November 2025

Language

We’ve had a wonderful week in Language! Students continued to take part in Book Talks 🎤📖 and engaged in mini-lessons focused on making connections, discovering new vocabulary, and building new tech skills using Google Drawings 💬🔍🖥️.

I also had the opportunity to read with each group, and it was fantastic to see how much progress everyone is making with their fluency— accuracy, rate, and expression! 🎉 Their confidence and reading stamina continue to grow.

Students are encouraged to read aloud for 20 minutes each night and have a conversation with a family member about what they read. These discussions help deepen understanding and build stronger reading habits.

This week, students worked on:

• A reading response, following a modeled example

• Seven word definitions for new vocabulary from their novels

• Making text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections

• Selecting meaningful favourite quotes from their stories

• Designing a new book cover to represent their novel creatively 🎨📘

Our work continues next week as we explore more reading strategies and dig deeper into the themes of our novels.

Math

We had an exciting week in Math filled with problem-solving, creativity, and exploration! Students continued creating stories for equations and practiced finding the missing number in a variety of equations 🔢✨.

We also began exploring our next units on coding and measurement. This connected beautifully with our algebra work as we learned how formulas are used in real-life math—specifically the formulas for perimeter and area of squares and rectangles 📏📊.

Students were given the following task and they got to work on solutions!

A shape has an area of 24 square units. What does it look like? What are its dimensions? What is its perimeter? How do you know? Draw it.

A highlight this week was our hands-on time with Dash robots! Students experimented with coding Dash to move in different shapes 🤖🔁, applying their math thinking in a fun and interactive way.

Next week, we’ll continue to build our coding skills with Dash and eventually move into solving measurement problems using Dash—a great blend of logic, geometry, and creativity! 🚀📐

Science

It was an exciting week in Science as students continued building their animal sanctuaries, thoughtfully integrating both renewable and non-renewable forms of energy to support their designs 🏗️💡🌞. Creativity, problem-solving, and teamwork were buzzing through the room as each group worked to bring their sanctuary vision to life!

We have one final building period next week, and then students will begin working on their write-ups, where they will highlight the key features of their sanctuaries and reflect on their learning throughout this unit ✏️📘.

Lots of innovation and scientific thinking on display—can’t wait to see the final creations! 🌟🐾

Physical Education

We are finally saying goodbye to volleyball—although I was coaxed into one more week so we could show off our skills! 😄 And it was totally worth it, as students played their highest-scoring game yet. Amazing teamwork and determination were on full display! 💥🙌

Our basketball skills are also growing stronger each week. Students are now able to move the ball down the line with passes in under 2 minutes, and our games are becoming more fast-paced, strategic, and exciting. 🔄⏱️ Shots are going in more often too—our shooters are definitely heating up! 🎯🔥

Lots of energy, effort, and improvement happening in the gym! 💪😄

The Arts

This week in Visual Arts, students continued working on their digital mosaics and we created a virtual class gallery to showcase all of their amazing work 🖼️💻✨. It’s wonderful to see their creativity and attention to detail shining through!

We didn't get into Music this week but next week, we’ll be digging into musical notation and connecting this back to body  percussion 🎼🎹.

The Wrap-Up

Can you believe it? We have just 3 more weeks of learning before the winter break! ❄️✨

A reminder that Craft Night will be on December 11th from 4:00 – 5:30 PM 🎨🧵. We are still collecting crafting supplies for baskets that will be raffled off during the event—thank you to everyone who has already contributed! 🧺💖

Wishing all our families a wonderful weekend, and I can’t wait to see the students back on Monday! 🌟

Language

Our class has officially kicked off Book Talks, and students are already diving deep into their novels! This week, groups began reading their books aloud together—a powerful strategy that supports fluency, pacing, comprehension, and confidence. 🌟 I rotate and read with a different group each day, ensuring I meet with every group at least once each week to support decoding, expression, and deeper understanding.

