Hello everyone,

This week is a little crazy with Monday being a snow day and the teacher walk-out on Thursday.

Thanks to Rachel's mother, her grandmother and David's mother, we were able to set up the houses today while the students were rehearsing for the Merry Memories in they gym. Tomorrow we will be decorating them, please feel free to come down and check them out after the concert.

This is most likely my last post before Christmas, due to ETFO regulations.
Please continue to have your child reading and talking about their books on a daily basis, it is really the main way to improve your child's reading, comprehension and thinking skills. Take every opportunity to point out math around you and in the home. They really need to see the real world connection; which was quite evident during the making of the gingerbread houses. Please continue the typing skills. We have been unable to finish the Provinces and Territories assignment. Anything the students can find out about their assignmed province/territory, would be helpful to him/her.

I wish you all a joyful, healthy and happy Christmas vacation. Thank you ever so much for your communication and support, you make this job - which often seems daunting - so much more joyful and better to do. I am looking forward to the New Year, where we'll be wrapping up 1st term and launching into second. Your children are really such a joy to teach.

Yours

I think it's official: some can call me crazy for attempting to make 7 gingerbread houses, from scratch, with 21 grade 4 students. :-)

In all seriousness, we had an amazing time and best of all, none of them realized they were learning! I have posted 2 photos to my twitter feed and will post some more photos later this weekend. The students are writing up about their experience and I will also place that on the website later next week.

Thanks again to Mrs. Lockie, Mrs. Severnuk and Ms Kloiber for helping us, ok, mostly me, out this week. I really could not have accomplished any of this without all your support. It is much appreciated. Thank you.

This weekend, the students should be reading and brainstorming some more about the true meaning of Christmas and what it means to them.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Cheers,
Merdina Price

We launched the gingerbread house project yesterday (Wednesday) and it was VERY successful! The students had an amazing time whipping, stirring and getting their hands right into the dough. A BIG thank you to Christine Lockie and Tracy Severnuk for helping us out. I really could not have done it without you. Thank you, everyone, for all the supplies you sent in. We were also able to make a few extra servings of dough for the afternoon students in the class and in case a group's dough does not work out.

I am, unfortunately, not at school today, Thursday. For some reason my son's high school put his concert right in the middle of the day at 11:30, which makes it impossible to get a supply teacher in for just the morning or afternoon. I am disappointed we will be behind a day in our schedule, but it's good to give the students the "down" day too (they were REALLY excited yesterday :-0). Tomorrow, Friday, we will be rolling out the dough, cutting out our pieces and some extra cookies too. If you are able to help us out, that would be brilliant! Just show up in the morning, sign in and come on down. Thank you!

Interesting observation: Measuring with a ruler was quite difficult for some students on Tuesday, when laying out our pattern. Something I completely take for granted as an adult! That's the great thing about these hands on projects, the students can connect to real-world circumstances. We will definitely be working on this in the future.

Social Studies/Language: We are starting our provinces/territories research assignment today. The students are completing it at school, reading about their province from books provided and creating a display for their information (poster, pamphlet, anything else they can think of....) and presenting it to the class. Also, please ask your child about our read aloud book, "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever". Although I'm reading it based on the theme of kindness and not judging a book by its cover, I'm getting a plethora of questions about the reason behind the Christian celebration of Christmas. Being a public school, I am always connecting to other religions/ideas/spiritual beliefs; however, I am finding their questions fascinating, as they are VERY curious at what is out there and about "faith" in general. Please know that I am a public school teacher and am keeping a VERY neutral stance on all issues.

Last thing, I've noticed lately a lot of students have been asking to go down to the H.U.B. (our resource room) to ask for a piece of fruit for afternoon snack. This is happening on a fairly regular basis with almost all the students. We have run out of fruit in the HUB often lately. I just wanted to make you are all aware that the students are quite hungry in the afternoons, and mostly for fruit :-); always good to hear. I have given out some of my own fruit on occasion. Just something to keep in mind. 

Sorry it's so long, as I had a lot to catch up on and to share with you all. Please continue to encourage and question your child on his/her reading and multiplication tables each night. Typing is still an asset they need in the school too and would be helpful if supported at home.

Thank you, as always, for your on-going support.

Merdina Price

Trying to get this blog accomplished at this time of year, is becoming more and more difficult. I am still checking the agendas and am trying to double check most agendas before leaving the classroom. Therefore, I have not been too worried about the blog and I'm very sorry for not keeping up on it.

Every student now has an independent book to read for December. They should be coming home and bringing it back to school the next day. Please ensure it's in the backpack and stays there when your child is not reading it, so that none get left at home.

This weekend the students are to make a point of reading at least 20 minutes...preferably 40, depending on ability.

Measurement, multiplication and division are all being connected over the next few weeks with our gingerbread houses. I am going to try it out this weekend with the following recipe http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_a_gingerbread_house/print/ If you have something better and have tips you can share with me PLEASE DO! A letter is coming home tonight with a list of possible items you can send in. Please check off the item and send in on Monday. A quick email to me would be VERY helpful for me, in order for me to organize and purchase supplies over the weekend. I will buy a big back of flour at Costco, my big concern is the molasses and shortening (in replacement of the butter). Some eggs would be great too, but I understand that's difficult to send in; however, if you feel like dropping by and helping out, that would be great too. :-) The more adult hands I have the better. I am going to break the kids up into 7 groups of 3. Everyone will have photos taken with their finished house and will bring a part of it home.

Please understand, I have never done this before with 4th graders. Any ideas or problems that may arise, I would be most grateful for your advice and concern. I am explaining the project to them on Monday, along with looking at the recipe. I would like to make the dough on Tuesday, but will have to bake in batches, becasue we only have 2 ovens. I could probably bake some at home that night too. We will slowly put it together over the course of the week. I am looking at decorating it by Friday. Therefore, if you could send in the candy by Friday, that would be great.

Thank you for your patience and support.

Merdina Pric

We are full swing into multiplication. IF a multiplication sheet is sent home, students are to spend no long than 40 minutes on it for that night. Practicing multiplying every night will get them in the swing of understanding their times tables and will benefit them for the next NINE years in school. You need your multiplication tables to understand the relationships between numbers e.g. multiples and finding common denominators, ratios, etc. and will make math so much easier for you to understand. Even when we move onto our next unit, I encourage you all to have a goal of knowing your tables by the end of the year.

Sorry for the late entry, but I thought I could edit the website on the iPad (which I borrowed from the school to practice on....the kids know more than me!), but it does not have Adobe Flash....sigh. Technology is brilliant, when it's working!