In humanities this week, we continued our focus on poetry by creating some Haiku poems and artwork around the season of Spring. Haiku are three-line Japanese poems about nature that follow a strict syllable scheme. The first and third lines are five syllables, and the second line is seven syllables. Students did a great job crafting their poem before drawing some spring artwork, and then finally finishing with watercolour paint. Some of these pieces will be on display during the “Taste of the Arts” evening next Thursday. We also had fun creating couplets in class. A couplet is a two-line poem which rhymes. Each line begins with a capital and both lines are about the same length. After mastering the couplet, students then tried writing a triplet (a three-line poem which rhymes). Here are some student examples below: My furry friend he is a cat, Sometimes he wears my hat! In my house I have a rat, He eats all my cheese and is very fat! On my lawn I have some trees, In the winter they all freeze, They all blow over in the breeze! This week we looked at and discussed a timeline of important events in Alberta that have shaped our province in some way. Students were tasked with picking two events they wanted to learn more about with particular focus on events in the 1900s and 2000s. They researched each event and wrote jot notes in their writing journals. When done researching, they turned their jot notes into a summary of the event in their own words, and discussed why or why not they felt this was an important event in Alberta’s history. Today, all grade four students were also introduced to our year-end project entitled “The ABC’s of Grade 4.” This is a culminating project that allows students to show their learning and understanding from everything that was covered this year. This major assignment will be due Wednesday, June 26th. Each day, students will be working on their YEA for at least one period. For each letter of the alphabet, students will choose a topic from each of their subject areas that we covered this year to write about. As a final project, they will create a scrapbook with pictures and decorations as well as their writing that will be shared with the class and marked by the homeroom teacher. Students have already been working on their topic-planning page, and they will start their rough copies next week. Students are incorporating their writing with a visual representation. They will have some supplies in class to get creative with, such as: stencils, magazines, colored paper, stickers, foam letters, stamps, yarn, and decorative tape to name a few! Donations are greatly appreciated and students can bring in their own supplies to add to their project if they wish. Students are also encouraged to keep in mind the calendar goals and timeline in order to complete their project for the June 26th deadline (see below).
Happy June! —Ms. Jagger
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It was a great week with lots of fun activities for the grade 4’s! On Wednesday, students attended the “Freeze DNA Comic Tour” presentation and learned some drawing techniques from published comic illustrators. On Thursday, we enjoyed some delicious meals & snacks from five food trucks, and students enjoyed eating their lunches outside. On Friday, all grade 4 students participated in some bowling fun at Bowling Depot! We also have an upcoming field trip to Heritage Park on Wednesday, June 12th and are looking for some parent volunteers to join us. 4C has three confirmed volunteers so far and we are looking for one more! In humanities this week, students learned about the steps leading to Alberta becoming a province of Canada. We looked at the reasons why Alberta wanted to become a province; discussion around where the new borders would be; what the new provincial name would be, and which community would become the new capital. It took years of discussion and debate before Alberta was established as a new province in 1905. We also discussed the formation of communities, and how Alberta’s population was becoming more diverse with people coming from different cultures and countries to settle on farms, and in towns and cities.
Students presented their radio announcements in class on Tuesday and did a great job! We also continued with our focus on poetry by writing bio & rainbow poems, and started looking at Haiku poetry which will be incorporated into an art project next week. Have a great weekend! —Ms. Jagger In humanities this week, students took their knowledge of settlers to create a poster and radio ad to persuade others to immigrate to western Canada and of course Alberta! Students did a great job on their posters as they represented the time period well and each contained beautiful scenery & phrases to sell others on moving to the Canadian west. They also crafted a radio announcement which was a longer descriptive written piece explaining about the benefits of Alberta. We discussed how to write an effective advertisement and looked at some samples before students wrote a rough copy, edited it, then wrote their final good copy. Some students took this home on the weekend to finish up as we will be presenting the radio ads in class on Tuesday. We also started working on poetry concepts which will be a focus over the next couple of weeks. Students learned that there are many different forms of poetry and that it expresses the music & emotion of language, teaches us about language, expresses feelings, and is personal and can be about anything & everything. The first type of poetry we looked at this week was acrostic poetry. In an acrostic poem, the letters of the subject are written down (vertically) to form the word of choice. Next to each letter the poetic statement is written horizontally to express the subject in creative ways. Students created some acrostic poems in their visual journals.
