Grade 4/5 News

Hi Parents and Students!

We are very excited to start our New School Year.  This will be the place to check on what’s happening in our class – activities, field trips, special notices – anything that we want you to know about!  At the bottom of today’s blog post is our first Note Home and our Getting Aquainted document.  We sent a hard copy today with the students, but our goal is to have most parents access the Newsletters and notes electronically.  It is now trouble however, if you would like a hard copy as well.   

A Note from Gr. 4/5

Getting to Know Your Child

What’s Happening in 3/4?

In Language Arts, we are wrapping up our theme of “Sounds like Music” in guided reading. We will continue to practice several strategies to help improve reading comprehension and vocabulary development. Book Logs are due this Friday, June 10th. For every book read, students will have their name entered for a draw for Scholastic Book Order Coupons. Draw will take place in mid June. 

In Math, we are rushing to finish our Fractions and Patterns Units. Please have your child continue practicing basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division at home. They are working on having these facts completely memorized.

In Science, Grade 3s are completing their last science unit on Animal Life Cycles. We are raising Painted Lady Butterflies in the classroom and will record our observations as they complete their life cycle in front of our very own eyes. The Grade 4s are completing their unit on Plant Growth and Change. They have started bean plants from seed and will record their observations as the beans complete their life cycles too.

In Social, the Grade 3s have completed commercials for global organizations. Please watch for them on their blogs. The Grade 4s are finishing the year with an inquiry project. Students are going to research a celebration or challenge in Alberta and how that celebration or challenge connects Albertans to their past and to the future.

Provincial Achievement Testing (PAT)

The Grade 3s have two more tests yet to write. The dates for these tests are as follows:

1. June 14 – Language Arts Part B – (Reading) Students will read a selection and have to answer multiple choice questions about the selection.
2. June 16 – Mathematics Part B – (Problem Solving) – Students will have to use their mathematical knowledge and computation skills to answer various multiple choice questions in a problem solving context.

All exams take place at 9:00 am and students are asked to be well prepared for the day. Make sure your child gets a good night sleep the night before, has a healthy, nutritious breakfast and has plenty of water that day. Student results will be released next fall at the first Parent Teacher Interview.

We need Volunteers!

We have two events coming up that require several volunteers.

1. The first is a field trip to Aboriginal Days on June 17^th. This field trip is for both grades. We are all leaving the school at 10:45 and Grade 3s will return to the school at 3pm. Grade 4s will proceed directly to swimming lessons from Aboriginal Days at 1pm and return to school around 3pm.We will need at least 5 to 6 parent volunteers for the day. A small lunch will be provided for students and volunteers.
2. The second event is the K-3 Track Day on June 24th for the morning only.

Please let me know if you are available for any of these events as soon as possible.

Important Dates

June 6-17 th–Swimming Lessons for Grade 4s (1:30-2pm daily)

June 10th – All Library books need to be returned!

June 14th – PAT for Grade 3 (Language Arts – Reading) (9-11am)

June 16th – PAT for Grade 3 (Math Problem Solving) (9-11am)

June 17th – Aboriginal Days Field Trip (10:45 -3pm) Volunteers Needed

June 23^rd – Identity Day (10:45-2:20)

June 24th – Track Day for K-3 (am) Volunteers Needed & Gr. 6 Farewell

June 27^th – Forest Green School Talent Show (1-3pm)

June 29 th- Free Swim at Stony Plain Outdoor Pool (1-2:30pm), Last Day of Classes, & Report Cards

What’s happening in 3/4?

In Language Arts, students have been learning a new comprehension strategy of “visualization” to help them visualize a picture in their head as they read. We will soon be starting a new guided reading book club called “Sound”.  Please encourage your child to continue daily reading at home and remember to ask a few questions about the material they are reading to ensure they comprehend the material. Only a few students have been completing their home reading books. So to get more students actively reading chapter books as we head into the summer, I will be starting Book Logs.  For every chapter book read, students will have their name entered for a draw for Scholastic Book Order Coupons. Draw will take place in mid June. In writing, we have finished story analysis and are starting to write narratives from picture prompts.

In Math, we have finished a unit on geometry and are starting multiplication and division.  We will begin with single digit numbers and then move into 2 and 3 digit numbers. We will also continue practicing our problem solving skills. Please have your child continue practicing basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division at home by playing Math games. They should be ready to able to recall within seconds.

In Science, Grade 3s are well on their way in their Sound and Hearing unit. They will be making their very own musical instrument and have to be able to adjust both volume and pitch. Students may need a bit of your help to complete this project but most of the work should be done by the students themselves. The Grade 4s are starting their Light and Shadows unit. The students will be completing hands-on activities throughout this unit to explore light and its properties. They too have a take home project to build an optical device and demonstrate its use to the class. Watch for more information to be sent home later with your child.

In Social, Grade 3 are working on a PowerPoint presentation about the goods, services, technology and natural resources of Peru, India, Ukraine and Tunisia. Grade 4s have finished presentations about the daily life of the first Albertans (Plains and Woodland Native People) and are starting a research project about famous early explorers, fur traders, Métis, First Nations, Missionaries that contributed to Albertan’s early development. Your child will tell the story of an important Albertan and role played the character for their classmates. Both classes will be participating in a field trip to Fort Edmonton on April 19^th. Please see the last page of this newsletter for more information.

Provincial Achievement Testing (PAT)

Grade 3 is the first year that your child will participate in Provincial Achievement Testing. This is a series of Standardized Testing in the subjects of Language Arts and Mathematics. The dates for the tests are as follows:

1. May 17 – Language Arts Part A – (Writing) Students will have to write a narrative story based on a provided picture prompt.
2. June 14 – Language Arts Part B – (Reading) – Students will read a selection and have to answer multiple choice questions about the selection.
3. June 16 – Mathematics Part B – (Problem Solving) – Students will have to use their mathematical knowledge and computation skills to answer various multiple choice questions in a problem solving context.

