Update from Ms. R

The first part of the homework for this week is to answer a word problem using pictures, numbers and words. The second part is to write a math word problem for Ms. R. I promise to answer all the questions and return them to the students. The worksheet was given to students to take home on Friday. Remember homework is due the following week (i.e. October 2).

(We will be working on word problems next week. Unfortunately, we did not have time to do a review on Friday. If your child is having difficulty, please know that they will have lots of practice on Monday and Tuesday.)

News for September 25

News for September 25

This week marked the second week of our visiting student teacher, Bonnie Mok from the master's degree program at the Institute of Child Study, OISE/University of Toronto. This is the same teacher preparation course that I completed.

In math, the students worked on understanding place value (for example, 17 is different from 71 because the place of the digits gives different values in the tens place and the ones place). We also talked about ordinal numbers (for example, 1st, 2nd, 3rd).

The students created a class "time capsule". They each recorded information about themselves in a small book (height, weight, wishes and predictions) and included a photo and a lucky penny. We produced a class video, showcasing the work we have done so far in Room 5. It will be fun to open up the time capsule at the end of the school year and look at what changed and what didn't over the 10 months that we are together.

theclassreadastorywrittenbymsrthathadnospacesbetweenthewordsandsentencesnocaptialsand
noperiods (The class read a story written by Ms. R that had no spaces between words and sentences, no captials and no periods). They realized how difficult it is to read such a story and learned why punctuation is important and that they each have the responsibility to remember to reread their work and make sure that it can be read easily.

All the students in the school participated in the annual Terry Fox Run to raise money for cancer research. Our class ran around the neighbouhood and raised $63.02 for this charity.

We learned about Rosh Hashannah (Jewish New Year) and ate traditional apples and honey. We also made time to talk about the first day of fall (September 22) and the reason for the seasons. As well, the students listened to Antonio Vivaldi's "Autumn" from his Four Seasons composition. It was fun to listen to music written almost 300 years ago.


On Friday, we had our first shared cooking experience making spaghetti sauce. The students each took responsibility for a tomato, choosing, washing, and chopping it to make tomato sauce. During this time they wrote in their journals about how to make the sauce and spaghetti. At the end of the day we ate our little meal together, pasta, sauce and freshly grated parmesean cheese. It was so good most children asked for seconds (and thirds...). If you would like to know how we made our sauce, please visit:

http://thatsakeeper.blogspot.com/

Update from Ms. R

This week the homework is to write a story in the homework writing journal. Each student is to write a story about the sticker in his/her journal. The story may be fiction or non-fiction. The students know to check their writing for the proper use of capitals and periods.

News for September 18

News for September 18

This week the students were very excited about our Friday afternoon trip to see the movie, "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs". The movie was in 3D so we all had to wear special glasses to watch the movie. The students were asked to pay attention to the ways in which the movie was the same and how it was different from the book.

The other big news was the arrival of our class pets! Alpha, Beta and George are happy to be back in class with the children (in the photo, George is hiding in the green tube). The students started to write stories about the fish and to create colourful drawings to go with their stories. The class reviewed the structure of a proper sentence and how to edit writing (always reread your work!)

In math, the students reviewed how to use number lines to help them skip count and add and subtract. We also talked about the strategy of ten. That is, how to use what we know about groups of ten can help us count large numbers of things and how that number becomes the tens digit in a two digit number. The students were given a challenge of how many circles they could draw in one minute and then use the ten strategy to help them count the circles quickly and accurately. The students also calculated how many living things are now in the class.

In science, the class talked about liquids and solids and worked in partners to talk about what makes liquids different from solids.

In art, the students wrote about the paintings they created last week. The children also began the class pillow making project by tie-dying fabric in purple dye after using elastics, marbles and clothespins to twist and tie up the fabric.

After reading the book "Not a Stick" by Antoinette Portis, the students did a drama activity and brainstormed different ways that a stick could be used to pretend to do something else (ex. shovel, umbrella or fan).

In computers, the students visited the site http://www.pbskids.org/ to investigate the games and activities. We also visited the movie site http://www.cloudywithachanceofmeatballs.com/.

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to complete both sides of the "A Little Bit About Me" sheet. This was given out to students on Friday. All weekly homework is due the next Friday (this time - September 18).

Important Dates:

Sept. 18 - Primary division field trip to the 3D movie "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs"
at Silvercity Yonge/Eglinton - we need two parent volunteers for this trip -
permission forms were given out on Friday.

Sept. 24 - Welcome Back BBQ/Curriculum Night - 5:30 to 7:00 PM

Sept. 25 - Annual Terry Fox Run - bring a toonie for this wonderful charity

Oct. 1 - Parent Council meeting

News for September 11

News for September 11

This week was a very busy! The children all got settled into their new home in Room 5.
The students talked about all the rules of behaviour for the classroom, halls, playground, lunchroom, gym and music room. They came up with over 33 rules! Then we looked at and sorted the rules and realized that we could really just say "Work hard and be nice" and everyone will get along just fine.

Each child created a handmade journal by "squish" painting a book cover and then folding sheets of paper and sewing them to the cover. This art journal is stored in each child's desk and used sometimes for art lessons (this week we looked at Ed Emberley's method for creating cartoon drawings) and sometimes for drawing in free time.

We reviewed the proper way to print letters, with special care taken to make tall or sky letters (b-d-f-h-k-l-t), below the line or water letters (g-j-p-q-y) as well as middle size letters (a-c-e-i-m-n-o-r-s-u-v-w-x-z).

In math we looked at patterns in the hundred chart, repeating, growing (increasing) and shrinking (decreasing) patterns. The children learned how to do a card trick and made towers out of cards (did you know the Guinness record for a tower of cards is over 7 metres high?)

The class made a chart of all the different things the students wanted to learn this year.
The children checked out books from the library this week. (They are due next day 3 - Thursday Sept. 17.)

In preparation for our field trip next week, the class heard the story "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" and then wrote in their journals about how they would like (or not like) to live in the town of Chewandswallow.

Waiting for the students to arrive...

This past week was spent cleaning and organizing the classroom, as well as two full days spent going to TDSB meetings and lectures. The classroom is now ready and waiting for the students to arrive!