Update from Ms. R

I would like to wish all the families of Room 5 a safe, happy holiday and all the best for the year 20012!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone back at school on Monday, January 9th.

News for December 23

News for December 23

It was a busy final week of 2011 for the students of Room 5!

The big news was our school concert on Tuesday night. The children did an amazing job singing "What a Wonderful World" and "Firecracker"!

On Monday afternoon, the class had a chance to watch the whole show during the concert rehearsal.

A tradition at our school during the last week of school is for all the students to get together in the gym for 30 minutes each day to sing holiday songs. This a great community-building time.

The grade three's finally finished their paper chain project. It took 600 paper chains to measure from our classroom to the gym! It was a lot of work but the students worked cooperatively and daily revised their estimates of how many chains they thought it would take based on what they learned each day.

The students had a 30 word review of the "trickiest" words to spell on our class word wall. After reviewing words each day, there was a final spelling test for 2011. I'm happy to say that everyone did very well, proving that when Ms. R says that the students need to spell these key words "for the rest of your life", that the children are paying attention!

The class continued the unit on snow this week. We read several books together and learned a lot of cool facts. We reviewed the difference between "fact" and "opinion" and the students wrote some facts about snow and their opinion of snow. This writing along with their cut paper snowflakes (scientifically correct of course - based on a hexagon) are now on display in the hall outside of our classroom. One of the snow facts we talked about was why snow crystals are based on the six-sided hexagon. The reason is the shape of the water molecule (two hydrogen atoms attached to an oxygen molecule). As a comparison, the students "grew" crystals out of the mineral borax. After dissolving borax powder in hot water, each child put a bent pipe cleaner in the liquid and left it overnight. By the next day, large borax crystals had formed on the pipe cleaner and on the sides of the styrofoam cup. The students then looked at the crystals with a magnifying glass and discovered that borax crystals are cubes.

The class was invited to participate in a "Spelling Bee" this week. The students of grades 3, 4, 5 and 6 had a chance to continue to spell a given word as long as they spelled the word correctly.

The children learned about the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. They helped to make the traditional dish of potato latkes by peeling, grating and frying potatoes in oil, then eating them with sour cream and applesauce. The students also learned how to play the traditional game of "dreidel" (a game using a spinning top).

The students learned about the Christian holiday of Christmas. They also learned how to make a Christmas treat that was a tradition in my family when I was growing up...chocolate fudge! Here is the recipe:

Easy Chocolate Fudge

300g package of chocolate chips

1 can ( 300 ml) sweetened condensed milk

1 and 1/4 cups of icing sugar

2-3 tablespoons of coloured sprinkles (optional)

* In the microwave or in a small saucepan over low heat, combine and melt the chips and condensed milk. When completely melted, sift in the icing sugar (to remove any lumps) and mix thoroughly. Pour into an 8 X 8 inch pan lined with wax paper. Press the sprinkles over the surface, if using. Cool in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Remove the fudge and peel off the wax paper. Cut into small squares and serve.

We finished off the last school day of 2011 by having a party eating popcorn, chocolate snowman, class-made chocolate fudge, oranges, banana bread and even candy "rocks"!

Books read aloud this week:

The Latke That Couldn't Stop Screaming by Lemony Snicket

The Flying Latke by Arthur Yorinks

Christmas Look-Alikes by Joan Steiner

I Have a Little Dreidel by Moxie Baum

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss (plus the animated version on DVD)

Pop Up Christmas Alphabet by Robert Sabuda

Merry Christmas Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish

Update from Ms. R

The students have worked very hard on their songs and performances for our winter concert on Tuesday, December 20. Please drop off your child at our classroom no later than 6:45 PM.

There will be a school Bake Sale on December 20 in the afternoon and during intermission at the concert.

Important Dates:

December 20 - Winter Concert - 7:00 to 8:00 PM (drop off your child at 6:45 PM)

December 23 - Last day of classes for 2011

December 24 to January 8 - Winter Holidays

January 9 - First day of classes for 2012

News for December 16

News for December 16

This week the students spent a lot of time preparing for their performance at the school's Winter Concert on the evening of December 20th. Learning the lyrics to the songs and the dance moves takes a lot of time and practice to get it just right.

The students have finally finished their "good copies" of their opinion writing comparing the book "The Iron Man" and the movie "The Iron Giant". There is now a display of the writing on the bulletin board in our hallway, decorated with aluminum foil "iron men".

The class has started a unit looking at snow. The children learned about "Snowflake Bentley" the first person to photograph snowflakes over 100 years ago. The students learned the science behind the formation of the ice crystals in snowflakes. The class then learned how to make hexagonal-shaped snowflakes, which are more scientifically correct that the usual ones people make that are based on an octagon.

In the computer lab, the students visited a site to cut virtual snowflakes:

http://www.funny-games.biz/external/create-a-snowflake.html

In math, each day the children reviewed an aspect of measurement (mass and capacity, linear measurement, time and money) and on Friday, both grades wrote the unit test.

