Update from Ms. R

It was a short but busy week in Room 5! From writing poems to folding paper geometric models, from celebrating Chinese New Year to creating gear trains using bottle caps, the children learned a lot (and had a lot of fun too!)

Thank you to Ms. Johnson, the music/drama/dance teacher for our class. She was the third guest on "The Room 5 Interview Show" and was interviewed by Dalton and Oleseh. This episode can be found at the end of this week's news posting.

The homework for this week is "The Paper Bag Story Challenge". Our class talked about how creativity is about solving problems and the problem in this challenge is to write a story and somehow use the small paper bag (sent home with your child on Thursday) in the presentation of the story. We talked about how the bag can hold things, have stuff drawn, written or glued on it or even be cut up. I know there will be lots of creative ideas to share when these stories are handed in! This homework is due next Friday February 3).

News for January 26

News for January 26

It was only a four-day week but there was a lot going on in Room 5.

For the third episode of our class TV show, Dalton and Oleseh interviewed Ms. Johnson, the music/drama/dance teacher for our class. The video of this interview can be found at the end of this posting.

On Monday, we celebrated Chinese New Year by cooking rice and vegetables, drinking green tea and using chopsticks. In the afternoon, the children learned about Chinese brush painting and painted bamboo and plum blossoms.

The students continued the unit on poetry. This week we focused on how poems often break the rules of proper writing. We learned about "acrostic" poems (where the lines begin with the letters of a chosen word) and the students wrote this type of poem using their names and other chosen words. We read a book about a type of poetry that generates words using only the letters in a chosen word for example, "friends...fred finds ed" (for once, no capitals on proper nouns is allowed!) The students also learned about "diamante" poems. These poems are written in the shape of a diamond and use a very specific number and type of word on each line. The class wrote their own diamante poems then went to the computer lab and used a program to help them.

Here is the site to generate your own "diamante poem": http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/diamante/

In math, the children finished up the geometry unit by reviewing the attributes of 3D figures (edges, vertices, faces) and finding different ways to sort them. They learned how to fold paper circles into different 2D shapes and then used the folded circles into 3D tetrahedrons (or triangle based pyramids). Then they used these to create flexible sculptures.

The class also learned more about the doubling pattern that we are making on our calendar. The pattern starts off, 1,2,4,8,16 etc but on Friday we are now at 6-digit numbers. Doubling is very powerful! We read an Indian folktale about how a young woman used this strategy to trick a king. We also watched a video about a story that used this strategy as well. The link to this video can be seen near the end of this posting.

In science, the students began the unit on strong and stable structures by investigating what it means for a structure to be strong and what it means to be stable. The children also learned the basics about how gears work and created gear trains using bottle caps.

The students continue to be fascinated by facts about space so during our computer time they visited a site with games and other information.

Here is the site with astronomy games for children: http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/astronomy.html

In the library photo above, Ms. Mantello, our school librarian and core French teacher is showing the class the nominated books for the Toronto Silver Birch Book Awards.

Video based on the power of doubling numbers, "The Legend of the Chessboard": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3d0Y-JpRRg

Books read aloud this week:

A Grain of Rice by Demi

Lemonade and Other Poems Squeezed From A Single Word by Bob Raczka

Won Ton - A Cat Tale Told in Haiku by Lee Wardlaw

We learned about Canada's first man in space (of course it wasn't a real human, but a Lego man!) Here is the

Lego Man In Space video:

The Room 5 Interview Show!

This week, Ms. Johnson was interviewed by Dalton and Oleseh.

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to interview a parent, in the style of our new weekly podcast, The Room 5 Interview Show. Each student was given a worksheet on which to record the information. Please note, due to the P. A. Day on Friday, January 27th, this homework is due on Thursday, January 26.

Don't forget to watch this week's show. Our school's gym teacher, Mr. Hinrichsen, was interviewed by Arsheia and Joaquin. The video can be found at the end of this week's blog posting.

News for January 20

News for January 20

This week our class produced the second episode of The Room 5 Interview Show. The video can be found at the ending of this posting.

The students worked hare all week preparing for the social studies test on Canada's Provinces, Territories and capital cities. The students learned the main bodies of water in Canada, the five great lakes and the oceans on the west, north and east coastlines of the country. The class learned different types of study strategies including, writing review, quizzing a partner, and creating strategies for remembering (for example, Manitoba begins with "M" and it's capital, Winnipeg begins with and upside down "M" or "W"). It's very difficult to study information that must be memorized but these are skills that students will need throughout their school careers.

In math, the students learned about congruent shapes ("Same size! Same shape!"), prisms and pyramids. They also reviewed what they learned about Chinese tangram puzzles. Tangram puzzles are solved using seven 2D geometric shapes. Recall last week, the class did a round-robin activity where they solved 20 tangram puzzles in 20 minutes! This week, they designed and created their own tangram puzzles and the class solved these in half the time!

