Sapere Aude… Dare to be Wise!

I love airplanes!  I love when you are taking off you can feel your ears popping and to stop the popping I like chewing gum and yawning!  What helps you?  I also like the way that you take off and then you get pushed in to the seat with all the pressure.  Do you like airplanes?   Why or why not?

The middle of the week… didn’t we just start it! These shorter weeks sure do fly by!

An important note about the Bake Sale/Cake Walk – Making/baking cakes and goodies is completely optional. We will all attend and be able to buy goodies and raffle tickets, but no one should think they ‘must’ contribute. Our time for buying goodies (limit of 2 per person) is between 12:40-1:00PM on Thursday.

In language arts today, we re-read the selection “Make a Model Room”, looking both at the text features of procedural writing (e.g., numbered steps, diagrams/pictures to help, list of materials needed at the start, short/precise sentences), and the action words (verbs) used by the author in the selection. You are all very good readers… your practicing is paying off! Remember to bring in a box for tomorrow’s class… hopefully, we will have enough to follow the directions and make a model room. In writing, we focused on writing our 2-3 sentence point of view about whether we agree or disagree with city councils move to ban drive thru’s in Ottawa. Congratulations to X and Y, who have been selected as the

In math, both grades continued working on determining the perimeter of rectangles. Because we are a split grade, the grade 5 method/formula of P=2l x 2w was introduced to all. Grade 4’s are not expected to use this formula this year, but benefit from the advanced look. I know that some find my formula method somewhat mechanical and can do this in your head… remember, my goal is to teach you the formula method so that when it gets harder in higher grades, you still find it easy.

Science saw the testing of the Grade 5’s bridges. Hopefully, pictures and video of the results will be posted tomorrow or by the end of the week (editing process).

Homework

• Read 20-25 minutes
• Math Computation: Drill five basic multiplication facts. See if you can answer them correctly in 10 seconds.
• Material Request: Please try to bring a box into school tomorrow to cut apart and follow the directions in our selection “Make a Model Room”
• Dates to Remember: Friday, February 12 – PD Day (no school); Monday, February 15 – Family Day (no school); Tuesday, February 16 (hot dog lunch day); Monday, February 22 – Grade 5 Ski Trip (no pizza lunch that day); Tuesday, February 23 (pizza lunch day)

The results of our two-week Picasso inspired art self-portrait project! I think that everyone did an amazing job… in a very unusual way! Can you figure out who is who?

On Friday, the grade 5’s went on a ski trip. It was fun!!!!! My ski buddy was Stephanie. WE went down bunny hill, before we went on blue square. Blue square is my favorite hill because you go really fast at the end, and the wind through your snowpants feels good. We had lessons at 12:15, but there were so many people that it took a while to get everyone organized. We had lunch at 1:25. We went skiing for the rest of the day till it was over. I really enjoy skiing!

The start of a shorter week with a Valentine treat at the end! Please remember that there is no school on both Friday, February 12 and Monday, February 15.

In language arts, everyone read the selection “Make a Model Room”. We also started the process of writing and producing our first podcast. Over the week, we will be writing and taping our responses to the following issue: Ottawa city council is moving to ban the construction of all future drive thru windows (this is real). Do y0u agree or disagree with the decision? Article on Ban

In math, both the grade 4’s and grade 5’s worked on measuring the perimeter (the distance around the outside of an object) of rectangles. Remember to use our formula, P = s+s+s+s.

Homework

• Read 20-25 minutes
• Math Computation: Practice some basic division by answering the following questions (you should be able to do these in your head): 8÷2, 9÷3, 10÷5, 12÷4, 4÷1. If you need to use the circle method shown below to ’sketch’ your answers.
  
• Material Request: We are all reading a selection entitled “Make a Model Room” to learn about the features of procedural writing. On Wednesday and Thursday, we are going to be following the directions to actually make the room. Could you please bring in a cardboard box that we can use to make these rooms. Below is a picture of a box I got at Costco over the weekend which can be used to make 2-3 rooms.
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• Language Arts: Ottawa city council has banned the construction of all drive thru windows. Do you agree or disagree? Take a few minutes to talk about your views of this issue. We will be turning this into a podcast POV (point-of-view).
• Dates to Remember: Friday, February 12 – PD Day (no school); Monday, February 15 – Family Day (no school); Tuesday, February 16 (lunch program alternate date); Monday, February 22 – Grade 5 Ski Day; Tuesday, February 23 (lunch  program alternate date)

Tonight is the Superbowl… are you watching it? What do you think of it after watching it? I do not know why but I find that it’s really fun to watch. And tonight I am watching it!!

The second ski trip was REALLY REALLY FUN!  I skied with lots of people like Caitlin, Katherine, some times Krista, Dior and Kristina but mostly Ally.  I only fell 4 times I was proud about that!  Our lesson was fun, we learned how to ski in a S formation going  down the hill.  For some reason I found the ski lift even funner than the last ski trip.  I don’t know why it may of been.  I did not look back when I was on the ski lift at the first ski trip but in this one I did and it was a really nice view!  The only thing that I didn’t really like was it was really busy!   When we got to the ski place me and Ally were the first ones up where you put your stuff from our school and we could not find a table.  I can’t wait for the next ski trip!  I am glad that I don’t miss it!

I am very excited about March Break because my family and I are going on a cruise.  This the first time we have gone away on March Break.  Part of the reason we are going away on the March Break is that my sister is graduating from High School!  Is anyone else going away on March Break?  If you are, where are you going?

TGIF! Thank goodness it’s Friday! I hope that the grade 5’s had a good – and, most importantly, safe – day on the ski hill! I also hope that the grade 4’s enjoyed a quieter day at ALC! Today is also the start of Ottawa’s winter festival Winterlude. Maybe some of you will get the chance to go and experience some of the festivities over the weekend, and can share your experiences on our blog.

A big thank you to Ms. Dean for stepping in as your guest teacher this week! Her updates have been very complementary of both your ability and your behaviour! I hope that you have enjoyed her approach to teaching, and that you have enjoyed your week!

I am looking forward to seeing you on Monday!

Homework

• No homework… enjoy the weekend!
• Reminder: Remember to bring your gym clothes on Monday.
• Dates to Remember: Friday, February 12 – PD Day (no school); Monday, February 15 – Family Day (no school)

I love snow days! On snow days I can do what ever I want to do! I usaly have friends over on snow days! But sometimes my mom says I should relax on snow days, but end up never relaxing on snow days! I hate relaxing on snow days, I like to play instead!!! I always play outside on snow days!! Well most of the time. I just don’t like the cold outside. I bet no one does. Sometimes I get bored on snow days, I hate it when that happens, I never have anything to do for the rest of the day.  I love snow days!