The grade three students continued to work on their paper chain project and have almost made it to the gym. The chain is now attached to the hall ceiling and travels from our class (almost) to the gym. This project shows a real-life application of non-standard unit measurement and estimation and how to use new information to update estimations.
The students also had an opportunity to try making a "house of cards" (this is mentioned in the Firework song the students learned for the concert). They also had a chance to watch the original 1969 cartoon, "Frosty the Snowman" based on the song from the 1950's.

Books read aloud this week:

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

The Story of Snow by Mark Cassino

The Secret Life of a Snowflake by Kenneth Libbrecht

Update from Ms. R

Only two weeks to go until the Winter Holidays...

The homework for this week is to teach an adult learner how to make an "iron man" out of aluminum foil and then write a reflection on the experience. The students are also asked to learn the lyrics for the two songs the class will be performing at the concert on Tuesday, December 20 (7:00 -8:00 PM). The sheets for these activities were sent home with your child on Thursday.

News for December 8

News for December 8

It was a short, 4-day week, but the students in Room 5 were busy as usual.

There was a lot of music in the class this week. First, the students are learning the two songs for our concert performance on the evening of December 20. Second, the students wrote a song (more on this below). The children have copies of the lyrics and are asked to practice learning the songs. Here are two links to help the sing-a-long process:

"What A Wonderful World"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3yCcXgbKrE

"Firework"

(This link features Ms. Fletcher on guitar.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdcmucgdvfU&feature=youtu.be

The students finished watching the DVD story of The Iron Giant. Each child used a Venn diagram to compare the book and the movie, looking at what parts of each story were the same and which parts were different. The class learned about opinion writing and began to write their opinions of the book and movie, remembering to use information from the stories to back up their opinions. The students also learned how to create his/her own "iron" man figure, using aluminum foil.

In math, the students learned about capacity (the amount an object can hold) and the standard units of litre (L) and millilitre (mL) as well as mass (the amount of "stuff" in an object) and the standard units of kilogram (kg) and gram (g). They all used the reference points of a litre bottle of water and a one kilogram bag of sugar to help them understand these standard units better.

The class went to see a play by The Dufflebag Theatre called "The Three Muskateers". In this very funny retelling of the classic story, many students from our school were actors in the play. Our own Haleigh was asked to play the role of "Constance"!

Ms. Fletcher helped the students work together to write a song this week. They used the tune of a song familiar to our class called "All Star" and work in partners to write new lyrics to show what they know about rocks and minerals. The song was a great success and a video of the students performing this song can be found at the end of this posting. The class said "good bye" to Ms. Fletcher this week as she will be at a different school next month. We all wish her the best of luck in her role as a teacher!

The students continued to learn more about the brain. We read a book that talked about what it means to be a genius and during our computer time, the children visited a website that has games that challenges you to use your brain differently:

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/braingames/braingames.htm

Books read aloud this week:

Train Your Brain To Be A Genius by John Woodward

Zero by Kathryn Otoshi

Room 5 - Trip to the ROM

Here are some photos of our trip to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM):

Update from Ms. R

Our trip to the ROM was a success! The children all had a great time. Thanks so much to Carson's mom Sherry and to Doron's mom Rodica for volunteering on the trip.

The homework for this week is to complete the review worksheets on money and cursive writing.

Important Dates:

December 9 - Federation Day - no classes on this day

December 20 (evening) - Winter Concert - Our class will be performing. Please note: Due to our school's increase in student population, this will be our ONLY school concert performance this year.

December 24 to January 8 - Winter Holidays

News for December 2

News for December 2

This week the big news was our trip to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). We spent all day there and we did a lot of different things. First, our class met Ian, our ROM teacher, and he took us to a special classroom were the students got to see, touch and do experiments with different rocks and minerals. Next, the class went to the Rocks and Minerals gallery and saw a piece of a meteorite! There were lots of samples of different rocks and gemstones too. Then, we went downstairs to eat lunch. Then, the children went upstairs to see the David Hockney exhibit where he made pictures on iPads and iPhones. Finally, the class went to the Dinosaur exhibit where we saw lots and lots of dinosaurs!

In class, we continued the unit on Canadian money with a focus on counting money and making change. The students also learned the game "Roll to $1.00".

The students finally finished their posters explaining their jellybean art. They included the letters that they wrote to Kina and Greg and photos of the art. These posters are now on display in the stairwell by our classroom.

In preparation for Multicultural Night, the students began working on a puzzle of flags of the world. The students also created lots of flags to decorate the gym. In order to learn to identify flags, the class visited two sites to help them learn:

http://www.guesstheflag.com/

http://www.chevroncars.com/games/world-flags/

We began our new unit on Canada by learning the names and positions on the map of the 10 provinces and 3 territories. We also learned a song to help remember the order of the provinces from east to west.

We finished the read aloud book, The Iron Man, this week. This book was adapted into an animated movie and the class began watching the DVD in order to write a comparison/opinion essay on both the book and the movie.