Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a fiction story in the homework journal using one of the two starter sentences taped into the writing journal.

* Please note: Report cards will be going home with students on Monday. Your interview time confirmation will be included in the envelope. I look forward to meeting with families on December 3rd and 4th.

News for November 27

News for November 27

This week the students did a unit on how movies tell a story. We watched, discussed and wrote about the movie, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (1971) based on the story by Roald Dahl. This is a story with a lot of imagination, from the names of the characters (ex. Mike Teevee) to the settings in the movie (ex. in Willy Wonka's office, everything is cut in half, even the sink!). The students examined the different characters and they compared Charlie with the other children in the story.

The students started a project to invent and design their own candy as an extension project to the movie. They thought about a company name, candy name and why someone should buy his/her candy instead of another candy (ex. "Eating this candy will make you smarter").

In computers, the class visited the Wonka website and played some creative games:
http://www.wonka.com/ .

In math, the grade 2 students finished the review of patterns (repeated, growing, shrinking) and they each made a long paper repeating pattern. The grade 3 students learned about 3 digit addition and subtraction, with and without regrouping (sometimes "we must regroup!")

The students learned about the useful tool called a Venn diagram and how to use it. Did you know the Venn diagram was designed by John Venn, an English mathematician around 1880? The class used this technique to compare the meaning of rural (country) and urban (city) and to compare characters in the movie they watched.

The whole school went to the gym to watch the "White Pine Dance Company". These dancers performed a number of different traditional First Nations dances and had very beautiful costumes complete with eagle feathers and porcupine fur!

The students, after many project hours, finally finished their letters that spelled "IMAGINATION ROOM 5". These are now on display in our classroom.

Update from Ms. R

The first part of the homework for this week is to write down and illustrate your favourite joke or riddle. These will become part of a class project. The second part is to complete grade appropriate math questions on two-digit addition and subtraction. This work was sent home with the children on Friday.

Important Dates:

November 26 (evening 6:00 to 7:00 PM) - Family Math Night
November 30 - report cards go home
December 3 (evening) and 4 (morning) - parent/teacher interviews
December 17 (evening) - Holiday Concert!
December 19 to January 3 - winter holiday break

News for November 20

News for November 20

This week the class learned more about forces with a focus on magnets. The circle table was filled with different kinds of magnets and was a very popular activity with all the students (especially the very powerful sphere magnet). The students also created, through paper engineering, a paper windmill toy to illustrate how the force of air creates movement.

In math, the children worked hard to move from using place value blocks to using the standard algorithm (or method) for two-digit addition and subtraction. The grade two's focused on questions without regrouping and the grade three's practised with questions that require regrouping (also referred to trading or borrowing).

The class learned about synonyms, words that have the same meaning. We all tried very hard to say "synonym" and not "cinnamon"!. We played a game to help us learn 37 different sets of synonyms.

The research posters are now displayed in the hallway by the stairs. Each student marked the location of his/her country on a world map and wrote a reflection on what they think they did well on the poster and what they could do next time to make the poster even better. The students listened to the song "Everywhere Man" by Johnny Cash and learned our class version that lists all 19 countries that we learned about from our research.

The children finished the "Flat Stanley" class project this week. First each student chose a place to take Stanley to and had their photo taken. Next they each wrote a letter to Mrs. Callaghan's class telling why they chose that place (and thanking them for sending Flat Stanley to us). Then they each created a new Flat Stanley to send back with the letters. Finally, everything was put together to send back to England.
At the beginning of the week we visitied the Flat Stanley website to learn more about his books and play games:
http://www.flatstanleybooks.com/

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a fiction story in the homework writing journal. Using the information given to each student from another student in the class, the children need to write a story that includes an animal, a place and something that can be held by a hand (for example, a cat, a forest, a donut).

Please note: The forms for Parent/Teacher Interviews (Dec. 3 & 4) and for Math Night (Nov. 26) were sent home with the students on Thursday. Please return the completed forms as soon as possible.

News for November 12

News for November 12

This was a short week, but the students worked hard to finish their research posters. After completing a research planner on his/her chosen country, each child wrote the information into sentences in the writing journal. After editing, the students wrote the "good copy" of the sentences on the poster. The children also researched the flag and map of each country and put these on the poster. The students learned how to find Canada and Toronto on a globe and then saw where their research countries were starting from Toronto.
The children welcomed a guest to our class this week. "Flat Stanley" has come to our class from a school in England (via the Walsh family). Together, we are now choral reading the chapter book, "Flat Stanley" (thanks to a gift of books from the Madni family) and learning about his adventures as a 1 cm thick young boy. You can do a lot of cool things when you are as thin as a piece of cardboard! We are also thinking about the adventures we can take him on.
In science, we began a unit on magnets by watching a video about this natural force.
In math, the focus was on addition and subtraction. The students now write a FMMF (five minute math facts) quiz every morning. We learned and shared different strategies to help remember the math facts (doubles, near-doubles, using what we know about 10). The main focus was to help doing subtraction, use what you know about addition.
A lot of time went into our presentation at the Remembrance Day assembly this week. The class went to the office area of the school and saw the "1000 Paper Peace Crane Project" that was done a few years ago. We also looked at the display of names of people who attended Davisville Public School that went to war and those that passed away in the line of duty. The children used red and black paint to create a large poppy to hold during our performance. The students each read their "33 Words of Peace" writing aloud to the whole class (this was filmed and made into a movie posted below). We were also proud to have our paper peace crane tree on the stage during the assembly.

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is:

1. Practise singing and signing (ASL signs) the Remembrance Day song for our performance.
2. Complete the math worksheet creating an addition facts chart and practising grade appropriate numeracy questions. We will be practising these facts in class over the next few weeks.

* Please note that the homework is due on Thursday this week, due to the P. A. Day.

Important Dates:

November 11 - 10:30 AM - Our class will be performing at the Remembrance Day assembly in
the gym. Parents are welcome to attend.

November 13 - P. A. Day - no classes for students on this day

November 30 - Report cards go home

December 3 (evening) and December 4 (day) - Parent/teacher interviews

News for November 6

News for November 6

This week, the students began their first research projects based on countries of the world. First each student chose a country that they are interested in learning more about. Next they started to gather information using a project planner. Then they learned how to use stencils to draw a title on poster paper.

The class learned about and discussed Remembrance Day and how it is observed in Canada. The students each wrote about peace and put the information into 33 words (11th hour/11th day/11th month = 33). The class learned a peace song and the American Sign Language (ASL) signs to go with the song. We will perform this song at the Remembrance Day assembly on November 11.

In math, the students did the assessment for the measurement unit. Now the class is working on number sense and numeration, focusing on addition and subtraction facts and moving into two and three digit addition and subtraction. They also played the game "Race to 100" using two dice to practise their addition facts.

In computers, the students created comics using the website:

http://www.bitstripsforschool.com/

Students are able (and encouraged) to create comics at home using our class login and password.

The children learned how to fold paper cranes. They listened to the story of "Sadako", about a Japanese girl who was the inspiration for the paper crane becoming a universal symbol of peace. These cranes will part of our class "peace tree" decoration at the Remembrance Day assembly.