Week 39 (continued)

Today, I will continue on from yesterdays post and talk about what we will be doing in class this week. Last week as I mentioned yesterday we finished writing our friendly letters and posted them to a special someone. In the second half of the week we started writing a story about where we come from, from the view point of our family history. We hope by doing this we will be able to better understand our own personal beliefs and values. We will continue to work on these stories this week and hopefully have them finished by this Thursday.  Everyone has approached their personal story in a positive manner and we all have been very interested in hearing others read out parts of their story to the class.

Some of the jewelry that my mothers side wore on the boat trip to Australia 

This week is our last of our first Program of Inquiry and it will be finish with the class presenting their projects on Monday 1st. The students have been very open to talking and learning about their own and others values and beliefs over the last five weeks. If the students only take away one thing from this unit it should be the fact that we all, irrespective of our culture or religion have many things in common.

In maths we have started our mini unit which we will continue to work on this week. Before we continue further along our maths programme we needed to brush up and extend our knowledge of addition and subtraction. This year we will be working a lot with fractions and decimals, so we needed to introduce the concepts of adding and subtracting fractions and decimals. We will continue to revisit these concepts throughout the school year (especially when we start our units on fractions and decimals).

The two strands from the maths scope and sequence* (and their corresponding expansions) that we will be focusing on are;

·        Model addition and subtraction of fractions with related denominators

o   Add and subtract fractions with related denominators in real-life situations

·        Model addition and subtraction of decimals

o   Add and subtract decimals in real-life situations, including money

So far we have reviewed how to subtract and add up to four by four digit numbers, introduced adding and subtracting decimals in relation to money and length, adding and subtracting like fractions, and some have even started on mixed numbers. This week we will continue looking at these areas and expanding our own personal knowledge of these concepts.

I have been informed today that developmental talks will be held on October 10th (Wednesday, week 41). Unfortunately our class will not be able to have our talks on the same day as from October 2^nd I will be at home with my new born child for two weeks. I have been informed that we will be rescheduling our day to another date. I will write more about this at the end of the week as I do not have all the details about how it will work yet. I will also inform you all about who will be looking after the class in my absence and the work that they will be covering over weeks 40 and 41.

Here is another photo from Vida's mum from the World Culture Museum.

*I have tried to add the maths scope and sequence to the blog bit it keeps on getting rejected as the document is copy righted. I will try to find a solution to this problem.   

An overview of the year

Year 4 Course Overview Calendar 2012.2013

Weekly letter week 38

It's amazing how fast a week goes by when there is so much going on. This week we had a jam-packed schedule of reviews, outings, guest speakers, new learning units, projects and dodging rain downpours.

The week kicked off with the class sitting down to do their maths review  on numbers (rounding, place value, estimation, bench-marks, and mental math strategies). After all the study we did the week before everyone was ready to go. I can't remember seeing so many students wanting to take a maths test before.

On Tuesday we started our new 'mini' unit on addition and subtraction with a focus on decimals (money and length) and fractions, this unit will only continue for the next two weeks. We also started to use our friendly letter mail box, which became so full that friendly letters had to be passed out on a daily bases. In writing we finished off our letter to someone special and started to bring in envelopes and stamps so we could post them at the end of the week.

On Wednesday we invited  Lyam's (with a Y) mum to have an early lunch at BAMBA with us and then picked up Vida's mum up on the way out of school on our excursion to the World Culture Museum. We had planned to spend an hour having a guided tour around the museum and looking at things that will help us understand perspective better in regards to beliefs and values.



How things change so quickly!

We meet our guide Enrico who was going to show us around at the entrance of the museum. After a few minutes through our introduction talk someone asked Enrico where he come from. He told us that he grew up in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. The rest of the hour was spent listening to how Enrico grew up under the laws of his tribe, his escape from a mission school, and how he and three other escapee boys from 9 years of age worked all day in a bakery while going to school at nights. If you want to know more please quiz your child on what they though was the most interesting thing they learnt during the visit. On a side note Enrico is helping the people at the Universeum build a tradition Amazonian tribal house which will be ready in Spring.


On Thursday we booked the schools ipads to help us with our research on Inquiry project. For some of us it was a lesson not just in researching but in using the ipads.





Finial, the week rapped up on Friday with Liam's (with an I) mum giving all of Year 4 a mini workshop. This was a great hour that helped students  get a different prospection on well, perspective. Liam's mum, Lisa also brought in her own model  in the form of her mother (a retired teacher) who was visiting from Canada.





During our maths lesson we again booked the ipads and spent time using our knowledge we had learnt over the week with addition and subtraction of whole numbers and decimals to complete activities. After lunch we braved the rain to post our letters via the local store, as a few people had to buy some stamps. Everyone was very excited to finally put their letters in the yellow post box. When we got back to class it  was 14.30 and when I told them to have a good weekend some students responded with "what? is it home time already?" 


*I will be adding information on what we will be doing during week 39 soon.

homework week 39

Homework this week

Because there is no school this Friday all the homework and the spelling test will be due on Thursday with the exception of the POI project which will now be due on Monday 1st of October.

Maths; Students are to do one of two pages in their maths practice book page 14 or 15).

Page 14 is straight forward addition and subtraction (please don't let the title confuse you "Choose a Method"). Page 15 is problem solving and is for students who are a bit more comfortable with + and -. In page 15 students will need to also use their skills from the last unit to decide if a question is asking for an estimation or the exact answer. As well as this, all students took home with them a photocopy sheet that should be at their level of ability. I have told the students that if after they have attempted two of the problems and they find the sheet too hard or easy to stop and swap it the next day in class for a different sheet. Some students have been asked to do specific sheets to help them in areas that they are struggling in

Reading Diary

Spelling sheet

Who we are assignment

Here is the Project outline and rubric. I will also add a printable version as soon as I can.

Inquiry Project

For this inquiry, you will have an open project. This means that:

1) Research and compare two cultures or Religions.

2) Explain how the two different cultures/religions can share the same values and beliefs. Give examples for each.

3) Present your findings to the class.

Your final product can be displayed as a poster, a booklet, a brochure, a model…etc. Anything that can be held or touched! (So, if you make a Power Point you also will have to print it out)

Regardless of the format or the subject you choose, your project must:

·        Be 1/2 text, 1/2 illustrations or/and graphs or/and model

·        State information in your own words (no internet cutting and pasting)

·        Have a bibliography section that list your sources of information (remember that Google is a search engine not source of information)

All projects are due on: Friday September 28th Monday, October 1st

You can do your research at home but make sure to bring your findings and work to school so you can also work in class.

Here are some websites that might help you get started;

www.schooltrain.info/trre.htm

www.uri.org/kids

www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/homework/religion

www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/religion

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/religion

Rubric – Principle Values Project

Item	Excellent	Very Good	Good	Needs Improvement
Understanding of Values/perspective	Has shown a connection between beliefs, values and perspectives across both cultures/religions and how it relates to them.	Has shown a connection between beliefs, values and perspectives both cultures/religions	Has shown a connection between beliefs, values and perspectives across one or more cultures/religions.	Has produced a good piece of work outlining basic information about one culture/religion.
Research	An excellently researched project. Demonstrates a good understanding of the research material through writing using their own words.	A well researched project. Changing the writing into their own words.	Some research is evident. Changing some of the writing into their own words.	Small amount of research, and copied directly from the Internet or books.
Language / Grammar	Clear, accurate and detailed information. Well written. Has accurately proof read.	Accurate information. Has proof read but some mistakes are still present.	Basic written information. Evidence of some proof reading and a number of mistakes are still present.	Basic written information. Has answered some parts of the question but not all. Copied phrases. Evidence of lots of spelling/ grammar errors.
Presentation of findings	Looks very exciting and interesting. Very well laid out. 50% text/pictures.	Looks exciting and interesting. Mostly laid out well. Almost 50% text/pictures.	Basic presentation, fairly interesting. Some parts laid out well. Higher % of pictures.	Presentation is missing parts, higher % of pictures.
Oral presentation	Confident and expressive speaker. Able to provide a detailed and concise summary. Engages the audience.	Purposeful preparation. Spoke clearly with expression. Familiar with the content. Consistent eye contact.	Adequate preparation.  Familiar with the most of the content. Some eye contact.	Needs more preparation. Not familiar with the content. Reads off the project. Lack of vocal expression.

Blogs for both 4D and 4E

4D have now started to develop a class blog for its students and parents. At the moment this is still in the development stage but more information will be added on a regular bases. Both classes will still be doing similar work and parents and students are welcome to take information from both. Please refer to your classes blog for specific things like homework as their will be changes in them from time to time.

here is the link

Coffee morning with Mike

The PYP Coordinator has made a webpage. On it he has added dates to a series of coffee mornings. Click here to check it out.

If you are comparing religions for your POI project you might want to have a look at this (click on the picture to go to the website).

BAMBA menu

The BAMBA menu for the coming weeks, in Swedish only. 6-v höstmeny v 40-45 Ht 12

Weekly letter week 37

Dear Parents,
Last week we had our schools health week and it was great to see the whole school out and being active. We started each morning with a stretch and ten minute warm-up outside with the other classes. This not only got the students moving it also helped them focus better in class! On Tuesday we had the school jog (as I have posted last Tuesday) and I must say I have never seen a class want to jog, walk, crawl laps like this one. They did so well that Peter the P.E. teacher walked into our room this morning to announce that our class completed the most laps of all classes! The class received a brand new basketball and football as well as a large skipping rope.

In class we spend the beginning of the week looking at strategies to help us in maths and the second half of the week on going over work to get ourselves ready for the test next week (Monday 17th).

We also worked on our letter writing and started to write a letter to someone close to us which. When they are finished will hopefully post to that person (they will need an envelope and stamp to so this).

In Inquiry we started to compare beliefs and values between cultures and religions. We also received our project outline for our POI project that is due Thursday 30th September.

In week 38 we will continue to work on letter writing as well as integrated our writing back into the POI. This week we will look at family trees and reflect on where and who we come from. This will help us understand a bit better where our values and beliefs come from.

Also in Inquiry we will be spending most afternoons working on our projects, please students make sure you are prepared for this and that you have work you can do during this time. Students are allowed to have laptops and ipads/tablets in class to work on their projects  during this time. If you agree to your child bringing in computers they will be stored in a safe in Year 5 and only come out for project time. BUT the school or myself does not hold any responsibly for the equipment if something were to happen.

This Wednesday we will be heading to the World Culture Museum. Our tour is at 13.00 so we have to leave school around 12.30. I have arranged for us to go to BAMBA early so we don't miss out on lunch. The students will need their tram card and rain jacket (if it looks like rain). We will be back at school before 14.30. I also need some parent helpers to go on this trip with me, if you can help please email me.

We have just finished our Maths review today and will start on + and - this week.

Homework wk38

Her is the homework for the week

Due Tuesday

• get your address and the person's address you are sending your letter to

Due Thursday

• Maths Practice Book pages 12 and 13
• What is your family history? Write a family tree go back as far as you can
• Spelling sheet

Due Friday

• Reading diary

Due on Thursday 30th September

• POI project

Important information

• This Wednesday 20th September we have an outing to the Worlds Culture Museum between 12.30 and 14.30. Students need to bring their tram cards, if you live outside of Göteborgs kommun the school will pay for the ticket on the tram.
•    The school will be closed to students on the 28th of September as it will be an Inservice day.You can check out the school calendar HERE. 

POI Beliefs, Values and Perspective

What would Danny's Beliefs and Values be towards riding, practicing and pushing himself. Can you think of other people who share similar Beliefs and Values in different careers and life paths? politics? health service?

Maths Strategies

Hi everyone,

as I was sitting around tonight thinking about maths (as I do most nights) and that there must be a better way to learn the maths strategy 'make a ten'. After having a look around on the net I found this nice one. The thing I like the most about this video is how the lady subtracts using 'make a ten' (Yannik, this is for you ;)  ). It starts at 2.30 min.

I'll try to find some more videos and games that will help you practice for the maths review next Monday.

I also encourage you to use Kahn Academy http://www.khanacademy.org/  This is a great resource that has great videos to help you to understand new concepts and in-depth activities. I have already added two videos from Kahn Academy on the blog on rounding, click here to go directly to the videos.

:) Christian

  

School jog

What a great day we had at slottsskogen! we have never seen so many students run so many laps.check to see how far you ran, each lap = 1.4km. A big thank you to all the parents who helped today

Homework week 37

Homework this week

Due Thursday:

• Spelling sheet
• Maths Practice Book, pages 8 and 10 

4E do not have to hand in their Maths or spelling until Friday

Due Friday

• Reading diary

A maths review on our first unit will take place next Monday (week 38), this will cover place value, rounding, bench-marks numbers and number strategies. We will be going back over everything that we have learnt in the second half of this week.

Students will receive their Program of Inquiry assignment outline and scoring rubric later this week as well. When we hand out and go through the outline and rubric with the Students it will be posted up on the blog.

Weekly letter

As we mentioned in our last newsletter, this week we have been working on letter writing. The students having learnt the skills during our language arts lessons, we thought it a good idea to use the skills learnt to link this with our unit of Inquiry. We asked them to list down the expectations at home and share them with each other in letter form, and from the feedback we have been receiving from the students it seems that the assignment is both challenging and interesting. This is an indication that the students are exercising their thinking skills.

Next week in POI we will be making connections between beliefs and values. With that in mind you will find students asking you what your beliefs are as a family (We would be delighted if we got volunteers to come speak to the students about beliefs) If you happen to be interested email us the day and time you are likely to be available)

Math – We will continue working on problem solving skills putting emphasis on Reflection as a key concept.

