Bike Safety Article

Here is a link to another news article on our bike safety day last week.

Simcoe bike article

Have a good night!

Check This Out!!

This past Thursday, we had an excellent bike safety day.  Here is an article from the Barrie Examiner in case you missed it:

Bike Safety Barrie Examiner

Enjoy the last week, remember tomorrow night (Tues.) is graduation night.  Congratulations to all of our graduates!

 

Transformations

Don't forget that tomorrow is our Bike Safety day, running for grades K-5 from 9-12.  Don't forget your bike and your helmet!

Here are some websites on math transformations that we explored today.

Study Jams Transformations

Icy Slides, Flips, and Turns

Reflection, Rotation, Translation

Space Transformation

Robo Packer

BBC BItesize Transformations

As well don;t forget to practice on Prodigy.


Have a good night!

Nine Days Left!!

We actually only have nine days left of school for this year!  Even as the students dream of beaches and sleeping in, we are keeping busy.  

Thursday the 18th is our Bike Safety Fair, and we hope all students can bring their bike and helmet.  The rain date is Friday the 19th.

We wrapped up our unit on probability today.  Here is a website to have fun with:

Probability Fair

Have a good night!

Frogs and Ladders

Here is a link to the game we played today as we continue studying probability.  It is a little bit addictive, and even more so when you try the higher levels.  

Frogs and Ladders

Also, here are the instructions to game we played with one die and a piece of paper to keep track of our scores.  

Taking Your Chances

Materials
– regular die
– sheets of paper (1 per student)
– pencils

Here's how it goes:
• The teacher rolls the die 20 times. After each roll, students add the number indicated on the die to the total obtained in previous rolls. Students may use paper and pencil to help them keep track of their running total.
• If the teacher rolls a 1, students lose their accumulated total, and their score becomes 1. Students continue to add on from 1 in subsequent rolls of the die.
• At any point in the game, students may “freeze” their score by standing up. For example, if a student has achieved a score of 16, he or she may stop at 16 and stand up.
• After the teacher has rolled the die 20 times, the class determines which student has the highest score. Two or more students may have the same high score.

After playing the game a few times, ask questions, such as the following:
• “What strategy did you use to play the game? How did you decide when to freeze your score?”
• “Were you able to predict when a 1 would be rolled? Why or why not?”
• “How likely is it for a 1 to be rolled? Why?”
• “What are the chances that a 1 would be rolled? How do you know that the chances of rolling a 1 are 1 out of 6?”

The more players, the more fun this is!  It would make a great game for family game night.

A Lot of Sunshine

In English today, we worked on a media project using sound lyrics.  We listened to a couple of songs, and saw how videos and CD covers match the mood of the songs.  Here are the songs we listened to:

Awful Lot of Sunshine - Hugh Oliver

Happy - Pharell Williams

We Are Going to Be Friends - Jack Johnson

Students will be picking out a favourite song of their own, finding the lyrics, and creating a cd cover that matches the mood or message of the song they chose.

In math, we are continuing on with probability.  Here is a video lesson:

Outcomes

Have a good night!

Probability of a PA Day on Friday - Certain!

Please remember that tomorrow is a PA day, no school for the students!

We continued our study of probability today.  Here is a lesson, demonstration, and quiz to help your child to better understand the concepts.

Find Probability

If you looking for a good site for keeping skills up over the summer, here is one we have been using lately.  It has Language, Math, and other subjects.  There are games for learners from pre-school to grade five.  Check it out!

Turtle Diary

Have a good weekend!

Stanley Cup Starts Tonight!

It doesn't seem right to be talking about hockey when the weather is so nice, but the Final starts tonight!  Hopefully it is a good series.  

We continued our work on probability today, discussing combinations of items.  Here is a lesson, demonstration, and some follow-up questions.  Please note, the first question under "Try It!" involves paints and a canvas.  The answer they are looking for does not match the visual, so skip to Try It 2.  It has visuals of pastas, sauces, and toppings which allow the student to solve the question.  Here is the link:

Combinations

We are just finishing a story we have been writing about a character who is "coming out of their comfort zone", someone who tries new things and challenges themselves throughout life.  Here is a book that we heard in class, called Miss Rumphius, that goes perfectly with this subject.  

Miss Rumphius

Have a good night!

Probability

We're in the last month of the year, but we're not slowing down at all!  The final stretch will be a busy one. Here is a website that has a lesson, demonstration, and activity to help students further learn the concepts of probability:

Study Jams - Probability as a Fraction

As well, here are a few quizzes:

Quiz One

Quiz Two

Quiz Three

Have a good night!

Probability of the Weekend Being Here - Certain!!

Happy Friday!  Here are a couple of reminders:

• On Monday, the local Crabby Joe's is donating 20% of the total of your non-alcohol order to our school.  This is a great excuse for going out on a Monday night.  Thanks to Crabby Joes for their support for our school.  Make sure you bring your certificate with you, or mention to your server you are a Pine River family
• Next Friday, June 5th is a PA day - no school for the students.

In English, we work on parts of speech from time to time.  We focus on nouns, verbs, and adjectives.  Here are a couple of websites to have fun with:

Parts of Speech Asteroids (pick nouns, verbs, adjectives)

Parts of Speech Quest - a fun adventure style game.  Write down your code each time you exit so you can continue the next time you play.

