Adventures With Mrs. Craig

 We started off our morning with giving each other compliments! As we get to know one another more and more, our compliments become more specific and meaningful. We have a nice student to our class. I was happy that everyone was very kind and welcoming.  We talked about Terry Fox today and watched a new video about him. In groups of 4, they created detailed posters about Terry Fox. They did a great job working together!  They had a busy afternoon of completing their 'story of my name' project.  In Math they worked on different levels of skip counting.  Tomorrow they will be running and walking for Terry Fox! Please remember a water bottle and appropriate shoes. 

 This morning we had a great sharing circle together. Each person talked about their name and where it came from. It was so interesting for me to hear everyones special stories. We will be doing some art around their names on Friday.  Today is the first day of Fall! During mindfulness, we go in front of the school and have silent time for 10 minutes. Today we focused on the changing of seasons and everything that is happening in nature.  In Math they created their own memory game as they practiced rounding double digit numbers to the nearest tens.  In writing we had 'free writing time.' They were able to write about anything they wanted! Many of them wrote spooky stories. Four children shared their stories with the entire class.  In Social Studies we drew small to large circles on family - Beddington - Calgary, Alberta, Canada, North America, Earth. They each wrote sentences based on these areas.  Meet the teacher is tomorrow night from 6-8pm. The presentation should not take t

Our annual Terry Fox Run is being held on Tuesday, September 28, 2021.    We will be doing our run during our gym classes to maintain our cohorts and physical distancing.    Unfortunately, families are not allowed to come participate or watch due to COVID restrictions.    Please make sure your child is dressed read to run on that day.    Proper outdoor footwear is required (running shoes please).    If the weather does not cooperate, we will do the run in the gym.    We are taking donations for the Terry Fox Foundation (for cancer research).    Our preferred method of donation is online.    You can access the Beddington Heights donation page:    Beddington Heights School Fundraising Link:  http://www.terryfox.ca/BeddingtonHeights Username: 2021AB1927  Password: CUREAB1907  

This morning we did a practice classroom vote for 'Class President." Our candidates were: Dee - who promised a clean class with respectful and helpful leaders.  Declan - who promised half days on Monday and Wednesday and 3 recesses on Tuesday and Thursday.  Ruby - who promised playing games everyday and 3 gym classes daily.  Eman - who promised to make everyone happy at school and have a fun class.  We did a private vote and the majority voted for Ruby! After recess, we received our ballots from Mr. Shackelton. We learned about the different parties (in the best kid language I could manage!) and voted for a candidate and leader.  We started our spelling books this morning. Our first entry was learning about 'super hero swag.' Does your sentences have super her swag?' Ask your child what this means.  In the afternoon we had a great discussion about where pizza came from! This could be a fun discussion at home. All students were able to relate and contribute to our c

 We were able to finally go to the library for the first time! Unfortunately, due to rules around Covid, they are unable to bring them home this year.  In Math we worked on expanding large numbers. They also relearned odd and even numbers.  In Science we started our unit title page.  We played spike ball outside today! They did an awesome job staying calm and having fun! Here are a few photos of some Science title pages. 

 In Science today we asked the over arching question of, 'How Do Scientists Know So Much?" We gathered all of our ideas together as a class. We then learned that staying curious and asking big questions in very important as a student.  Ask your child how fingerprints are made. We made our own fingerprints in our Science book using pencil and tape. Maybe they can show you this at home.  In Grade 6 they are doing their own class election. We are able to vote this year too! In Social Studies today we learned about 3 big questions:  1.) What is the role of government? 2.) How do a dictatorship and democracy differ? 3.) Why is it important to vote? 4.) Who is responsible for making decisions and laws in Canada? We had an excellent discussion while writing about our ideas in our journals.  In Math we learned 5 different strategies to multiply single digit numbers. Ask your child what strategy they find the most helpful. Strategies: arrays, equal groups, repeated addition, skip count

 Every morning we start with quiet reading. I have many picture and chapter books in my classroom to choose from. We have had many conversations about what it looks like, sounds like and feels like when we are engaged with a novel or book. On Wednesday we will be going to the library for the first time.  We talked about adjectives today and the best word to describe ourselves. Ask your child what adjective they used. These are displayed above our self portraits in our classroom.  As a class we brainstormed what 'respect' looks like within a school and why it is so important. Afterwards, they wrote me a letter about their ideas and hopes for this year. They worked on sentence structures and letter formation during this assignment.  In Math we discussed where and when we use Math in our world. Some great ideas were: banking, saving up, telling time, driving, time management, decimals..the list went on!  After gym they worked on number patterns. 

 To start off our day we played a math game using a deck of cards. We expanded the numbers using a white board and compared who had the bigger number in groups.  We went for a community walk for P.E. Everyone had great conversations while getting some exercise!  This months 5th pillar of care is 'respect for self and others.' We talked about what respect looked like and sounded like within a classroom community.  We extended our learning about focused on the "Seven Sacred Teachings' from Indigenous culture. Please have a look at the diagram and speak to your child about what they learned.  We made our very own dream catchers today and will be using these for our 'documentation of learning boards' in the hallway.  Have a wonderful weekend! Thanks for a great Friday. 

 This morning I read a new story to them called, "Maybe" by Kobi Yamada. It was a story about the possibilities that life can bring. After having a great conversation with the class they wrote a journal entry of their hopes and dreams for their future. Ask your child what they wrote about. Many students were very brave and shared their writing with the class.  We did a community classroom building activity today. They were put in teams of 3 and had to make a chain using one piece of construction paper. I loved watching how they communicated together and worked with one another's ideas.  It was so nice out this afternoon so we decided to go outside and do some sketching. We sketched our school and added as much detail as possible.  In Math we are working on building numbers in many different ways. For example, expanding, standard, skip counting, multiplying, addition and subtraction.  This week flew by! See you tomorrow! 

 We had an excellent Friday! This morning we worked on rounding numbers and unlocking a secret code!  We also started Science today with the guided questions of "What makes an excellent Scientist?" and "What is Science?" Everyone had great ideas to add to our poster. We then asked a Science question regarding a topic that we could all relate to: "Where did lego come from?" We created a chart with "think, questions and learned." I sent these charts home with them. This could be an interesting family conversation!  We ended the day with completing our self portraits. They used water colour pencil crayons.  I hope you have a great long weekend and I look forward to more learning on Tuesday! 

Hello and welcome to Mrs. Craig's grade 4 blog! I will be using this to communicate to students and parents throughout the year. I will include details of class activities, and important information regarding dates and school information.  A little bit about me! I have been teaching elementary school for 9 years now. I have 2 children of my own, Luca who is 4 and Kaija who is 6. I love coffee and biking! I am passionate about teaching, and spend much of my time looking up fun art and math activities to do in class with my students!  We have been spending the last couple of days creating our classroom community. I have really been enjoying getting to know your children through their writing activities and sharing during class discussions.  Some activities we have completed are: writing about their 'first day jitters', practicing numbers and patterns, creating self portraits by studying a black and white photo of themselves,  reading quietly in small groups and listening to s