News for December 14

I apologize. I'm finding it very difficult to post to the blog during school hours. I will try my best to post content when I have time.

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is for students to teach the multiplication game they learned this week to an adult. They are also to write a reflection on teaching the lesson. The students are also to complete the attached multiplication table. This homework is due on Friday, December 14th.

Note to Parents:

Due to the job action between the teacher's union and the school board, postings on this blog are only allowed during school hours. I will try my best to post photos and news during school hours but the postings may, by necessity, be much less detailed than usual.

December 6

News for December 6

This four-day week had the students do everything from appearing on our TV news to making snowballs out of paper plates!

This week we started each day with the star student giving the daily quiz, for which he/she wrote the questions. We will continue to do this until all children have had the chance to be in charge of the daily quiz.

The class practiced what they know about homophones and synonyms and played a class-wide game to review the concepts.

The students continued to collect socks for charity. Each day a group would count the number of socks collected and plan and rehearse their "ad" to remind the school about our sock-raiser on our TV news. At the end of the week the class had collected 111 pairs of socks!

In math, the class continued the unit on multiplication. They learned the strategies for multiplying by x 0 (the product is always zero),  x 1, x 2 (just like addition double facts) and x 5 (like skip-counting by 5's) and by  x 10 (the digits shift one place value to the left and the ones digit is always zero). Then they learned that if they eliminate the "easy" facts from the multiplication table, there are only 21 tricky facts to learn. The students then tried on their own to fill in his/her own multiplication table (up to the ten times table). To practice learning their multiplication facts, the students learned a multiplication game.

The students finished their Lego City and talked about how people in the city get out to the country. Then they drew these roads on their maps and created a legend on the map to show what the symbols mean.

The children finished their comics and created good copies. These were then cut and put into plastic sheet holders. The comics are now on display on the bulletin board in our hallway.

In math, the students used their circle folding skills to create approximate spheres using paper plates and bobby pins. This model creates a 14-faced geometric figure called a cubeoctohedron (14 faces, 24 edges and 12 vertices). These are now decorating the hallway outside of our classroom. They also used their knowledge of snowflakes being based on the shape of a hexagon, to create paper snowflakes.

At the end of the week, the students started an experiment to grow borax crystals (since it's too warm in the classroom to grow ice crystals!)

In computers, the children created virtual snowflakes at the site:

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

Books read aloud this week:

The Art of the Snowflake by Kenneth Libbrecht
Tales of a Gambling Grandma by Dalyal Kaur Khalsa
Dear Deer - A Book of Homophones by Gene Barretta

Learning American Sign Language With Room 5 - Episode 13

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to complete two worksheets. The first is a worksheet on comparing urban and rural communities using a Venn diagram. The second is a math worksheet on the basic understanding of multiplication.

Our class is having a "Sock-Raiser" to collect socks for people in Toronto who need them. Shelters are in need of clean, dry socks of all types and sizes. Our goal is to collect one pair of socks from each student in the school, which would be 440 pairs of socks!

Important Dates:

December 7 - P. A. Day - no classes on this day
December 14 - Last day of the "Sock-Raiser"
December 21 - Last day of classes for 2012
January 7 - First day of classes for 2013

News for November 30

You Are Stardust - dioramas



News for November 30

The students worked hard to complete their Lego stories. These stories, based on the Lego buildings they created for our Lego City, will be typed and compiled into a class book for our classroom library. They also began to plan and write their personal comic strips.

In guided reading, the students examined the features of different kinds of poems by reading a few different ones. This is in preparation for our poetry unit.

The class finished their dioramas based on the book You Are Stardust. They drew and coloured the paper pieces based on their designs and glued them into place. Then they each wrote and art reflection on the project. The children reviewed the steps in creating the dioramas and made a video explaining the process. The video was sent to the author and illustrator to share the amazing work of the class. This video can be seen above.

In math, the students began the unit on multiplication. They thought about things that come in equal groups (for example, eggs come in groups of 12). They learned about arrays and how these are arrangements of objects in rows and columns. They played the game of Circles and Stars which is an introduction to the multiplicative concept of groups of same numbers of objects.

The students set up Lego City complete with roads and intersections. They began making maps of the city paying close attention to the N (always at the top of the map), S, E, W directions and the names of the streets.

Through read alouds and class discussions, the students have begun to look at the nature of snow and snowflakes both the art and science of these natural wonders.

