Sunday, September 29, 2013

Parent/Caregiver Workshop

On Thursday, October 3 (7-8:30 pm), Dr. Karyn Gordon (http://dkleadership.org ) a parenting and relationship expert will be giving a workshop for Davisville parents on developing empathy and gratitude in children.

To register go to:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/October3_workshop

If you have any questions, please contact Wendy Chong at:
wendy-chong@rogers.com

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is complete the social studies worksheet about traditions and celebrations observed at home. The math worksheet is a review of the strategies of "groups of ten" as applied to our unit on place value. This homework is due on Friday, October 4th.

On the afternoon of October 9th, our class is going to a cartoon drawing workshop at the Northern District Library, north of Yonge and Eglinton. We need 2 parent volunteers for this trip. If you would like to join us, please send me an email or write a note in your child's agenda.

Important Dates:

October 4 - Pink Day (Anti-bullying Awareness)
October 9 (pm) - Walking trip to Northern Public Library for a workshop with an artist-in-residence.
October 11 - P. A. Day (no classes)
October 14 - Thanksgiving Monday (no classes)
October 17 - Multicultural Night

News for September 27








News for September 27

This week the students worked on creating "time capsule" books. The class discussed time capsules and how they are a way to capture a moment in time, to be looked back on sometime in the future. Each student traced his/her hand (and foot!), measured and recorded his/her height and weight and wrote down their wishes. After taping in a small treasure (a shiny Canadian quarter), each child created a front cover and had his/her photo taken. These little books will be packed away and not opened until the last week of school (almost 10 months from now).

Our class pets arrived this week! We now have two fish in our aquarium. A red and white fantail goldfish (named Alpha) and a black moor goldfish (named Beta) plus two mystery snails (named George I and George II). The students were so excited! The children then took the information from a class writing planner and wrote their first non-fiction stories of the school year. This time the students wrote a rough copy, did a self-edit, did an edit with the teacher and finally wrote a good copy incorporating the changes and corrections to their writing. The class also created pictures of the aquarium. At the end of the week, the children each created a poster that included the good copy of their writing and the aquarium art they created. These projects are now on display in the hallway outside of our classroom.

In math, the class began the unit on place value by discovering that the same two digits, arranged differently have very different values. For example, "19" is very different from "91". Because the value of the digit depends on the place that you put it! The students did activities to help them understand the basics of the design of our number system and ended the week by reviewing the use of  place value blocks.

We started making our pillows this week! The first step was to create one side of the pillow by tie dying fabric. Each child twisted, folded and rolled the fabric to make places where the dye couldn't get  in and held the twists and turns in place with elastics and clothes pins. After putting the fabric in the bucket with blue dye powder, water, salt (to help keep the dye from washing out) and hot water (as a catalyst to speed up the time it takes to dye the fabric), and waiting 30 minutes, finally Ms. R put on rubber gloves and took out the hot, blue bundles of fabric.

The class began a unit on the basics of making comics/cartoons. After learning about how comics are different from other types of storytelling, mostly because the story is told in "speech bubbles". The children had a chance to write their own speech bubbles for a picture of a dog in a classroom. The results were very funny when the children shared aloud what they thought the dog was thinking.

The children had a chance to read a play about the Three Little Pigs. This is a Reader's Theatre activity where the students learn about the text features of a script and practice their reading fluency by reading the script several times, by reading altogether then by reading the different character parts.

Books read aloud this week:

Fish Out of Water by Helen Palmer
Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni
Swimmy by Leo Lionni
Bugs by the Numbers by

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Update from Ms. R


On Friday, our school had our annual Terry Fox Run. Everyone was out to show support for Terry Fox's dream, to raise money to find a cure for cancer. The class counted up the money the students donated in Room 5 and it added up to $57.45. Way to go Room 5!

This week, we were sad to say good bye to the nine grade 3 students in our class but we were happy to welcome nine new grade 2 students! Our class is now a grade 2 class.

The homework for this week is to complete the practice worksheet of addition and subtraction facts. The new grade 2 students are to complete the "All About Me" worksheet for our class book. The other students completed this worksheet at the beginning of school. This homework is due on Friday, September 27.

Important Dates:

September 26 - Photo Day
October 4 - Pink Day (anti-bullying)
October 11- P. A. Day - no classes on this day
October 14 - Thanksgiving Day holiday.
October 17 - Multicultural Night

News for September 20







News for September 20

This week the students continued to learn the daily and weekly classroom routines.

The class worked with the weekly Word Wall Words to learn how to spell them. They chanted, clapped and stomped their ways through all the letters. Then, on Friday, we had a spelling test. Now the weekly words are on the class Word Wall and the students are expected to spell these words correctly in all written work.

