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