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