Friday, March 26, 2010

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a fiction story in the homework writing journal. One suggested topic is to write an adventure about your sock puppet, now that it is living at home with you!

Important Dates:

April 2 - Good Friday - no classes on this day
April 5 - Easter Monday - no classes on this day

News for March 26















News for March 26
This week the students did an experiment with fleece. On Monday morning, each student put some fleece in the toe of one of his/her shoes and then in the afternoon they each took out the pieces of fleece to see what changed. They wrote about their experiments comparing how the fleece looked before and after it was in the shoe and their theories on why the fleece turned into felt (heat, sweat or moisture and pressure).
The children began to write stories based on a magazine photograph. After picking a picture, each student planned their writing using the details in the photograph and then started to write their fiction stories.
The students used the wool they dyed a few weeks ago to start weaving a bookmark. We referred back to the book "Pelle's New Suit" where Pelle's mother used spun wool to weave cloth. Each child set up a cardboard loom with vertical lines of wool (the warp) and used different colours to weave over and under to create the horizontal lines (the weft). This is to experience the time and patience required to create cloth as discussed in our pioneer unit.
In math the students began the unit on fractions by concentrating on how a "whole" is divided into equal parts or fair shares. They created a "Fraction Book" by folding and cutting paper into various fractions to understand that one half of a whole may look different depending on how you divide it, the size of the whole and to understand that as the number of fair shares increases, the size of each fair share decreases (gets smaller).
The children planned and created short movies based on the book "The Thingamabob". In this story an elephant tries to figure out what an umbrella is. The groups chose an object and wrote down all the possible things it could be used for (for example, a toothbrush could be used as a broom). Also, the class created a commercial to let people know about their movies and the web address to go to, in order to see the movies (http://planet5movies.blogspot.com/). The commercial can be seen at the end of this posting.
The class saw a video about Easter and some of the other spring celebrations around the world. The students also listened to "spring" of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, featuring violinist Nigel Kennedy.
In computers, the class showed their understanding of fractions by creating "fraction flags" at:
http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/fractionflags/fractionflags.html

This is the commercial for the students' new movies. Visit

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is....there is no homework over the holidays! BUT, the students all know (and they all promised me) that they need to read every day.

I wish all the students and their families a very happy and safe March Break holiday!

News for March 12









News for March 12


The big news this week was our 100 Books Party! The party was a great success with over 100 visitors to Room 5. A big thank you to all the students, teachers and parents that came to see all the wonderful work of the students.

The class worked hard to get ready for the party. They wrote book reports detailing the parts of the story (characters, setting, problem, solution), the big idea and if they would recommend the book to other students. The students also finished the artwork inspired by their favourite books. The children thought about how they could measure 100 books:
1. The length of 100 books... 23 m and 80 cm

2. The height of 100 books ... 77 cm

3. The weight of 100 books... 29 kg

For comparison, the 18 students were measured end-to-end and it measured 25 m. So the students are longer than 100 books! The students also figured out that the books lined up or 18 students lined up are both taller than the school! Next the students worked in small groups to make posters using words and pictures to communicate what they learned. We also made a movie to show the details of our project on the school's morning news show (and at the party) and, finally, the children were all responsible for jobs at the party. After the party was over, each student wrote a reflection on their hard work, writing about what we did well and what we could do next time to make the party even better (one suggestion was a book-shaped cake!) Great job everyone!
In math, the grade two students finished the unit on time. The grade three students began the unit on time. We also did a lot of math review with our 100 books project.
The children finished their sock puppet stories (these are now on display in our hallway). The students worked in small groups to create a singing and an acting audition for our future sock puppet movie. A movie documenting this process can be found at the end of this posting.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a non-fiction story in the homework writing journal. Some of the topics suggested by the class were: the Olympics, the visit of Brian Blain the blues musician to our class, making a sock puppet, dyeing wool or a non-fiction topic of your choice.

****Remember families are invited to our 100 BOOKS PARTY on Friday, March 12 (9:00 to 10:15 AM). Please come and celebrate with us! ****

News for March 4








News for March 4
There were only four days of school this week but the students did lots of activities!
The children learned about blues music by first watching and listening to the "ambassador of the blues", B. B. King, sing a blues song. The children even got their own blues nickname (e.g., Blackjack Penner, Catfish Cole and Howlin' Wolf Michael). Then on Thursday afternoon, we had a visit from local blues musician, Brian Blain who played his guitar, told us about the history of blues music (and how it is related to rock music) and helped the class write the lyrics for our own blues song. A video of the class performing this song is at the end of this posting.
In math, the grade 2 students worked with Ms. Rodrigues learning about telling time. The grade 3 students finished up the unit on multiplication and division.
In social studies, the students worked in pairs to research how the Aboriginal people helped them with farming, medicine and coping with the challenges of winter. The children learned about how sheep were important to pioneers to provide wool for clothing, blankets and food. The class dyed wool (spun wool) and fleece (unspun wool) using Kool-aid. This dyed wool will be used in future projects.
In writing, the students finished writing their stories starring the sock puppets they created last week. They also chose their favourite book from the almost 100 books that have been read aloud so far this year. The children also folded small books from paper as invitations to families to join us celebrating reading 100 books together next Friday.
Ms. Rodrigues taught the students about foreground/background in paintings. The children then created their own background paintings as an art response to their favourite books.
In computers, the children practised telling time to the quarter hour and how to create a song using blues "sound bites":