We have an incredible guest speaker, Jesse Miller of Mediated Reality, “coming” to speak to students and parents, in three separate sessions, on Monday, March 1st.

Please register here for this incredible event, or click the link in the flyer below.

Frustrated. Done. Confused. Not motivated.

These were the feelings that were mentioned when we completed an ‘in someone else shoes’ activity today. Students were given the same task with one element that was different. Some had to complete it with their eyes closed or only using one hand (“that’s impossible!”) Some their instructions were in Spanish (“WHAT!”) Others without necessary tools (“where are my supplies?!”) The final group, got all the instructions and all supplies in a language they understood…

“Is this an inclusive classroom?” I asked, “Could we all succeed by been given the same task, the same instructions, with no thought to learning styles or exceptionalities?” (a big no! from the class)

“Could you learn in an environment where you feel frustrated, confused or alone all of the time?” (another big no from the class)

So, what is an inclusive classroom? Is our classroom inclusive? Could we/I do more?  Here are the thoughts from Grade 4:

We will continue this conversation as a class and continue to learn and grow! If any student would like to develop their thinking and how we can make our world more inclusive – please check out the JOIN competition  

We are finishing up our Gears unit in Science this week, ready to begin our Pulleys Project after the break. Students have been learning about different types of gears; from spur gears to worm and bevel and investigating how bicycles work. Below you will see our Gears display, in which students had to use their spur gears to create a working wall of Gears.

We opened up conversations about how the gear metaphor can apply to ourselves and our connections with others (THINK WIN-WIN!)

Watch this space for the student’s attempts at the wall…

In our Grade 4 Social studies class, we are finishing off the first part of our Early Societies unit in which we have explored a variety of Early Societies from around the world. In this final section, we are exploring the Arctic Indigenous Communities of Canada, more specifically known as the Inuit communities. We have looked into how their daily lifestyles, family structures and settlements look different from what we know in our lives, but at the heart; the importance community and family are the same!

As always, you know that I LOVE a practical project element! We are finishing our unit working out just how those communities used the land to their advantage. Here you will see our students working out how to build a temporary winter settlement. From how to tackle non- packed snow to building ‘snow bricks’ and creating ‘icy cement’ and finally, how do you make the roof slope!?

Grade 4 were surprised with a guest virtual speaker in class this week: Mrs Cleveland!

Oh, how they have missed her and her magical, math problem-solving ways! She continued the problem-solving workshop in which she recapped and reminded students of the steps needed to tackle a math word problems and how it that can be applied a wide variety of problem-solving situations.