Enjoy your long weekend! —Ms. Jagger In humanities this week, students learned more about how the immigrants and settlers made their way to the prairies. The main mode of transportation was by railway as thousands rode the rails from the 1880s and well into the 1900s. Students watched a short video about the history of building the railroad and the formation of the Canadian Pacific Railway. They used a website to read more and answer questions about the history of the 138-year-old company. Some of the items students learned about the C.P.R. was:
We also looked closer at the posters and pamphlets that were used to advertise the vast amounts of land available in Canada’s west. These posters put up around the world, particularly in Europe and the United States, displayed idyllic surroundings with abundant farms and beautiful scenery, using buzz words & phrases like “free land”, “easy to reach”, and “the best wheat land & the richest grazing country under the sun.” No mention or pictures of mosquitos, prairie fires, weeks of exhausting travel, back-breaking work, and bitterly cold winters! We discussed how advertisements, even today, want to promote the best in their product, and not dwell on or even mention the negatives. The government described the climate as “fresh” and “bracing” on its posters instead of “cold” and “snowy!” Students started working on creating their own immigration poster to persuade immigrants to settle in Alberta. Their poster needs to represent our province between 1880 and 1920, and should be representative of the time period. They worked on a rough copy in their visual journal and will start creating their actual poster next week. To accompany their poster, they will also craft a radio ad.
Have a happy Mother’s Day weekend! —Ms. Jagger Use the website below to read about and answer questions about the C.P.R.:
The Story of the Canadian Pacific Railway 4C & 4D had a great time walking to Vivo and participating in swimming lessons this week! Bowling forms also went home on Tuesday for our upcoming trip to the Bowling Depot on Friday, May 24th—completed forms and the $10 payment are due by next Thursday. In humanities, students continued to learn about the settlement of the West. The building of the railway saw the mass killing of the buffalo on the Prairies—the main source of food for the First Nations people. With many starving, the government thought the problem could be solved if First Nations people changed to a farming way of life. The government began talking to the First Nations about making treaties—if they would move onto reserves, the government promised to provide food, health care, farm equipment, and schools. Students learned that three treaties were signed in Alberta (Treaty 6 in 1876, Treaty 7 in 1877, and Treaty 8 in 1899). We discussed different perspectives of the treaties—First Nations viewed a treaty as a solemn and sacred promise, and the government viewed them as legal documents. With the treaties, there was a loss of culture, language, and identity for the First Nations peoples. The Métis were offered scrip—a coupon that they could exchange for land or money. The system was not explained well so many Métis didn’t realize that by taking scrip they were letting the government take over their lands for settlement. Many Métis were taken advantage of by others and were left with no land and no money. Students answered questions based on our discussion using the textbook to assist them. We also discussed the government’s efforts to attract new immigrants to the vast amounts of land in the West. The government decided to offer free land to some of the people who agreed to immigrate. They sent posters to be displayed in different parts of the world, telling people about the land in Canada’s West. In return for the free land, settlers had to agree to live on it for 3 years, to build a house there, and to prepare the land for farming. All that the settlers had to pay was a $10 registration fee. By the mid-1890s, thousands of settlers were coming to Alberta. We watched a short storyboard animation from the National Film Board, about living in early Canada (attached below). It traces a family’s resettlement from Ontario to south-west Manitoba in the 1890s, and shows the many challenges they faced in their first year as new homesteaders. We also continued with the book talk presentations and will finish up with them next week! Have a wonderful weekend! —Ms. Jagger |
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June 2019
CategoriesResources for Practice
Reading: ReadTheory TumbleBooks Word Activities: Sight Word Bingo Sight Word Game Letter Blocks Bookworm TextTwist Coconut Vowels Word Toss Spelling: Spelling Practice Spelling Spree Story Writing: Story Writing Game Create your own Comic Storyboard Creator Poetry: Poetry Tools Rhyming Dictionary |