Social Studies Mapping Skills

We are currently studying
Mapping Skills

We have headed out on our first journey around the world to discover the 7 continents. Our first quizzle on the continents required more practise and our second quizzle revealed great success.

Our next focus brought us all back to North America where we have studied all the oceans of the world; as well as, Latitude and Longitude.

We will be discussing the following: The Arctic CircleThe EquatorTropic of  CancerTropic of CapricornNorth and South Pole
We will then move to lines of Longitude which will take us to Greenwich, England and the Prime Meridian.The International Date Line

Since our class quizzle went so well we are heading back to Canada. Our next challenge is to identify all the Provinces / Territories with their capital cities. We will be doing class maps and interactive flash cards to help with this skill. 

Our first Social Studies Test revealed challenges for a number of students in identifying Provinces and Capitals. A re-test has been planned for Wednesday, October 31st.

Reading:

Reading: 

Our most recent Critical Reading exercise is about an 11 year old who was the first to discover a major fossil in the world.

As a class we have been working on Directed Reading Exercises; whereby, your son / daughter has been introduced to a new Success Criteria on How to Answer Reading questions.

The process of showing them how to repeat half of the question with half of the answer takes practise. Basics are the focus; including placing a capital at the beginning of the sentence with a period at the end of a complete thought.

In time, students will be working in Google Docs and learning how to access their comprehension questions in our Google Classroom. When they have successfully completed their Reading assignments they will ' Share ' their work with me electronically.

This ' Sharing ' allows me instant access to your son / daughter's Reading seat work. I can then suggest editing or adding suggestion and evaluate their efforts and then ' Share ' their work back to them electronically.

Parents, in time, will hopefully find success accessing their son / daughter's work and they can see first hand the progress your son / daughter is making in their Reading.

As a class we will be involved in a Global Reading program based on the newly released novel: A Boy called Bat.
This young boy is autistic and his mother being a veterinarian decides to one day bring home a baby skunk since it's mother was killed in a road accident. Bat loves all animals and immediately falls in love with the kit but mom puts conditions on his being adopted by her son. Bat has thirty-one days to convince his mom to keep his lovable skunk. 

Our class discussions of lovable Bat has lead to Chapter 1, 2 and 3 comprehension questions being assigned. 
We discussed the technique of repeating half of the question with half of your answer with your son / daughter. To many this is foreign, so this process will take practise to answer in complete sentences, and in time, learning to add proof to their answers.

Science:  Habitats

   Our studies of Habitats has taken us around the world to discuss and investigate the ' biomes ' of the world. e.g.) Tundra, Tropical Jungles, Arctic etc.     This knowledge will be needed as your son / daughter moves into the Mini-project since they will be expected to tell us where in the world their threatened or endangered animals lives.     Our next section of Habitats will investigate the Harmful or Helpful aspects of humans on the animals of the world.   e.g.) Pesticides, DDT; Fertilizers, Lake Winnipeg, Oil Spills, Exxon Valdez, etc.   This element of their understanding will spill over to their Mini-project since they will be asked,

 ' How are we as humans helping your endangered animals or endangering your animal? '     

' What associations are involved to protect your threatened or endangered animal and how can we get involved?'

  I have shown the class a number of previous year's projects and also taught them how to do a Power Point Presentation. 

Mathematics

We are now currently studying our first unit:

Linear Measurement 

In our unit on Linear Measurement, we have asked your son / daughter to measure accurately with a ruler. This turned out to be quite a challenge for many. I explained the importance of accuracy since we are dealing with Linear Measurement. We have reviewed the concepts of Perimeter and Area. In Grade 4, I have introduced the concept of a formula to calculate both Perimeter and Area. 

We will now be moving into Metric Conversions this week. 

Media Literacy: Computer Internet Safety

              Media Literacy & Computer Internet Safety

Students will be given insight into Computer Internet Safety as part of our Media Literacy studies.
We will be watching a great video from Vimeo featuring a group of elementary students. 
Click on the link below for the Vimeo video. 

https://vimeo.com/116587103

Our class will continue the discussion of Computer Internet Safety and then assign the Do's & Don'ts of the internet. 

Welcome

Welcome to Mr. Macdonald's Toon Squad! 

 Our site is now up and operational so please feel free to drop into our site and check for announcements, classroom updates and current assignments for each subject.