Week of Oct. 30 - Nov. 3, 2017

Notes:

• For Halloween on Tuesday, students are welcome to wear their costumes all day if they would like.  There will be a regular working morning followed by a Halloween parade in the afternoon and the grade 4 teachers and HR team will be leading centres.  Many students have asked about Tone It Up Tuesday and we will have a dance party

Curriculum:

• Math: We have moved on to subtraction.  We started with estimating differences today and will play some subtraction games for the rest of the week to build our skills.  You can help at home by making sure your child knows how to round to the nearest hundred or thousand, and practice basic subtraction facts.  We also switched to subtraction Mad Minutes this week.
• L.A.
• Spelling: Lesson 3 this week with a dictation assessment on Thursday.
• Writing: We are writing suspenseful paragraphs and will move on to the beginning of a "found poem" unit.
• Science: The unit test was today.  The new unit will start next week.
• Social: In the Foothills region, we will be traveling to learn about the landforms of the region, the Brazeau Dam and the climate of the Foothills.

This Week's Schedule:
Monday:

• Friday Letters due
• Samayoa and Rahim library books due

Tuesday:

• Nelson library books due
• Halloween!

Wednesday:

• After School Skate at Adams 3:45 p.m. - all students must come with an adult and all participants must wear a helmet

Friday:

• Frolicking Friday

Week of Oct. 23-27, 2017

Notes:

• If you are interested in ordering Sigmund Brouwer books, Mrs. Chase is putting the order in on Friday.  There are order forms in the learning commons if your child would like to pick one up.  His website is sigmundbrouwer.com if you'd like more details.
• Feed the Bug is still going on.  

Curriculum:

• Math: We're taking a break from patterns (but they never really go away!) and are moving on to adding and subtracting.  Students in grade 4 need to know how to add up to 10 000 so we will be looking at how to add 3- and 4-digit numbers this week.  You can help at home by practicing basic adding facts with your child.  We find that if students are struggling with the basics, it's difficult to add larger numbers together.  
• L.A.
• Spelling: Lesson 3 starts this week.  You can help at home by making sure your child has cut out the sort and is practicing sorting the words according to the key features (see answer key in agenda).  
• Writing: Our suspense unit is underway and we're having a lot of fun with "messing with people's feelings" like Sigmund Brouwer told us to do.
• Science: This week we are wrapping up the unit "Lights and Shadows" with a close look at different types of lenses.  We are going to do some review in class, and the unit test will be on Monday, Oct. 30.  We know it's not ideal to have a test on a Monday but it's better than Halloween, and certainly better than the day after!  Check out the "Science Review" page here on the blog.
• Social:  Our journey through the Rocky Mountains is coming to an end.  We will learn about the national parks system and the animal life of the Rockies followed by an open book "Show What You Know."  A "Social Review" page will also be added to the blog.

This Week's Schedule:

Monday:

• Samayoa and Rahim library books due
• Family Fun Night 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. - all students must come with an adult

Tuesday:

• Nelson library books due
• Tone It Up Tuesday

Friday:

• Sigmund Brouwer book orders due
• Frolicking Friday

Week of Oct. 16-20, 2017

SORRY!!!!!!!!!  The blog was written on Monday, but you need to hit "Publish"!  Apologies for people who've been waiting for this.

For anyone who went to the Foreigner concert on Sunday, it was so amazing to see our Galbraith kids up there singing their hearts out.  We are so fortunate to have someone like Mrs. Garlock who is so talented and loves to share her passion for music.  If you missed it, CJOC has a video up on their Facebook page.

Notes:

• Teachers have learning days on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning which means no school for students.  This coincides with parent/teacher interviews at higher levels.
• If you are wanting to have free hot lunch, please send in your form by tomorrow (Oct. 17).
• Feed the Bug is ongoing.  Thank you to those of you who have already donated non-perishable food items!
• If you are ordering school pictures, money is due in school or online by Wednesday (Oct. 18).
• A couple of things that your child can work on at home is www.typingclub.com; www.splashmath.com; and www.raz-kids.com.  All three provide great practice and reinforcement of what we are doing in the class. 

Curriculum:

• Math: Our work with patterns continues in our review unit.
• L.A.
• Spelling: Spelling will resume next week.  Instead we will continue working on editing.
• Writing: We are starting a suspense unit.  You can help at home by having your child tell you a story.  Does it stay on topic?  Do they tell you details?  Does it have a beginning, middle and end?  As we progress through the unit, does it build suspense?
• Science:
• Social:

This Week's Schedule:
Monday:

• Samayoa and Rahim library books due
• Friday letters due

Tuesday:

• Hot lunch forms due
• Nelson library books due

Wednesday:

• Picture money due

Thursday:

• No school in P.M. for students

Friday:

• No school for students

Week of Oct. 9-13, 2017

This is a quick week and boy are we packing a lot in!

Notes:

• Mrs. Samayoa's and Ms. Rahim's classes will not have library this week.
• Our author visit is this week!  We hope you will join us on Thursday for the Rock and Roll Literacy family evening with Sigmund Brouwer from 6:30-7:30 p.m.
• Next week is another short week due to middle school parent/teacher interviews and elementary school teachers' professional learning.  Students will be dismissed at 11:45 a.m. on Thursday the 19th and will have no school on Friday the 20th.

Curriculum:

• Math: Our first patterns unit starts this week.  You can help at home by having your child hunt around for patterns.
• L.A.
• Writing: Our main focus is our author visit this week, but we will also do some work with editing.
• Spelling: Due to the short week, we will take a brief hiatus from spelling until we can get back into proper rotation.  It doesn't hurt to take this as a time to review the first two lessons at home.
• Science: This week we only have one science period but we will make the most of it by learning about shadows!  You can help at home by exploring with your child how shadows move depending on where the light source is.
• Social: Our trip through the Rockies will have us discovering the vegetation, animal life and natural resources of this beautiful region.  You can help at home by asking your child questions about the Rocky Mountain Region related to these topics (e.g. "What kind of plants grow in the Rocky Mountain Region?")

This Week's Schedule:
Monday:

• Happy Thanksgiving!

Tuesday:

• Teachers busy learning about literacy

Wednesday:

• Nelson library

Thursday:

• Author visit - we will meet twice with Sigmund Brouwer during the day
• Rock and Roll Family Literacy event 6:30 p.m.

Friday:

• Frolicking Friday