Week of Sept 21-25

A few reminders this week.  If you have not got your Terry Fox run permission forms in yet, please do so by Wednesday.  We run on Friday afternoon.  There is some information coming home today with your child.  Also, you will notice there are three tabs  above the current post.  One of them is Agenda.  You can click this link to view all of the previous agenda messages.  The other important tab is Spelling Words.  This tab takes you to the weekly spelling words.  I am going to post them there instead of on the main blog.


Language Arts

Writing:

In addition to our weekly independent journal writing, we have started our first unit in our writing program. In this unit we are introducing the difference between Expository/Informative writing and Narrative writing.  Expository/Informative writing is a form of writing where the purpose is to inform the reader, giving them some specific information about a topic.  The purpose of Narrative writing is to entertain the writer.  Typically we use non-fiction as informative, and fiction as narrative.  We will be learning how to effectively write using both types, learning strategies and techniques no make our writing original and detailed.

Math

This week our focus will be on predicting elements of a repeating patters. We will be finding missing elements as well as repeating pattern cores. These are some of the math terms your children need to know in this unit.

Pattern Core - The pattern core is the part of the pattern that repeats. ex. if the pattern is ABACABACABAC, the pattern core is ABAC.

Elements - An element is any part of the pattern.  ex. ABCABCABC has a core of 3 elements and if we extended the pattern the 10th element would be an A.

Attributes - Pattern attributes are the different ways we can describe the elements in the pattern. ex. The pattern attributes of the following pattern (↓←↓←↓←↓←↓←↓←) are colour and arrow direction. This pattern has a core of ABCD. Red arrow down, Red arrow Left, Blue arrow down, Blue arrow left.

Social Studies

In social this week we will be finishing up our mapping review unit. Our focus has labeling a compass rose, as well as reading a map using a legend and symbols.  The students need to be able to find places on a map using directions and the legend.

Science

In science this week, we will be experiencing and experimenting with properties of magnets.  We will be creating our own magnets and testing how strong we can make them.  Some of the types of magnets we have learned about are temporary magnets, electromagnets, natural magnets and man made magnets.  We have also learned that magnets have two "poles", a north and a south pole.  Opposite poles attract and like poles repel.  Poles, attract, and repel are terms that we will be using lots in this unit.


The students already know, but I will not be here on Wednesday this week as I am attending a PD session.  I hope everyone has a great week. Happy first day of Autumn on Wednesday, Sept 23.

Mr. Aasen