Students also worked hard on a variety of tasks related to their books, including:

• Creating prediction bookmarks

• Searching for and defining new vocabulary

•  Sharing their thinking about one character and making meaningful inferences

• Using descriptive language to bring a story’s setting to life

•  Analyzing a character using their five senses—what they see, hear, feel, smell, and taste within the text

To support their growth, students are encouraged to continue reading aloud at home for at least 20 minutes each day. This consistent practice helps build fluency, confidence, and smooth oral reading. 📖💬

We will continue with Book Talks until the winter break, which means there’s plenty of time ahead to explore rich themes, deepen discussions, and strengthen reading skills. It’s going to be an exciting journey! ❄️📘

Math

We’ve started our new Algebra unit, and students are already making meaningful connections to our previous learning on patterns! Many noticed how ideas like expressions and relationships from the patterns unit help them better understand algebraic thinking—such an exciting “aha!” moment. 💡

To begin, students completed a readiness task, which helped us see where everyone is at with their understanding of algebra. Overall, they did very well! From there, we moved into a series of algebra challenges, where students worked with a partner at their own pace to solve problems, test strategies, and explain their reasoning. 🤝📘

For those wanting some extra practice, Google Classroom has optional problems available to support skill-building and confidence.

This week, we also explored how equations can tell a story—a concept that helped students understand why variables and operations matter. 

For example:

Story: A frog hopped 5 steps, then hopped 3 more. How many steps did the frog hop altogether?

Matching Equation: 5 + 3 = s (where s represents total steps)

Students enjoyed creating their own mini-math stories and writing equations to match. ✍️📊

Next week, we’ll continue building our algebra skills and take a fun leap into a coding unit using Dash robots! 🤖 With plenty of hands-on challenges ahead, it’s shaping up to be a high-energy month of learning as we head toward the Winter Break.

Science

This week, students continued working on their animal sanctuary projects, focusing on conservation and the thoughtful use of renewable and non-renewable resources. Their goal is to design a sanctuary that supports animal well-being while protecting the environment—such meaningful and creative work!

We deepened our learning by exploring sustainable features commonly found in eco-friendly buildings. Students examined examples such as:

• 🌞 Solar panels for clean energy

• 💧 Rainwater collection systems

• 🌱 Green roofs that support plant life

• ♻️ Recycled or reclaimed materials for construction

• 🌬️ Wind turbines to generate power

Using these ideas, students created detailed plans for their sanctuaries. They included:

• A list of materials

• Carefully labeled diagrams

• Explanations of each sustainable feature and its purpose

We also considered the animals that will live in their habitats and discussed what each species might need as part of its food chain, thinking deeply about producers, consumers, and how everything connects within an ecosystem.

Next week, we begin building! 🛠️ I'm so excited to see these thoughtful, imaginative sanctuaries start to come to life.

Physical Education

We’ve got quite a game going in volleyball right now! The serves are serving, the rallies are getting longer, and the teamwork is really starting to shine. This week was supposed to be our last, but after hearing the many enthusiastic petitions for “just one more week,” we’ve decided to extend volleyball a little longer. So next week will be our final week with this sport—and it’s shaping up to be our best yet!

Over in basketball, the pace and energy have been fantastic. Students are working hard on their dribbling skills, practicing with both their dominant and non-dominant hands, and taking shots from different spots on the court to build accuracy and confidence. We even squeezed in a short but spirited game, giving everyone a chance to apply their skills in real time.

Basketball will be our next unit and will carry us through until the Winter Break. Lots of movement, teamwork, and skill-building ahead! 🏀💥

The Arts

In Visual Arts, students worked on creating digital mosaics using Google Drawings and the polyline tool. The polyline tool allows artists to draw shapes with connected straight lines—almost like building with digital “tiles”—which makes it perfect for mosaic-style artwork. It was wonderful to see the focus, patience, and determination students brought to this task.

We truly have some incredible digital artists in our classroom! Through this project, students built skills in:

• Digital design and composition

• Precision and control when using drawing tools

• Spatial awareness as they arranged shapes to form images

• Creative problem-solving while experimenting with colour, shading, and angles

• Technology confidence, especially in creating detailed artwork within a digital space

Their creativity really shone through, and the results were impressive!

In Music, we continued working with our numbered rhythm patterns. Students created their own routines, rehearsed them, and taught them to their peers—building confidence, rhythm recognition, and performance skills. 🎵👏

Next week, we’ll be adding musical notation to these rhythm patterns, helping students connect movement, sound, and written music. Lots of exciting rhythm-making ahead!

The Wrap-Up

As we move deeper into November, just a quick reminder for students to dress warmly—the temperature has dropped significantly, and we want everyone to be comfortable and ready for recess. 🧣❄️

A notice went home to families regarding Craft Night, happening on December 11th, 2025. The school is collecting donations for classroom baskets that will be raffled off during the event. Our class theme is “Crafting,” and suggested items include crayons, markers, pencils, scissors, glue, string, beads, paper, glitter, and paints. 🎨 If you’re able to contribute, please send any items in with your child on or before Friday, December 5th, 2025. 

