MR. Brewer
HUMANITIES - SOCIAL STUDIES/LANGUAGE ARTS
Term II has ended! Grade 4 students will return after the summer break in September as newly minted grade 5 students! I wish to thank my classes for a great year. 4A and 4B, you have been a true pleasure to teach! All through 2018 and especially in 2019, I witnessed so much growth in all of you. Your confidence has risen. Every student can reflect back on September and October 2018, when so many of you struggled to learn how to open combination locks, learned to speak French and were challenged to do many things in new ways. Despite those challenges, you got used to being in a new school that was likely way bigger than any other school you'd ever been in before. There were different expectations for you in a middle school and it likely felt quite daunting to you at first. Many of you told me that I was helpful to you when you were nervous in those first days in September 2018 and that you felt at ease with me in the beginning. I was your guide at the side, but you were the one who made it through! Think about how far you have come since those beginning days. Through the year, your parents and teachers supported you and cared deeply about how you were doing. Grade 4 teachers came to know you through your triumphs and were with you during those inevitable little bumps along the road. Please know that myself and Mrs. Ross were always there for you this year and that even as you move forward into grade 5 and 6 and beyond, you'll always be our students and we will never stop caring about how you are doing. I look forward to seeing you once again in the halls of Nose Creek School in September 2019, rejuvenated and read to learn. Do not hesitate to say 'hello' or drop by the grade 4 wing. We will continue to take an interest in your academic and social success at school. Good luck!
0 Comments
This week we held the Multicultural fair on Fri. June 21: In the first gallery are pictures of the preparation leading up to Friday. Students learned a lot about the countries they researched. They used the Internet to research about a country of their choosing. Some students worked individually and others worked in pairs: Friday was our fair. Students presented their own posters/trifolds and were able to visit other classes. For this project students researched various aspects of different countries. They learned things like the language of the country, religion of the country, major sport, art, climate, animals and so forth. Every group brought an artifact. Some groups brought artifacts such as toys, foods and so forth: A historical understanding of Canada requires an understanding of the multicultural nature of Canada. Diversity contributes to the development of a vibrant democratic society. To develop an appreciation of 21st century Albertan culture, we recognize that Alberta has changed demographically and that cultural diversity contributes strongly to our understanding of who we are today.
Thank you students for a wonderful day. All teachers commented on your hard work and dedication! Reminder: Tomorrow students will set up their projects between 8:30-9:15 (and practice presenting to their own classes)
9:15-9:45 - 4 AB & C present 9:45-10:15 - 4 DE & F present 10:15 Reflection 10:30 Nutrition break Some students have expressed that they would like to bring food items to the multicultural fair. Naturally we welcome this. Please understand that they only need to be small portions. Do not feel you need to feed all the grade fours. It should also be something that is easy to give out. A list of the ingredients in the food would be helpful for our students who may have allergies or have religious proscriptions about eating the food provided. Attention Parents!
Did you know that from June 1st, 2019 to June 1st, 2020 the fundraising for our school continues at the local Cobs Bakery?? If you continue to mention “Nose Creek School”, we will continue to receive 5% of the purchase! So, over the summer – if you are still buying baked goods from the great local Cobs Bakery – please keep letting them know that you are a Nose Creek School parent! Thanks and have a great summer! F.A.N.S. Fund Raising Association of Nose Creek School This week, on Wednesday June 12, students of grade 4 visited Heritage Park. Heritage Park is a living history museum located in southwest Calgary. The atmosphere and the genuine interactions with the staff at the park made many of the lessons we have learned in class come alive. Staff at the park dress as people would have done in the 1890s or earlier. The group of students I toured with asked many amazing questions at the First Nations teepee. We learned that the animal on the teepee was an otter. We also saw obsidian tools. It was amazing to discover that obsidian was traded all the way from the Yellowstone area of what is nowadays the United States all the way up to Alberta and that making obsidian tools took so much dexterity and skill. This extremely sharp volcanic rock was used to make scrapers for cleaning buffalo hides and weapons. The highlight of my visit to the park was simply listening to the many questions my students asked. When students got answers they asked follow up questions too. This impressed upon me the fact that so many students were actively listening in social studies class when we talked about the voyageurs, First Nations culture and early settlement of the prairies. I very much wish to thank parent volunteers who came along with our grade fours. The giving of your time is so appreciated! I really believe it was a wonderful day because the weather was so splendid and there was so much to see and do at Heritage Park!! The visit really gave our students an opportunity to learn more about the lifestyles of early settlers to Alberta and how this experience has contributed to and enriched Alberta’s history. In class we learned that soddies were made by early settlers from natural resources found in Alberta and that they were warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Students saw a soddy at Canada Heritage Park and estimated its size. During much of the week students continued to work on their Y.E.Ps (Year End Projects). This project is titled "The ABCs of Grade Four". It is an overall review of the year. In class we often alternated between doing this project and a country research project. We are having a Multicultural Festival for students to celebrate diversity and to familiarize students with many of the diverse groups of people who have arrived in Alberta during this century and the last century. The festival will be held on the morning of Friday, June 21st. Students in all grade 4 classes have been researching a country during humanities classes this week. They have found out various facts about the country they are researching such as the type of music popular in the country, its flag, its traditional clothing, religion, etc. Students have been working in class on a poster or tri-fold to display their information. All students will get an opportunity to see the work of their peers as well as showcase their own work. Along with the information and display, they have been asked to bring in something to represent the culture of their researched country like food, clothing or an artifact. This should be something authentic, like finding out about a recipe and making it to bring in to share, instead of drawing a picture of it. Students do not need to participate in bringing something in if they can’t find or make something, but will still need to present their learning at the Multicultural Festival. Pictures from Heritage Park:
This week we began to work on the YEP (Year End Project) entitled: The ABCs of Grade 4. In this project work, students will make booklets using the letters of the alphabet from a ~ z. The first letters are used to name different things we covered during the year. As an example, f might be for 'fractions' (an area of study in math class) & b might be for 'bitumen' a word that we learned during our study of natural resources in Alberta in humanities class. The project is due on June 26. Students will have time to work on it during class. They also may work on the project at home. Please ask your son or daughter about this project work. Many students in 4E took the booklets home as homework this weekend. Parents are reminded that field trip forms for Heritage Park are due back on Monday June 10. We all go to Heritage Park on Wednesday June 12. I would be happy to have additional parents/guardians volunteer for this trip. I thank those who have done so already. Adults wishing to accompany children on CBE trips must have a valid police background clearance check. On Friday this week students began a Country Research project. This project work will culminate in a Multi-cultural fair which we will hold in class two weeks from now. Students will have class time to work on this project. In 4A and 4B students opted to either work with a partner or work on their own. Through this project work we are learning about the various peoples who have contributed to Alberta's continued growth as a province. By doing this project work, students are able to learn to value and respect their own culture and other cultural identities around them. It is hoped that through this project they will come to understand how Alberta has evolved over time and continues to change. Both classes looked at posters and trifolds from last year's Multicultural celebration. Every group or individual must research a country other than Canada. One requisite of this project work is that students must bring some kind of artifact from the country they are studying. Here are two documents to guide students in their research:
This week in class, we began reading the novel Superfudge by Judy Blume. Before reading aloud to students, Mr. Brewer demonstrated several reading strategies such as: making connections, visualization, prediction and guessing unknown words. In visualization, we imagine what characters and setting in a story are like. It's sort of like having a movie running in your mind. Many good readers do this as they read from a chapter book that has no illustrations. Predicting is when we pause during a story and ask the question what will happen next. This strategy maintains our interest. When we did our book talks we talked about the cliffhanger or hook in good writing. Good readers will pause and wonder about what will come next. Part of the fun of reading is trying to guess what trick an author has up their sleeves next!! We talked about strategies for guessing at unknown words. Students seemed familiar with several of these strategies and could describe them: All through our read-aloud, Mr. Brewer paused often and asked students about how they relate to the characters in the story. This is a reading comprehension strategy called making connections: Students were really enthusiastic about the story, so we heard a lot of personal connections to the events that take place in the story. In particular, the main character in the story, Peter Hatcher, has many disputes with his younger brother Fudge. A lot of students with siblings could relate closely to this narrative. While the book is authored by Judy Blume, students decided that it isn't Judy Blume's voice in the book. They said the narrator of the story was in fact Peter: This week it was announced that we will go as a class to Heritage Park on June 12. Permission forms will go home on Monday next week. We encourage all students to attend and are still seeking parent volunteers to accompany us on the day of the trip. Students used the strategy of visualization to portray their ideas about what the characters in Superfudge look like. They also completed some artwork related to our study of homesteaders. Here are some of the posters students made. For this piece the instruction was: Make a poster welcoming settlers to the Canadian West (specifically Alberta) circa 1890 ~ 1900ish. The Canadian government encouraged newcomers to settle quarter sections. Land was free other than a mandatory $10 registration fee. Most homesteaders immigrated from Europe, though some came from elsewhere in Canada and from the United States. Several of these posters were selected by students for inclusion in Taste of The Arts: This week on Friday, the year end project was introduced to students. Students will make a scrapbook based on what they have learned over the course of the year in grade 4. Students must include pages for each letter of the alphabet (in order), complete with title, sentence description and pictures/photos. 4A and 4B both saw exemplars (examples from previous years) and started the project by making a planning sheet. The project is due on Wednesday, June 26. We will continue to work on the project throughout the month of June.
This week on there were no classes on Monday due to the Victoria Day holiday and on Friday students had the opportunity to go bowling. The bowling field trip allowed students to refine and acquire physical education skills in an alternative environment. In class we continued our study of the impact of settlement on the Canadian West. Students discovered that one original idea for naming our province was to call it Buffalo. We also viewed a series of maps that showed alternative ideas for the placement of the prairie provinces. At one point there was a proposal for three prairie provinces: We could have ended up as Buffaloans rather than Albertans!! As to our province, it was named after Princess Louisa Caroline Alberta, Duchess of Argyll, the fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. This is a photo of the princess: Here is a powerpoint presentation we watched during lecture:
In this week's lessons students were asked to reflect on what they have learned in lectures and through their study of our textbook. Most students also finished a poster that promotes immigration to Alberta. They were asked to imagine that they were trying to encourage settlers to come to our province in the 19th century. We did contrast this imagery with the plight of First Nations peoples who were adversely affected by the arrival of settlers. Many students made thoughtful comments on this issue. On Tuesday, students received a word list that focuses on vocabulary related to their study of plant growth and change in Ms. Ross's class. Extending sight vocabulary to include words frequently used in other subject areas is a goal that is embedded within the Language Arts curriculum. From time to time throughout the year I have referred to Science outcomes, particularly when discussing some topics that have come up during social studies lessons. like the impact of the oil sands, and when talking about First Nations reliance on the buffalo as a natural resource. We will have a spelling quiz on Wed. May 29. Here is the list of words for this week: Spelling List - 'ing' words with double letters + Science terms related to Plant Growth and Change. Test: May 29: Marks from the May 14 spelling quiz and from Book Talk have been published on PowerSchool. Students in 4B received the Book Talk rubrics in class this week. 4A's Book Talk rubrics will be returned on Monday May 27.
Parents are encouraged to regularly log in and check on student progress via PowerSchool as I update it frequently with results from in-class projects and assignments. |
|