Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a story in the homework writing journal. The story topic is the choice of the student and can be a fiction or non-fiction. The math homework worksheet focuses on Canadian money. This homework is due on Friday, March 1st.

Note to parents:

In our school, there are currently many active cases of pediculosis (head lice). Please check your child regularly for nits (eggs) and live insects. Head lice can spread quickly among young children and active cases need to be treated quickly and thoroughly. For more information, please see the Toronto Public Health website:

http://www.toronto.ca/health/pdf/head_lice_factsheet.pdf

News for February 22

News for February 22

It was another 4-day week in Room 5, but as usual, the students were very busy!

The children have made a lot of progress on the chapter book writing project. I met with each student to have a short one-to-one writing conference. In this conference, we reviewed the writing process (plan, rough copy, edit and revise) and practiced revising the first sentence of their work to see how to make their good writing even better. The students are each required to write 3 chapters of their story (based on their paintings). The good copy of these stories will be typewritten. The children also used the digital camera to take a photos of their paintings for the front cover of their chapter books.

The class continued to learn one lowercase cursive letter each day. This week the students learned the letters d, g, h and t.

In guided reading, the children began to talk about the features of fairy tales by reading the classic story, The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen. (They also learned the name for a baby swan is a cygnet.)

In math, the students learned about mass and how to measure it using kilograms and grams. Each child had a chance to feel how heavy a one kilogram box of salt felt in their hands as well as a paperclip (with a mass of about one gram). The students reviewed the measurement concepts in the unit, time, money, temperature, capacity and mass. The class wrote the unit test on Friday.

The class began our social studies unit on Pioneers this week. One of our read aloud stories, Mary of Mile 18 illustrated a number of ways people live without modern conveniences. For example, fresh water in winter was obtained by bringing into the house, buckets of snow to melt. The students watched videos about building a pioneer home and about the features of an early pioneer village. The children also learned the song, "This Land" which talks about the hard work pioneers had to do when they first came to this land. Finally, the students had a chance to make a handmade toy. Using a button and some string, they each made a spinning button toy.

The children learned the true story of Christian, a lion that was kept as a pet, but then as it grew, his owners realized that his home was back in Africa. They took him there, but then revisited him a year later. They weren't sure that Christian would remember them, but he did. Here is a video of their reunion:

During our time in the computer lab, the students practiced their money skills by playing games at the following website:

www.practicalmoneyskills.ca/games/

Books read aloud this week:

Mary of Mile 18 by Ann Blades (read over 3 days)
Christian the Lion by Ace Bourke and John Rendall

The Room 5 Interview Show!

This week Harshitha and Layla interviewed Wendi, one of our sign language interpreters.

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to complete the practice EQAO reading response worksheet and the math measurement worksheet (capacity). This homework is due on Friday, February 22nd.

Note to parents:

With the variable weather these days, many children are complaining of wet socks and wet mittens or gloves, after coming in from recess. If possible, please tuck an extra pair of socks and/or mittens in your child's backpack.

News for February 14

News for February 14

This four-day week was full of different celebrations in Room 5. Birthdays, Pancake Day, Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, Black History Month and Flag Day were all celebrated this week.

We began the week by welcoming Diana Braithwaite and Chris Whiteley to our school to teach us about the history of the Underground Railroad through words and songs. The Underground Railroad was actually a network of people in the US and Canada that secretly helped slaves from the southern US escape to Canada. Here is one of their songs:




The students each planned and painted a large detailed artwork, that they will use to inspire his/her next fiction story. The children have begun to start using the details in this painting to plan and write their next writing project, planning and creating chapter books.

The class learned more about Chinese New Year celebrations by learning about the Lantern Festival. The students drank "tea" out of little teacups, tried "lucky" candies and fortune cookies.

The children discussed the Christian holiday of Shrove Tuesday, (also known as Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday and Pancake Tuesday). They worked together to make the pancake batter, flip the pancakes and, of course, eat the pancakes!

For Valentine's Day, the students created a Valentine heart flower card with a loving message for someone special. They also decorated paper bags for students to "mail" each other Valentine cards. Finally, the class learned how to fold paper origami hearts.

The class began learning cursive letters this week. The children will learn the lower case cursive letters.   So far, the children have practiced the letters c and a.

In math, the students continued to practice counting money, making change and solving word problems with money amounts. Later in the week, they began to learn about capacity (how much something can hold) and the units, litre (L) and millilitre (mL).

