Room 11 students participated in their first VNPS in math and it went well. VNPS (Vertical Non-Permanent Surfaces) are essentially whiteboards. A VNPS task is a problem for students to solve in small random groups and their thinking is made visible on vertical whiteboards rather than on paper. According to Peter Liljedahl's research, when students are placed in random groupings and given whiteboards, they will get to work faster, communicate more and persevere longer compared to when working with pencil and paper. Room 11's VNPS task is below. There are rules when performing VNPS tasks. The VNPS format and rules encourage discussion and communication in and between groups. If a group is stuck, they can walk around and see what other groups have done. They can ask questions and get help and then bring this learning back to their own group so they can continue working. At first, the kids thought this was cheating, but it's not. It's learning from each other!
Room 11 students created "radial art" that uses reflected patterns and symmetry. After folding a square piece of paper in half four different ways, it was divided into eight triangles. Students drew a design in one triangle, folded the paper over and scrubbed the design onto an adjacent triangle. This pattern was repeated until all eight triangles contained the design. Take a look! Today we wrote a Student Learning Assessment or SLA. We were asked to create a school that would be realistic and also interesting and exciting to us. Three examples of schools that we created are an underwater Atlantic school, a swimming pool school and an Active school.
Today was Ms. Swann's last day at Skene. We will miss her! In Phys-Ed we played Yoshi and had lots of fun (and exercise!) Mrs. Nevelos and the Room 11 kids September 27, 2019
Dear Guardians, In the next few weeks our teachers will be administering the Provincial Student Learner Assessment (SLAs) in Grade 3, and the Mathematics Intervention Programming Instrument (MIPI) in Grades 4 and 5. Both the SLAs and MIPI measure student understanding of the previous grade’s concepts. For example, a student in Grade 5 will answer a series of questions based on Grade 4 outcomes. Teachers will use these assessments to determine student strengths and learning needs to enhance instruction and student learning. They are not used for grading purposes and will not be reflected in reporting. There is no need to prepare, or study ahead of time for these assessments. SLAs The literacy and numeracy assessments digital interactive questions are marked by Alberta Education. There are also performance tasks for writing and numeracy that are marked by the teachers at our school. Additional Information about the SLAs can be found on the Alberta Education website: https://www.alberta.ca/assets/documents/sla-grade-3-quick-facts-parents-guardians.pdf MIPI The mathematics screening tool (MIPI) will inform teachers about students’ math skills. Our students will complete the paper/pencil version and it will be marked by the teachers at our school. Please contact your child’s teacher if you have questions. Kind regards, Christina Tuttle Principal, G.W. Skene Looking for homework for your student?
Here is what we are currently learning in school: Math: adding and subtracting, estimating LA: writing paragraphs Science: Light and shadows Social Studies: regions of Alberta (4) / Canada (5) Today in art, we used watercolours to paint fall leaves. They are very beautiful.
In Math, we completed a formative assessment on estimating. Estimating means you get an "about" number instead of the actual. One place in real life where you would use estimating is when you buy groceries. Another would be if you were wondering how much money you had to pay in a bakery. Patrols will start next week. Mrs. Nevelos and the Room 11 Kids There is a mandatory camp information meeting on Monday, September 9, 2019, at 6:00pm for parents of campers.
Field trip forms for camp were sent home today with students. Please sign and return them as soon as possible. Thank you, Kristina Nevelos Today in Art, we made radial balance square art which just means symmetry coming out of the middle of the page.
In Math, we practiced how to identify when we should use the Nearest 10 strategy or the Counting On strategy. We use the Nearest 10 strategy when a number is near a nearest 10 or 100 and the Counting On strategy when they're not. In Literacy Block, we wrote the scripts for our Compassion/Empathy videos. Compassion means somebody understands how you are feeling. When you show empathy you "put yourself in their shoes" and helping to make them satisfied again. Mrs. Nevelos and the Room 11 Kids Today we learned about Alberta. We learned about provinces and cities in Canada.
In Math, we learned about place value. Three different ways to show a number are: in words, in expanded form and standard form. In Science, we learned about weather. We started by looking at a weather chart that we will use to track weather. The grade 4s learned about waste and organic and inorganic waste. Inorganic waste is waste that is made by humans and organic waste is made in nature. Mrs. Nevelos, Mr. Trinh and Kids |
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