Update from Ms. R

The homework this week is to complete a review sheet for cursive writing and a math sheet. Both worksheets were sent home with students on Friday.

Important Dates:

March 13 - Our 100 Books Party! (9:00 - 10:25) Come and join us as we celebrate reading 100 books together and view a variety of the children's writing.
March 16 - 20 - March Break
March 30 - Report cards go home
April 2 (evening) and April 3 (morning) - Parent/Teacher interviews
April 3 - P.A. Day
April 23 - EQAO Parent Information Night

February 27 News

February 27 News

This week we welcomed our new student teacher, Ms. Lindsay to our class. She is from the teacher training program at The Institute of Child Study at OISE/UT (which is the same school that I attended).

The students continued to read, listen to and write poetry. They created list poems and started to make their poetry books. One poem lists words that begin with the same letter sound and are arranged to make a crazy sentence. We talked about how words in songs (lyrics) are a type of poem and we listened to and read the words of the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". They also wrote poems using nonsense words to make rhymes.

In math, after a final assessment for the graphing unit, we started a new unit on division (workbook group) and on measuring time (clipboard group).

In art, we talked about abstract art and the students made colourful abstract paintings to go with their poems. They also made a collage of words by cutting out words from magazines.

On Tuesday, the whole school celebrated French Carnaval after the celebrations in Quebec. This holiday is also known around the world as Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday and Pancake Day. The children decorated cookies, played floor hockey, made sculptures, played Carnival computer games, had face painting/tatoos and ate pancakes.

The class went to the gym on Wednesday morning to see a play by The Little Red Theatre Company. The play was based on Aesop's fables.

The students began the new unit in Social Studies on life in Canada around 1800. They learned about ways the native people helped the new immigrants in our library time. The children also learned about how the wool from sheep was used to make things for the home. The students even learned how to dye wool (although we used Kool-Aid!).

The class read a story in The Globe and Mail newspaper, about a new species of fish called a "frogfish" that was found this week living on the bottom of the ocean in Indonesia. It is the size of a fist and has light brown and orange stripes. It moves by bouncing like a ball on the ocean floor. To see a video, go to:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090226.wvfrogfish0226/VideoStory/VideoLineup/Cat2

Room 5 Radio - Ms. Lindsay Interview

This week we interviewed the new student teacher in our class, Ms. Lindsay. The hosts were Trinity and Liam.

Update from Ms. R

The homework this week is to write a fiction story in the homework writing journal. Any fiction story can be written but one idea we talked about in class is "What do the Woolly Hoodwinks do in the classroom after Ms. R turns off the lights, locks the classroom door and goes home?".

Room 5 Radio - Mr. Hinrichsen Interview

This week we interview our school's gym teacher, Mr. Hinrichsen. The hosts were Gabriel and Sara.

February 20 News

February 20 News

This week the children finished up the math unit by doing their own surveys of the class. Each student wrote their own survey question and the class went around and answered each other's questions. They then tallied, graphed and wrote about what they found out. This information is now displayed in our hallway.

The class talked about the importance of Canada's Flag Day (February 15). On Feb. 15, 1965 the Canadian flag was first flown in Ottawa. We talked about how flags say the name of a country without using words.

We began our unit on poetry by looking at the lyrics to our national anthem, "O Canada". The words started out as a poem. Each day for the next 2 weeks the students will listen to D.P.R. (Daily Poetry Reading) and write some poems. So far the students have written rhyming couplets, acrostic and concrete (or shape) poems.

We had two visitors to our class this week to teach us how to play "Spinclusion" a game that teaches inclusion and accepting the differences between people.

Our "Woolly Hoodwinks" project has now come to an end. This week the children wrote letters to the authors of the book as if they were the characters that they created. The students completed their movies and on Friday we watched all the movies (and so did the Woolly Hoodwinks). If you want to learn more about these characters, go to:

www.woollyhoodwinks.com

Our dance unit has come to an end. The children had a great time this week working together as a class and with a partner to create movements together. We were inspired by the band "Ok Go" dancing on treadmills, when we watched their video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5zWaTEVkI

The class packed a lot into a four-day week!

