CAUTION! Hard at Work

We are busy already with new learning.

Kids in the Know:
This week we learned about the circle of protection for students which means identifying our safe adults as well as learning about keep/speak secrets. Ask your child to explain to you how we know an adult is safe (They should respect boundaries). KEEP secrets were described as secrets that are fun or that have an end. In other words, at some point people will know the secret (ie. surprise party, gifts). SPEAK secrets are secrets that should be told to our safe adult (ie. secrets about touching, bullying, cyberbullying). Please review these very important concepts with your child. This coming Tuesday, we have a Body Science presentation. This will be happening school-wide, with grade levels grouped together.

Multiplication:
We are working on our times tables through timed math minutes. At the beginning of the week, students take the PRE test. We identify the new facts we are working on and add new flashcards to our deck. I will be sending these home with students each Monday, and they should be practicing every night for 5 minutes. Please send the deck back to school on Friday when we will have our POST test. Facts covered so far are 0's, 1's, and 10's plus 6x7/7x6, 8x7/7x8, 4x8/8x4 and 9x7/7x9. Next week we will be adding on our 11 times tables.

This week we also began working on multiplication with regrouping. Grade 4's are responsible for learning up to three-digit by one-digit with regrouping. Grade 5's will be learning two-digit by two-digit multiplication with regrouping.

Applied Design, Skills & Technology:
Students are working on a very simple in-class project. They have chosen an inventor and an invention to research together. They will then put together a simple PowerPoint project to share with the class. This project allows them to practice research and note-taking skills, use technology to create and present, and review citing sources of information. It also gets them curious about the world they live in and allows them to pursue a simple inquiry.

Science:
We are currently learning about the scientific method with a series of experiments using M&M's. Students are learning about the importance of controlling variables when investigating quetions, making hypotheses and drawing conclusions. This unit is intended to build background knowledge for our focus on the states of matter and solubility.

Social Studies:
We are just beginning our next focus which is Contact & Change. Our unit will look at a larger time period in Canada's history,  focusing on a few key events. One of the main topics will the Fur Trade. As always, we will be examining this topic (and others) with a critical lens that considers First Peoples perspectives.