Working hard

As the end of the year quickly approaches, students have been continuing to work hard to finish all of our work!!

   This week in math we have been learning about Multiplication! Students are very excited to realize that they already know how to multiply numbers, because multiplication is really just the repeated addition of equal groups! We have been completing many different hands on activities, including the use of manipulatives, to learn how to draw, represent, and write multiplication sentences.

  Next, we will learn about division!

  In language arts we have started to talk about "persuasive writing." We read the book "I wanna new room" and learned about the purpose of persuasive writing. Tomorrow we will be reading another book by the same author, titled "I wanna iguana" and students will be practicing how to write their own persuasive writing piece on a pet that they would love to have!

  In science we have been continuing with some different experiments and projects to learn about properties of air and water. Reminder, our QUIZ on properties of air and water will be on Friday! We will be having a class review tomorrow to prepare.

On Tuesday we discovered that air has mass! We placed 4 blown up balloons on one side of the scale, and 4 deflated balloons on the other side, and you can see that the blown up balloons are slightly heavier than the empty balloons; because there is air in the blown up balloons, and air has mass!

Today we had a challenge to test in the wind! Students were challenged to design and build a kite that would fly the highest in the air. Today we built and tested our designs. Although none of the models actually flew up into the air, students had lots of fun and engaged in meaningful and purposeful discussions when making their designs. I was impressed with their ideas and explanations of why they made their kites the way they did!

Science Experiments and Test on Friday

Hello!

   I hope that everybody enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend!!

   This week we are wrapping up our science unit on air and water. We will be conducting a few science experiments this week to help review the properties of air and water. On Thursday we will be playing Kahoot in class to review for the short test, which will be held on Friday. 

  Today we conducted two science experiments to discover different properties of air.

  Experiment #1: Place an empty bottle with a balloon on top into a bucket of hot water and a bucket of cold water. What happens?

We discovered that the hot water made the balloon blow up because hot air expands! When it was then placed in cold water, the balloon deflated because cold air condenses.

Experiment ("Challenge") #2. 

    Could students submerge a piece of paper underwater without the paper getting wet? They only had a cup to work with. Students soon discovered that they could keep the paper dry by placing it in the cup and turning the cup upside down. What stops the water from going into the cup and making it wet? AIR of course! Air takes up space in the cup. 

Stay tuned for more updates on our science experiments (and other learning) this week!

   Mrs. Miller

Math Test Reminder

A friendly reminder that tomorrow is our Math Test for our unit on measuring length, area, and perimeter. Students have had a lot of different opportunities to practice these skills and I know they are ready! Good luck!

  **Don't forget to check out my twitter feed (located on the right sidebar)! I have started posting today!

   Mrs. Miller

Some updates

Hello, I hope that everybody enjoyed their long weekend!

There will be a couple of tests and quizzes this week: On Thursday we will have a math test on our measurement unit. I will be testing students on their ability to measure lengths using standard (cm) and non standard (blocks) units, as well as testing their knowledge on area and perimeter. On Friday we will have a short spelling test on our word wall words (I will pick just 10).

This week is the LAST week for students to check out books from the school Library. Since we missed Monday's visit this week, I will be taking the class tomorrow (Wednesday) to pick out books. I have sent home a note in your child's mailbag for anyone who didn't bring back their book today. If you can please send it to school tomorrow with your child so they may pick a book one last time for the school year, that would be fantastic :)

I am now on Twitter! I will be using twitter as another social media platform to display what our class is doing while at the same time connecting with many different educators. I will be posting updates of our class, as well as tweeting/retweeting any useful information that I find. You are more than welcome to follow me:  @MrsMillerOCSB  . You can also find my twitter posts on the blog, they will be located on the right side of the main blog page underneath the "Important Dates" section.

Summer weather is finally here! Unfortunately that means some hot days ahead in our classroom. Please make sure to send your child with water bottles on the hot days to help keep them hydrated. Don't forget the sunscreen as well! We were SO fortunate to have Mrs. Bennet offer us her classroom for last block last Thursday when our classroom because pretty hot! I will ensure to find some cool places to work inside of the main school building when temperatures are high in the port-a-pack.

Cooling off and working hard last Thursday in Mrs. Bennet's classroom

Enjoy the wonderful weather :) And GO SENS GO!

    Mrs. Miller 

OCSB choir visit

Today students were treated to a special performance by the Ottawa Catholic School Board Choir! We had lots of fun listening to all of the songs they sang for us.

  We worked hard in math today reviewing Perimeter and being introduced to "Area."

  We also began discussing a new unit in health: Safety with medicine (Prescription vs. Non prescription drugs). Students had a lot of important questions today that we will be answering over the next few days!

  Also, a reminder that since this Friday is a P.D. Day, Pizza day will be on THURSDAY this week :)

  Mrs. Miller

Weekend Update

Happy Mother's Day to all of our amazing moms!! I hope that everybody enjoyed their Mother's Day gifts, everybody worked so hard on them this past week! Here are a few updates to report :)

 Birthdays
  We had three birthday celebrations this past week!! Happy Birthday to Audrina (Friday), Jocelyne (Saturday), and Isaiah (Sunday). I hope you all had a great day!

 Homework
       With report cards coming up soon and all of the extra time needed to complete them, I will not be posting weekly homework up on the blog anymore. Thank you to all parents who took the time to work at home with their students! I will try to post more of what we are working on onto the blog so that you may continue working on the concepts at home if you wish.

Friday Math Centers
    Here is a look at some of the Math Centres students had a chance to work on last Friday:

 Roll the dice and draw the perimeter game. 

Drawing our own shapes on large graph paper and counting the perimeter.

Finding perimeter using Geoboards.

 I will see everybody in the morning!

      Mrs. Miller 

Frisbee Math

Finally, a beautiful day out today! We took advantage of the warm, sunny weather and headed outside for gym. We even integrated a bit of math into our gym time by having a frisbee throwing competition! We used pylons and a meter stick to make our measurements, and ended up with a line of cones that was 17 meters long. We then took turns throwing the frisbee as far as we could and noted where it landed. Students then counted up the pylons and told me how far, in meters, they threw the frisbee. We had lots of fun!!

tennis

Today we had a special visitor from Capital Camps come to our school to lead tennis workshops for all of the students! During our gym time today we got to practice some tennis skills and play a fun tennis game called "shark attack." An information page about Capital Camps that you can enroll your child in this summer is being sent home.

  I hope everybody was able to enjoy our wet, rainy weekend. And I really hope the sun will be able to come out soon!

   Homework has been posted and there are new word wall words this week.

   See everybody in the morning!

 Mrs. Miller

Busy Week!

Wow, what a busy week we had! Education week was full of some great activities! Here are some of the things that we did at the end of this week :)

 Wednesday: On Wednesday we had a special presentation by Louis Mercier that included many french songs and stories. Students had lots of fun joining in!

 Thursday: In science we have been talking and learning about the water cycle. We made a "Water Cycle in a bag" and put it up on the window of our classroom. Today we checked the bag, and even though there was not much sun, the bag still completed a full cycle!

Here is some evidence of condensation forming, and the beginning of precipitation (falling down the sides of the bag)

Friday: Today we learned about "Tableau" style drama. We practiced performing three different scenarios. Can you tell what the students are showing??

Today we also had a special treat! Some grade 5 students from across the hall came in and performed their puppet shows that they have been working hard on. They did a great job!

And finally, today we had our Education Week liturgy followed by our "Caught you Caring" assembly. Congratulations to Kiera, who had her name drawn from the bucket as one of this months winners! 

  Have a fantastic weekend! Stay safe and dry.

        Mrs. Miller

Open House

Thank you to all of the parents and grandparents who came to our open house this morning! I hope you enjoyed your time in our classrooms :)

  After the open house today students had the opportunity to go and check out the Eco Fair that was happening in the Library. We got to ask the Eco Club Team members about their displays and learn about what they are doing in our school. Students had a lot of fun, and were most excited about hearing all about our future "outdoor classroom" that will be coming to St. Francis!

  Mrs. Miller

Excited over the plans for the outdoor classroom!

Education Week

   This week is Education Week! There are many different special activities happening at St. Francis this week to celebrate. A note went home last week outlining the activities. You can also check the calendar on the St. Francis home page here.

 A special note that tomorrow (Tuesday) morning is our open house! Parents and Grandparents are invited to come in an see your child in action in their classroom from 9:15 to 10:15am. Our class will be in French with Mme Cote for this time period, however I will have my door open and will have a few things set up that you can come in and check out if you wish! There will also be the first Eco Fair happening during this time in the Learning Commons. Looking forward to seeing everybody who can make it!

  Weekly homework and word wall words will be posted shortly, thank you for your patience.

  Scholastic Book order for May is being sent home today. THANK YOU to everyone who submitted an order in April! Our class was able to pick 2 free books for our classroom AND I earned $20 in rewards to spend on more books and supplies for our classroom!

  As our school year is winding down we will be very busy working as well as taking part in many different special events. Continue to check the blog frequently for updates and reminders :)

  Mrs. Miller