News for June 21

News for June 21

This week, Ms. Farrelly visited our classroom to thank the children for their letters asking permission to chew gum in the classroom for half a day, when we do research into the history and manufacture of gum. After an in-depth discussion, Ms. Farrelly asked the class to promise to put the gum in the garbage after chewing it and to let her know what they learned after the lesson.

The main project this week was the completion of the students' sock creature movies. The children worked in groups to create the opening title and credits, then they performed their plays in front of the class. These videos can be found in a previous posting (June 20th). 

The students learned how to create their own word search puzzles using blank grids and only the words from our class word wall. These puzzles were then solved the next day by other students. It was a great way to review the word wall words (and make sure they were all spelled correctly)! The class learned about binary code, both the history of it and how it's used with computers. Did you know that binary code is simply the use of 0's and 1's and it's linked to the on/off pulse of electricity? They got a copy of the 8-bit binary code for the letters of the English alphabet and used this code to write out their names in binary code. Since we were talking about how computers are powered by electricity and batteries, the class observed a "lemon battery" that we made to power a digital clock. The class worked together to write a simple computer program based on the idea of the game "20 questions". The game guesses which student in the class you are thinking of by asking a series of yes/no questions.

The class wrote "good bye" speech bubbles for the sock creatures they made. These and photos of the creatures, are making up the last display for the year on the bulletin board in the hall outside of our classroom.

Each student designed and made a cover for the art journal they plan to create. Using sharpie marker and watercolour pencils, the children experimented with line and colour patterns to fill the paper with different designs.

The children had a chance to review the projects from the last 10 months in their portfolios. Each child chose two activities that he/she thought they did well and shared with the class why they chose those projects. The portfolios went home with the students on Thursday.

On Friday, we participated in the school-wide Play Day. The children competed in teams doing different activities. It was a lot of fun!

Books read aloud this week:

Picasso and the Girl With the Ponytail by Laurence Anholt

The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real by Margery Williams (short chapter book)