Vainavi is one of our Students of the Week!

Our End-of-the-Year Party

Thanks to Debra Surrency for planning an outstanding time for our kids. Thanks to our other fabulous moms who sent in food and helped with the games. We couldn't do it without you! Check out the videos for some laughs!

Volume Project

Thanks to our high school students for leading a great lesson on volume. We enjoyed the lesson AND the popcorn!

Math Challenge Area and Perimeter

A fence encloses a rectangular garden that is 50 feet long and 10 feet wide. To make the garden larger while using the same fence, its shape is changed to a square. By how many square feet does this shape enlarge the garden?

Check out Riley, one of our Students of the Week!

Join us for Spirit Week!

Join Us and Have Fun!

Monday- Pajama day
Tuesday- Career day
Wednesday- Sport Team day
Thursday- Superhero day
Friday- Eco day

-Riley

Check out our "Stars of the Week"!

Oliver Zemans and Noah Depp!

9.8 Challenge-Multiplying with Fractions and Decimals

When the students in Mrs. Andersen’s class arrive at the Science Museum, Kara is very excited to learn that there is a dinosaur exhibit. In fact, it is a famous dinosaur exhibit. A set of dinosaur bones from a triceratops has been reconstructed and is on display. Kara can’t wait to get to see it. She has a feeling that this is going to be her favorite part of the museum. Several other students are equally excited, so Mrs. Andersen and the chaperones decide to go to the exhibit first and the split up into groups. When Kara walks in, she is delighted. There before her eyes is a huge skeleton of a triceratops. After visiting the exhibit for a while, the students begin to move on. Mrs. Andersen sees Kara hesitate before leaving the exhibit. She walks over to her.

“Imagine, that dinosaur is about 4 and a half times as long as you are!” Mrs. Andersen smiles. The students exit the exhibit hall, but Kara pauses at the door. She has to think about this. In all of her excitement she forgot to find the information that actually says how long the triceratops actually is. Mrs. Andersen’s words stay with her, “the dinosaur is times as long as you are.” Kara knows that she is  feet tall. If the dinosaur is  times as long as she is, how long is the dinosaur? 

Thursday's Homework: Types of Verbs, Pages 157 and 158

Organizing our notes for our presentations...

9.4 Challenge

A man bought a car for $155,000. He must pay compound interest each month for 36 months. How much will he end up paying? What percent increase is that over the beginning amount of $155,000?

Fun at the Swim-a-Thon

The Swim-a-thon was a fantastic success! You all were GREAT swimmers. I am so proud of you! Thank you to the parents who volunteered their time to count laps!

Please finish collecting your pledge money by next Friday, May 3rd. The organizations that we are sponsoring thank YOU!!

Thursday Night Homework-Finding Articles in SIRS Discoverer

Here's the link. The login and password are singapor.

Remember to click on "advanced search".

Be sure to select "full text" in each of the drop down menus. Also select "date", "World Almanac" and "Encyclopedia". UNselect "challenging".

See below for a picture...

A few photos from Sungei Buloh...

9.2 Converting "Easy" Fractions into Percents

I have $100 left in my classroom budget. I want to buy some treats for the class party. Ms. Graham says I can spend 1/2 of the money on drinks, 1/4 of the money on snacks and 1/10 on plates. I have to save the rest for books.

What PERCENT can be spent on snacks? How much money is that?
What PERCENT can be spent on drinks? How much money is that?
What PERCENT can be spent on plates? How much money is that?

What PERCENT do I have left? How much money is that?

Be sure to prove your thinking with a representation.


Part II

Oops, I made a mistake. I only have $40 left. Ms. Graham says I can spend 1/5 of the money on drinks, 1/4 of the money on snacks and 3/10 of the money on plates. I have to save the rest for books.


What PERCENT can be spent on snacks? How much money is that?
What PERCENT can be spent on drinks? How much money is that?
What PERCENT can be spent on plates? How much money is that?


Be sure to prove your thinking with a representation.

Part III

Silly Ms. Graham! She changed her mind AGAIN! Now she says I can spend 20% of the $40 on snacks, 30% of the $40 on drinks, and 35% on plates. How much can I spend on snacks? On drinks? On plates?

Be prepared to communicate your thinking with a representation.


