Learning and Inquiry

Many of our units are underway this term. We are using inquiry questions to guide our learning in curriculum areas. Below you will find a snapshot of learning in some subject areas:

Writing

What do good writers do? This was the question we began our year with and I was pleasantly surprised at the answers I received. For the first time in many years, spelling was not mentioned first. In fact, it was not mentioned at all! I had to add it to our list and explain that it is important to spell words we know and to become more accurate in spelling unknown words. We are currently working on thinking and planning about our writing, using organizers to get ideas on paper, and beginning with an introduction to our topic. 

We also have pen pals from another local grade 4/5 class. All students received a letter today and will be responding back this week. Our project was launched by sharing a great picture book called Dear Dragon. 

Reading

Have you heard about the Global Read Aloud? We have begun our novel, Pax, this week. We will hopefully be having a few opportunities to connect with other students using technology during this read aloud. 

Health & Career Education

What does a healthy lifestyle look like? We have finished looking at three types of physical activity and discussed some of the benefits of physical activity. We created mobiles to illustrate our learning.

Next we are looking at healthy eating. We talked about the importance of Canada's guidelines for eating well - these are just guidelines, and students should be taking their cues for healthy eating from their parents. Students are learning about balanced eating from all four food groups, and about guidelines for serving sizes. They are not to be counting calories. We also briefly discussed body image and acceptance. 

Social Studies

What makes Canada's regions unique? Students began the year by reviewing the provinces and territories on a map of Canada. Now we are looking more closely at the regions. We will be creating a Canada scrapbook, complete with pictures and facts about each region. This project integrates reading and writing outcomes as well. Please look over the project description in our yellow homework folders that came home, initial, and send the project back to school the next day! Much of this project will be completed at school, however, there will be a few components to be completed at home. One of these is locating pictures that show the diversity of each region. These pictures can be cut from magazines, printed from a computer, or drawn by students. Picture should be smaller in size as each region will only have a 2 page layout (8 1/2 x 11" paper) - they also need to leave room for several fact boxes. 

French

We have been developing (or extending) our basic vocabulary in French. Students are learning to read, write, listen, and speak simple every day French starting with the alphabet, days of the week, and simples greetings (hello and goodbye). Each morning, we also begin our day looking at the date in French. Students have also enjoyed singing along with the following video to learn the alphabet: