Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Literary Genres



In language arts, we have started to explore various literary genres. 




Last week, we sorted the books in the above photo. We learned to do so efficiently by taking a quick look at the pages inside as well as reading the information on the front and back covers. 




We began by sorting into fiction and nonfiction.

During this process, we began to realise that some books seemed to fit into both categories. For example, the Magic Tree House books had settings based on actual historical events but the characters had been created by the author. There were also some fiction books with stories in very realistic settings. 

As we pondered about these "in-between" books, we were introduced to new genres such as realistic fiction and historical fiction. 

In the end, our books were sorted into the genres in the photos below. 















We also applied a new note-taking strategy called sketch-noting in order to organise this new information in our reading journals. 








This week, we started our 40 book challenge!

As you can see in the photo below, we will be challenging ourselves to each read a total of 40 books from these six genres by the end of the school year. 
















Sunday, September 2, 2018

First Week of School



Hi everyone! It's great to be back!




Introducing...(drumrolls please)...the Grade 4 learners of school year 2018 to 2019!

During the first week of school, we worked on various activities to practice cooperating as a team. 

In the video below, we are working on a marshmallow challenge! 




In this challenge, we were given half an hour to build a free-standing structure using only the following items: 20 sticks of spaghetti, 1m of tape, 1m of string, a pair of scissors, 1 large marshmallow, and a tape measure. 

After the time was up, the measurement of one structure from the surface of the table to the top of the marshmallow was 44 cm!

We also worked together to create our very own learner profile posters. Take a look at the cool models!


 






Have a fantastic week!