A reminder for families: Scholastic flyers went home last week! Orders are due next Friday, and you can order online at bookclubs.scholastic.ca using our class code: RC186231. It’s a wonderful way to build home libraries and support our classroom at the same time. 📚✨

There is no assembly next week, but we will be celebrating the winners of the Cooperation Award. Our class vote will take place on Monday, so this weekend might be a great opportunity for students to think about classmates they’ve had positive, cooperative experiences with throughout the month. 🤝💛

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend, and I look forward to seeing you all next week! 😊

Language

This week, our young authors were hard at work putting the finishing touches on their creative projects! 💻 In Book Creator, students completed their hilarious “And Then It Happened…” stories, while in Google Slides, they polished their exciting Choose Your Own Adventure tales. 🌟

We wrapped up the week with a cozy Readers’ Café ☕🍪, where students had the chance to share their stories, listen to their classmates’ work, and enjoy some tasty treats. It was wonderful to see the enthusiasm and pride as everyone celebrated their growth and creativity as writers! 💕

Next week, we’ll be kicking off our Book Talks, where students will read a novel in groups and have the opportunity to demonstrate their learning and understanding of key themes in a variety of creative ways. 💬📖

Students have already shared their top choices and are guaranteed to get one of their selections. We officially start on Monday, and I can’t wait to see the thoughtful discussions and insights that emerge! 💡

Math

This week, we wrapped up our unit on patterning 🎨 by continuing to practice identifying pattern rules, extending patterns, and even determining expressions to describe them! 🧩 On Thursday, students showed what they’ve learned with a patterning quiz, bringing our unit to a strong finish. 💪

Next week, we’ll be jumping into our algebra unit 🧮 — and students will notice that much of the foundation is already in place from our work with patterns and expressions. It’s exciting to see how these concepts connect!

Ready to get a head start? 🚀 Check out one of the challenges below! 👇

Science

This week in Science, we combined our areas of learning — the Grade 4s’ Habitats and Communities and the Grade 5s’ Conservation of Energy — for an exciting collaborative project! 🦉⚡ Students are working in groups to design a sustainable sanctuary that shows how humans can protect wildlife and the environment while balancing the needs of living things with responsible energy use. 💚

So far, each group has chosen two habitats for their sanctuary and identified some of the animals that live there. On Wednesday, we explored renewable and non-renewable energy sources 🔋 and learned about amazing smart buildings from around the world that inspire eco-friendly living. 🌿🏙️

The research continues next week as students begin to sketch their sanctuary designs and bring their creative, sustainable ideas to life! 🖍️🌞

Physical Education

This week in Phys. Ed., we’ve been staying active and building our skills! 💪 Our volleyball games showed awesome improvement — with more successful serves and longer rallies than ever before! 🙌 We also started working on some of the fundamental skills of basketball, like dribbling and passing. 🏃‍♀️⛹️‍♂️

A quick reminder: Please remember that we have Phys. Ed. on Day 3 and Day 5, so make sure to bring your running shoes to stay safe and ready to move! 👟

Next week will be our last week of volleyball as we continue to dive deeper into basketball. Can’t wait to see those skills in action! 🏀🔥

The Arts

This week in Music, we focused on body percussion — exploring the beats of 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 and learning how to combine them to create unique rhythms. 👏🎶 Some groups perfected this week’s routine and even began experimenting by mixing their own numbers to design new rhythm patterns. I can’t wait to see (and hear!) what they come up with next! 🥁✨

In Visual Arts, our classroom looks fantastic — all of our fall art and continuous line portraits are now proudly on display! 🍂🖼️ To celebrate the wintry weather outside, we also crafted beautiful 3D snowflakes that brought a little sparkle and chill indoors. ❄️✂️

The Wrap-Up

Just a reminder that Friday is a P.A. Day for parent/caregiver–teacher conferences. Thank you so much to all the families who have already come in for interviews — I’m truly grateful for the opportunity to connect and to partner with you in supporting your child’s success this year. 💕

📚 Scholastic flyers also went home today! Orders are due by November 28th, and please remember to order online using our classroom code: RC186231.