The class learned a game called "Making Words" where the students move around paper letters to make all different kinds of words. This helps students learn the rhyming and spelling patterns of word families.

In math, the children continued to talk about math strategies. We've been focusing on making 10, double facts and doubles plus one. The class also reviewed the four steps to properly answer a word problem (pictures, number sentence, word sentence and of course, the correct answer). Finally by the end of the week, students were using the groups of 10 strategy to count large number of objects (cubes and the number of happy faces drawn in two minutes). They then transferred this knowledge of groups of ten to the understanding of place value (tens and ones).

The class learned a song based on a poem by Shel Silverstein called "Boa Constrictor". The actions and words had the students laughing and giggling at this funny song.

In writing, the students completed books based on the penny stories they wrote last week. Each finished book had the story, an illustration in coloured pen, a cover design with rubbings of pennies and finally included in a small cardboard frame was the penny that inspired the story. The children had a chance to begin writing a fictions story based on animals, places and objects of their choosing.

The children finished their paintings by adding outlines and details with black Sharpie marker. As a continuation of our discussion of line as an element of design, the black outline of a figure really makes the drawing "pop". After, each child wrote an art reflection about the materials they used, what they thought was best about his/her painting and a sentence describing the picture's story,

And finally...the class had a chance to play charades, the classic drama practice game. They all had a great time reading the sentence on the card and acting out the sentence for the other students to guess.

Before our Terry Fox Run on Friday, the class watched a movie about Terry Fox to learn a little bit more about him. Did you know that Terry Fox received a medal called The Order of Canada to recognize his brave "Marathon of Hope" to raise money to help find a cure for cancer?

The class is now decorated with some name art. The students learned the steps to create a border and each child created a large version of his/her name, surrounded by decorated borders using white chalk on black paper.

In library, the class watched a video version of Robert Munsch's Blackberry Subway Jam with songs (different from the book we read which had no songs!) Here is the link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VaHxXpmFyE

Books read aloud this week:

Terry Fox by Bryan Pezzi
Jonathan Cleaned Up or Blackberry Subway Jam by Robert Munsch
Arnie the Doughnut by Laurie Keller
The Pencil by Allan Ahlberg
The Little Red Pen by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to complete the "Reading Survey" sent home with your child on Friday. This homework is due on Friday, September 20th.

Please note that the times for school entry and dismissal have changed this year. School begins at 8:45 AM (entry) and ends at 3:20 PM (dismissal).

Important Dates:

September 19 - Welcome Back BBQ and Curriculum Night: 5:30-7:30 (forms sent home on Friday)
September 20 - Terry Fox Run (am)
September 26 - Photo Day

News for September 13








News for September 13

We started off the week, learning our "word wall words" for the week. Each week the children will work to learn how to spell these words using a variety of activities. Words are chosen from grade-appropriate word lists, high-frequency irregular words, common homophones, vocabulary words and words identified from the children's writing as commonly misspelled. On Fridays, we have a traditional style spelling test as a send off for the words to become a part of our class Word Wall. The children are expected to spell these words correctly in all their writing.

The students reviewed the parts of the writing process but focussed on planning their writing. All good writers think and plan their writing before starting to write the sentences. The class learned how to create a "bubble planner" in their journals. This type of writing planner is completed with key words to establish who is in the story, what is the setting, what is the problem and how is it solved. The class then started to write a fiction story about a penny (since we are doing a class project on the Canadian penny). The stories were finished this week and each student had a chance to edit his/her work with either Ms. Katie or myself.

The class made a lot of progress on our penny project. We are trying to collect pennies from 1920 to 2012. The students learned that the 1936 penny is the most valuable and is worth $400, 000! They also found out that Canada made over 35 billion pennies. That amount weighs the same as 2 Titanic ships and laid out end-to-end would circle the equator 16 times!

The children learned about one of the elements of design: the line. They experimented with different types of lines and on big paper, they each drew one long continuous line, first with pencil then with a black Sharpie marker. Then they coloured in the spaces with crayons. After finishing their work, each child reflected on their artwork and wrote about how it was made and what the finished art reminded them of. This artwork is now on display in the hall outside of our classroom.

Another class project was continued this week. We are creating a huge "100 chart" on the wall in the stairwell by our class, to help us count the days of school. Each day the star student designs the number of the day, slips the paper into a CD case and the case is put up on the wall in order. So far, we have 9 pieces of number art to represent 9 days of school so far (178 days to go...)