The class began to learn about Chinese New Year holiday. They learned about red "lai-see" or lucky envelopes that are used on special occasions to give lucky money to children and unmarried adults. The students used these envelopes (and their knowledge of geometry) to fold and staple holiday lanterns. We also discovered that the shape of the inside space of this lantern is the 3D figure called an octahedron. These lanterns are now decorating the hallway outside our classroom.

The students began a unit on poems and poetry. We talked about rhyming words, why they rhyme and how to create rhymes. One of the best ways to address the rhythm of a poem is to expose children to the words in songs. The class learned about the famous Canadian singer/songwriter, Stompin' Tom Connors, and listened to the lyrics of his song, "The Hockey Song". This song also helped the children to learn more about hockey, the Stanley Cup and one of the most famous Canadian hockey players, Bobby Orr. Here is a video of Stompin' Tom Connors singing "The Hockey Song":

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

During our computer time this week, the students practiced solving tangram puzzles and doing Canada fact quizes. Here are the links:

http://pbskids.org/sagwa/games/tangrams/

http://www.kidscom.com/games/tangram/tangram.html

http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz/canquiz.html

At the end of the week, the students were invited up to Ms. Harte's class to see her students' science projects. Our class talked to the grade 5 and 6 students about their research and took notes (to help them write letters to Ms. Harte's class next week)..

Books read aloud this week:

Ms. Nelson is Missing by Harry D. Gallard

Three Pig, One Wolf and Seven Magic Shapes by Grace Maccarone

Celebrating Chinese New Year by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith

Number 4, Bobby Orr by Mike Leonetti
The Room 5 Interview Show!

This week Joaquin and Arsheia interview our school's gym teacher, Mr. Hinrichsen.

Update from Ms. R

The snow has arrived and parents and students are reminded that all children need to bring an indoor pair of shoes to keep at school. Students MUST wear footwear in school at all times. If shoes are forgotten, then the students are required to wear their boots all day.

Homework for this week:

The homework for this week is to write a story in the homework writing journal entitled, "Shapeland". Students are also reminded to study the names and locations of the Provinces of Canada and it's territories, plus the capital cities. We will be learning how to study for tests in class but children also need to review for a short time everyday. The test will be on Friday, January 20.

Important Dates:

January 20 - Test on the Provinces and Territories of Canada

January 27 - P. A. Day - no classes on this day

February 17 - P. A. Day - no classes on this day

February 20 - Family Day - no classes on this day

March 12-16 - March Break

News for January 13

News for January 13

It was a busy first week of 2012. The big news this week was the arrival of our new student teacher, Ms. Tan. Ms. Tan is a student at the Institute of Child Study at OISE/University of Toronto, the same master's degree program from which I graduated.

The students reviewed the parts of speech and how to identify them in written and oral sentences. The children also did a creative writing exercise where they attempted to write a complete short story in just 10 minutes.

Our Word Wall is full! Before the word cards are taken down, the students each made his/her own personal dictionary. They counted, folded, cut and printed to put all the word wall words into their personal dictionaries.

In math, the class continued the geometry unit by reviewing two-dimensional shapes. They learned the concepts of angles (acute, right and obtuse), congruent figures (same size, same shape) and parallel lines (lines that never cross. The grade 4 students learned how to use a protractor to measure angles and the grade 3 used pattern blocks to investigate relationships between the different two-dimensional shapes. As a group, the children did an activity to prove that adding sides and angles to a shapes eventually leads to a shape with so many sides that mathematicians consider it to have no sides at all (the circle). At the end of the week, the class learned about the Chinese puzzle called the tangram and explored solving tangram puzzles using the 7 tans (puzzle pieces). During a round-robin activity, the children progress from taking a minute to solve a tangram puzzle to less than 30 seconds. At the end of the activity, we did a quick competition to see who was the fastest at solving a tangram puzzle and the winners were Serena (grade 4) and Julia (grade 5).

In computers, the students visited the following math sites:

http://www.mathcats.com/explore/age/calculator.html

http://www.mathcats.com/explore/polygonplayground.html

In Social Studies, the class reviewed the names of the Provinces and Territories of Canada and learned where to locate each on a map. They also learned the names and locations of the capital cities. The students also watched a DVD about Canada, which featured highlights and facts from across the country.

The class used what they know about geometry to begin to create works of art that has two-dimensional shapes.

The class discussed what is an advertisement and what makes a successful commercial. They watched some ads and talked about how humour and music make people remember an ad and how that helps sell the product. Here is the ad link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6iHCFiSqIw

We started our new class project this week. Room 5 now has an interview show. The students decided who they would like to interview and brainstormed questions that they wanted to ask the show's guests. This week, Doron and Nausheen interviewed Ms. Tan. The video can be found at the end of this posting.

Books read aloud this week:

The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns

The Planets by Darrow Schecter

Grandfather Tang's Story by Ann Tompert

THE ROOM 5 INTERVIEW SHOW!

This week's guest was our new student teacher, Ms. Tan.