Posts made in September, 2012

Multiplication Madness!

Posted on Sep 26, 2012 in Maths

Multiplication Madness!

Groups of, bags of, lots of, doubles, triples, products….it’s multiplication madness in Grade 4 this week! We’ve been looking at all the ways to think about, represent and calculate multiplication. We’ve used arrays of objects, drawings, number sentences and formal algorithms.   We’ve discovered that memorising our times tables really helps! We’ve had speed competitions to find products, totals and differences. Each team works out their own strategies and the winners are constantly changing.         We’ve also had fun writing math problems about events from camp. For example, if there were 17 sticks and 12 marshmallows on each stick, how many marshmallows were there in total? We are very good at using all four operations (+, -, x, /) in word problems now. Here we are solving each others’ word problems:   Some people in our class have such a good understanding of formal algorithms, they can work with algebra.     Stay tuned for interesting word problems and their solutions! Add your own word problem for a friend to solve....

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We’re back from camp!

Posted on Sep 21, 2012 in General

We’re back from camp!

  It was the BEST week! We went to a beautiful village and had perfect weather. We planted our team flags, built tents from sticks and completed a set of challenges over 3 days. In each challenge, we tried to demonstrate trust, cooperation, communication and encouragement to succeed. The challenges included rock climbing, tree planting, nature hunting, kayaking, river swimming, hiking…and many more! Our favorite part was the campfire each night. We cooked chocolate-filled bananas and marshmallows. We sang songs and gazed at millions of stars. See a summary of our camp in the slideshow below: What was your favorite part of camp? What did you find challenging? (difficult) What did you learn about teamwork? What else did you learn?  (about nature, new games, making friends...

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What makes a great team?

Posted on Sep 17, 2012 in General

What makes a great team?

Activity Week is finally here! Our theme is teamwork. Today we formed teams and created: team names cheers symbols flags Then, we played lots of games to understand how teams work. We discovered that successful teams have members who: TRUST COOPERATE COMMUNICATE   and ENCOURAGE  each other. Here we are exploring these concepts through games:   Tomorrow we are off to camp! Hooray! We will carry our flags proudly and put our teams to the test. We will try to trust, cooperate, communicate and encourage each other when we are faced with even bigger challenges! We are looking forward to rock climbing, hiking, kayaking and tree-planting. From the Grade 4 Campers   What else did you learn about working in a team? Why is teamwork...

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Grade 4 hosts assembly

Posted on Sep 15, 2012 in General

Grade 4 hosts assembly

Grade 4 enjoyed hosting Elementary Assembly this week. Every person played a part, spoke into the microphone and performed with great enthusiasm. We shared our How We Learn UOI, a Maths inquiry and poetry examples. We also encouraged the whole school to be risk-takers at Activity Week. What fun it is to perform on stage!  A very big thank you to the parents who came to support us. If you missed the assembly, you are welcome to watch the video below. (China residents, turn off your VPN for better results.)   Do you enjoy speaking to an audience? Why/why not? Which of the Learner Profile traits did you demonstrate during...

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Awesome Artwork

Posted on Sep 10, 2012 in How We Learn

Awesome Artwork

Last week, Diana painted this fantastic portrait of a classmate.   She worked on the painting for 4 days, with some frustration and lots of persistence. She used these strategies to achieve success: – drawing basic shapes – researching face proportions – observing and photographing the person – adding details and outlines – asking Miss Davies for advice – adding shadows and highights – mixing colors and tones – using different brushstrokes Congratulations Diana! What do you like about this painting?   Can you recognise a famous artist’s style...

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