Mr. Wideman (Room 104) - Nov 11 - Nov 15

During the week, we continued to focus on applying computational and problem solving strategies in different areas of the curriculum. With Parent-Teacher conferences upcoming on Thursday November 21 and Friday November 22, we will have an opportunity to discuss our work and progress over the first three months of the school year. I encourage all families to sign up for a conference on either Thursday evening or Friday morning. If neither of these days work for your schedule, I’m also available to meet before or after school on most days as well. Please feel free to contact me via e-mail if you prefer to set up an alternative day to meet. I’m looking forward to meeting with everyone in the upcoming days!

In Language Arts, our work this week continued to be based around our original story writing. The templates that the students have been using for their ideas are available through Google Drive, and I know that several students have been taking up this work at home as they continue to add their thoughts and ideas. Students have moved into Parts 3/4/5 of the template and are now focused on adding their ideas for the main structure of the plot (rising action), the climax of their stories, and the falling action leading to a conclusion. As the planning process continues this week, we’ll be taking these ideas and building them into our creative stories. Through this work, we’re aiming to demonstrate our ability to focus on the structure and organization of creative story telling. Our marking checklist is also available through Google Drive, and this will help guide our work as we peer edit and revise our writing.

In Math, we continue to focus on equations and working with basic facts using the four operations. We have been exploring different ways to work with variables in equations, and we are starting to develop a greater understanding of the connections between multiplication and division through the concept of inverse operations. Just a reminder that while working in our Lure of the Labyrinth online environment, students may choose to either play the quest game or work on individual puzzles that focus on the different strands of our math curriculum. This week, we looked at some of the other games and puzzles available through Lure of the Labyrinth, including those involving multiples and equations in different contexts.

In Social Studies, we are continuing to apply essential characteristics of maps. We worked in Ozoblockly to create “tours” for our crew of Ozobot robots that allowed them to begin to explore physical regions of Canada (Grade 5) and Alberta (Grade 4). Our work on our interactive maps continues and we are currently looking at creating quizzes that will demonstrate our knowledge and understanding of the regions of Alberta and Canada. In Science this week, we’ll be working on activities that will provide a conclusion to our current work on Waste in our World (Grade 4) and Electricity (Grade 5). We will be revisiting these skills and concepts throughout our upcoming Science units of study as well.

On Friday, we sent home our “Weekly Review” folders as part of our Feedback Friday focus. The work in Google Drive will always be available for parents and students to view and discuss at home, and the Weekly Review activities will help to provide some additional insight into the skills and concepts that we have been working on during the week. This week’s review includes work on variables using all four operations, quick creative writing summaries, and characteristics of maps. Please send the signed folders back to school each Monday, as we’ll be adding another short Weekly Review activity each week. 

Thank you for your continued support of our work, and I look forward to meeting with our Room 104 families at the Parent-Teacher conferences this week.

-Mr. Wideman