In math, the students worked on reviewing addition math strategies. Using the knowledge of the different ways to make 10 (e.g., 6+4=10 and 4+6=10), double facts (7+7=14) and double plus one facts (7+8 can be thought of as 7+7+1=15) helps students increase their addition speed. The children also played some games with 100 charts and playing cards to help them practice their addition facts.

Because one of the ways to write the date in my class is to write 12IX13 (12th of September 2013), we explored Roman Numerals. The class learned that before the Arabic number system (0 to 9), humans used the Roman Numeral number system. In this system, I = 1, V = 5 and X = 10. The children learned the Roman Numerals I to XII (or 1 to 12) to correspond to the twelve months of the year. The main reason humans no longer use the Roman Numeral system is there is no zero in that system!

The students worked with a partner to add up the single digits in our current (Arabic) number system. On big sheets of paper and using counters, they added 0+1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9. It wasn't easy to do but every group managed to figure out the correct answer!

The class also had a chance to do some origami. Origami is a great way to improve eye-hand coordination, to follow sequential directions and review geometric concepts. The students folded two puppet head models that could "talk".

Books read aloud this week:

What's Missing by Tilman Reitzle
The Garden of Abdul Gasazi by Chris Van Allsburg
Count on Canada by Charles Pachter
On a Beam of Light (A story about Albert Einstein) by Jennifer Berne

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

How pennies are made...

Here is a video from the National Film Board about how pennies are made:

http://www.nfb.ca/playlists/how-do-they/viewing/how_do_they_make_money

Here is a site for the children to explore:

www.pbskids.org

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Update from Ms. R

Welcome to Room 5! We had a great first week together.

We also welcome our student teacher, Katie Riggs. Ms. Katie is a student teacher at the Institute of Child Study at OISE/University of Toronto. She will be in our class until the first week of December.

Here are a few notes about homework:

There are two types of homework in Room 5, daily and weekly homework. For daily homework, the students are expected to read for 20 minutes or more each day. For weekly homework, the students will be assigned homework every Friday. Students are instructed to put the papers in their agendas. Your child is to complete this work and return it to school on or before the following Friday. For example, the homework this week is to complete a math worksheet reviewing concepts on the 100 chart and to complete the sheet, "All About Me", answering questions about themselves. This homework is due on Friday, September 13.

News for September 6






News for September 6

It was only a four day week but the students were very busy!

In language, the students reviewed how to print the uppercase and lowercase letters. They discussed the elements of a perfect sentence. They practiced writing perfect sentences by completing the sentence starters, "Over the summer I..." and "Over the summer I didn't..." The children wrote a short fiction story based on the read aloud book Doctor De Soto.

The class began the daily routine after lunch, of listening and discussing a book read aloud to the class, followed by independent reading time. On Fridays, the class has a partner reading time when they share and discuss books.

The students learned more about each other by playing a game called "All About You", where they each asked questions about the other students.

In math, the students reviewed the 100 chart and different skip-counting patterns. The children played a game to determine the number of different ways to add numbers to make 10 and wrote the appropriate addition number sentences (there are 11 ways). Then they worked with their partners to figure out the different ways to use subtraction to created correct number sentences starting with 10. It is important for children to deeply understand these facts because it helps with the understanding of addition and subtraction of larger numbers. Because "10" is a magic number....

The class made a birthday poster, so that we all know when everyone's birthday is. In our class, birthdays in July and August are celebrated in June.

The students began our first class project. We are working on collecting pennies from 1920 (when the first penny of the current size was made) to 2012, the last year that the penny was made. We learned about why there are maple leaves on one side and Queen Elizabeth on the other. They used magnifying glasses to read the year on pennies. The children did a little experiment on how to make the pennies shiny again. The dark dirty stuff is copper oxide and is dissolved in vinegar. (Putting the pennies in water did not clean them at all.)

The children created a whole alphabet to be used as display letters for our bulletin board displays. After drawing a big, fat letter using most of a standard sheet of paper, they coloured in the letters with crayons and then cut them out.

The class was happy to welcome back our school librarian, Ms. Mantello this week during our visit to the library. Our library period is on Day 2, which currently is on a Tuesday. Next week, the children will be able to take out library books.

The students reviewed different ways to draw a line. Then they drew one long, continuous line on large paper with black Sharpie marker and coloured in the spaces with wax crayon.

Books read aloud this week:

The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers
The Book That Eats People by John Perry
Doctor De Soto by William Steig
Do Not Open This Book! by Michaela Muntean

Monday, September 2, 2013

Welcome back from Ms. R



Welcome to Planet 5 News!

Every week I will be writing about what's happening in Room 5. Please take the time to read the blog each week. It is an excellent way to start a conversation with your child about what he/she is learning at school.