St. Martin's Day

This week we celebrated St. Martin's Day! In music class, we sang songs we had secretly prepared for our classroom teacher. Surprise!

 

Learning Zones, Fractions, and Halloween!

 

This week, we learned about the learning zones. The tasks we work on as learners can be sorted into the following categories: panic zone, stretch zone, and comfort zone. 

Tasks in the panic zone are too hard for us at the time. Even with help, we wouldn't be able to complete them yet. 

Tasks in the comfort zone are too easy. We would be able to complete the tasks without making mistakes. This is not good because mistakes help us grow. 

Tasks in the stretch zone are just right. They are challenging enough that we need to stretch our brains to complete them, trying out different strategies, working with other learners, or asking for help from the teacher. This idea of learning zones is an adaptation of the Zone of Proximal Development, coined by an influential psychologist Lev Vygotsky. 

As self-regulated learners, it's important that we choose tasks that are in the stretch zone. 

Once we learned about the learning zones, we applied the concept in math. 

In the task you can see in the photo above, we inquired into the following question: How can we represent fractions in different ways? We used tangram shaped paper representing various fractions to create other fractions. 

The problems become increasingly harder towards the right. 

For example, in the example above Keira used pieces representing 1/4, 1/8, and 1/16 to represent 7/4. She also converted the fractions into decimals and percent as well. 

Friday afternoon was filled with so much fun! 

We had an MPP (Multi-purpose Party) for the following purposes:

• A birthday party
• A going-away party
• Celebration for reaching our reading goal
• Halloween!!!!!

The "first student of DSKI" and "bat" above set up a treasure hunt with clues for us to solve! 

Below, you can see our decorations for the DSKI Halloween Door Contest! 

For this project, we used our social skills and communication skills to create these two AMAZING designs!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Have a fantastic fall break!

The Life of Steve Jobs Assembly

Today, we had our annual Grade 5/6 assembly! 

As a literacy component of our unit on how "technology impacts the world of work and leisure", we worked together to write a script about the life of Steve Jobs. 

For this project, we applied our research skills (media literacy) to use online platforms to find the information we were looking for. 

We also used our communication skills (literacy) to write for the school community as the audience. We did this by taking notes based on our research about Steve Jobs and rewriting the text in our own words. Each student was responsible to write a section of the script. 

If you were unable to make it, take a look at the video above!

Winter Trip 2019

Last week, we went on our winter residential trip to Kannabe!

Here, we are getting reading for the two and a half hour bus ride...

...and here, we have just arrived at the hotel!

All geared up for snowboarding and skiing!

For many of us, it was our first or second time to ski/snowboard. 

We all took risks and kept challenging ourselves while maintaining a growth mindset!

When we fell down, we just got right up and tried again. 

We even had some extra time to play in the snow. 

We also enjoyed buffet-style meals while we socialised with our friends. 

What a wonderful time we had!

Field Trip to Suma Rikyu Park

On Friday, we went on our annual field trip to Suma Rikyu Park. 

Here, we are on our way!

Once we arrived, we enjoyed playing on the different structures!

Waiting for our turns...

Look at us go!





Weeeeeeeee!

After lunch, we were ready for our second half of play time!

By the end of the day, we were exhausted but happy about all the fun we had!

Flash Mob and Reading Celebration!

During the last week of school, we finished off our final unit of the year on 'How we express ourselves' by working with the Grade 3 students to prepare a flash mob. 

Our focus was to use dramatic tools to create an engaging performance. We came up with our own moves and improved the quality of our performance by responding to feedback given by our teachers and other students. 

Once we set ourselves up in front of Island Center Station, we were ready to rock and roll! 

Check out our cool moves!

During this eventful week, we also celebrate reaching our goal of reading 500 books by the end of the school year. Our final book count on the last day of school was 535 books!

On Wednesday, we celebrated this major accomplishment by hosting a water party. Students from other grades who contributed ten or more books to our book count were also invited. 

Here is our BEFORE photo. 

We were so excited to get started!

Ready...

set...

GO!!!!!

Here, we have our AFTER photo!

Message from Miss d'Amours to the Grade 4 Families:

I would just like to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU for such an amazing year. 

I truly enjoyed teaching this class and appreciate how supportive you have all been. 

It has been such a pleasure and privilege to watch the students develop in their learning and to see their personalities unfold. 

I know that all of the students are so proud of their learning, especially about their improved reading and writing skills, the creativity and passion they cultivated through Genius Hour projects, and the many risks they took in multiple subjects throughout the year. 

As a teacher, I was particularly touched by their attitude of approaching learning with a growth mindset as well as by the inclusive and caring nature of the children which visibly strengthened as the year progressed.

I cannot wait to hear about all of the amazing things your child will accomplish in the future. 

I hope that you will all have a fantastic summer!

Sincerely, 

Satya d'Amours