All exams take place at 9:00 am and students are asked to be well prepared for the day. Make sure your child gets a good night sleep the night before, has a healthy, nutritious breakfast and plenty of water that day. Student results will be released next fall at the first Parent Teacher Interview. 

Enjoy the spring time weather!

Mrs. Barmby

 Important Dates

April 19 – Fort Edmonton Field Trip 

April 21- Staff Planning Day (no school)

April 22 – Good Friday

April 25 – Easter Monday

May 6- Hip Hop Dance Show 1pm

May 17 – PAT Language Arts Part A – Writing (am) Grade 3 only

May 20 – Staff Planning Day (no school)

May 23 – Victoria Day (no school)

What an amazing year this has truly been for me.   I feel very fortunate to have been lucky enough to teach such a wonderful class for the last 7 months!
I was truely touched by each of these amazing students and by the tear filled going away party the Grade 3/4 class surprised me with last week. 

Grade 3/4′s I will miss each and every one of you and  look forward to seeing your smiling faces when I return to Forest Green in again in April.  Good luck with the rest of your year and I know you will have lots of fun with Mrs. Barmby! 

Miss Mahan

Animoto created by Alissa

Dear Parents and Grade 3/4 Students,

Well, the time has finally arrived for me to return to school after a year off with my new family.  It is so nice to be returning to such a familiar class. Some students I taught in Grade 3 last year, some students I just taught phys. ed. to last year, other students I have taught their siblings and then there are a few new faces to get to know. I have already been preparing and working with Miss Mahan to smoothly transition the class. Miss Mahan and I will be team teaching this week starting today then I will officially take over on Monday.    

Please feel free to stop by before or after class to say hello, discuss any concerns that you may have or ask questions. You can also email me at  jbarmby@psd70.ab.ca or call the school (780.963.7366). You will also get an opportunity to officially meet with me during Parent-Teacher interviews at the end of this month.

Hope to hear from all of you soon,

Janet Barmby 

Recently one of the studetns in our class was lucky enough to go to Mexicop for a week.  I gave him a list of things we were going to talk about in class while he was away so he could look for look look for these things on his holiday.  It was awesome to see the presentation he created and hear him talk about all the things that he learned  he wrote:

“When I was in Mexico I looked for Buildings, what material they were made of and how they build their buildings.  I found that they build their buildings out of cement and brick and some metal.  In Socail we were learning about how pople in other coutries work together.  I asked my Grandma how they make their disicions and she told me it is with domacracy.  I found out that they use very colourful paint to paint their buildings. I did not see very much water colour paintings but I saw lots of clay and oil paint.”

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/creative_tools/5299374697/” title=”CreativeTools.se – PackshotCreator – 3D printed – ZPrinter – Xmas gift box – Julklappslåda by Creative Tools, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5290/5299374697_6b97479c95.jpg” width=”500″ height=”375″ alt=”CreativeTools.se – PackshotCreator – 3D printed – ZPrinter – Xmas gift box – Julklappslåda” /></a>

Tuesday in Science 3 we were building gift boxes

We decided that a good gift box needs to

• look nice
• fit the object we want to give
• is strong
• will open and close easily

We all used some type  paper to build our boxes out of because paper can easily be attached to other stuff and it is easy to decorate. Some people in our class used used constructions paper because it is more colourful and easy to make it look nice  Lots of used manilla tag cause we know it is the strongerst paper we have in our class.  Some of us used envelope paper  because we know envelopes are stong and the paper was bigger so they had more paper to experiment with.  These kids also got the envelope form recycling so they were no wasting paper.  Some us used normal paper because it was white so it would be nice to decorate.  They also connected it to straws to that the paper had extra support cause they knew that it is not the strongest type of paper.

To fasten our boxes to gether lots of us used tape.  We used tape because it is easy to connect things with and easy to use.  Some of us thought that tape was stronger than other things.  We also think that it sticks really good and holds thing together for longer.  Some of us used glue because it takes a bit longer to dry but it is easier to work with.  Some of also used paper fasteners too because it hold the stuff together and it looks nicer than putting a big glob of tape on out boxes. 

We decorated our boxes with markers to make them look nice when we were done building and put a special surprise for someone special inside.

Post by the Grade 3 class

In celebration of Groundhog Day our class made predictions as to whether spring would soon be on it’s way or if we still had 6 more weeks of winter ahead of us!   Most of the students in our class predicted that on Groundhog Day their would be cloudy weather, meaning the groundhog would not see his shadow and spring would be on its way!

When February second  arrived there was mixed reviews around the school about weather spring was on it’s way or if we needed to keep our snow pants and mittens out a little longer!   The grade 3′s were curious about why this was, so we set out to search for answers.  We discovered that there is more than one famous ground hog that predict the weather each year and that was the cause for the confusion!

Here is the what Alissa and Deanna found out:

The grade 3′s decided that because Balzac Billy is the groundhog that lives the closest  to us we think we better prepare for 6 more weeks of winter…but most of us sure hope he is wrong!

Taken from flickr.  Picture by skechie

This week we did water colour painting in art.We learned that the water does all the work you need lots of water to do this art project. We did wet on wet and it bled together. It made a lighter colour.  Dry on wet made the colours darker.  We made  heart pictures and them for our grade1 buddies as Valentines.

Post written by Deanna

The asembly was fun! We watched the video 7 billion. I learned that every secend 2 people die and 5 people are born. I learned that we should pick up garbage and we should do change for change and get $1500 to go to the starly childrens hostpital,the red cross and the cleen water wells.

post by Jakob and Riley