Social Stories About Coronavirus & Social Distancing!

Social stories are an excellent way to tackle issues that can sometimes be difficult to explain to children. They provide clear explanations and examples that enable clear and concise sharing of infomation for young people. Here are two excellent stories about social distancing and the Coronavirus to share with your children!

Social Distancing:
http://qrcgcustomers.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/account4876975/6583599_4.pdf?0.2679286201098732&fbclid=IwAR20U93NXKy1MXF3

Coronavirus:
https://www.easterseals.com/michigan/shared-components/document-library/coronavirus-downloadable-book.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2Jo5xqm0-sukzgmTPgaH

Learning From Home During Week #1

Thank you to those parents who provided me snapshots of some of the learning activities taking place at home during week #1 of the school closure! In addition to communicating learning goals for the students, this blog is a wonderful way to showcase what we are doing and to share the many creative ideas of our grade 4 families!  I invite you to email me a few photos of your child by next Friday April 3rd at noon so that I can include them in my weekly photo review!

Applying fraction and measurement concepts to the real-life task of baking yummy chocolate chip cookies 

Enjoying a family natutre walk together! 

A daily schedule helps to keep things organized

Working on Math & Language Tasks

Art time - What beautful rainbows!

Time to get our exercise & build our muscles!

Checking in!

We are approaching the end of the first week of the school closure. I hope you are starting to develop a routine at home and are finding a balance and rhythm that is suitable for your family.  I have three school-aged children at home and am discovering that teaching my own children at home is quite a bit different from teaching my students at school! The home environment has it's own unique challenges and distractions. It became very apparent by the end of the day on Monday, that my family needed structure so we made a rough schedule which is posted on the fridge. It includes two school work blocks each day - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We have also mapped out time slots for exercise, games, chores, meal times (this was very necessary as everyone was eating ALL THE TIME) and of course free time/time to play. While we are only on day three of our schedule, it is getting better each day. The biggest improvement is that everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing and when.  As things evolve and change, I am sure we will need to remain flexible and adapt.  

I am eager to know what kind of interesting learning is taking place in your home?  If you have any photos of your child that you would like to share please email them to me.  Please limit it to ONE or TWO photos accompanied and a brief explanation. Be sure to put your child's first name in the subject line of the email so that I am able to keep everything straight! It is my goal to post photos on the blog tomorrow, Friday, March 27th. . This will help us to stay connected with each other and share the wonderful learning that is going on at home. Also, if you have any interesting ideas for activities that you are doing with your child, please feel free to share these with me as well.   

I look forward to hearing from everyone! 

Learning From Home During the School Closure

Hello everyone, 

Parents should have received an initial email from me touching base and explaining that all future communications will be done here on the blog!  

This is a very difficult time for everyone. Routines are thrown off and life is anything but normal. School closures are unchartered territory for all of us and I fully expect things to evolve and change as information is shared and decisions are made in the coming days and weeks. In the meantime, we need to think about ways to keep students busy, engaged and learning from home. In this post you will find optional suggestions and resources that will help you to continue your child's learning journey from home over the next few weeks. Remember that the student portal has MANY useful tools and apps that your child may use remotely to support his/her learning. 

To access the student portal click on the following link: https://sites.google.com/a/ocsbstudent.ca/k-6/

If you do not have access to WiFi and/or a device to access the Student Portal and Google Drive from home, please let me know via email! I will be checking my emails each morning. 

Suggested Routine for Learning in the Area of Language:

• Daily Reading (minimum of 20 minutes per day).  Choose a variety of reading materials including fiction stories, non-fiction books, recipe books, children's magazines, etc.  You may choose to read aloud with a sibling or parent. Create your own dictionary or list of new vocabulary that you come across in your reading. 
• Reading Comprehension Activities -Choose one reading comprehension activity per day from the document posted in the Language Folder/Google Drive. For even more reading prompts visit:www.k5learning.com
• Writing Prompts - Choose one writing prompt per day from the document posted in the Language Folder/Google Drive.   

Suggested Routine for Learning in the Area of Math:

• Daily Math Word Problem - Choose one math word problem per day from the document posted in the Mathematics Folder/Google Drive. 
• Daily Multiplication and Division Facts Practice (20 minutes per day) - Multiplication Facts up to the 9 x 9 times table, Division Facts up to  81 divided by 9.  You may do this orally, download basic math fact worksheets, create your own flash cards out of scrap paper or recipe cards, etc.  Remember that you have a multiplication table in your student agenda which you can use to practice BOTH multiplication and division facts!  For a variety of FREE worksheets to support grade 4 math skills visit: https://www.dadsworksheets.com/worksheets.html

In this week's school newsletter, Mrs. OBrien shared the link below which contains many creative ideas and practical resources to help facilitate distance learning during the school closure.  In the document you will find a detailed list of MANY useful links and suggestions divided by subject area. Check it out: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FqzveDXW3lEWTeXSitqilZQHHPJ4xf4x9BcjWJ3C06U/edit  

Please continue to check the blog for updates every few days. Try to remember that learning takes many forms other than subject-related tasks. Be creative and think of ways to promote learning that suits you and your family during this time. 

Thank you and take care, 

Ruth Stratford

Celebrating Black History Month in Grade 4

We read the story 'The Patchwork Path - A Quilt Map to Freedom' by Bettye Stroud. The story is based on historical evidence about how slaves used quilt patterns to communicate on the 'Underground Railroad' in an effort to escape slavery and gain their freedom. We learned about the meaning and symbolism of the various quilt patterns and then the students each coloured a quilt block to make our classroom quilt. The story prompted students to ask a lot of questions about the 'Underground Railroad', why it was called a railroad and how it all worked.  They shared a lot of insightful comments about the injustice of the slave trade and the suffering that so many people endured.