Wishing everyone a wonderful long weekend — enjoy some rest, family time, and maybe even a good book! ☕🍁📖

Language

This week in Language, students received feedback on their short stories — and wow, many of them had me laughing out loud! 😂 The creativity and humour shining through their writing were amazing to see. We also took time to review the elements of a narrative 📖 and talked about how good writers make their work even better through revision. Using the underlines in Google Docs 💻, students practiced making changes to improve their writing and focused on the importance of re-reading and checking for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. ✏️✅

From there, students explored how to use Book Creator to bring their stories to life by adding covers, images, titles, and the name of the author. Others also continued crafting their Choose Your Own Adventure stories — and there were plenty of laughs all around! 😄

We wrapped up the week with a fun and friendly game of Fun with Letters. Students used Scrabble tiles to spell as many school-related words as possible — and then calculated their total word value within a 10-minute time frame ⏰. This activity was not only about spelling — it was also about teamwork, creativity, and collaboration 🤝💡. Students worked together to come up with strategies, share ideas, and support one another while putting their spelling skills to the test.

Math

This week in Math, we began exploring number patterns — and what an exciting start it’s been! 🧠 Students looked closely at how patterns grow and change, and then discovered how expressions (a math sentence made up of numbers, symbols, and operations like +, –, ×, or ÷) can help us find terms that are much further along in a pattern — like term 50 — without needing to write out every single step! 😮

We also explored real-life connections, such as the example with Naomi’s bracelet 💎, where beads followed a repeating pattern. This helped students see that patterns aren’t just in Math problems — they’re all around us! 🌎

We’ve been hard at work identifying and describing pattern rules 🔍 and getting ourselves ready to show what we know on our upcoming quiz next week!

Science

This week in Science, students dove into new learning through videos and discussions about their current units — Habitats and Communities for Grade 4 🌎 and Conservation of Energy for Grade 5 ⚡. Everyone was curious and engaged as we explored how living things and energy systems connect to the world around us.

On Friday, we wrapped up the week with some hands-on learning! 🙌 The Grade 5s conducted a fun experiment to see potential energy in action, while the Grade 4s went on a nature walk 🌳 to observe local habitats. They also began planning how to create wildlife feeders to attract certain animals right here in our school community 🐦🦋.

Physical Education

This week in Physical Education was full of energy and teamwork! 🏐 We played an exciting game of volleyball, and it’s amazing to see how much our serves and returns are improving each week! 🎯🙌

We also jumped right into basketball skills — practicing dribbling 🏃‍♂️🏀, learning how to make strong chest and bounce passes 🤝, and even taking a few shots at the net. 🏹 Nothing but fun (and sometimes net!) all around!

It’s been a great week of movement, skill-building, and sportsmanship! 🌟

Health

This week in Health, we kicked off a new unit on healthy eating! 🍎 Students learned how what we eat can have a big impact on our mental health and overall well-being. After completing a KWL chart to share what we know and wonder, we jumped into thoughtful discussions about the factors that influence our food choices — from family traditions and religion to advertising and social media 📱.

We also took a closer look at food labels and explored the clever ways marketers use colours, images, and words to grab our attention and shape our decisions. 🏷️👀

It was a great start to our unit, filled with curiosity, conversation, and a deeper understanding of how to make healthy choices for both body and mind!

The Arts

In Music, students explored body percussion, discovering the many sounds we can make by snapping, clapping, tapping, and stomping! 👏🖐️👣 They practiced creating rhythms together and should check Google Classroom for the video of the rhythm we are working on. 🎵✨

In Visual Arts, creativity was flowing as students used watercolours to make stunning backgrounds for their continuous line portraits. 🌈🖌️ They were challenged to use at least 3 colours and 2 different shades of each, creating colourful backgrounds using colours they enjoy. The results are absolutely beautiful! 💖

So much amazing art went up this week, and we can’t wait for you to see it all next week! 🌟🖼️

The Wrap-Up

It’s been a busy week in our classroom! Grade 4 parents, emails were sent this week with details about our upcoming field trip to the Young People’s Theater 🎭 — they’re excited for this experience to see Shrek The Musical!

A few important dates to keep in mind:

• Saturday, November 8th is Indigenous Veterans Day, a day to honour Indigenous peoples who have served our country.

• Monday, November 10th is Picture Retake Day 📸.

• Tuesday, November 11th is Remembrance Day, with a special assembly to honour those who served. 

Next week will be a shorter week due to a PA Day on Friday. 🗓️ Report Cards go home on Wednesday, and Parent/Caregiver–Teacher interviews are on Thursday afternoon/evening and Friday morning. An email was sent with the link to sign up online — please let me know if you need the link to be resent.

I’m looking forward to meeting with everyone to celebrate your child’s success and to continue partnering together for a wonderful year of learning! 🤝