Students reviewed how to properly answer written questions with sentences. They then used this knowledge to read and respond to a practice EQAO reading response activity.

In guided reading, the students learned about the daily activities of pioneer children.

The class got to visit with their kindergarten reading buddies this week and work with them to make a Valentine's Day craft.

Books read aloud this week:

The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers
Valentine's Day by Elizabeth Guilfoile
The Lantern Festival by Sanmu Tang

The Room 5 Interview Show! 

This week, Abby and David interviewed our school's librarian, Ms. Miller.

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a story in the homework writing journal.The story idea discussed is to write as if you were a Canadian coin and describe its secret life in places like cash registers and coat pockets. The math worksheet is about counting money and making change. This homework is due on Thursday, February 14th.

Note to parents:

On Monday, February 11th, term one report cards will be going home. In the envelope will be a form for parents regarding parent-teacher interviews. At this time of year, interviews are for selected families only. However, if you wish to have an interview, please complete the form and have your child return it as soon as possible. I will send home time/day confirmations for those parents with interviews.

News for February 8

News for February 8

On Friday, the class celebrated the 100 days of school. The students counted and recorded the number of exercises (for example, jumping jacks) that they could do in 100 seconds (or 1 minute and 40 seconds). They drew and stamped 100 images in the squares of a 100's chart. They counted out 100 fruit loop cereal pieces and threaded them on a string. Finally, they arranged groups of 100 things (for example, pennies and straws) into arrays of 100. They also heard the story of "The 100 Shirts of Mr. Lee", a book that tells the true story of the teacher Mr. Lee and how he wore a different crazy shirt to school every day.

In math, we continued the unit on measurement by reviewing the features of Canadian coins. Of we also talked about how the Canadian penny is no longer made and over the next 5 years will eventually be phased out. Did you know there are over 6 billion pennies in Canada? That's over $60 million, just in pennies! The students learned how to count money, how to correctly write money amounts in dollars and cents and how to make change. Students wrote about the history of the penny and why Canada is choosing to not use the penny anymore.

We were very fortunate to have Darryl, a caretaker at our school, lend us a huge Canadian flag for Canadian Flag Day (on February 15th). It measures 1 m and 43 cm by 2 m and 64 cm! It's now on display in the stairwell by our classroom by our country projects.

In writing, the class had a serious discussion about how things change in February regarding their writing. It is now expected that they independently edit their work to correct changes in, for example, punctuation, before handing their work in. The students reviewed what is meant by revising their work (simply put, it means making their good writing even better). The children practiced by making some very boring sentences more interesting.

We finished the read aloud book, Stone Fox, and despite its very sad ending, we managed to discuss how the words in books can be very powerful. The students each wrote a reflection on what they thought about this story with the ending that they won't forget (and made their teacher cry as she read the final chapter).

In guided reading, the small reading groups each learned about the Underground Railroad and how families in the US and Canada helped slaves travel to freedom in Canada.

The class learned about the artist Henri Matisse and how in his later years, he started "drawing with scissors" by making collage art. The students used what they know about the technique of collage to create collages using old book covers. They painted large pieces of cardboard and glued images, letters and shapes cut out from the book covers. These are now on display in our classroom.

The children had a chance to use and read glass thermometers by measuring the temperature of the air in the room, tap water, ice water and hot water. Then the students wrote a reflection about the experiment, writing about what surprised them, what didn't surprise them and suggestions as to what other temperature experiments that they would like to do.

Books read aloud this week:


Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner (chapter book)
Henri Matisse - Drawing With Scissors by Keesia Johnson

Canadian Money by Elizabeth MacLeod

The 100 Shirts of Mr. Lee by Nancy Rawlinson

The children had a chance to learn more about a song they often hear when working on their art. The video of this song was made using 288,000 jelly beans! Here is the video:


The class learned about the history of Groundhog Day (February 2):

The Room 5 Interview Show!  This week Mackenzie and Yamin interviewed Kelly, one of our Sign Language Interpreters.

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to complete the measuring assignment handed out on Friday. It's an activity based on the book Measuring Penny that we read this week. Each student is to choose something and measure it in as many ways as possible (length, width, height, weight, cost, time...use your imagination)! This homework is due on Friday, February 8th.

Important Dates:


February 11 - Term 1 Report Cards go home
February 14 (evening) and February 15 (am) - Interviews for selected families - no classes on this day
February 18 - Family Day - no classes on this day
March 11 to 15 - March Break holiday
March 29 - Good Friday
April 1 - Easter Monday