Important Dates:
March 1 - Math Test - division (and multiplication)
March 7 - Trip to see the play, "The Never-Ending Story"
March 29 - Math Night (more information to follow)
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Update from Ms. R
The homework for this week is to write a story in the homework writing journal (minimum 2 pages). The class brainstormed some possible topics: the speech contest, carnival day, aliens or hockey. Of course, the students can choose any topic they wish, these are just suggestions. This homework is due on Friday, March 2. The children were also reminded to practice their multiplication facts, which helps with division, for the test on Thursday, March 1.
News for February 24
News for February 24
This week, each student presented his/her speech to our class. The children were then asked questions about their topic, given comments on what they did well and finally, what they could do next time to make the speech even better. The children voted for the best speeches for grade 3 and grade 4. In grade 3, the winners were Dylan (Lego) and Doron (Building a Treehouse). In grade 4, the winners were Dalton (I want to be Prime Minister) and Natasha (Being Nervous). Natasha and Dalton then went on to present their speeches at the junior grade Speech Contest on Friday. They both did an excellent job delivering their speeches!
The students studied the ancient Sanskrit poem, "The Salutation to the Dawn". It is a poem that reminds us to appreciate each and every day of our lives. Carpe diem!
The students began a class project where they are creating posters with words from the poem, "The Salutation to the Dawn" using different types of lettering to convey the meaning of the words.
Everyday this week, the students looked at palindrome word puzzles (words, phrases and sentences that read the same forwards and backwards). For example, "Mr. Owl ate my metal worm" and "Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog".
In music, the children watched the movie, "The Never-Ending Story" in preparation for the field trip to see the theatre version on March 7th.
In math, the students worked to increase their understanding of division concepts. The class practiced how to use multiplication facts to help them with division facts. For example, each student worked on creating fact families. They worked in partners to solve the Marshmallow Jar Mystery. They knew that the jar held 316 marshmallows and that it took 12 scoops to fill the jar. Their task was to figure out how many marshmallows were in each scoop.
In our computer time this week, the students visited the games sites from the carnival day. Here is the link to one of the popular sites:
Books read aloud this week:
Frindle by Andrew Clements (continuation of the chapter book started last week)
Persephone and the Seasons (Greek legend)
The Room 5 Interview Show!
This week, Brandon and Natasha interviewed Mr. Lee.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Update from Ms. R
Report cards, Valentine's Day, Flag Day, parent/teacher interviews and a recognition assembly...the last four days were very busy!
This week, Jacob and Amelie interviewed Ms. Bailey on The Room 5 Interview Show. This interview can be seen at the end of the "News for February 16" posting.
The homework for this week is to practice and memorize student speeches. The children were also given a math worksheet. Students will begin giving their speeches on Tuesday and Wednesday and the final contest day is on Friday, February 24th.
Thank you to all the parents who came in for an interview this week. I would like to wish all the families of Room 5 a safe and happy Family Day!
News for February 16
News for February 16
The students spent a lot of time this week working on their speeches. From planning, to writing a rough draft, to editing, to writing the "good copy" on index cards the students all tried to write the best speech that they could. Finally, the students worked on the delivery of their speeches, how to use tone of voice, hand gestures and humour to get and keep, the attention of the audience.
The students reviewed how to create effective posters and used this information to create posters for the "Speech Arts 2012" contest. These posters will be put up to advertise this event all over the school.
In guided reading, the students began the unit on Myths, Legends and Fables by reading and analyzing the native legend, "How Summer Came to Canada". This is a legend from the tradition of the Micmac First Nations (eastern Canada).
In math the students began the unit on division. Using the understanding that division is the opposite of multiplication, the class used what they know about multiplication to help them with division.
The children welcomed Ms. Denton to our class for two days this week. Our class is part of an Ontario Government initiative where teachers do collaborative research to identify strategies in math and literacy to move students to the provincial standards and beyond.
The grade 4 students went to see a presentation from Officier Marcie, our school's Toronto Police Community Officer. She spoke to the students about internet safety.
On Tuesday, our class celebrated Valentine's Day by learning how to fold a paper origami heart and sharing treats. The grade 3 students used what they know about division and the idea of a "fair share" to evenly divide up the Valentine treats for all the students in the class.
In computers, the children visited sites to help them with division:
The class said "good bye" to our student teacher Ms. Tan this week. We wish her all the best in her teaching career!
Books read aloud this week:
How Summer Came to Canada retold by William Toye
Frindle by Andrew Clements (chapter book - to be continued next week)
The Room 5 Interview Show!This week, Ms. Bailey was interviewed by Amelie and Jacob.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Update from Ms. R
This week Mr. Karacostas was interviewed by Anna and Dominic. This interview can be found at the end of the February 10th posting.
The homework for this week is to create a fictional country and write a story about it, complete with a national flag. This homework is to be completed in the homework writing journal.
Please be reminded that parent/teacher interviews are to be held on the evening on Thursday, February 16 and the morning of February 17 (forms were sent home on Thursday of this week.) There is no school on Friday, February 17 and on Monday, February 20th (Family Day).
News for February 10
News for February 10The BIG NEWS this week is that the guys who sent the "Lego Man" into space have accepted our invitation to come to our school! The date still has to be determined but the students were so excited that these creative young men saw their video and have decided to visit us.
The class finished their science projects on stability and worked hard to communicate what they learned on a poster. These are now on display in the hall outside of our classroom.
The students started to write their speeches this week. After learning the basics on how to write a speech they began by brainstorming ideas then worked on how to write a speech that would be interesting to their audience. We reviewed how to write a haiku poem and I challenged the students to write 100 haiku poems for the 100th day of school and, as you can see from the photos, they managed to do it!
