Visit From a Fox

We had a productive Friday - we worked on our journals, finished our School Wide Writes, worked on our Stowaway novel study, did an art project, and engaged in math games. Although the kids are working on their animal investigations, we ended up having our own animal investigating us.

Meet Scarlett.

Scarlett was out in the playground at recess.

Scarlett's trip to the zoo. She was fascinated by the strange creatures she saw there.

Bridging the Gap

Today our class had a library period with Ms. Abbott. We continued our study of bridges by building a bascule bridge!

According to the Academic Kids Encyclopedia a bascule bridge is:

a drawbridge with a counterweight that continuously balances the span, or "leaf", throughout the entire upward swing in providing clearance for boat traffic. Bascule is a French term for seesaw and balance, and bascule bridges operate along the same principle. They are the most common type of movable bridge in existence because they open quickly and require relatively little energy to operate.

Although the bascule bridge has been in use since ancient times, it was not until the 1880s that engineers developed the ability to move very long, heavy spans quickly enough for practical application. Tower Bridge in London was the first large bascule bridge and is probably the most famous bascule bridge in the world.

Our Little People motorists make the first crossing of our bascule bridge.

Our "boat" calls for a raising of the bridge.

Thanks to Mrs. Abbott for a fantastic library period and an excellent engineering experiment!

Wednesday Math Update

This is just a quick peek at what we are doing in math:

Our grade fives have been working on the subtraction of four digit numbers using regrouping. They have also been working on parts and totals. After our unit on addition and subtraction of large numbers, we will be going on to tackle even larger numbers! Look out, one million - here we come!

How much is that ransom, again?

Our grade four students have been working on using different multiplication strategies such as arrays, multiples of ten, and doubling. Using doubling, we have begun to look at multiplying a two digit number by a one digit number. Formal equations are next!

Mary Kate and Ashley are experts in using doubles.

Our grade threes have been working on adding different sums (including money) using regrouping. They have been working with base ten blocks to really solidify the concept. Next they will be moving on to using the power of regrouping for subtraction with two and three digit numbers.

Base Ten blocks make learning concrete.

Our grade one contingent is deep into a unit on measurement. After a study of length and width, we've moved on to look at mass. We've been having a lot of fun using our scales to compare different objects. The scales have also been handy to look at different units of measurement when considering the mass of an object. It takes 43 paperclips to balance out an eraser.

We used a scale like this one to experiment with mass!

That's all for this week's math update. We'll try to catch up at the same time next week!

School Wide Writes

Today we did some preliminary work for our School Wide Writes. This involved using S.M.A.R.T. Learning techniques to do some planning for our writing.

1. First, we chose our topic. As a class, we decided to write about a journey.
2. Next, we talked about what criteria we were going to pay attention to as we wrote. We talked about things like interesting ideas, having a definite beginning, middle, and end, paragraph use, and spelling/punctuation use.
3. After that, we did an idea web individually on our Thinking Pages.
4. Next, we took our Thinking Pages to the gym and engaged in Walk-to-Talk partner work. This means that we walked around the gym with our partners, talking about our ideas.
5. Then we returned to our Thinking Pages and wrote down new ideas we might have come up with while walking with out partners.
6. Finally, we reflected on what we did while we were coming up with new ideas - this is what good writers do!

Tomorrow we will be developing the Thinking Page before moving on to our writing. Fantastic work, Division One!

2011 Book Week Writing Contest

Attention Grade 4s and 5s!

TD Canadian Children’s Book Week will run from Saturday, April 30 to Saturday, May 7, 2011.
In honour of this week, Amazon.ca, Harper Collins Publishers Ltd, Simon & Schuster Canada, and the TD Bank are sponsoring a writing contest.

This year Book Week celebrates global citizenship. The theme Changing the World, One Child at a Time will focus on stories that highlight children and teens who are doing things to make the world a better place in their community, country, or abroad.

The stories may be fiction or non-fiction.

One winner from each grade will receive a $250 gift certificate to the bookstore of his or her choice.
Winning entries will be posted on the Book Week website – http://www.bookweek.ca/.

• Entries must be postmarked by February 18, 2011.
• The story or poem must be written during the current school year.
• Entrants must be in Grades 4 to 12 at the time of the contest deadline.
• Entries must be written in English and must not exceed 1,500 words.
• All entries must include a fully complete ENTRY FORM*
• No faxed or emailed entries will be accepted.
• Due to the large volume of entries, we cannot acknowledge receipt of entry.
• Contest open to residents of Canada only.
• Winners will be announced on May 4, 2011.

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Entry forms are available online through the link above, or from me directly. Please let me know if you would like to enter this contest - $250 in free books is nothing to sneeze at!

Fizzy Science!

This morning our class did an experiment to see how our stomach digests food and passes it through the digestive system.

First, we put citric acid into our "stomach" to stand in for digestive juices. Then we added sodium bicarbonate to stand in for food. Next, we added brown food colouring to stand in for digestive enzymes.

Then we stood back and watched the "food" be digested by the acid and passed along to the "intestines."

Water is added to our "stomach" to aid in digestion.



After the food has been digested, it is eliminated from the body.


Thanks go to the student who brought this neat experiment in to do with the class. We enjoyed it!

Stowaway: Part 12 - Learn About Waterspouts!

At the end of Part 12, Nicholas Young and the crew of the Endeavour encounter a waterspout. Are you wondering exactly what that is?

According to Academic Kids Encyclopedia:

A waterspout is a tornado that occurs over water

Are you curious about what a waterspout looks like in real life?

Check out this cool video from YouTube:

*Oops! I think the author of the video meant to write lightning rather than lighting!

Welcome to Miss Fuller's Class Blog!

This blog has been created with two purposes in mind:

1. To showcase the learning that we are doing in Division One.
2. To create a space where my students can access links to relevant (and appropriate) content on the Internet.

My goal is to update this blog on a weekly basis.

Welcome!