Part IV
Drinks are $.25 each. Snacks are $.10 each. Plates are $.10 each. If we use the calculations from part II, how much money do I need for 22 students ? If I can only spend 1/5 of the money on drinks, 1/4 of the money on snacks and 3/10 of the money on plates, how much money will I need to pay out of my personal account? What if we wanted to share that cost equally between 22 kids and 1 teacher. Approximately, how much would each kid pay?

Percent Problems

The fire department hopes to raise $30,000 to repair a fire house. So far the department has raised $1,750.00. What percent is this of their goal?

Yay! It's Matthew for Student of the Week!

Sungei Buloh Field Trip-Thursday, April 18

Mrs. Gaskell’s Sungei Buloh Chaperone Sign Up

Dear families,

On Thursday, April 18 from 8:10-12:00,  our class will visit the Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve. This is a terrific social studies/science field trip where students explore the uniquely adapted flora and fauna of the mangrove and wetland biome. For more information on the reserve, you can visit http://www.sbwr.org.sg/ Chaperones can meet at school by 8:10 to ride the bus or meet us at SBWR by 8:30. Chaperones will guide a small group at the nature reserve. If you would like to chaperone, please sign up below.

Below are the enduring understandings and essential questions to guide the field trip.

Enduring Understandings for students:

1. Environments have unique features.
2. People and environments are interdependent.
3. There are different perspectives on environmental use.
4. Certain environments are at risk and we have a civic responsibility to take care of them.

Essential Questions for our Sungei Buloh investigation:

1. What makes a mangrove and wetland environment unique?
2. How do people and environments depend on each other?
3. Why do we care about mangrove and wetland habitats?

What to wear:

Precaution against mosquito bites (from the Sungei Buloh website): “SBWR is a nature reserve where mosquitoes naturally inhabit. To prepare for a visit to the wetland reserve, visitors should wear shoes and socks and apply insect repellent on exposed skin and clothing before entering the wetland reserve. The insect repellent can help to keep the mosquitoes away and make your visit to the wetland reserve a more enjoyable and safe outing.”

·    Tennis shoes or good hiking shoes with socks (no sandals)

·    A hat

·    Sunscreen and insect repellent (please spray your child PRIOR to school – or send your preferred repellant in your child’s backpack)

·    Sunglasses

·    Bag lunch and a healthy snack (i.e. packed sandwich, a bag of crackers, fruit) Please, no fizzy drinks or soda.

·    A bottle of water – it’s a lot of walking!

·    A small, folding umbrella that can fit in a backpack. If there is rain, but no lightning, the field trip will still take place.

·    Field glasses/binoculars (optional)

·    A camera (optional)

Chaperone’s Name	Put an X under this box if you will meet us at Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve at 8:30.	Put an X under this box if you will come to school and ride the bus at 8:10.
Debra Surrency		X
Benedicte Heaney	x
Jody Havens		X
Brian Koldyke	x

Don't forget the Tabitha Sale next week! Cash only!

Trustworthiness-Finding Information in More Than One Place

1. Find 2 (or more) facts about whales in AT LEAST two out of the 3 articles. Highlight them in one color.

2. Record the notes in your Writer's Notebook. Tell which article you found the information in.

Example: Whales-marine animals. Found in What is a Whale? and Fun Whale Facts

3. Be prepared to share your trustworthy facts with the group. You can simply take a picture of the sections in the different articles.

4. Find an interesting fact about the whales that was only in one of the articles that you think would be worthwhile doing further research to see if you can find the information in another resource. Record it in your notebook.

Useful and Readable Text

Assignment for Friday: Read each of the following articles. After reading each article, start a new blog post entitled, "Useful and Readable Text". Label the post gr4 and critical literacy.

On your blog, record your response to the following question for each article:
If you were doing a research project on this topic, would you use this article to collect information? Why or why not?

Please use this format when you record your responses:

"Mighty Moose-Big Backyard"
If I were doing a report on moose, I would/would not use this article because...


Articles
Mighty Moose-Big Backyard

Life in the Trees is a Breeze-Ranger Rick

Tropical Deforestation-Observatory

Look who is Student of the Week! It's Luke!

Assembly Rehearsal 2

Assembly Rehearsal Video

In anticipation of Friday's assembly, if you have a chance to watch your performance and think about how to improve, that would be great!

Battle of the Books List

Click here for the list.

Important Upcoming Dates for Music

Day C

April 9 - Recorder Show-Off/Testing Day #4

April 11 at 7am - Musical Show and Tell sign up CLOSED

April 12 - Musical Show and Tell #2

Assembly Preparations

The kids are almost ready for Friday's assembly!

