October 1 News

October 1st News
By: Alex and Raika
Yesterday, we made paintings using marbles and we also celebrated a Jewish holiday called Rash Ha-Shanah. We had apples and honey to celebrate. Today, we celebrated Eid and the end of Ramadan. We had delicious cookies for Eid that patterns on them that looked like the henna decorations for Muslim celebrations.

We learned about the forces of friction and gravity in science.

We learned about place value in math. We also got new textbooks and workbooks.

We got our scholastic book order forms.

Today, we went on a website called Starfall. http://www.starfall.com/

In library class, we read a book called 'The Principles New Clothes' with Ms. Mantello and it was very funny.

In music, we learned to sing a song called 'It's a beautiful morning'.

We raised $57.85 for cancer research during the Terry Fox Run.

In guided writing, we are writing instructions for the marble art. We made backwards stories and once we are all done we will put them up in the hall.

We are reading a book called 'Tootle' about a baby locomotive. It was in a list of the most popular books for kids.

Goodbye,
From Alex and Raika

September 25 News

September 25 News

by Ms. Rawlinson

These photos show the students in gym class with Mr. Hinrichsen, making structures out of cards and finishing the Terry Fox Run.

This week I am writing the news because it was a four day week and we didn't have time to do it in the computer lab this week.

It was wonderful to see all the families at the BBQ and curriculum night this week. I am very proud of all the work that the class does and I'm glad you had a chance to see some of their work and learn more about the program in Room 5.

This week each student collected information about themselves and made a little "time capsule" book. They measured their height and weight, traced their hands and feet, wrote down their wishes and even included a photo and a lucky coin (from another country). As a class we wrote a letter to ourselves in June 2009. We sealed up the letter and 19 time capsule books and we won't open it until the end of school. It will be interesting to see what has changed and what hasn't.

The students learned how to use a graphic organizer to plan a fiction story. We figured out our names spelled backwards (mine is Ycnan Nosnilwar) and started to write a story. The children complied their reading responses to the book My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes. They used Kid Pix on the computer to type their writing and created a picture to go with their words (ex. The cat from Brazil ate a vitamin pill).

The class made some "circle art" by using black pen to trace around a juice lid and colouring in the shapes made from the overlapping lines. They also learned how to fold an origami duck and folded a family of ducks as a reading response to the classic story Make Way for Ducklings.

In math we practised the math strategies we know to help us solve problems. One activity was to count the number of stars drawn in one minute. The class learned why grouping by tens works so well. Counting by tens is faster than by 1, 2 or 5 and the number of groups of tens gives the tens unit in a two-digit number (place value).

Sept. 22 was the first day of fall and we talked about why this is a special day for the earth. We listened to the autumn movement of Vivaldi's classic The Four Seasons and conducted in time with the music using straws as batons.

We started to talk more about gravity in science. Did you know that a chair is like an anti-gravity device? The students built towers out of playing cards (just like Einstein liked to do as a child - we read that he made towers 14 stories high in his biography) and some students were overheard saying (as their towers fell), "Oh! I don't like gravity!"

Homework This Week

Students were asked to teach an adult how to fold an origami duck. They were given a sheet to fill out to reflect on how they think they did as a teacher. This sheet was sent home in the agendas on Thursday.

Notes from Ms. R Sept. 18

Another busy week in Room 5! The homework this week is for each student to write about his/her favourite book. This sheet will be sent home in your child's agenda on Friday. These reports will be made into one of our classroom community books.

I look forward to seeing you at the school's BBQ (5:30 - 6:30) and Curriculum Night (6:30-7:30) on Thursday, September 25th.

From, Ms. R

September 17 News

News by Razan and Liam

This Mr. Deacon. He is our student teacher. His favourite TV show is Jeopardy.

We read the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. This art was made by drawing spots dots with oil pastels on paper. We made the frames by putting glue on cardboard then we painted it gold. These are in the hall by room 5.
In math we learned how to use calculators and t-charts to help us solve math problems.