In our guided reading groups, the children learned about how the names of the days of the week are based on the names of Roman gods, but the names may be of French or German origin. They also learned that the names of the planets in our solar system are also based on the names of Roman gods. For example, Tuesday is named after the Mars the god of war (in French, Mardi) but the Germanic equivalent was the god Tui, hence "Tuesday".
In math, the class reviewed the multiplication facts and how to properly, and completely answer word problems. The students wrote a unit test on Friday.
On Friday, it was the 100th day of school. The students did a lot of activities based on 100. They arranged 100 items (everything from marbles to football cards) into words and arrays. They used a timer for 100 seconds (or one minute and 40 seconds) and did a variety of physical activities (for example, how many jumping jacks can you do in 100 seconds?). They counted out and strung on string 100 fruit loops cereal pieces.
The students learned about the history of the Canadian flag. Did you know that the first flag was sewn by the 20 year-old daughter of a government worker on her home sewing machine? Did you know that the maple leaf was designed so that, even when the flag waves in the wind, you can still tell it's a maple leaf? After that discussion, I challenged the students to work together to create a HUGE Canadian flag. They drew and painted a large flag that is now on display in the stairwell by our classroom.
The students learned about the history of the Canadian flag. Did you know that the first flag was sewn by the 20 year-old daughter of a government worker on her home sewing machine? Did you know that the maple leaf was designed so that, even when the flag waves in the wind, you can still tell it's a maple leaf? After that discussion, I challenged the students to work together to create a HUGE Canadian flag. They drew and painted a large flag that is now on display in the stairwell by our classroom.Here is a video of the day our flag was first flown in Canada, on February 15, 1965:
As our lovely amaryllis flower begins to fade, the children had an opportunity to look at the parts of a flower more closely with magnifying glasses and a microscope. The most startling discovery was that the surface of the petals had a sparkly layer under the surface!
The class learned about the life of the great Martin Luther King, Jr. After reading a biography of his life, the students had a chance to listen to a portion of his famous "I have a dream" speech. Here is the link:
In computer class this week the class practiced their math facts and patterning using the following sites:
The Honeybee Man by Lela Nargi
The Hershey's Multiplication Book by Jerry Pallotta
The Story of Our Flag by Ann-Maureen Owens
O Canada- An Illustrated Anthem by Roxanna Bikadoroff
Martin Luther King, Jr. by Barbara M. Linde
The 100 Shirts of Mr. Lee by Nancy Rawlinson
The Room 5 Interview Show!
This week Anna and Dominic interviewed Mr. Karacostas.
This week Anna and Dominic interviewed Mr. Karacostas.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Invitation to the creators of Lego Man in Space
Our class has sent a video to Mathew Ho and Asad Mohammed, the creators of "Lego Man in Space", to invite them to be interviewed on The Room 5 Interview Show. Here is the video:
Update from Ms. R
The homework for this week is to decide on the topic for the speeches the children will begin to write next week. Also, the students made flash cards to practice the 21 (out of 100) "tricky multiplication facts" and they are to practice these facts for the test next Friday.
Important Dates:
February 10 - The 100th Day of School and multiplication math test
February 13 - Report Cards go home
February 14 - Valentine's Day
February 15 - Canada's Flag Day
February 16 (evening) and February 17 (morning) - Parent/Teacher Interviews
February 24 - Speech Contest
News for February 3
News for February 3
This week our class made a video to invite Mathew Ho and Asad Mohammed to be interviewed on our Room 5 Interview Show. These young men sent a Lego man into space and our class has been reading about them in the newspaper and watching them being interviewed on TV. This video can be seen in a separate posting.
In science, our student teacher Ms. Tan led the class through an exploration of strong and stable structures using straws and masking tape. The students worked in pairs to understand what makes a structure strong and stable. They each wrote a rough draft about what they learned and this information will be used to create posters next week. Students also took on the extension activity, The Kleenex Box Challenge. The challenge was to create the tallest, stable structure possible using 18 Kleenex boxes. The tallest so far is 161 centimetres!
In math the students began the unit on multiplication. The students learned that they can used their knowledge of skip-counting to help them (multiplication as repeated addition) but also learned about how arrays (objects arranged in equal horizontal and vertical rows) can help them too (multiplicative thinking). The students created their own multiplication charts (to 10x10). They also looked at the 100 multiplication facts and after eliminating the "easy" ones (like x1 and x10) and repeated facts (that is, the answer, or product of 3x5 is the same as 5x3), they realized that there are only 21 out of 100 "tricky" facts to learn. The students also finished their 3D geometry sculptures and took them home on Friday. A popular sculpture to make was the circle of tetrahedrons that revolves around itself called a "torus ring". A video of how this works can be found at the beginning of this posting.
The students have been learning about Japanese poems called "haiku". They practiced writing Haiku poems and wrote one based on the Chinese brush paintings they created last week. Each child made a poster with his/her painting and a copy of the poem. These are now on display in the hall outside our classroom.
The students learned a bit about speeches to help get ready for our school's speech contest on February 24th. The class will start writing their speeches next week.
All week during guided reading time, I met with every student to discuss their writing and to establish writing goals for this term to help make them better writers.
In computers, the students used what they learned in science to build stable bridges. Here is the link:
The class also found time to watch a DVD on Planets to help answer all their questions about our universe.
Books read aloud this week:
Hey Little Ant by Phillip and Hannah Hoose
Guyku - Haiku for boys by Bob Raczka
No One Saw - Ordinary things through the eyes of an artist by Bob Raczka
Groundhog Day by Michelle Aki Becker
Canadian Kids Speak From the Heart by Heather Dawn (editor)
The Room 5 Interview Show!
This week Hari and Basma interviewed Sharon Mitchell.
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