Books read aloud this week:

365 Penguins by Jean-Luc Fromental (plus our advent calendar based on this book as we count down the days to our Winter Holidays.)
Cowboy Dreams by Dayal Kaur Khalsa
Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Snowflakes in Photographs by W. A. Bentley
The Story of Snow by Mark Cassino

Learning American Sign Language With Room 5 - Episode 12

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a story in the homework writing journal (fiction or non-fiction) about the three scratch-n-sniff stickers on the next blank page. This homework is due on Friday, November 30th.

News for November 23

News for November 23

The students worked intensely on finishing their folded circle paper sculptures. There were lots of different ways to put tetrahedrons together: face-to-face, vertex-to-vertex and edge-to-edge. Then the children wrote a reflection on their projects by thinking about what they did well and what they could do better next time. The students had photos taken of them holding their structures. Finally, they created posters showcasing their projects and these are now on display in the classroom.

After reading the book, The Paper Dolls, the students learned how to accordion-fold strips of paper and cut their own paper dolls. Then the class went to visit their reading buddies in Room 101 and showed them how to create paper dolls.

The class began to plan and create a "Lego City". After brainstorming all the different kinds of buildings found in a city, the children each chose a building to make. Then the students began to plan and write a fiction story with the buildings they made as the settings for their stories.

In guided reading, the children learned more about the features of cartoons and comics to help them with a project they will start next week.

In math, the class finished up the geometry unit by reviewing what they learned. After reading the book, "The Honeybee Man", the students got to look at a piece of real honeycomb, that is made of  thousands of  hexagonal prisms.Then they had a chance to taste the honeycomb! On Friday, the children wrote the unit test.

As a visual art connection to the book, "You Are Stardust",( that we read two weeks ago), the children made wooden cube frames to make dioramas like those in the book.

On Friday, the class attended an anti-bullying assembly.

Books read aloud this week:

The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson
The Honeybee Man by Lela Nargi
Hey Little Ant by Phillip and Hannah Hoose
A Million Dots by Andrew Clements

Learning American Sign Language With Room 5 - Episode 11

Update from Ms. R

Thanks so much to all the parents for visiting the classroom this week to talk about the children's work. It was wonderful to see everyone!

The homework for this week is to complete a language sheet (homophones and reading comprehension) and a math sheet (three-dimensional geometry). This homework is due on Friday, November 23.

Note: As the weather gets colder, please ensure that your child has the proper outdoor clothing. Students are outside for over one hour each day. To prevent clothing getting lost, PLEASE LABEL EACH ARTICLE OF CLOTHING WITH YOUR CHILD'S NAME. That helps to make sure items are returned to their owners with a minimum of effort. As well, keeping a pair of "indoor shoes" at school prevents children from having to wear their boots inside all day.

News for November 15

News for November 15

This week was short but as usual, the students packed in a lot of learning!

In math, the students learned how to use Venn diagrams to sort different geometric figures. They practiced their skills of estimating to help them understand amounts without actually having to count things. The children reviewed the attributes (faces, edges and vertices) and names of three dimensional (3D) figures. They created 3D prisms and pyramids using "nets" preprinted on paper by cutting them out and taping them together. The students also learned how to make a variety of 3D figures by folding paper circles.

The class reviewed basic editing skills and then edited a story I wrote about the class. They had to find all the mistakes. There were capital letters missing as well as, periods, exclamation marks and questions marks. Before the students started editing, they tried to read the story and realized it was very difficult to read. We don't want to live in a world with out capitals and periods! The children also learning the spelling game "Making Words".

Every student had the opportunity to talk to the class about his/her research project. Now the students know about their research plus information about 21 other human and animal made structures found all over the world.

The students learned about the holiday of Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights holiday. The class watched a video explaining the holiday:

In social studies, the students continued learning about communities. They read a story about how the environment changes as one drives from the city out into the country. The class had a opportunity to view two DVD's about rural and urban communities. Each student also drew a map of their desk group complete with labels and NSEW directions.

Our 1000 paper cranes project is very close to being finished! The students have all worked very hard to fold origami cranes and to work together to organize and count the cranes made so far.

And finally, on Monday, the class also had time to visit the great artwork by the grade 7 and 8 students in Spectrum.

Books read aloud this week:

Great Estimations by Bruce Goldstone
Divali by Saviour Pirotta
You Are Stardust by Elin Kelsey

Learning American Sign Language With Room 5 - Episode 10

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a story, of the student's choice, in the homework writing journal. Some story ideas from the class were to write a story about Remembrance Day or our class trip on the TTC bus (fiction or non-fiction). A math worksheet reviewing two-dimensional geometry (attributes of polygons) was also sent home with the children on Friday. Because of the P.A. Day next Friday, this homework is due on Thursday, November 15th.

