News for November 5

News for November 5

This week the classes talked a lot about squirrels and acorns.

The students learned the poem/song "Grey Squirrel". A copy of the words to this song were sent home on Friday. Please read this poem with your child and point to the words as your child sings them.

The read aloud books focussed on squirrels. We read two adventures of "Earl the Squirrel", read about animal homes and a funny book, "Scaredy Squirrel". As always, the details of these books can be found at our companion blog:
http://planet5books.blogspot.com/

In math, the children continued to talk about repeating patterns. The students made "trains" out of unifix cubes. We sorted them using the words "same" and "different". The class also used plastic animals and geometric pattern blocks to explore making patterns. We are working on understanding what is a pattern and answering the question, "What comes next?"

In science, we talked about the different types of squirrels: ground squirrels, flying squirrels and tree squirrels (these are the type we see in our neighbourhood). The students examined acorns and leaves from oak trees, using magnifying glasses. We talked about how squirrels gather and store acorns (they stuff them in their cheeks, and burying them to store them) and how they use their razor-sharp teeth to eat the acorns. Each student took home and acorn to keep as a treasure.

The children learned the songs for and how to write the capital letters, R and N.

The students had a chance to try finger-painting this week. We talked about using their hands and fingers as tools to spread and make pictures in the paint. These will be part of our new display in the hallway outside our classroom.