Tweets by Quinlanism

Happy Holidays and May the Force be with You!

Wow, what an exciting year we have had so far. We've made new friends and welcomed new classmates from other schools. We designed our class shirts and came up with our name - The Fire Ninjas! We've read, written and acted out stories. We've struggled through some challenging times and found success in the end. We've learned new strategies to tackle the problems that I've tossed your way and you have all been successful in your own personal ways. Have a safe and happy holidays wherever you may be. I'm so proud of all your accomplishments so far and we are only half way there. Thank you all once again for the very special soon to be birthday gifts for Little Q and all the wedding well wishes. May the Force be With You!! See you in 2016, Mr. Q & Mrs. Q & little q

Class Picture

Here is what you get when you take 20 Grade 4 Students to the Theater Arts Costume Room before your class picture time. They had 5 minutes to find a costume that they thought would be fun to wear for our "Silly Class Photo" and some of the kids certainly pushed the silly side of things. Glad I get to teach such a wonderful and outgoing bunch of kids who aren't afraid to express their silly side of life.

Migration Investigations

In small, random groups the students worked on different aspects of migration - the causes, push & pull factors, the effects on the migrants as well as the communities and countries where the migration is taking place and where they are destined. It is giving the class a much deeper and broader understanding of how people live, work and move around the globe and the affects it has on individuals (the migrant) and other community members where these new members of society are settling.

Story time with Dylan

Dylan came in today with a sad face. He is leaving us in a few weeks and moving to Singapore. To make his move a bit easier he has brought in some of his old books to donate to the Used Book Fair. The reason he was so sad was because he had to let go one of his favorite childhood books. To try and make things a little easier on him I asked him to share it with the class, so today, to help Dylan move on, we all sat around and listened to him read his one of his favorite childhood stories. Now we will all have more lasting memories of Dylan. He may not be in our class , but he will always be one of us.
Thanks for sharing and best of luck in your new school, 
The Fire Ninjas

 
  

Return of the Electric Dragons

Today we had some visitors from Grade 5. They were members of my class from last year and they came in to talk to this years Gr 4's about the challenges ahead. They explained that everyone needed to work hard to understand the concepts this year to build upon personal skills that are needed for next year. It was great to have some kids who were just going only a year ahead talk to the class as they all could relate. Some focus areas and suggestions:

• Practice Editing and writing
• Learning how to explain yourself, steps to solving problems, explaining your thinking
• Know your multiplication and divisions strategies
• Be comfortable with Google, email, Google Drive and know how to type.
• Be prepared for Homework!
• Lots of Assessments and tests!
• Learn how to plan out your day and use time wisely. Unfinished work is homework!
• Lots of big projects to do and they take time to complete.

Geometry

We are now working on our Geometry Unit and looking at the properties of various 2D and 3D geometric shapes, their attributes, classifications and how to measure them using a protractor. This "song" in the video below was an easy way to get the kids familiar with the various polygons and it helps in remembering the various names of objects. So much for being "Just a Boring Square".