Important Dates:

November 13 - Progress Reports go home
November 15 (evening) and November 16 (am) - Parent-Teacher Interviews (no classes on Nov. 16th)
December 7 - P. A. Day - no classes on this day
December 21 - Last day of classes for 2012
December 22 - January 6 - Winter holidays
January 7 - First day of classes for 2013

News for November 9

News for November 9

This week was very busy in Room 5! We even had time to plant an amarylis bulb, to watch how it grows.

In math, we continued the geometry unit by looking at attributes of two-dimensional shapes. The students learned about the three types of angles. A right angles is "where horizontal line meets a vertical line" (as found in squares and rectangles). An acute angle is smaller than a right angle and an obtuse angle is larger than a right angle. Regular shapes have all the sides of the same length. Congruent figures are the same size and the same shape. The students learned about ancient Chinese puzzles called tangrams. In each tangram set there are 7 shapes and each shape is called a tan. The children practiced solving tangram puzzles, designed their own tangrams and even had a tangram-solving competition! (The top four students were: Angela, Nandana, Etienne and Marina.)

In guided reading, the groups continued to learn about urban and rural communities. This week they read and talked about housing and getting around these two different kind of communities. The class also learned the direction words north, south, east and west.

In computers, the students explored geometry games at: http://www.kidsmathgamesonline.com/ .

Our sock puppet joke videos, a literacy/oral communication project, was finished this week. Here is the video:



The children worked hard to finish their research projects on animal and man-made structures. They wrote all the facts as sentences and wrote them on the posters. The posters they created are now on display in the west stairwell outside of our classroom. Next week, the students will present what they learned to the class.

The students had a chance to have a private ride on a TTC bus! Fritz the bus driver answered all the students' questions and told the class what it's like to be a bus driver. He also brought a lot of TTC magnets, pins and paper models for all the students. It was a lot of fun! Thanks to school parent Wendy Chong-Engell for organizing this trip for us.

The grades 3 to 8 classes also attended an assembly on internet safety this week.

As part of our Remembrance Day discussions, the students reviewed how to make paper cranes and how to make perfect squares from standard rectangle paper. The class performed the song they learned, by singing and by signing in ASL, at the Remembrance Day assembly on Friday. Our principal, Mrs. Farrelly, came by our class to tell the children what a wonderful job they did.

Books read aloud this week:

Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown (finished)
Three Pigs, One Wolf and Seven Magic Shapes by Grace Maccarone
Sadako (and the thousand paper cranes) by Eleanor Coerr

Learning American Sign Language with Room 5 - Episode 9

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a book review on a book of the student's choice and to complete a math (geometry) activity. This homework was sent home on Friday and is due on Friday, November 9th.

Important Dates:

November 8 - TTC bus trip around the neighbourhood
November 11 - Remembrance Day Assembly - our class will perform a song
November 13 - Progress reports go home
November 15 (evening) and November 16 (am) - Parent/Teacher interviews

There was a lice check this week for all the students in the school. Please be aware that there are several active cases of lice in the school. Please check your child's head regularly. For more information please go to: http://www.headlice.org/

HOW TO FOLD A PAPER CRANE

News for November 2

News for November 2

The end of October saw the class celebrating Halloween and welcoming the month of November. We are now officially at 43 days of school with 144 days of school left to go. (We like to count things in Room 5!)
For Halloween, we read fiction and non-fiction books aloud. The children learned how to make caramel apples. Then they used what they have learned about procedural writing to write instructions (basically, write a recipe) on how to make this Halloween treat. The annual Halloween parade happened in the afternoon and the students' costumes were wonderful! If you look closely at the photo above, there is a rare picture of Ms. R (dressed as Domo)!

In writing, the students learned about how to write comics. For example, how to write a clear "speech bubble". They used this writing style to create comics to tell jokes. These comics are now part of a class book. Also this week, we received a letter back from Gillian O'Reilly, the editor of Canadian Children's Book News, thanking our class for the letters they wrote about the book "Counting On Fall". She wrote that the information the students gave her, was extremely helpful.

The students made little films using their sock puppets. Working with a partner, they created opening and closing credits for their joke shows. This video will be posted on Monday as one student was away on Friday.

In math, the children finished the numeracy unit by reviewing 2- and 3-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping and then writing a final unit test. The students began the unit on geometry by reviewing the basic two-dimensional shapes. They discovered that the most difficult shape to find in the classroom is the pentagon and the easiest shape to find is the rectangle.

