Update from Ms. R

Please remember that we are celebrating Halloween in Room 5 on Monday. We also are visiting the school BOOK FAIR. Children will be able to purchase items at that time. Our school's annual Halloween parade will begin around 1:15 PM.

News for October 28

News for October 28

This week, the students finished their rock story projects by making a presentation box and learning how to write a story review. In the box, the students put the "good copy" of the story he/she wrote and the rock. They had a chance to

create objects from the story and put those in the box as well. Then the students traded story boxes with another student. The other student's job was to read the story, look at the presentation box and write a review that included writing about their favourite part of the story, what the author did well and what they could do next time to make their writing better. The students took these projects home on Friday.

The children listened to the end of the novel "Stone Fox". Although it was a very sad end to the story, we had an excellent discussion around what we learned about the main characters and how and why the author chose to end the story that way. The students then wrote in their journals about how they felt about the book.

The class began to talk about ways to improve their writing. We began to focus on how to use adjectives and metaphors to help the reader make a "picture" in his/her mind.

In math, the students worked really hard on perfecting the algorithm for adding and subtracting with and without regrouping. The children also practiced the proper way to approach and solve a word problem in order to provide a complete answer. Both grades wrote a unit test on Friday and everyone did very well!

Our paper crane project is progressing nicely. We now have almost 400 paper cranes! The students count the cranes into groups of 10 and then put 50 in a zipper bag to store them. Some students took my challenge to fold a BIG paper crane with a piece of paper 1.5 m square. After a few tries, we managed to make a few.

In science, the students learned how to read a research text and take notes. They also learned how the information is presented, can help them (for example, bold-lettered words). The class now has a better understanding of the three types of rocks: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. We also talked about a mineral that the students use everyday in class. Graphite! It's in the pencils that they use to do their work. In our computer time, the students watched a short movie about how pencils are made. This video can be found at the end of this posting.

Books read aloud this week:

Stone Fox (novel) was finished.

Halloween Is... by Gail Gibbons

Happy Haunting, Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish

The "lead" in a pencil is actually graphite, a mineral that is mined and is found in igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rock. Here is a video the class watched this week about making pencils:

Update from Ms. R

Note: Our school plus Spectrum Alternative Senior Public School is having a FOOD DRIVE. We are collecting non-perishable food items (for example, cans of soup, dry pasta) to donate to The Daily Bread Food Bank. The food drive ends on October 31.

Important Dates:

October 31 - BOOK FAIR begins - Our class will visit the fair at 9:00 AM on this day.

October 31 - Halloween - Costume Parade begins at 1:15 PM

October 31 - Food Drive ends

November 10 - Author/illustrator Ian Wallace visits our schol

November 14 - Progress reports go home

November 17 (evening) and November 18 (AM) - parent/teacher interviews

November 24 - Multicultural Night (more information to follow)

News for October 21

News for October 21

The big news this week is the arrival of our pet fish! We now have 4 fish in the fish tank. The orange sailfin molly is named Alpha. The black molly is called Beta. The silver molly is named Fibonacci (after the 12th century Italian mathematician) and George is the catfish algae eater.

In language, we reviewed the written words for the cardinal numbers and ordinal numbers and the homophones for one/won, to/too/two and for/four. In reading the students reviewed their CASI reading assessments with a view to how they can improve their written answers the next time the assessment test is given. After going through the stages of writing (planning, writing the rough draft, editing and writing the good copy), the students finally finished their rock stories. They put them in a small presentation box along with their rock. The children learned the cursive letters "e,l and f". The students also learned a new word game, Smart Mouth. Using one letter for the beginning of a word and one for the end of the word, each student writes down as many words as they can.

In math, we focused on 3 digit (grade 3) and four digit (grade 4) addition and subtracting, with and without regrouping. The students reviewed the actual process using place-value blocks and then moved to the traditional pencil and paper algorithm. The class also practiced "mental math" strategies by playing an oral game and writing answers on individual blackboards. For example, take the number of fish in our tank (4), double it (8), add 10 (18) and subtract 7 (11).

In science, the students learned about the 4 different layers of the earth. They learned how to make a diagram (a labelled informational drawing) to show the earth's crust, mantle, outer core and inner core. The children also learned about igneous rocks and created a mind map drawing to record the facts about igneous rocks ("born from fire" or rocks that are formed from cooled liquid rock). The class also watched a DVD about rocks and minerals. When we were in the computer lab, the students visited the rocks and minerals website at:

http://science.k12flash.com/rocks.html

The class was invited to Ms. Brand-Jacobsen's classroom to watch a new video by Ryan Emond about Toronto. We had a wonderful discussion about what the video showed but we also talked about how the video was made and why the artist made this video.

