Monday, September 30th

Good afternoon everyone!

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend.

A few quick reminders:

·      Tomorrow is a Day 2 (we have gym tomorrow).

·      For anyone who ordered Hot Lunch, payments are due Wednesday, October 2^nd, 2019.

·      Letters were sent home last week for the Caribou math contest. Any students looking to participate must bring the letter back signed. The month of October is a free test for all grade levels as a trial – this is an optional commitment.

·      Fall Fundraiser trip permission forms and pledge forms were sent home Monday.

The days started with the Grade 4 students doing a presentation for us about residential schools and First Nations history in Canada. We learned about how children were taken from their homes and cultures and forced to attend schools where they were treated very poorly. That is also why we wore orange shirts today; to remember.

Inquiry into Energy – We started our morning by journeying back to our electric timeline and taking a look at 2 scientists: John B. Studley & Hans Orsted. Studley was the first person to illuminate a window sign using a flame. We had a good discussion on whether this was a good scientific contribution as it could have paved way for us understanding how to illuminate ‘Open’ signs using gasses. Orsted was the first scientist who discovered that a current of flowing electricity creates a magnetic field. Very fascinating!

After this, students proceeded to read the remainder of the OPG guide, which talks about production of different types of energy and how they are harnessed at different stations. Students will continue to explore this through their summative.

After this, we had a guest speaker (Mahhdi’s dad – a nuclear engineer) come in and talk to us about how nuclear energy is harnessed at nuclear generating stations. It was so fascinating, and we are so grateful for this opportunity; we have never had someone come in and talk to us about this before. 

Inquiry into Math – We wrote our final unit test for Unit 1: Patterns in Whole Numbers.

Inquiry into Energy – We read through our summative packages for our energy unit (can you believe it’s already summative time?!). Students are being given two options for which summative they would like to complete (along with their car). This is a group project and groups will be assigned based on interest.

Science Fair – Students began working through their pre-construction sketches for their cars so we can begin the building process this week!

Homework:

We do our best to complete work in class. In the event this is not possible, it will go home for homework.

As always, please feel free to email me with any questions.

Mr. Conte

Math Answer Key

Good afternoon everyone,

I hope you're all having a relaxing Sunday afternoon. Below you will find the answer key for the math review distributed on Friday (the answer key for Wednesday's review is posted Thursday and the answer key for Thursday's review is posted Friday).

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mr. Conte

Friday, September 27th

Good afternoon everyone!

I hope everyone had an amazing week.

Today was the last day for our fall fundraiser. Students are still able to bring in any money raised and permission forms to attend our trip to Glow Zone on October 30^th.

Reminder: We have a math test on Monday. Reviews were sent home on Wednesday, Thursday, and today. Answer keys have also been provided for the first two and will be provided for the last one on Sunday on my blog. These reviews show students what we are expecting for the test on Monday and provide many opportunities to practice their math skills before the test. The first was mandatory and the second two are optional. I highly recommend practicing with them – I will answer questions sent to me (by parents) over the weekend as well.

A few quick reminders:

·      Monday is a Day 1.

·      For anyone who ordered Hot Lunch, payments were due on the 13^th of September.

o   If September balances are unpaid, October lunches will not be able to be ordered.

·      Letters were sent home last week for the Caribou math contest. Any students looking to participate must bring the letter back signed. The month of October is a free test for all grade levels as a trial – this is an optional commitment.

·      Fall Fundraiser trip permission forms and pledge forms were sent home Monday.

We started our day with our electronics party. Students were able to use their devices for one hour. They had such a blast – I guess they enjoyed this more than the usual math review!

French – Right after this, we had French with Mme. Stella, which you can read about on her blog (https://stjudesfrench-stella.blogspot.com).

Inquiry into Energy – We reviewed how to create a graph on Microsoft excel.

Gym – After this, the students had gym with Mr. Orr, which you can read about on his blog (http://tysonorr.blogspot.com).

Inquiry into Energy – We reviewed how to create a graph on google sheets.

I will be posting a guide this weekend as a review on how to create graphs using these programs.

At the end of the day, we had our fall fundraiser assembly. This was our last assembly for the fall fundraiser. We got to see Mme. Rawan, Mr. Orr, and Mrs. DiMascio get pied in the face! 

Thank you to everyone for participating and contributing. Remember that any more money collected can still be brought in next week as well.

Homework:

We do our best to complete work in class. In the event this is not possible, it will go home for homework.

As always, please feel free to email me with any questions.

Mr. Conte

Thursday, September 26th

Good afternoon everyone!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week.

Just a reminder that this week is our fall fundraiser. Students will be fundraising for St. Jude’s, which in turn helps us purchase things like math manipulatives and other resources for our school. Students who bring in a minimum of $40 will be able to attend a trip to Glow Zone. Tomorrow is our electronics party, so any students who paid their $2 for tomorrow will have an hour of device time during the school day!

A few quick reminders:

·      Tomorrow is a Day 6 – it is a casual day for everyone tomorrow.

·      For anyone who ordered Hot Lunch, payments were due on the 13^th of September.

o   If September balances are unpaid, October lunches will not be able to be ordered.

·      Letters were sent home last week for the Caribou math contest. Any students looking to participate must bring the letter back signed. The month of October is a free test for all grade levels as a trial – this is an optional commitment.

·      Fall Fundraiser trip permission forms and pledge forms were sent home Monday.

Inquiry into Language – We started the day by sitting in our literature circle groups and had a discussion about chapter five. Every day I will be sitting down with a different group to hear these discussions. A reminder of the roles:

1.     The discussion director comes up with insightful questions that will fuel discussion in the group.

2.     The literary luminary chooses important passages for the group to read and discuss.

3.     The connector makes connections between their own lives and the book (i.e. movies, other books they’ve read, real events, the current UOI, etc.)

4.     The illustrator/mapper creates an illustration (i.e. comic, picture, mind map, etc.) based on what they felt during the chapter for the group to discuss.

5.     The word wizard chooses 3 words that were interesting or new for everyone to discuss as a group.

Inquiry into Energy: Science Fair – Students began working on their thumbnail sketches for their cars.

French – Right after this, we had French with Mme. Stella, which you can read about on her blog (https://stjudesfrench-stella.blogspot.com).

After lunch, we had an assembly for the Fall Fundraiser which is taking place this week! Each day has a different activity which students would have brought in money for. The event remaining is a 1-hour electronics party on tomorrow. We will also have daily prizes for the top fundraisers. They are:

·      Friday – Student will choose a teacher to pie in the face

Today, one of our Grade Two students got to style Ms. Cass’s hair!

Inquiry into Math – After the assembly, we silently took up the review. Another optional review was given for those who would like additional practice.

Inquiry into Energy – Today, we learned how to create an auto-sum on Microsoft excel (or google spreadsheets). We were calculating how much energy is produced by different methods in Ontario. 

We will be graphing this information. I will create a reference guide for everyone that I will post this weekend while students work on their graphs.

Homework:

We do our best to complete work in class. In the event this is not possible, it will go home for homework.

As always, please feel free to email me with any questions.

Mr. Conte