In computers, the students had a chance to play some Halloween games:
http://www.thekidzpage.com/halloween_games/index.html

The class began to discuss Remembrance Day and why it is observed in Canada. The students learned how to sing (and sign in ASL) a song that the class will be performing at the assembly next week. The children learned how to fold paper peace cranes using what they know about geometric shapes to help them remember the folding steps.

The class visited their kindergarten reading buddies this week in Room 101. They helped their friends do some writing and make some bookmarks.

Books read aloud this week:

Halloween by Molly Aloian
Happy Haunting, Amelia Bedelia! by Herman Parish
The Tailypo by  Joann Gladstone
The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns
Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown


Learning ASL with Room 5 - Episode 8

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a story in the homework writing journal about hockey, since the whole school went to the University of Toronto vs. Ryerson hockey game on Thursday. The story could be non-fiction (e.g., a report on our field trip) or fiction (e.g., the magic hockey stick). Also, a worksheet on two-digit addition and subtraction is to be completed. This homework is due on Friday, November 2nd.

The progress reports will go home on November 13th. Parent Interviews are on Thursday, November 15 in the afternoon and evening and Friday, November 16th in the morning.

News for October 26

News for October 26

It was a very busy week at school with a special event on each day. On Monday, the students went to an assembly to hear Paul Rosen talk about perseverance. Mr. Rosen was a hockey player who, due  to an accident, lost part of his right leg. He went on to be the goalie for Canada's paraolympic sledge hockey team that won a gold medal. On Tuesday, the students and staff duct-taped Ms. Farrelly to the wall of the gym as a fundraiser for cancer research. On Wednesday, it was picture day at school and our class and each student had his/her photo taken. On Thursday, the whole school went for the entire school day, to Varsity arena to see the University of Toronto hockey team play against the team from Ryerson University. On Friday, we had a recognition assembly celebrating our monthly focus on responsibility.

In class the students finished their "How To Make A Pillow" posters with their written instructions and photos. These are now on display on the bulletin board in the hall outside of our classroom. The children also practiced their editing skills on pre-written passages to help them with the editing of their own work. Later in the week, the students created sock puppets and wrote a "character sketch" about the creature they made.

In math the students continued to practice their mental math strategies and place value blocks strategies for solving two-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping. Later in the week, they learned the standard pencil and paper algorithm and how it relates to place value.

Our integrated research project (science/structures and social studies/maps) got underway with the students learning how to create an effective poster and how to use stencil letters to create a clear title.Later in the week the students began their research by learning how to use encyclopedias. 

In the computer lab, the students visited the site, 

http://www.math-play.com/soccer-math-adding-two-digit-whole-numbers/adding-two-digit-numbers.html to practice math skills.

Books read aloud this week:

Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe (chapter book - now finished)

What? Cried Granny by Kate Lum

Learning ASL with Room 5 - Episode 7

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is for each student to interview his/her mother and/or father to learn more about them. Each child received an interview sheet on which to record the answers. A math sheet with word problems was also sent home on Friday. This homework is due on Friday, October 26th.

Important dates:

October 22 - Paul Rosen - Canadian Para-Olympic Hockey Player visits our school for an assembly
October 23 - Stick It To The Principal - a event to raise money for cancer research
October 24 - Photo Day
October 25 - Hockey Day - permission forms were sent home on Thursday
November 13 - Progress Reports are sent home
November 15 (evening) and November 16 (morning) - Parent-Teacher interviews

News for October 19

News for October 19

News for October 19

The class started the week by learning about Fearless Felix Baumgartner, the man from Austria who broke several world records when he jumped from 38 km above the earth, last Sunday. The students wrote reports on this news event and then wrote his or her opinion about trying to do something like that! Here are the links to the videos that we watched:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh1gChG3C2o&feature=BFa&list=FLrf7MEeyaVUPvn3w3vxTC7w

and  http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/49409914/#49409914

The children each finished their pillows this week by hand sewing the opening shut using a needle and thread. After learning about the key words for writing instructions, (first, next, then and finally), the students began writing instructions on how to make a pillow. The children each had his/her photo taken holding the photo for the cover of their instruction books.

We reviewed the parts of speech and used this knowledge to play "Mad Libs". This is a story writing game where you use what you know about parts of speech to choose words to complete the story. Since you do not read the story before you play, this exercise ends up creating some very silly stories!

