Last two weeks of November

Welcome back!
So much has happened in these last two weeks. Some of the information shared here were also shared during the parent-teacher interviews.  To start with, this week and the next we are so lucky to have Jeff Stockton visit our school. Jeff Stockton is a story teller and harp player who is delighting our student these two weeks with the goal to instill a love for the oral traditions of old times. Here is a link to his webpage. 

With Jeff Stockton

In Math we have learned up three digit by one digit multiplication with the traditional method as well as three digit by two or three digit using the box or Area method. 
Here's a link explaining the steps. We are also doing division with division problems. The students have learned that division is about making groups with the same number of items. For this, they use manipulatives if needed. The students are also learning the steps for long division. 
As the parents know, we carried out a school-wide Math task. It was a word problem in which the students had to solve a problem in Spanish. Only the vocabulary was reviewed previously and the Math was left for the student to decide what to do with the numbers. We want to encourage problem solving in our students so the task was not such much about the right answer but more about having a record of how the students try to tackle a fairly difficult problem in Math.

Division with manipulatives. There are 6 groups of 3. 

Problem solving in teams. we are experimenting with non-permanent vertical surfaces to write Math. 

The whiteboard as well as windows become work spaces to represent a Math problem. It is easy for the teams to see and share different strategies.

Week ending on November 3

The students finally presented their Area and Perimeter project in Math. For this, they used Oral Spanish skills in which they recurred to previously learned and specific vocabulary, like ordinal numbers, sequencing like "primero", "luego" and "despues", and prepositions like "debajo", "arriba" and "adentro". For Math, they had to use base ten reasoning when they multiplied by 10 and 100. The students also reviewed one digit multiplication and are learning two digit by one digit multiplication. 

In Spanish, the students are doing a project on dinosaurs, linked to the Social Studies curriculum of fossils and bones found in Alberta. 

As part of the Science Curriculum we had an in-school field trip by Teacher's Pet, an educational project that teaches students using hands on activities. The student were thrilled to  build different types of catapults such as the Trebuchet, the Mangonel and the Ballista and learn about their functioning principles. 

Celebrating Halloween

We received a surprise visit by the Border Security agents and dogs.

Making vampire corner bookmarks.