The Toronto Tempo video we watched this week can be seen at:

http://vimeo.com/30788720

Book read aloud this week:

Stone Fox (chapter book) - John Reynolds Gardiner

How to fold a paper crane (video)

Room 5 and The Paper Engineering Club have started a "Peace Crane Project". We are attempting to fold 1,000 paper cranes by Remembrance Day (November 11). Here is a video to help you fold a paper crane:

Update from Ms. R

I must apologize for being away for two days this week. I had a minor medical procedure done. But Ms. Wilman did a great job looking after the class for me.

Homework

The homework for this week is to write a story in the homework writing journal. The class suggested stories about aliens, dinosaurs or how to tie-dye fabric. The homework is due next Friday (October 21).

News for October 14

News for October 14

It was a short week but there was a lot going on in Room 5.

On Monday, the students got to see a play by the Little Red Theatre called "Selkiemaid". It's a Scottish folktale about a seal that sheds its skin and transforms into a girl.

The students were all tested in reading this week. At this time of year, the TDSB requires all students to have their reading levels determined by the standardized tests DRA (grade 3) and CASI (grade 4).

The students each chose a rock (or did the rock choose them?) to use as inspiration for a fiction story. Each child planned the details of his/her story and began to write the rough copy in their journals.

The class reviewed the four main parts of speech this week: noun, adjective, verb and adverb. The students need to know the function of each one and how to recognize the different types of words in a sentence.
In math, the students cracked the number pattern on our class calendar. It's a famous growing pattern named after the Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci (1170-1250). The pattern rule is to get the next number, you add the previous two terms (numbers). For example, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc. Actually, this pattern was known in 6th century India, but Fibonacci wrote about it in his "Book of Calculations" so it was named after him. Fibonnaci is also credited with popularizing the Hindu-Arabaic number system (0-9 and place value) to replace the use of Roman Numerals.

The children learned about how to round numbers to a specific place value. For example, to round 456 to the nearest tens place, the answer is 460. Rounding helps students estimate answers more easily. We also practiced other strategies for estimating.

In computers, the student visited a site to play a game to review their understanding of <, >, =. Here is the link:

http://www.free-training-tutorial.com/place-value/greaterthan.html
To help the children understand the importance of punctuation, the class attempted to read a story this week that had no spaces or capitals or periods. It was really hard! After reading the second version written properly, the students then had to correct the original version. We don't want to live in a world without punctuation!

The students wrote their rock questions on post-it notes and they are now on the board above our rock display. Judging by the different questions the students asked, we have a lot of research to do!

Read aloud books this week:

The Little Red Pen by Thomas Allen

Bone Button Borsht by Aubrey Davis

Julian by Dayal Kaur Khalsa

Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner

Update from Ms. R

Another busy week in Room 5! I would like to wish all the families a safe and happy Thanksgiving weekend.

Homework

This week, the homework is to teach an adult learner how to play "Making Words", using the target word, "Thanksgiving". An excellent way for children to demonstrate a skill is for them to teach it to another person. The students know lots of strategies to help make as many words as possible using the 12 letters in the target word. For example, use small words in the big word, add "s" to the nouns, use rhyming strategies and "ing" to the verbs. When we did this activity as a class, we managed to make 94 different words!

After teaching the lesson, the students must write a reflection on their teaching experience. A teaching reflection worksheet was handed out on Friday.

Note: We have been working on addition and subtraction strategies in class. Here is a website that has games to help learn addition and subtraction facts:

http://ca.ixl.com/math/addition

News for October 7

News for October 7

This week we did our first formal research project. As a connection to our field trip to see the movie, "Dolphin Tale", the class researched facts about dolphins. The students generated questions and answers and we talked about how to communicate non-fiction information on a poster. Also they each had a photo of a dolphin from an old calendar to inspire them. The children then wrote sentences containing their chosen facts from the pool of information the class had put on a mind map diagram. The students then created posters communicating their information, plus an appropriate title. The students worked together to create a poster display in the stairwell outside of our classroom. Individual students were then filmed reading one "Did you know?" fact from his/her poster. The class movie can be found at the end of this posting.

Our cursive writing practice continued with the letters, "g" and "d".

In math, the students continued with the unit on place value and how to use what they know about place value to help them compare and evaluate numbers. For example, deciding which number in a list is the greatest. We also reviewed the use of the symbols, ">, <, =". We are continuing to review addition/subtraction strategies by learning double facts (e.g., 5+5=10) and double plus one facts (e.g., 5+6 is like 5+5 +1). The students also wrote their first math test.