In math, the students reviewed subtraction strategies. The easiest strategy is to use what you know about addition to help you with subtraction. By reframing the question, it's easier to solve. For example, 12 - 8 =? becomes "what do I have to add to 8, to get 12? The class also learned a clever substraction game where 3 people play to guess the value of the card on your forehead. The students also learned how to generate "fact families" or related math facts. For example, if you know 7+8=15,
you also know 8+7=15, 15-8=7 and 15-7=8.

In computers, the students practiced their subtraction strategies online. Here is the site they used:

http://www.fun4thebrain.com/subtraction.html

The topic of safety and rules for the playscape was discussed this week. Did you know there was a small old sign on the fence that has the playscape rules on it? Most of us did not! The sign is so small, so high up and covered in vines! We decided to write a letter to Ms. Farrelly about getting a new sign made. We wrote about what the problem was, what we could do to fix it and how a new sign will help the students, teachers and parents. Ms. Farrelly even came up  to our class to get the envelope with the letter in it! She promised to write us back to let us know if we can get a new sign.

Our class visited with our Reading Buddies in Room 101 on Friday. This week, the kindergarten children drew a picture and their grade 3 buddy wrote down the story that went with the picture. These pictures and stories will be put in a binder and given to Room 101 as a "Reading Buddies Story Book".

The QSP fundraiser is over for another year. The school had an assembly in the gym to celebrate the hard work of the students and to recognize the efforts of all the students to raise money for our school. Emma in our class won the prize for the most sales! Luckily our class also won frozen treats for the whole class.

In science the students did several experiments to learn the best way to make a strong and stable bridge. Using plastic cups and paper, they constructed bridges that would hold a heavy load. We talked about human-made and animal -made structures. The students chose which structure they would like to know more about, and that became the topic for our first independent research project of the year. (This is a school-based project, to be completed at school.)

Books read aloud this week:

Safari - A Photicular Book by Dan Kainen
Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe (chapter book)

Learning American Sign Language with Room 5 - Episode 6

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a story in the homework writing journal about objects in the classroom coming alive after the students and teacher leave for the day. (This idea was inspired by our read aloud book, "The Little Red Pen" where the teacher's marking pen and other items come alive and have an adventure.) The second piece of homework is a two-sided worksheet that reviews the addition strategies we discussed this week. This homework is due on Friday, October 19th.

News for October 12

News for this (short) week:

The students finished writing and illustrating the biography of the Canadian author/illustrator, Dayal Kaur Khalsa. Each student presented a researched fact on her life, an opinion essay on his/her favourite book written by Dayal Kaur Khalsa and an oil pastel artwork of a scene from one of her books. All this information is now in a binder and is officially the second class community book of Room 5!

A friend of mine from the Canadian Children's Book Centre, Gillian O'Reilly, asked our class to read and review the new math picture book, Counting on Fall by Lizann Flatt. We read the book together and talked about it. We then talked about opinion and how everyone may feel differently about something but the important part is to communicate why. Then the students wrote letters to Gillian expressing their opinions about the book's story and illustrations. These letters will be sent to Gillian and hopefully, the class will get a letter back from her.

In our guided reading groups this week, all students read about the structures made by humans and animals and the types of materials humans use to make strong and stable structures.

The children worked in pairs to participate in the Room 5 Structure Challenge! Using only 15 sheets of paper and masking tape they created structures that had to be around 30 cm high and hold as many books as possible. Students had to apply what they know to create a successful structure. (Remember the power of the triangle!) Everyone did a great job but the winners were Marina and Sauyma. Their structure held 31 books, beating the previous class record of 25 books!

In math, the students finished up our unit on word problems by completing a very tricky word problem with more than one answer. Working with a partner, they had "two brains and four hands" to find all the solutions. The children presented their answers on large paper and these final solutions are now on display on the bulletin board outside our classroom. Later in the week, the class reviewed different addition strategies. Using double facts (e.g., 4+4=8) and 10-facts can help speed up answering addition questions.

In computers, the students explored the Lego website at http://www.lego.com/ .

The students worked very hard to learn how to spell and use the tricky homophones there/their/they're. One strategy is to remember the sentence, "They're with their friends over there."

The class showed an interest in the tallest building in the world so they watched a video of the top ten tallest buildings in the world:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tx_jYEV34k

Books read aloud this week:

Counting on Fall by Lizann Flatt
Amazing Buildings by Kate Hayden
From Mud Huts to Skyscrapers - An architecture book for children by Christine Paxmann
The Little Red Pen by Janet Stevens

Learning American Sign Language With Room 5 - Episode 5