We made music shakers by putting orzo in cans. We listened to Crazy Frog and we shook them to the beat. We did the Reader's Theatre play Why Bear Has A Stumpy Tail and Ms. R filmed the plays and we watched them on TV. We learned about hippos and read the second book about Owen and Mzee (a language of friends) a story a hippo and a tortoise in Keyna that became friends. We looked at the website http://www.owenandmzee.com/ and played games and saw photos.

We learned about each other by reading our A Little Bit about Me homework. We started to read a story about Albert Einstein. Did you know that he was a poor student (that is, he was not a good student) who liked to play the violin?
Good-bye from Liam and Razan

Ms. R's cat Iggy likes to hide in boxes like in a book we read called My Cat Likes To Hide In Boxes.

The 100 shirts of Mr. Lee

This year our class will be doing many long-term projects. One project is counting the number of different shirts that Mr. Lee has. Mr. Lee is our school's grade 1/2 teacher. Everyday he seems to wear a different shirt. The legend is that he has almost 100 different colourful shirts....

This week our class is setting up a display in the second floor west stairwell showing the different photos we have taken so far.

Sept. 10 News

Sept. 10th News by Angie and Hodman

This week we did patterning in math. We read a book called Pattern Fish. We made patterns with pattern blocks and our bodies. We listened to a song by Blue Man Group and listened to a pattern in the song. We looked at a video by Blue Man group on a DVD and Youtube. You can watch the youtube video at home. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVWlUw6BfLw

We wrote about our class pets, Alpha and Beta. We wrote cooperative stories with a partner.

We went to the library. We read Blueberries For Sal and we tasted blueberries and we squished them to see what colour was inside (it was red, yellow-green, and purple).

In science we cut out paper flowers and folded the petals. When we put them in water the petals opened up because the water forced the petals to push up.

This week we made shakers out of cans and pasta (orzo or rice shaped pasta) for music. We made small art journals by sewing pages into a book with a cover that we covered with paint and sticky plastic.

We welcomed Mr. Deacon our new student teacher to our class this week.

In computers we learned about internet safety at http://media-awareness.ca/english/special_initiatives/games/privacy_playground/flash/start.html


Bye from Hodman and Angie

September 5 News

Room J2 Homework News – Sept. 2 - 5, 2008

Due: Friday, September 12, 2008

What a busy week it’s been! The students have been hard at work adjusting to their new classroom and the new routines. This week we did a lot of activities to help everyone learn more about each other.

The students made their own name art for their desks and worked together to make a message for our hall bulletin board. They wrote stories about summer and our fish. We read lots of books, sang songs and played math and word games. We also began our big class project “The 100 Shirts of Mr. Lee” and welcomed our class pets, “Alpha” and “Beta”, a fantail goldfish and a shubunkin goldfish.

Please note that the students need to wear proper footwear for gym on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Our library book exchange day is Monday.

Weekly Homework

Every week the students will be asked to do a few small pieces of homework that will be due the following Friday.

This week’s homework is:

Language – Please complete the attached interest survey with your child.

PLEASE make sure that your child reads for 10-15 minutes (or more) every night either with you or independently. It is VERY IMPORTANT at this age for children to read at home everyday.

If you have any questions or comments about the weekly homework, please contact me through the school at 416-393-0570, through your child’s agenda or via email at nrawlinson@rogers.com.

Important Dates

September 25 – Welcome Back BBQ AND Curriculum Night (5:30 – 7:30)
September 26 – Professional Activity Day – no school on this day
October 13 – Thanksgiving Day – no school on this day

Computer Time!

Today in the computer room we played on the computers. Some people drew pictures using Kid Pix. Some pictures were of wacky stuff like circles and card decks and fairies.

In computers we would like to learn how to make a website, and design t-shirts. Ms. R wants us to learn how to type!