Assembly Friday and Sungei Buloh Field Trip

The assembly is this Friday from 10:15-11:15 (tentative for time-still verifying the time in the theater). The kids will be sharing "The ABC's of Endangered Environments". Please join us in the Elementary Theater if available. If you cannot attend, I will post the assembly on the blog afterwards.

The other event is the Sungei Buloh Reserve field trip that supports our Endangered Environments unit. That trip will take place on Thursday, April 18 from 8:10-12:00. Please click here for more information and to sign up as a chaperone. I will send a paper copy of the permission slip home for you to sign. Hope you can join us!

Ms. Treacy's Website

https://sites.google.com/a/sas.edu.sg/mstreacy/

Sent from my iPad

Jonathan is the Star of the Week!

Prep for SLCS

I'd like to share a Popplet with you. Please see the image I've attached to this email.

To learn more about Popplet, check out http://popplet.com

Sent from my iPad

SLC Preparations

Wow! Look how hard they are working to prepare for their conferences! Prepare to be amazed!

Poetry Video

"Fake" Photo

Graphic Organizer for Poetry Artifact

Please use this graphic to organize your presentation in Explain Everything.

Sent from my iPad

Conference Schedule

Look who our Student of the Week is! It's Ian!

A Visit from William Westney

Today we were graced with an inspiring performance by William Westney, Hazel Ann's uncle (see below for bio). He is an amazing musician and his music touched all of us. Thank you so much for spending time with us!

Ocean and Rainforest Destruction

Click here for resources put together by our class.

Poetry Cafe Photos-Videos to come...

What a fantastic day! Great job, Gaskell Crew!

Look who is Student of the Week! It's Hazel Ann!

The Gaskell Crew Poetry Cafe Preparations

The kids did an absolutely amazing job planning for the Poetry Cafe. They signed up for committees of their choice, then worked diligently to plan and organize the day. This included everything from making decorations, food and drink serving, welcoming the parents, organizing the room, planning groups and announcing. Fantastic job, Gaskell Crew!

Recipe for Gluten-Free Brownies

Here's another recipe for the delicious gluten-free brownies that Mina's mom, Theresa, made for Mina's birthday. They kids liked them so much that they asked for the recipe.

Ingredients

4 oz. premium chocolate (I use at least 70% dark chocolate cocoa solids)

1/4 cup butter

5 oz. caster sugar

5 oz. brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup crushed almonds (looks almost like powder)

marshmallows (small or cut up large ones - as much as you like but I used about 6 large ones)

In double boiler (or microwave), melt the butter and chocolate.

Take off the heat, then stir in sugars and vanilla.

Whisk in eggs (batter will look glossy).

Add crushed almonds & marshmallows.

Pour into greased shallow baking pan.

Bake at 200C for 25-30 min (I did 25 min).

Cool & cut.

Enjoy!

Theresa McCorry

Recipe for Grandgirl's Fresh Apple Cake (from Debra Surrency)

Debra was very gracious and made delicious goodies for our Poetry Cafe on Friday. Several of you asked for the recipe for "Grandgirl's Fresh Apple Cake from Georgia". Here is the link to the recipe on the Food Network if you are interested. Thanks, Debra, for the treats and the recipe!

Altered Oceans from the New York Times

For our Endangered Environments Social Studies Unit, we have been learning about plants, animals and natural resources from our rain forests and oceans as well as issues facing these environments.

The Altered Oceans series from the New York Times provides a glimpse into the issues facing our oceans.

Look who is Student of the Week! It's Daniel!

Reminder-Recorder test is on Monday!

Music Performance Video

Check out Ms. Treacy's blog to watch the video of your fantastic performance. Nice work!

Meet Colin! He's our Star of the Week!

Interpretation Unit Chart

Click here for the Interpretation Unit Chart. Remember to make a copy and rename it. Example: Meaghan's Interpretation Unit Chart.

Rainforest Studies

Students are researching and learning about rainforest animals, plants, natural resources and issues such as deforestation.

The students are busy as bees!

Today we are studying how metaphors and similes help us better understand poetry.

Mina: Our Resident Guitarist

Look who is the Star Student of the Week! It's Mina!

Dress Rehearsal-Bribal

Please watch and REFLECT! What goals do you have for tomorrow's performance?

Class List for Optional Valentine's Day Cards

Class List