Final thoughts from Ms. R...

Final thoughts from Ms. R...

Well, another school year is over! I would like to thank all the students and their families for all their hard work and support over the year. Honestly, it has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with this wonderful group of students. I will miss their amazing energy, ideas and smiling faces. We learned a lot together and had great fun as well. I wish everyone a safe and happy summer holiday.

News for June 25

News for June 25

The class did a wide range of activites this week starting out with our bubble gum research! The students spent Monday morning trying different kinds of bubble gum. First, they learned about the history of bubble gum. Next, they tried 3 kinds of store-bought gum (Bubblicious, Double Bubble and Bubble Yum) and wrote down how it looked, smelled, how easy it was to chew and to blow bubbles. Then they rated the gum out of 20 (where a score of 20 meant it was "perfect"). We then made homemade bubble gum, which was easy and looked a bit like bread dough because there was no food colouring in it. The class felt it tasted good but was not sweet enough. Finally they created a graph to show the students' favourite gum. "Bubble Yum" was the clear favourite with most of the votes.

In math, the students created "flexagons". These are paper math toys that are cut and folded so that it appears that the flat object has four sides. See a video of how this works at the end of this posting. The children also learned a card game to help them practise their place value skills.

The students worked in groups to make movies starring their sock creatures.

Last September, the children created a "time capsule" that contained a video and homemade books containing information (e.g., height, hand size, wishes). We opened the time capsule and shared the information inside and talked about what has changed since the beginning of the year and what has not changed (e.g. names, grade).

The students watched and discussed the movie, "Because of Winn-Dixie" as an example of how a movie is another way to tell a story.

My son, Dean, came into the class with his electric guitar and amplifier to play music for the students and to show them the different kinds of music (e.g. rock, classical) and sounds (e.g. echos, electronic beeps) that can be made using this instrument.

The children planned and created sculptures using cardboard. They also made homemade badge pins and had a chance to make their own trading cards.

On Friday, the class had a chance to see a live corn snake! Edie Shaw brought in "Snakey" the snake and shared lots of information about snakes. Did you know that snakes don't have eyelids and can unhinge their jaws to eat their prey?

During our last computer lab time this year, we reviewed our class blog and reflected on all the activities that we have done in the last 10 months!

Here is the flexagon video:

News for June 18

News for June 18

The big news for this week was the videotaping in the classroom on Monday. Dr. Dale Willows, from OISE/University of Toronto, came to our class with 4 members of a camera crew to record how we learn in Room 5. It was very interesting to see how videos are made! These lessons will be part of a teacher resource website being launched in September 2011.

In math, the students worked with a partner to solve a toothpick challenge. It took several days to do this. The challenge was to find all the different ways to arrange 4 toothpicks so that every toothpick is touching at least one other toothpick and the toothpicks must touch end-to-end or at a right angle. After they solved the challenge, the next step was to glue the toothpicks to cards and put the cards in order so that to move from one pattern to the next, only one toothpick can be moved.

In science, every child finished his/her bird research project. After finishing the research, each student wrote the information into sentences and then drew a picture of the bird. Finally, they wrote the sentences on poster paper and put on the drawing. Each student then chose a "cool fact" and presented it to the class. The posters are now on display in the hallway. The students listened to a song by the Italian composer, Enrico Toselli, where bird songs were included in the playing of the song that featured a violin. Also, we made a video of the students saying the cool facts and it can be seen at the end of this posting.

The class reviewed the features of maps and the four major direction words north, south, east and west. Each student made a map of the classroom and designed a "compass rose" to show the directions on the map. We are working to use the words north, south, east and west as we move around the school.

The children worked hard to create special gifts and cards for the families that celebrate Father's Day.

Finally, after reading the letters the students wrote to her, the principal, Mrs. Boyce, came to our class to officially give us permission to research, make and chew bubble gum in our class next week. It pays off to create well-written, convincing letters!

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week, is that there is no homework for this week!

Important Dates:

June 14 - Dr. Dale Willows (University of Toronto/OISE) and a camera crew will be in our class all day videotaping the wonderful work that the students do in class.

June 28 - Report cards go home. Please let me know if your child will be leaving before this day so the office can arrange for report cards to be mailed to your home.

June 29 - Last day of school!

News for June 11

News for June 11

The big news this week was the EQAO testing for the grade 3 students. They all worked very hard over three days, to complete all the math, reading and writing tasks. Results will be returned to families in the fall. The grade 2 students had fun spending time with Ms. Kam, Ms. Harte and Mr. Lee.

On Tuesday, the grade 2 students went with the other grade 2 and grade 1 students to the Metro Toronto Zoo. That day, after the grade 3 students finished their test workbooks for the day, they went on a trip to the Hasty Market to get popsicles and a 2 litre bottle of Diet Coke. The students then tried the classic "Mentos and Coke" experiment. After dropping 7 Mentos candies into the Coke bottle, the Coke shot straight up into the air! The Mentos have small pits or holes on the surface that are the same size as the carbon dioxide bubbles in the Coke. These bubbles attach to the pits on the Mentos and push the liquid up at lightning speed.

The students finished their sock creatures and their non-fiction books titled, "How To Make A Sock Creature". They practiced their quick thinking writing by playing the "dice story game" with a partner. This is a cooperative story writing activity.

In science, the students started collecting information about their birds using a research sheet and books. They watched a video called, "Chickens Are Not The Only Ones". The video showed that chickens are not the only animals that lay eggs.

The students did more review work on money concepts.

Making a chrysalis box

As a final activity in our butterfly unit, the students each folded an origami box to protect a delicate paper-thin chrysalis for them to keep from our butterfly project. They created a paper painted lady butterfly to decorate the top of the box and to remind them of this special class project.
Did you know that the Latin name for butterflies is "Lepidoptera"? It means scaly wings. We read a book called "Butterfly Alphabet". In this book the author took photographs of butterflies with scale patterns on the wings that look like the letters of the alphabet. One more reminder of how amazing and beautiful butterflies are!

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a letter to me in the homework writing journal. Please let me know the projects and activities that you liked this school year and those that you did not like. This information will help me be a better teacher. As I do every time with writing homework, I will write you back!

News for June 4

News for June 4

This week,

the children began to write the instructions on how to make a sock creature. They also worked very hard to finish their creatures. Some even started to design and make clothes!

The class began to review the more "tricky" word wall words of the almost 200 words covered this year.

The students talked about doing a class research project on bubble gum. Since gum is not allowed in school, each child wrote a letter to our principal, Ms. Boyce. We are trying to convince her to allow our class to break this school rule for one day so that we can learn about the science of bubble gum, how it was invented and how to make our own bubble gum.

The grade 3's worked very hard reviewing material and strategies for the EQAO test that they will write next week.

In math, the students reviewed the key concepts with patterns, measurement (temperature) and money.

As the last part of our butterfly project, the students each made a special box to hold an empty chrysalis. Read more about this in a separate posting.

In science, the class is beginning a research project on birds. Students each chose a different bird to learn more about and started to make their research posters.

On Thursday, the students went to the gym to see a performance of "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss.
As we continued our discussion about the importance of the sun to the earth, we read the folktale, "Arrow to the Sun" and viewed a NASA video/song with sun facts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a358QLi4Wgs&feature=channel

On Friday morning the whole school went outside to participate in our Jump Rope for Heart event to raise money for the Heart and Stroke Foundation.