In math, we are continuing probability.  This weekend, play a board, dice, or card game to work on predicting probabilities.  Yahtzee is one of my favourites!

Online Yahtzee

Have a great weekend!

Probability Lesson

In math class, we are working on using the following words to describe probabilities: CERTAIN, LIKELY, UNLIKELY, IMPOSSIBLE.  This is a difficult concept for some of the students to grasp.  During board or card games, it would help your child better understand the ideas by stopping every once in a while to ask what the chances of an event happening next would be.  For example, when rolling a die, ask "What are the chances you will roll a six?" or "What are the chances you will roll less than a 3?"

Here is a site with a quick lesson and some practice to help.

Probabililty

Have a good night.  

One month left!!

Hard to believe, but there is only one month left of the school year.  The weather feels like June already, and it feels strange on those days when you can't wear your shorts and sandals.

We have moved on to one of the funnest math units of the year - probability.  We are working on using appropriate terms to express probabilities, as well as fractions.  Here are a few sites to help you practice at home:

Toads and Vines - this site is based on the game Snakes and Ladders.  The language is a little dense, so you will probably need to sit with your child to help them read the questions.

Bamzooki - a fun game, it asks students to express probabilities in fractions, decimals, and percents.  This is one for the probability experts!!

Ball Picking Machine - this one focuses on probability basics, so it is a good starter.

In literacy, we have finished our poetry portfolios.  Now, we are working on our movie poster media projects, as well as writing a story about characters who demonstrate resiliency.  

Have a good night!

Comparing Fractions

We are continuing our unit on fractions, and today we worked on comparing to see which one is bigger.

Here is the site we played today:

Fraction Soccer Game

We also used this site to help compare:

Fraction Tiles


A very fun site we have been visiting lately is called Fuel the Brain.  It contains a lot of fun games, mostly for math but some literacy, aimed at grades 3-4 and below.  Check it out!

Fuel the Brain

Have a good night!

Jelly Golf!!!!

A very fun site to help practice identifying fractions

Jelly Golf

Fraction Fun

In math, we have started a new unit on fractions.  Here is a very fun 'Angry Birds' kind of site

Fraction Fling

 

Todays math site

Here is a website to help students with their 'counting on' skills. Remember to click the "hide jumps" box to make it a challenge.

Catapult Count

Here is another site we used the other day to practice making change using Canadian coins.  

Cash Out Canada


Have a good night!

Book Swap on Thursday

On Thursday, Pine River is having a book swap.  Students have been bringing books they no longer want in the hopes that other students may want them.  On Thursday, students can see what was brought in, and maybe grab some new favourites.

Today in math we started division, using it as a method to share equally.  Here is a website to review at home:
Division Mine

In English, we continued to work on our Jacques Cartier projects.  Please see yesterday's post for more details.

Have a good night!

 

Welcome back!

Tanned, rested, and ready to go!!  Well, rested and ready to go anyway.  I hope everyone had a good March Break.  The first day of Spring came on Friday, and by Saturday we had a few new centimetres of snow! Today was at least the last day for snow pants, right?

In math, we worked on our multiplication skills.  This is definitely something to work on at home, and practice makes perfect.  Flash cards are useful tools for this, allowing students to become more confident in their mental math abilities, and making problem solving easier.  Here is a fun Harry Potter based site we worked with today.
Lord Voldemath

In English, and Social Studies, we are working on a research project on Jacques Cartier.  Here are a few of the sites we looked at when doing our research:
http://mrnussbaum.com/explorers/jacques_cartier/

http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9273538/Jacques-Cartier 

http://www.landofthebrave.info/jacques-cartier-facts.htm 

For parents, here is a good resource for helping to identify mental health disorders in children and youth.  One in five children under 19 experience a mental, behavioural, or emotional disorder.  Early identification can be an important factor ini treatment.
Kids Mental Health

Have a good night!

One Day to Go!

Only one more day until a well-deserved March Break.  If you're heading to someplace sunny, enjoy!  If not, well, at least the snow has started to melt.

In math we have been working on multiplication.  Here is a site to follow up with:
World Cup Math

A new site I just learned about is called Prodigy Math.  It is a role-playing game involving wizards and magic that asks the players math questions as they progress through the game.  I have created a login for each of my students that comes to me for math (only first names were used).  An information letter will go home tomorrow with your child's login info. 
Here is the site if you want to check it out:
Prodigy Math

St. Patty's Day comes over the March Break.  Here are some sites:
Crossword Puzzle
Word Search

Finally, tomorrow (Friday) is pajama day.  Everyone is dressed for school right away!  Have a good night!
 

 


 

Where is spring????

Where is spring?  It has to be around here somewhere.  Yesterday, we began planning for when the weather turns warmer, and wrote about what we would do on the first day of spring.  Unfortunately, the long bike ride along the beach that I have planned is going to have wait for awhile.  Spring has to come eventually, doesn't it?

Today, we worked on parts of speech, focusing on nouns and verbs.  We used this skill to help create some Mad Libs.  Here is the site we worked on:\
Nouns and Verbs
If you're unfamiliar with Mad Libs, they are a blast.  Please visit this site to try your own:
Mad Libs
 
Please remember that tomorrow is the last Zumba day for this year.  

Have a good night!