - Line of Symmetry

We continue our investigation into 2D Shapes this week by looking into lines of symmetry. We started by looking into lines of symmetry that we can find in our environment:

We then used a ruler as a line of symmetry to create our own designs that showed symmetry:

 

We'll be creating some art later this week that shows symmetry as well!

Feb. 8 - Spirit Week / Fractured Fairy Tales

Spirit Week / PD Day Friday
This week is Spirit Week! Please send in permission forms and money for the Tuesday trip bowling if  you have not yet already. Also, please note that this Friday is a PD Day so there is no school.

Our Spirit Day Activities are as follows:

Monday - Crazy Hair / Wacky Hat Dag + Little Ray's Repitles
Tuesday - Sports Day + Bowling
Wednesday - Superhero Day + Magician
Thursday - Wear Red or Pink or Both + Outdoor Fun Day

It's going to be a fun week!

Fractured Fairy Tales
We have been learning a bit about Fractured Fairy Tales in class and are just in the process of creating our own!
Fractured Fairy Tales share a lot of similarities to their original story but they often change an aspect in a key way. Here are some of the ways that they can be changed:

We have been reading some fractured fairy tales (The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs) and have seen some Youtube videos about them. 

As a class, we decided to make up our own ending to the classic Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, and added a not so happy after all ending. 

Students are either writing up and then drawing their fairy tales (Grade 4s) or creating Bitstrips about them (Grade 3s). 

Art catch-up!

I haven't posted some of the art that we have been working on in a while. Here's a bunch of the art that we have been working on in January with Ms. B!

Math / Art - In math, we created images using boxes in graph paper. Some students created their own designs while others decided to go for a neat 8-bit, old school video-game choice. They eventually replicated their work on the wall using post-it notes and found the area / perimeter of their work.

Monochromatic colour scene - Students did a great job with this piece, using darker tones on the outside and making the colour lighter as it went towards the middle. They then painted animals over it the following week. Here's our beautiful display board with them!

Textures - Students also learned about how to create different perceived textures in their drawing. Using crayons, they traced various design patterns and coloured over designs in the classroom. There were some very interesting choices used for texture (the agenda, the classroom speakers, and the "in" bin were all used).

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!