December 17, 2014

It's Christmas vacation!  Today was spent doing lots of fun activities together, from caroling, to decorating gingerbread men, to our gift exchange, to our party!  They should sleep well tonight!

If your child has overdue work, they're bringing it home to complete over the break. I've also asked each child to complete Xtra Math 8 times (minimum) over the break. Thanks for your help in ensuring these tasks are completed. 

I pray you all have a blessed Christmas holiday, bountiful with family and friends. 

See you all in 2015!

December 12, 2014

Good afternoon!  Here's what took place in our classroom today:

1. Spelling test and memory check - the students did very well with the big memory check (the class average was 90%!).  Their scores are in their planners.
2. Reading workshop - we finished our reading from Ch. 8 today in our literature study, and worked on some associated work
3. Computers - the children enjoyed some game time today
4. Music - with Mr. Banman
5. Math - we continued our work on finding massing factors with the 3's and Venn and Carroll Diagrams with the 4's
6. Science - today we talked about the lunar phases.  See if your child can describe them to you, and if they can tell you why we can only see part of the moon some nights.
7. Art - snowflakes hit our classroom today!  Check out our windows for some of the awesome designs the children came up with!

Please remember to pick up your children from Chilliwack Baptist on Monday at 2:45PM.

December 11, 2014

The weather outside was frightful, but inside it was definitely delightful!

1. Our day began with Opening Exercises, and the students did a Mad Minute.  Many of them beat their previous records, which is awesome!
2. Then it was on to W.W., which the kids were super excited about because we finally started our Big Books.  They are writing picture books for the K-2 students, and this allows me to focus on story and plot development with them, as well as writing for a specific audience, and paragraphing.
3. Before recess we had Handwriting, and the 4's reviewed upper and lower case O today while the 3's worked on connecting lower case letters
4. Math - we continued with our work on finding the relationships between numbers.  The 3's are finding missing numbers in equations using their knowledge of related facts, and the 4's are using diagrams to show relationships (we focused on Venn and Carroll diagrams today)
5. R.W. - The students had a good chunk of Independent Reading (see the video I'm going to email you shortly), and then we worked on Chapter 8 of The Chocolate Touch
6. P.E. - with Mr. Banman
7. R.W. -with Mr. Ediger
8. Chapel - Mrs. Ryksamp led

December 10, 2014

Things have been pretty hectic for me at school these days due to preparation for the Christmas Concert. Please forgive me if I don't keep the blog up to date as I typically do. I promise we'll be back to normal in January!

December 9, 2014

Hello Everyone! Here is what happened in grade 3/4 today.

1. O.E.: We did a Math Word Problem.
2. Bible: We continued with our nativity story. Since we were reading Luke 2 today, the class recited the whole chapter instead of having me read it. They did a wonderful job!
3. W.W.: We learned about Limeracks today. They were a little difficult to write as they have quite a few rules to follow (syllable count and rhyming).
4. Math: We started with "I Have, Who Has." I didn't think we could get any faster than 1:24, but we beat our time!! We got 1:18! They sure were speedy today. We then worked on some symmetry stuff.
5. Science: We reviewed our knowledge about bridges and identified different types of bridges.
6. P.E.: Since the gym is being used by the church and it was pouring rain outside, we played a couple of games in the classroom to let off some steam.
7. H.A.C.E.: We did our final class on Healthy Living & Eating. We'll start our next unit after Christmas.

December 8, 2014

Just a quick post today to let you know that the students did an awesome job leading chapel today.  They shared the message of God's love in such an effective way.  Thanks to everyone who was able to come and watch!

December 5, 2014

Hi parents!  We had a wonderful field trip to Colour Me Mine today. What a fun way to finish our day.  Here are some photos of the adventures we had:

I hope to see all of you at our chapel on Monday. The kids have worked hard and are excited to share what they've been working on.  The program begins at 2 PM.

December 4, 2014

Hi everyone.  If you haven't checked your email yet, please do.  I'm looking for your feedback on a couple of questions I have for you related to ideas for the class, which I have not mentioned to the students yet, as I'd like to ensure that the majority of parents are in favour.  Please reply asap!  Thank you :)

Here's what happened in our class today:

1. Opening exercises - the class did a Christmas word unscramble
2. Chapel prep - we are working hard preparing for our chapel on Monday.  Some students still need to memorize their verses.  Please ask your child to tell you his or her verse tonight to ensure they've got it.
3. W.W. - we finished up invitations for our chapel day.  These are coming home tonight.  Please have your child pass them on to someone who might not know about it.
4. Handwriting - the Grade 4's are doing review of connections and the 3's are working on v, u, x, n, m, y, and z.
5. Math - we started our new unit on addition and subtraction for the 3's, and whole numbers for the 4's
6. R.W. - we did our literature study for most of the class, reading Ch. 7 and working on discovering the main idea as well as writing out supporting details for it.
7. P.E. - with Mr. Banman
8. R.W. - with Mr. Ediger
9. Chapel - led by Mrs. Hills

December 3, 2014

Hi parents,

I don't have time to write a full blog entry today due to parent-teacher conferences.  I've put down the homework though.

Hope to see you all tonight!

December 2, 2014

It's beginning to feel like Christmas in our class! Here's what happened today in Grade 3/4:


1. Opening Exercise: I had the students do a journal entry about inventing a new pizza. Funny how most of them turned out to be pizzas I would never want to eat!
2. Bible: Since Advent has just started, we started reading the Nativity story.
3. Writing Workshop: We did some writing with the Nativity story and then switched gears and wrote Color Poems. We did one together as a class and then each student did one on their own.
4. Math: We played "I Have, Who Has..." again and we beat our amazing score of 1:25. We got 1:24!!
5. HACE: Each student received a little booklet about healthy eating and the food groups. They can take it home and work on it at home. They don't need to worry about bringing it back to class.
6. PE: We played 2 Corner Soccer.
7. Science: We're learning about bridges, strong shapes, and materials so we watched a video about building strong bridges.

December 1, 2014

Here's the lay of the land from today:

1. Opening exercises - we fixed three very poorly written sentences (daily oral language)
2. Spelling/memory - Unit 12 (review) and Isaiah 45:10
3. R.W. - I read a book all about synonyms called "The King Who Rained" today, which everyone enjoyed (especially the one about giving the house two coats of paint!)
4. Math - we had our test.  These will be marked tonight and returned Wednesday for your signature and corrections
5. P.E. - with Mr. Banman
6. Math - some students needed extra time for their tests.  
7. Chapel prep
8. S.S. - we continued our study on communities, focusing on the things our community has that are for fun, and which are necessities
9. Chapel

Here are some fun photos from lunch today: