Plants and Soils

We have sprouts! The students were jumping with joy on Monday morning when they noticed their tomato plants and sunflowers have both sprouted over the weekend! We have been watching them very closely and comparing their growth each day. We are also keeping a chart of day to day observations.

GMS Achievers Assembly
On Wednesday morning we had our monthly assembly. Congratulations to Micaela and Ishmal who each received a certificate for this months virtue, conscience. We are so proud of these two girls for consistently making good choices, even when no one is watching!

Last Create Dance Class
On Wednesday we also had our last Create Dance Class and the students performed the dances they have been working on!

Watercolor Silhouette Art
Artists: Braeden, Micaela, Joshua and Kate

Track and Field
On Thursday the Grade 4 students participated in the School Track Meet. The students did an amazing job participating in the events and cheering each other on!

Important Dates:
Friday June 6: June Book Orders are Due
Wednesday, June 11: Track Meet at Douglas Park
Friday, June 13: No School - PD Day
Thursday, June 26: Last Day of School (Report Cards Go Home)

Tomatosphere!

Our class is very excited to take part in the Tomatosphere project to kick off our plants and soils unit in Science. We are planting two different sets of tomato seeds. One set of seeds is our control group that has NOT been in space, and the other group has spent 22 months in space on board the International Space Station! They were taken to the ISS by the last US shuttle leaving on July 8th, 2011 and were returned to Earth with Commander Chris Hadfield on May 15, 2013. The only thing is - we have no idea which seeds are which (at least not until we send in our results!). At first the kids didn't believe me that our tomato seeds have actually been in space until I provided some evidence! We are very excited to see our tomatoes grow (Or our "Spacematoes" as we have been calling them!). In addition to our tomatoes, we also planted some sunflower seeds as well.

Marshmallow Structure Challenge
We are currently learning about structures in Science. The students experimented with shapes to create a strong base for their structure using only marshmallows and toothpicks!

We had only 2 rules for this challenge:
1) It must be a multi-storey structure
2) It must be stable on the table!

CREATE: Dance and Movement
We also had another visit from our Create Artist, Krista, this week. The students are beginning to explore movement while composing their own sequence involving their choice of choreographed "moves" or movement improvisation. It was such a beautiful day on Wednesday we decided to our dance moves outside for the second half of the class!

Literacy Night Coffeehouse
Big thank you to everyone who came out to enjoy the Literacy Night Coffee House on Thursday. It was great to see families reading and writing together!

Important Dates:
Wednesday, May 28: GMS Achievers Assembly
Thursday, May 29: School Track Meet at GMS (Grade 4 and Up)

I hope your weekend is filled with fun in the sun! Enjoy this beautiful weather!

Ms. Cameron

Oratory

On Wednesday morning the students from Learning Centre 3 performed the poem "Pet Shopping" by Kenn Nesbitt during our annual Oratory. The Huda school also joined us and presented some amazing poems as well! Our class has worked so hard memorizing our poem while reading in a clear voice with expression. I'm so proud of their performance and how hard they have worked to bring their poem to life on stage! Good job team!

Movement and Dance
This week we had a special guest visitor in our classroom! Krista, from the "Create" program joined us for our first session of dance. We learned how different parts of our body move and explored movement through a variety of dance activities. Krista specializes in contemporary and modern dance. We had an absolute blast dancing together and look forward to next week's session!

Important Dates:
Friday, May 16: No School - PD Day
Monday, May 19: No School - Victoria Day
Thursday, May 22: Love of Literacy Coffee House
Wednesday, May 28: GMS Achievers Assembly

Have a bright and sunny long weekend!

- Ms. Cameron

Oratory

Oratory is fast approaching and will be held in our school gymnasium on Wednesday, May 14th from 9:30-10:30. Students are given the option to take part in oratory and we have a large group of students from our classroom involved. The students read several poems and voted on presenting a humorous poem called "Pet Shopping" by Ken Nesbitt at the oratory. Students who are participating have a copy of the poem to take home and practice. I've also included a copy of the poem below.

  

Pet Shopping

While shopping at the pet store
I got my fondest wish.
I bought myself a fish bowl
and then a pair of fish.
And since I was already
out shopping at the store
I thought I ought to purchase
another smidgen more.

And so I got a rabbit, 

a hamster and a frog,
a gerbil and a turtle, 

a parrot and a dog.

I purchased an iguana,
a tortoise and a rat,
an eight-foot anaconda,
a monkey and a cat.

A guinea pig, a gecko,
a ferret and a mouse,
and had them all delivered,
directly to my house.

My sister went berzerko!
She's now installing locks,
because I said her bedroom
would be their litter box!

-- Kenn Nesbitt

Our Classroom Twitter Feed!
This week we used our twitter board to reflect on our learning. Our "Trending Topic" was "What 'Stuck' With You This Week?" Here is a closer glimpse of what a few of our students had to say! 

"I learned that our heart is protected by our rib cage" - Joshua

"I learned how to write an ESSAY and what I learned in essay is, below the topic sentence you write your support and details." #essay - Maham

"I learned how to work with decimals" #math - Muhammad

"In Phys. Ed I learned that the heart and lungs are an organ" #organ - Chloe

"I learned about rounds and harmony. Rounds are singing the same song, but everyone starts at a different time. Harmony is singing the same song but everyone sings differently." #music  - Carys

"I learned about symbols used in the treaty signings like the British flag" #social - Zaid

"I learned new words from our phenominal word jar. For example: wilt, discontented, fantasy, advantageous" #interesting  -Ishmal

"In math I learned how to write a fraction in decimal form like 7/10 and 0.1 #decimals -Tyler

Important Dates:

Wednesday, May 14: Oratory 

Friday, May 16: PD Day - No School

Monday, May 19: Victoria Day - No School

Wednesday, May 28: GMS Achievers Assembly

GMS Achievers Assembly

On Wednesday we had our monthly achievers assembly. Our virtue for the month of April was fairness. We have been talking about what fairness looks like and sounds like. At the end of the month, our class chose two students who they thought demonstrated fairness. The winners of this month's virtue award goes to Khadija and Zaid! Congratulations!

Daily 5 Assembly
On Tuesday we teamed up with the primary classes for Daily 5 in the gym! The students in our class were great leaders and read with the Grade 1/2 students.

Happy Blogging!
Our blog has really taken off over the last 2 weeks! The class is having so much fun reading, writing and commenting on eachother's blog posts. I'm so happy to see such excitement about writing and I'm so proud of how positive and encouraging the kids are in the comments they leave! We have also added "blogging" as one of our daily 5 rounds this week! If you wish to check out your child's blog page and comment on their writing, please sign in as a guest using the password "noexcuses".  The blog is a great way for students to develop their writing at home!

Writing with Phenomenal Words
This week we have started a "Phenomenal Word Jar" to help expand our vocabulary.  During Daily 5, students can add any interesting words they come across in their reading by writing the word and definition out on a post it note and placing it "in the jar". We are encouraging each other to use phenomenal words during their work on writing. The jar has been bursting with interesting words - I have a feeling we will need to get a bigger "jar" soon!

Important Dates:
Friday, May 16: PD Day - No School
Monday, May 19: Victoria Day - No School