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/.