Update from Ms. R

The homework this week is to complete a math worksheet on graphing. The worksheet was sent home with students on Thursday.

Important Dates:

Feb. 15 - Flag Day
Feb. 16 - Family Day - no classes
Mar. 16-20 - March Break
March 30 - Report Cards sent home
April 2 (evening) - parent interviews
April 3 - P.A. Day (no classes) and parent interviews

Room 5 Radio - Ms. Train Interview

This week the class interviewed our vice-principal, Ms. Train. The hosts were Hodman and Kevin.

February 12 News

February 12 News

The class packed a lot into this four-day week. On Monday, the students listened to the grade 4 speech arts speeches. This was to help the students understand what is involved when they are in grade 4.

In math, the class continued to work on "data management" by doing surveys, creating graphs and discussing what information can be taken from the graphs. One survey the children did was to do a "taste test" of 3 kinds of potato chips. They tallied the answers to the questions "Which is your favourite potato chip?" Then they graphed the information and wrote about the results. The most popular chip in our class was a Pringles-style chip.

The children continued to work on their cursive letters. So far they have done a, b, c, d, g, q, i, u, y.

The students were busy finishing their Woolly Hoodwinks characters. Students worked in pairs to write and perform a "movie" using their new pals. They are responsible for creating the story, the opening and closing credits, performing the movie and the music. These movies will be posted next week on http://planet5movies.blogspot.com/.

The class learned the history of the Valentine's Day celebration. They learned how to fold and cut a circle of hearts and made valentines and decorated bags for the valentine exchane. We had a fun celebration on Thursday afternoon.

We started the unit on poetry and discussed what a poem is.

In computers, we watched short movies of snowflakes forming and used their knowledge of nouns, adjectives and verbs to create funny MadLibs. Check out these sites:

http://www.funbrain.com/

http://ww.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/movies/movies.htm

February 5 News

News for February 5

On Friday we celebrated the 100 days of school! Pepper's class came to join us and we all did activities to help understand the number 100 better. The children danced for 100 seconds, filled out a grid of 100 rectangles with rubber stamps and markers, counted out 100 small candies and played with 100 marbles, football cards, popsicle sticks and more. Of course, 100 days means 100 crazy shirts of Mr. Lee! Our "100 chart" of 10 rows of 10 photos is now complete in the second floor west hallway.

In math, we started the data management unit. The students are learning how to collect data (using surveys and tally marks), create different kinds of graphs and talk about what information the graph gives.

We read the picture book The Woolly Hoodwinks Versus The Dark Patch and wrote detailed stories based on the book. The students also made their own Woolly Hoodwinks by hand and machine sewing fabric and making faces with buttons, beads and embroidery thread. The class also learned and practised how to make overhand knots and square knots. These stories will be displayed in our hallway next week.

The class began the cursive writing program. The grade two's are learning lower case and the grade 3's are learning the capital letters and reviewing the lower case letters.

In music, the class is beginning to learn about the instruments in an orchestra. This week we learned about the stringed instruments (violin, viola, cello, bass, harp). In dance the children practised moving to different kinds of music (classical, samba, rock) using long ribbons.

Update from Ms. R

The homework this week is to write a non-fiction story in the homework writing journal. The topics are:
1. How to make a stuffed animal OR
2. Our 100 days of school celebration

Room 5 Radio - Mr. Karacostas Interview

This week our hosts were Raika and Eric. They interviewed Mr. Karacostas.

Please note there is some audio noise at the beginning of the podcast.

Update from Ms. R

This week's homework is to think about your Woolly Hoodwinks story and how your character will get over his fear (thinking only - be ready for Monday) and to complete a math review sheet (due Friday).

Important Dates:

Feb. 6 - 100th Day of School!
Family Skate Night 6:30 - 8:30 - Hodgson Skating Rink
Feb. 13 - P.A. Day - no classes
Feb. 16 - Family Day - no classes