The students went to two assemblies this week. One was for the QSP magazine fundraising campaign that began on Tuesday. The other was a monthly recognition assembly, where two of Room 5's students, Anna and Dalton, were recognized for their demonstration of the key attribute "respect" at our school.

The class talked a lot about thankfulness this week. In honour of Canadian Thanksgiving, we had a class feast on Friday. As a link to our discussion of the folktale, "Stone Soup" , the students worked together to make the food for our feast. The children each brought in a vegetable to contribute to our vegetable soup pot. The students cleaned and chopped the vegetables for the soup. They also each had a turn shaking whipping cream to make butter. (Adding a bit of salt as well and as a result the class finally figured out the only thing that humans eat that hasn't been alive...salt.) We also mixed and baked bread and had a great discussion about the role of yeast in bread. While the food was cooking, the children wrote in their journals about things for which they are thankful. Some of the sentiments were quite touching. For example, "I am thankful for my Mom and Dad and sister because I know that they love me." At the end of our feast, the students played a community-building game, where the students each thanked another student in the class for helping them.

The students created the second piece of fabric for their pillows by tie-dying fabric blue. They learned how to twist and manipulate the white fabric using elastics, plastic marbles and clothespins. They also learned about how dye stays in fabric and doesn't wash out (add salt!)

In our guided reading groups this week, the children each had a chance to read some new non-fiction books using 3D glasses.

We now have a "Rocks and minerals discovery area" in the class where the students have contributed their rocks and will display our research and related books and samples.

Books read aloud this week:

Thankfulness by Cynthia Roberts

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig (The author of the original "Shrek".)

Stone Soup by Jon J. Muth

Here is our movie, "All About Dolphins":

Update from Ms. R

After 19 days of school (we like to count things in Room 5!), the students and I have settled in nicely to the classroom routines. Please note that school begins at 8:40 AM. Many children are arriving to class much later in the morning. Please try to encourage your child to arrive on time.

Homework

The homework for this week is to write a story in the homework writing journal about the sticker on the page. Here are some suggestions from the class:

- the sticker could be a magic sticker with magic powers

- how the sticker got there could be part of a mystery story

Information sent home this week:

- Scholastic book orders are due Oct. 5 (flyer)

- Snack program permission and donation form (white)

- Terry Fox Run information, certificate and tatoo

- Drama after-school program form (purple)

News for September 30

News for September 30

This week the students participated in the annual Terry Fox Run on Wednesday. The class learned about his battle with bone cancer, his dream for a cure for cancer and his run across Canada to raise money for research. After we sorted and counted the coins the children donated, we found that our class raised $50.04! Well done Room 5!

The class began our learning (or reviewing) of cursive writing this week. Cursive is important to know how to read and can be a good choice for some children to increase their writing speed. Each child has his/her own workbook. This week we learned the letters "a" and "c".

The students learned how to use a Venn diagram (overlapping circles) to compare two things and look at what is the same and what is different. First the children compared Domo to Ms.. R! Then they compared Terry Fox and Winter the dolphin. They learned that the Venn diagram was developed by the mathematician and inventor John Venn (1834-1923).
The students learned about words with the suffix "-ible" (e.g., terrible, horrible, visible) and "-able" (e.g., dependable, comfortable, preventable). They learned there are many more "-able" words than "-ible" words in English and that "-able" words usually have a complete word as a root word (of course, there are exceptions!)

In math, the students continued to practice addition and subtraction strategies and review and deepen their understanding of place value. They also learned and played some games to help them practice. One game uses place value blocks to race to 100. This game ensures that students understand the "trading" of 10 one-blocks for one ten-block (a fact often forgotten by junior grade students). Another game used playing cards to help the children understand how to use what they know about addition facts to help them with subtraction.
Each child began to make a pillow this week. In our class, children use pillows for when they do independent reading and when we watch videos. This week they each designed a piece of fabric using a Sharpie and fabric dye pastels. They even learned how to use the heat of an iron to set the coloured dye!

We began our science unit on rocks this week. First, the students were asked what they think they already know about rocks. Then we had a wonderful discussion around the questions that the children had about rocks. Are magnets rocks? Are rocks the same on the earth and the moon? Why are rocks so heavy? We will use these questions to help guide our class research. We are also setting up a discovery table for rocks and rock information and students were asked to bring in any materials to add to this table.
One fact we learned this week, as the result of a student bringing in a glass sculpture, was the name for a geometric figure with 14 faces (basically a cube with the corners cut off). It's called a tetrakaidecahedron (18 letters!)

Read aloud books for this week:

Terry Fox - A story of hope by Maxine Trottier

Dolphin Tale (book adaptation of the movie) + Bottlenose dolphin facts

Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor

Ask Albert Einstein by Lynne Barasch