Cursive Writing 

Current Lessons (Week of April 18th - 21st, 2017)

Please watch the videos below for the correct formation of the letters and words for this week's cursive lessons. Please work on the hand-out sheet and then practise the words and letters in your cursive notebooks. Try to keep your hand moving smoothly and form your letters carefully.

Lesson 18

Lesson 20

To read more about why cursive is important in today's classroom, please see my post on cursive writing under the category of Writing on this blog.

Data Management

Why do we gather and organize data? 

We do this to answer questions and clearly see trends it our results.

We are learning how to organize data. We gathered data by writing the word "signed" (a problem spelling word) as many times as we could in 2 minutes and listed all of our data. We had a lot of data and it was difficult to organize.

My students are asked to watch the  Stem and Leaf Plots video (above) and then organize the "signed" data (in grid book) using the information they learn on the video.

How is a Stem and Leaf Plot different to a bar graph?
We will discuss that tomorrow at school.

Science 

Habitats and Communities

What is a habitat?
What is a community?
How are animals, humans, plants, and habitats connected?
This is what we will be exploring in science this term.

Watch the following videos to learn about habitats.

ART

We are learning about using shapes and colour in art by enjoying some of the wonderful pieces by Wassily Kandinsky. He could see the colours of the music he listened to, and produced his art from the visualizations that formed in his mind when he listened to music. He is known as the father of abstract art. Please view the videos below about his life and view his impressionistic and abstract art.

The students are working on concentric circles, copying one of Kandinsky's well-known abstract pieces. You will see an example of this piece in the video below.

Now find out more about Wassily Kandinsky.

Cursive Writing

Why should we learn cursive writing?
Here are some of the reasons why I will take the time to teach cursive writing in my classroom.

1. Students learn better through movement and using their senses. Vital hand/brain connections forge new pathways in the brain. (Printing and cursive writing activate different parts of the brain.)

Cursive writing compared to printing is even more beneficial because the movement tasks are more demanding, the letters are less stereotypical, and visual recognition requirements create a broader repertoire of letter representation.   (Neurologist, Dr. William Klemm)

2. Cursive writing helps students retain information as letters are connected and words are thought of as wholes. Taking notes by hand helps students to digest and reframe information.
3. Research suggests that cursive can serve as a teaching aid for students with learning impairments like dyslexia.
4. Most people like to develop their own pleasing personal style of cursive and perfect their signatures. (A printed signature is not secure and easily copied.)

Below you will find the lessons we are using to practise our cursive skills. Feel free to watch them many times and practise along with the demonstrator. (Lessons from the HEV project blogspot.)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Lesson 1 (Short & Long Wave Strokes)

                                                                                                                                                                    Lesson 2 (Letters i, s, r, t)       

   

Lesson 3 (Words with the letters already studied.)

                                         

                                       Lesson 4  ( Small Curved Wave Stroke)                                                                                      

                                        Lesson 5  (Using the Curve Stroke to write a, o, d, g, c)

Lesson 6  (Write words using the strokes and letters learned. - dog, toad, got, coat, cod, rag)

Lesson 7  (Hill Cursive Stroke)

Lesson 8 (above) (Turn Hill Stroke into m and n)
Lesson 9 (Write words using the strokes and letters learned - man, noon, moon, moan)

Lesson 10  (Use the Short Wave Stroke to learn the letters u and w)

Lesson 11  (Write words using the strokes and letters learned - mug, wag, straw, us)

Lesson 12  (Short Loop Stroke, Long Loop Stroke)

Welcome!

Welcome To Our Grade 4 Blog! 

Hello, to my students. On this blog you will find interesting games, useful information, and previewed websites for various school assignments as well as for your personal learning and enjoyment. I hope you enjoy this exciting way we can connect. Your parents can find out about what you are doing at school, too! They can read about some of your homework assignments, and also see pictures and information about the work we are doing at school. If your parents are unable to read English, they can click the drop down menu under Translate (top right) to the language of their choice, and translate anything I have written on this blog.This is my first post to you. There will be many more.





                               For spelling practise of our lists on                                        Spelling City, Click Here. 
                        
                        Check often for new lists to practise.
                         



Active, Healthy Living Testimonial
The value of active and healthy living can not be dismissed in a child's life. Inactivity is the basis for many health issues in today's society. Involvement in a sport has many important physical and health benefits. It also develops discipline, belief in self, and perseverance, to name a few of the important life skills. Having passion, and realizing the value of excellence must be encouraged in our youth. The habits of excellence and self-discipline become evident in all areas of an athlete's life. Kiiri, my daughter, begged to play soccer when she was 6, so we took her to the local soccer club, and there was no turning back after that. She was invited to the Provincial U14 team at 12 years old, was on the Canadian National Team Roster, and has a full athletic scholarship to a Division 1 university in the United States because of her ability to play soccer and her excellent marks at school. She would not have achieved these goals without passion, self-confidence, lots of hard work, and a supportive family. If you would like to watch snippets of Kiiri playing soccer in 2010 with her rep club, you can watch the video below. She is number 5 with the blonde hair wearing the blue uniform, but in some parts she wears a white uniform or a bright orange shirt.
Involvement in school and extra-curricular sports are as important to the development of the whole child as involvement in academics and the arts. I hope this may inspire my students and their parents to seriously consider involvement in sports. Experiencing the joy of watching your child strive to be the best they can be, is one of the most rewarding and pleasurable experiences for any parent! Spending time with your child during the highs and the lows of sports activities will be among your own, and your child's, most cherished memories and character-building moments.

soccer player

Science - Strong and Stable Structures

In Science we are learning about structures. We will conduct experiments building with various simple materials to see if we can design and build strong structures that can support a load and withstand forces such as tension, compression, torsion, and shear - forces that tend to break a structure or change its shape.

We will also learn about the stability of a structure and its ability to maintain balance and stay fixed in one spot.

We will identify structures built by both man and animals, and determine how their designs and materials enable them to serve a specific purpose and perform their load-bearing functions. Assessing the environmental impact of structures built by various animals and humans will also be discussed.

Looking at ancient structures helps us to learn about strength, stability, form, and function in building. Enjoy the following videos that focus on strange and fabulous structures around the world.