Celebrating Character in Our Learning Community

Learning Goal for Character Education

Celebrating our peers character achievements!

Dear Families,
First off, I would like to say thank you to those students and their parents for taking the time to visit our Classroom Blog each week!  It is an opportunity to listen, learn, see, and celebrate what's happening in our Learning Community!  I'm encouraging you to continue to do so as your child is working extremely hard to improvement their achievement academically, socially and behaviourally to REACH FOR THE TOP!

Character Education:
Last week, we developed a Learning Goal to help us all continue to demonstrate Character in our thoughts, words and actions "even when no one is watching!"  When our behaviour is caring, cooperative, empathetic, honest, inclusive, optimistic, respectful, and responsible (Character Traits), then we can do our best thinking and learning to achieve our personal best.  As a teacher, I am passionate about helping your child develop and consistently demonstrate character in and out of the classroom to help them be their best self.  I am truly surrounded with the most thoughtful, kind and loving children!  We are off to an amazing start to our year together.
Character Education Assembly:
Our next assembly is on Nov. 4th at 9:15am to celebrate Cooperation.  Our class is responsible for presenting this character trait.  This week, your child will be bringing home the lyrics to our song (pink sheet) that we will be performing.  Please take a moment to practice the lyrics at home too; your support is greatly appreciated :)  On the day of the assembly, I am requesting each child to wear a white shirt and black (or dark) pants.  I will be providing coloured bandanas to complete our 'Community Look!'

Language:
Last week, I introduced "Literacy Workstations" to help your child build upon their growing reading and writing skills.  I have divided my students into small groups; we have 5 workstations - "Guided Reading, Word Work, D.I.R.T., Crazy Shorts, and Reading/Responding Workshop."  Please ask your child about each workstation and what their responsibility/task is at each one.  I am pleased with their enthusiasm for this initiative and their progress thus far, each student has enjoyed "working together to get the job done!"  (Note: I had a picture to share here, but unfortunately, it's having difficulty downloading.  So please stay tuned for the pictures of our "Literacy Workstations" so you can see your child in action).

Math:
In math, students are working in small groups to develop a Survey Question, collect data for their survey, and then develop a graph to display their information.  Once they have completed their graph, they are expected to read, interpret and draw conclusions from their data. 
Here are some pictures of the students working cooperatively as they begin this task: 

Eryn, Daniel, Jax: "What is your favourite TV show?"

Abigail, Paige, Izzy, Anjoli: "What is your favourite animal?"

Alexander, Grace, and Jakeb: "What is your favourite house pet?"

Xavier, Ryan, William: "What is your favourite pet?"

Mikaila, Josie, Carrie-ann: "What is your favourite kind of animal?"

Bradley, Steven, Alex: "What is your favourite sport?"

As you can see, we have many animal enthusiasts in our class and they are curious about which ones are their peers' favourite!  But we do have a sports question - yay!

Science:
We had an exciting end to our day on Friday!  Here's why ... check it out!!!  Below is a set of pictures of the winners of our Earth, Moon and Mars Plane Competition!  The students had a blast participating in this hands-on experiment!  We had a friendly competition to see whose plane would fly the furthest.  The students in this class displayed excellent sportsmanship as we all had a smile on our face because in the end, we're all winners :-)  I am so proud of their efforts in this experimental science lesson!

Congratulations to our Earth Plane winners: Ryan, Josie, Eryn!

Congratulations to our Moon Plane winners: Xavier, Trista, Paige!

Congratulations to our Mars Plane winners: Wyatt, Eryn, Sammi, Josie

Websites to visit:
www.spellingcity.com I showed the students this site on Friday.  It is a program that will assist in our Word Study Program, it's both interactive and FUN!  Please give it a try with this week's words :)
www.math4.nelson.com This math website offers games, questions to help build upon math skills that we're currently working on and it follows the math resource I'm using in class.
Thank you to Makayla Peca (Izzy's sister) for introducing me to these two websites.  I can now share them with my new students and their families to further support their language and math skills! 
Makayla - you're sooo thoughtful, kind and amazing!!!  I adored being your Grade 6 teacher!

Quote:
"Be kind.  Help others.  Be truthful.  Be responsible.  Be a good friend.  Work together.  Play fair.  Share.  Have respect.  BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!"  
Thank you Julia for giving me this gift to share!  I have it posted in our Classroom Community as a reminder for us all.  I will cherish this always!!!       

Namaste,
Miss Gill

World Record for the Largest Practical Science Lesson

Dear Families,

Check us out!  Each student in our Classroom Community participated enthusiastically on Friday along with numerous other classrooms across the globe in the World Record for the Largest Practical Science Lesson -  Exploring Gravity and Atmosphere with Paper Airplanes!  The lesson was designed specifically in helping set a Guinness World Record for the largest science lesson.  In this lesson, students are learning about gravity and atmosphere by looking at the differences in their effects on Earth, the Moon, and Mars.  This experiment was a great opportunity to introduce and explore topics such as:  The properties of air, gravity, the solar system, flight and atmospheric science. 

As a teacher, I was delighted to be part of such an amazing experiement because I had the pleasure to watch my students demonstrate and thoughtfully display our Character Trait of the Month - Cooperation - "We work together to get the job done!"  Your child should be extremely proud of themselves as they worked collaboratively with their peers to create 3 different planes (The Earth, The Moon, and The Mars plane) which required quite the procedure!  Thank you to Mrs. Morin's Grade 5/6's who came into our classroom to assist us with our Mars planes on Friday afternoon!  Now we have our planes ready to launch this week!  Keep you posted :)

Here are a few photos of the students celebrating their plane creations!  I believe we have ourselves many scientists in the future!  Keep investigating and exploring boys and girls, I'm so proud of YOU!


Thank you Eryn for guiding Daniel with his Mars plane!




Daniel, Trista, and Steven proud of their Earth planes



Alexandra, Jax and determined Izzy in the final stages of their Earth planes

Cross Country Participants:
Congratulations to all those that participated in Cross Country this year!  Everyone should be proud of their accomplishments.  Way to go Jolly Julia, Incredible Izzy, Racing Ryan, Optimistic Owen, Speedy Steven, and Dancing Daniel on a successful season!  Your extra-curricular involvement and school spirit is valued!  I would like to extend my best wishes to those runners representing our New Lowell Family on the County Run - Sean (gr. 4), Liam (gr. 5), Gavin (gr. 7), Garet (gr. 7), Alison (gr. 8), and Jayden (gr. 8)!

"Caring" Recipients for September's Character Trait - Abigail & Wyatt
Thank you so much for being such thoughtful, supportive, and caring classmates.
In this picture, I know how much your group member Carrie-Ann appreciates your help in science!

Quote:
"I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there is mercy and generosity.  No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion.  People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." 
Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom

Namaste,
Miss Gill

Welcome to Miss Gill's 2013-2014 Classroom Blog

Dear Families,

First off, I would like to say I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with your dearest loved ones!  In class, I look forward to hearing about your family's 'Thankful Stone' sharing experience.  They were extremely excited to bring home their 'Thankful Bags' and share them with you! 

Next, welcome to our Classroom Blog!  I'm delighted to begin this online journey with your child and YOU - providing you with updates/news of our exciting learning and upcoming events from our "Classroom Community" to your "Comfy, Cozy Home."  This blog is another avenue for US all to communicate, share, and celebrate your child's extraordinary learning in Grade 4!!! 

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude to all the parents who have actively supported and engaged in their child's learning at home thus far - together, we can make a significant difference by working together to help your child achieve their academic, social and behavioural goals/needs.  I could not do this without your unconditional love and support, it is greatly valued and cherished!

Language:
In Language Arts, we have focused on a variety of literacy activities to build upon our reading and writing skills.  Namely, I have been reading a short novel titled, "A Courage to Try" which is Canadian based (Barrie, Ont) and honours Terry Fox's courageous 'Marathon of Hope' endeavour and raising awareness about the importance of cancer research.  Ask your child to summarize / highlight the important parts of this powerful read aloud and what writing tasks we have worked on in class.  Many students used the reading comprehension strategy of Making Connections to connect their life experiences to this story.  It was amazing to hear students' moving experiences and how Terry Fox has impacted their thinking and life.  We are onto the final chapters this week, we are eager to see how "Maggie's journey" concludes ... stay tuned :)

Word Study:
Each week when your child brings home their red duo-tang with their "Word Study" homework pages, please take a moment to go over their words and the goal with them.  Thank you for supporting your child in our "Word Study Program," I am so pleased with their progress and taking responsibility for homework completion.  Please continue to initial and leave a comment in your child's "Word Study Test" notebook when it comes home.  I see how much they value reading your 'notes of encouragement!' 

T.W.A.S.
This has been an amazing communication and accountable learning tool between parent-child that I have ever experienced in my teaching career.  WOW!  I am grateful to each and every one of you for taking the time to read and lovingly write back a letter to your hard working child.  Seeing their beaming faces as they read your letters in class, uplifts and delights them beyond my mere words here!  Thank you!  Thank you!!!  We will continue working hard in class to improve upon our letters so they remain purposeful, meaningful and engage you as the reader :)

Math:
At the beginning of every new math unit, I will be sending a 'Math Note' home with your child.  Please take some time to sit down with them to read over the Learning Goal and some of the strategies/games you can do with them at home to support this new strand of math.  We have completed our Number Sense and Numeration Unit.  I will be sending home your child's math test with a student self-assessment form (blue) for you to complete with them.  Please carefully read over the form and their test as this will serve as a meaningful and powerful tool to assist your child's math learning.  Over the next few weeks, our new unit focuses on "Data Management" (E.g., graphing).

Last week, we started our "Extra Math Practice" homework (green duo-tang) which is designed to further support your child's math learning and gives you (the parent) an idea of what concepts we are/have covered in class.  Thank you for taking the time to help your child when he/she requires it.  I have already noticed an improvement in their reading of decimal numbers to hundredths :)

Science:
In science, our learning goal is "Habitats and Communities."  Students have enjoyed reading non-fiction articles in our Nelson Literacy texts and working in small groups to complete animal and habitat activities.  Your child is a scientist who is diligently investigating and discovering intriguing facts about Rainforests, Wetlands, Grasslands and Mountain areas.  Ask your child about which kinds of animals inhabitat these areas.  We will continue to explore with our eyes, ears and hearts! 

The Arts:
In art, we have worked on our "Art Portfolio" folder which will serve as a keeper of all your child's brilliant works of art this school year.  We have one new item to put into our folders called "Hand Art."  Your child will be sharing his/her 'hand' with their peers.  It is always so exciting to see their faces light up when they share their creative works of art!

Thank you for taking the time to read my first blog post :) I look forward to sharing more news, updates, learning and pictures in the next post!  Please visit my blog when you see "Blog Update" written in your child's agenda, this indicates a new post for you and your child to enjoy and celebrate their learning! 

Until soon ... 

                              "May you continue to grow gracefully, creatively, and joyously..."
                                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                  Namaste,
                                                                                                                          Miss Gill