Language arts- On Monday we are expecting to already have received all the letters the students were writing for their homework.

We will be spending sometime reviewing those letters and reflecting on what we could improve in future. We will be checking whether the students used correct grammar, correct letter formation, neatness and friendly letter format. Also next week is our healthy week’ and we would like volunteers to come with us to the Jog walk on 

Tuesday the 11^th of September.

The students will be bringing home a healthy diary which they will use to see whether they are still upholding their health habits.

PYP 4 will start the run at 9:30.

Janiffer

Place Value help

Here are some games that we found the other day to help us with place value:

http://www.funbrain.com/tens/index.html

http://www.free-training-tutorial.com/place-value-games.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks2/maths/number/place_value_headings/play/

http://www.ixl.com/math/grade-4

http://www.mathsisfun.com/place-value.html

School Jog

                                                             

Dear Parents,

In September, school children all over Sweden are running for charity. All money from this run goes to SOS Children’s Villages. If you would like to contribute, please bring money in an envelope to your child’s mentor, who will forward the money to the School Jog organization. 

The children at ISGR will be running in Slottsskogen on the second day of ISGR’s Health week, which is on Tuesday the 11^th of September. All children will meet in school as usual and walk together with their teachers to Slottsskogen. We are organizing a class competition for students in ISGR.

Starting times: 

• LPO 5 will start the run at 9:00.
• LPO 4 will start the run at 9:10.
• PYP 5 will start the run at 9:20.
• PYP 4 will start the run at 9:30.
• PYP 3 will start the run at 9:40.
• LPO 2-3 will start the run at 9:50.
• PYP 2 will start the run at 10:00.
• PYP 1 will start the run at 10:10.
• LPO F1 will start the run at 10:20.

This year, all grades will run the same track, which is 1,400 m. The students will get to run as many laps as the wish and they will collect points for the class for each lap they complete.

The children should wear clothes and shoes suitable for running. They should bring an extra sweater in case of cold weather and rain clothes in case of drizzle.

All children should bring a healthy packed lunch since the children will not go to Bamba on this day. Remember that it is very important to eat a good breakfast, especially on a day like this!!

You can visit www.skoljoggen.se, if you wish to read more about the School Jog.

Best regards,                     

Peter Sjöberg                                    

P.E. Teacher (PYP 1-5)                        

peter.sjoberg@isgr.se           

Health week letter

HEALTH WEEK

Dear parents,

Next week (week 37) will be our popular Health Week at school. From Monday to Friday, the school and your child’s class will be engaged in all things healthy including the School Jog in Slottsskogen on Tuesday. On the School Jog the children are running for charity and all money goes to SOS Children’s Villages. An idea to motivate your child to run more laps could be to instead of bringing in 10 kr, you could contribute with maybe a few Kr per lap they run. Obviously, that is totally up to you as a parent.

Your child will receive a health diary to fill in over the five day week, we ask if you could help and encourage them in filling out the diary and to get them to be more aware of what they eat and how they look after themselves (hygiene and physical activity). We also ask if you could have a quick look at what type snacks your child brings to school and if it is possible to change it for any other healthier options.

Also, please remember that our Health Week is just the start. So keep living a healthy lifestyle every week of the year.

Thank you for time and support,

The ISGR Health Committee

Open House 2012

We would like to thank all the parents who took time out of the busy schedules to attend last nights events. Over the week we have received requests from parents who were unable to attend last night to put up the Year 4 brochure and the Power Point on the blog.

You can find the brochure here  We have also uploaded the power point as well as the information on the Integrated Curriculum below Open House 2012 Language and Math Intergraton

Rounding Numbers

Friendly letter layout

Friendly Letter Format

check out this PowerPoint presentation on writing friendly letters that Vida in 4E found. If you put into 'slide show' mode you can answer the quiz at the end of it.

Homework week 36

Homework this week

Due Thursday
Maths

• Maths Practice Book pages 4, 6 and 9

POI

• Make a list (at least 10 things) of things that are expected of you at home (e.g. in bed by 21:00, walk the dog, etc). 

Writing*

• Write a letter to your class (e.g. Dear 4D,) about your list of expectations from your POI homework. Expand on each point on the list using the skills that you have learnt during letter writing.

Spelling

• The second part of our list words

Due Friday

Reading Diary*

• Please remember to write at least five lines for the last section 'what do I think'

* Beginner EAL students do not do this.

Please come and see us if you have any trouble with your homework as we will be happy to go over it again with you.