Goodbye April, Hello May!

Hello!

Well, normally I'd be saying that Spring has Sprung, but... the weather these last couple days seems to disagree! Regardless, we've had quite an eventful April, and it's just going to stay busy for our last two months of school! Check out the video below for some of our highlights in April:

Please see below for our academic focuses in May:

Writing:

This month, we are wrapping up our Camp NaNoWriMo fantasy writing unit. We will finish writing this week, then spend the next two weeks revising and editing stories. To wrap up, students will bind a physical copy of their very own book, and we'll celebrate with a publishing party on May 30th! Please save the date, and more information will come home shortly.

Reading:

Students will be rehearsing and performing Readers' Theater plays over the next week and half, before moving on to another round of book clubs!

Math:

We've been taking some extra time with multiplication and division as they are big topics in grade 4. As we go through May, we'll be finishing up Division, then working on Area (in both Math and Science), before moving on to Time by the end of the month.

Science:

This month we will be working on a big, inquiry focused project. Students will learn about plants through the lens of gardening -- looking at the variety of plant life which can thrive in Southern Alberta, as well as the variety of uses which humans have for different plants. They will then get to put on their imagination caps and invent a plant of their very own which could fit into their planned gardens.

Social:

We're just wrapping up our penultimate Social Studies unit, and will then step back from Social until June to focus on our Science unit.

Wellness:

In the physical education portion of our Wellness time, we'll be focusing on Ringette and Kickball. Our in-class wellness lessons for the next few weeks will tackle Healthy Eating & Nutrition. As well, we will be teaching our Grade 4 Human Growth and Development lessons later in the month. Please look for the Opt Out form to come home in the next week or so.

French:

Students will utilize their knowledge of directional language to guide their classmates through several different tasks, as well as learning Spring-related vocabulary and activities.

Art:

In art, students will be focusing creating on covers for the stories they've written. We'll study the required and qualitative criteria for good book covers, before students create their own and bind up a physical copy of their very own book!

Important Notes for the next month:

Wednesday May 8th - Hats on for Mental Health day
Thursday May 16th - Japanese Gardens field trip
Monday/Tuesday May 20th/21st - NO SCHOOL (Victoria Day and PL)
Wednesday/Thursday May 22nd/23rd - Human Growth and Development lessons
Friday May 24th - Jersey Day // Gilbert Patterson Middle School Band performance
Thursday May 30th - Fantasy Stories Publishing Party

***Also, we are planning our year end field trip to Waterton Lakes National Park on June 13th -- again, please look for further information coming home soon***

Thanks for reading,

Mr. V