News for April 29

News for April 29

Another 4-day week for the students in Room 101!

This week, the students decorated the "tree" in our classroom to reflect spring. They used coloured tissue paper and glue to put leaves and flowers onto the branches. It's surprising, but this small change to our tree really brightened up our classroom.

The students are working hard on developing their reading strategies. It is important that children automate these strategies in order to improve their reading fluency/speed. The students are taught to use letter-sound knowledge, small word in the big word and clues from illustrations to help them decode (read) the words. One way we did this, was to use a read-along big book to read a variety of texts (fiction, non-fiction, poetry). As always, more information on the books shared in class can be found on our sister blog at:

http://planet5books.blogspot.com/

We continued to talk about building structures. We read the book, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and talked about how buildings need a foundation to help make them more stable. The children reviewed the names and characteristics of 2-D shapes and then used these shapes to design buildings.

As we reached 40 more days of school, the classes are now counting backwards each day. We also continue to practise how to count by two's to ten.

Because of the weather, we had our physical play time indoors. One of the children's favourite games to play is The Freeze Game, as the students dance around to music.

Our afternoon class was happy to welcome Ms. Griffin to our class. Ms. Griffin is a student teacher from OISE/UT and she will be with us for 4 weeks.

Update from Ms. R

I would like to wish all the families a happy and safe Easter weekend!

The words to the poem "Little Bunny" were sent home with your child on Thursday. Please read this poem with your child. Your child also knows the "actions" to do as the poem is read.

News for April 21

News for April 21

Well this was the first of two short (4 day) weeks. As always, there were a lot of things going on in Room 101.

At the beginning of the week, we talked about the Jewish holiday of Passover. The children learned about the celebration dinner called a seder and unleavened bread called matzah and had a chance to try some matzah at the snack table. We read a book called The Matzah Man, which is based on the classic fairy tale, The Gingerbread Man. It has a repeating phrase that the students loved to recite along at various points in the story:

Hot from the oven, I jumped and I ran,

So clever and quick, I'm the Matzoh Man!

We also talked about the Easter Holiday. The students heard the story The Easter Egg, which is a story about rabbits making all different kinds of decorated eggs for a chance to help the Easter Bunny. As usual, more information about the books we read in class can be found at our sister blog at:

http://planet5books.blogspot.com/

As a link to the Easter book we read, the students had a chance to learn about and examine branches of pussy willows. The soft, furry catkins of this tree appear before the leaves and flowers and is considered to be one of the first signs of spring. It was wonderful to hear the children ask for the magnifying glasses to look at them. They are learning to use tools they are familiar with to help them learn.

Our read along activity this week was poem called "Little Bunny". The students learned the words by heart which helps them to read the written words. They also learned some actions to do as they recite the poem. A copy of the words to this poem was sent home with your child on Thursday.

In math, the students continued to practise and apply their counting strategies. They had to follow instructions and fill a plastic Easter egg with a certain number of small chocolate eggs. The class is now skip counting to 140 by tens and to 10 by two's.

Luckily the weather cooperated this week and the children were happy to play outside and use the balls, hoops and bikes.

Update from Ms. R

Well, it was great to be back in class this week. Thank you to all the families for your get well wishes.

Note: It is spring but the weather is still unpredictable and can be warm one day and cold the next. Please make sure your child arrives at school dressed for the weather. Often we will be having outside play time and if there are puddles, rainboots would be a good idea.

Important Dates

April 22 - Good Friday Holiday - no classes

April 25 - Easter Monday Holiday - no classes

May 8 - Mother's Day

May 23 - Victoria Day Holiday - no classes

News for April 15

News for April 15

This week the students focused on spring and lego!

The big project this week was working with lego and using what we know about making structures and buildings to create models. First we learned about the toy lego. Did you know that it was invented in Denmark over 60 years ago? "Leg godt" means "play well" in Danish.

The children learned about a man in England named James May who, as a child, had a dream to make a real house out of lego. In 2009 he did it and we looked at a book of pictures that showed the lego house and all the lego furniture inside. There was a lego bed, lego slippers and even a lego toaster! As always, more information about the books we read can be found at our sister blog:

http://planet5books.blogspot.com/

The students did an amazing job creating their lego models. There were cakes, fire trucks, castles and even a horse! Then each child sat with me and orally told me a story featuring what they had made. I typed the story into my computer and these will become, along with a photo of the child and his/her model, a book. When we are done, we will have 41 lego story books!

The class practised the "One Bottle of Pop" song and actions and learned how to read all of the words to the song. A copy of the words was sent home with your child on Friday.

In math, the students reviewed counting backwards starting at 3, 5 and 10. They also learned about skip-counting by 2's (that is 2,4,6,8,10).

The class continued to monitor our rose plant. The plant is still alive but the flowers are dying and the students looked at the petals and seeds from the flowers with magnifying glasses.

The children used what they know about the seasons to help them figure out the order of the seasons (that is, What makes sense?) . We also reviewed the names and order of the months of the year.

The weather was nice enough this week for the children, during outdoor play time, to play with balls, hula hoops and tricycles. The afternoon class even had a chance to draw on the ground with chalk!

Update from Ms. R

I must apologize to families for my absences this week. At the beginning of the week, I was dealing with pink eye (in both eyes) and a mild cold that, by the end of the week, had turned into a sinus infection and strep throat. I now have some medications and I hope to be back in class on Monday.

News for April 8

News for April 11

The class continues to focus on building/structures and the signs of spring.

Our read aloud books reflected this focus. The book What! Cried Granny, showed how to use material around the house to build things, while telling a funny story about a boy that does not want to go to bed. The book Let's Look At Spring helped to remind the class about the signs of spring to look for outside. As always, more information about the books we read can be found at our sister blog:

http://planet5books.blogspot.com/

The students continue to write in their journals several times a week and work in their printing books.

The children learned the words and actions to a new song, "One Bottle of Pop".

The class had opportunities to play with puzzles, rubber stamps and different kinds of building materials. It is interesting to see how the children work with familiar materials now. For example, the bin of plastic cups this week was used as a cooperative building material (see photo).

Update from Ms. R

Spring is finally here! Please remember to dress your child appropriately for outdoor play. Parts of the playground are quite muddy, so boots are still required. Remember if a child has muddy shoes, this mud is tracked into our classroom and onto the carpet.

A copy of the nursery rhyme, "This Is The House That Jack Built" was sent home with your child on Friday. Because this is a cumulative rhyme, not all the words are written down but are repeated from the previous line (your child will know what to do). Please read this poem aloud with your child.

News for April 1

News for April 1

This week was all about building! The students created buildings by colouring, folding and taping paper. I then challenged each class to create a city using these buildings and other items in our class. We talked about what they could include and some suggestions were roads, train tracks, houses, a zoo, an airport and bridges. As you can see from the photos, both the morning and afternoon classes were very creative with their choices. It also was wonderful to see and hear the students working together cooperatively on a large project.

Students had the opportunity to make large structures out of big collection of old boxes (e.g., kleenex boxes, cracker boxes). When I asked the children, "What does this activity remind you of?", they immediately said "Iggy Peck Architect!". Recall this was a book character from last week that used materials around him to build structures. It was nice to hear that response, because that means the children are getting better at making connections.

The class learned the nursery rhyme "This is the House That Jack Built". Students also used character cards to "act out" the rhyme, as a performance in front of the class.(A copy of the words to this poem was sent home on Friday). We also read "The House That Jill Built" to compare with the original rhyme. As always, more information about the books we read every week can be found on our sister blog at:

http://planet5books.blogspot.com

In our on-going study of how to stick things together (the students are now very skilled with glue, glue stick and clear tape), the children learned how to use a stapler safely and how to use staples to make a small book. We also had a discussion about our broken cast iron fence outside, as the repairman arrived to fix it this week (the gate now closes properly!). When I asked the children how they thought he should fix it, they all agreed that glue, tape and staples would not be strong enough. I explained how the repairman used a welding torch to melt the two pieces of metal together.
This week the class continued to play The Math Game to help them practice different ways of counting. We focused on counting backwards, as this is an important skill for subraction. The students also reviewed the names of 2-dimensional shapes and learned the names of 3-dimensional figures.

The afternoon class welcomed our new Special Needs Assistant, Ms. Carson, to our class this week. There are a lot of rules and routines in our classroom and Ms. Carson did a first-rate job this week with all the children.

Finally, we could talk about spring this week. We have a plant of miniature roses that we talk about everyday as we watch the buds turn into flowers and discuss what the plant needs to live (for example, "Can the plant walk to the water fountain and get a drink of water? No!!! We have to give it water.)

One important event this week was the arrival of "George" our new algae-eater (plecostomas) for our fish tank. Our two goldfish, Alpha and Beta seemed quite happy with their new friend. Ms. R was quite happy to have the algae build-up on the tank disappear. George is doing his job! He can be found in the tank either hiding or stuck to the side of the tank with his suction cup mouth (see photo).