WELL, WE MADE IT...I think! Still a few days left, but this is our last Friday blog.

What a year. I'm so proud of all our students. We accomplished a lot this year. I'm excited for their futures, and what they will accomplish with their lives as they grow. Thank you, parents, for entrusting your children to us.

This last week was a haze. Everyone is super excited for summer and wired, but we still managed to get some learning done!

Our spelling bee was a huge success. Our class winners in grades 3 and 4 all competed against the other grade 3-4 class winners. One of our students, Maham, managed to win both the grade 3 and then the grade 4 spelling bee! Congratulations Maham for some grate speling!

In math, we worked on probability, among other things. We looked at Pascal's triangle (below). Given about 3 of the first rows, the kids had to try and figure out the rest of the pattern. Link: Pascal's Triangle

Once accomplished, we looked for patterns within the patterns. We used this triangle as a launch pad into probability. We then looked at a quincunx, or Galton Board. I had the students guess how the balls would end up at the bottom. They all agreed it was random, and so there should be an equal distribution. It was probable all would be flat at the end. We then ran the machine and watched as it turned out the exact opposite. Try it yourself: Quincunx App. Play with the numbers and see what happens.

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Then we took 2 dice, broke into groups, and each group rolled their dice 100 times, recording the sums of the two dice. We then graphed the info. Like the quincunx, we ended up with, generally speaking, a pretty Normal Distribution pattern.

We then looked at why it turned out this way. The kids figured out pretty quickly there were way fewer chances of rolling a 2 (need a 1 and a 1), but more chances at an 8 (6 + 2, 2 + 6, 4 + 4, 4 + 4, 5 + 3, 3 + 5). We looked at a few games, like Plinko on The Price is Right, and discussed the chances of winning.


In literacy, we wrote a letter to next year's teacher. It was a chance for the kids to think back on what they've learned this year, what excited them, and what they want to challenge themselves with next year.

Two days to go and then a big party on Wednesday!

Hello.

REMINDER: We'll be having our classroom spelling bee on Wednesday. The winners from grades 3 and 4 will then participate in the finals with the other winners from the other grade 3 and 4 classes. If your child is participating, remind them to brush up and practice! :)

In math we began wrapping up the year by reviewing what we've been learning. One way we did this was with math games that asked up to think critically about mathematics. This pulled in our number sense as well as our capabilities with recalling basic facts.

We played a game called magic square. Each row of the square has to add up to the same number and only certain numbers are allowed. We used this as a launch pad to talk about balancing numbers, for example as in a budget.

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If your child did not get to do the problem below, why not try playing it with them this weekend?

We discussed how memorization of basic facts, though important, was not truly what math was about. We discussed how much of what we've learned needs to be applied to specific situations. We discussed how arithmetic is not all there is to mathematics. Computational competency is not the goal of math learning; rather, computational competency is a tool to use toward deeper math and problem solving. The calculation is actually the smallest and final step of a math problem, with most of the brain power going into the problem solving itself, deciding what calculation needs to be performed.

In science, we used the computers each day to research and write about an animal. Each group got to choose their own animal and then research it as we had been doing all year in our Field Guides. They are now working on a Google Slide presentation that discusses the description, life-cycle, and adaptations of their animal.

Did you know the pangolin is the most trafficked animal on earth and that its scales are actually made of keratin, the same material that makes up human hair and nails?



We also did some tidying up, cleaning bookshelves, and generally wrapping things up.

We also finished our final classroom read, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. We complimented each day's reading with a 5 minute viewing of the comparable scene from the three film versions (BBC's live action tv mini-series from the 80s, the animated film from the 80s, and the 2005 big budget blockbuster). We then discussed the similarities and differences between the book and films and why these differences existed, critically examining the differences between text and film.

Hello all. We're in the final stretch.

In math this week, we worked on a variety of tasks, including geometry. We examined different polygons, named them, and looked at lines of symmetry.

We played a few math games to build number sense and develop critical thinking abilities.

We also worked on another Mrs. Wickland challenge involving last week's field trip to Bowness Park (a useful real-world task estimating how many buses our school needed to hire to get the whole school and staff to Bowness).

In science, students found out we the astronauts we had designed our eco-columns for WAY back in September had made it to planet X-97a, only to discover there was problem. It seemed all the predators had adapted too well and had almost wiped out all the prey. The students were given a new task by NASA: help design new animals that could survive on planet X-97a. Using their knowledge of adaptations and plant and animal life-cycles, students began to plan.

We worked with our grade 1-2 buddies this week, planning healthy meals. We cut out pictures from flyers and glued them into our visual journals.