Sunday, November 24, 2013

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to complete the math worksheet about graphing and for each student to teach an adult how to play the word game "How to turn a hen into a fox". The students are also required to complete a reflection sheet to write about how each student felt about his/her teaching experience. This homework is due on Friday, November 29th.

Please note:

1.  There are active cases of head lice currently in our school. Below please find a lice fact sheet:

http://app06.ottawa.ca/cs/groups/content/@webottawa/documents/pdf/mdaw/mdy5/~edisp/con062989.pdf

2.  Because our school runs on a five day schedule, our LIBRARY DAY is now on the MONDAY of each week.

Important Dates:

Week of November 25 - School-wide dental screening
November 29 - Pajama Day - Please wear your winter P. J.'s!
December  6 - Movie afternoon #2
December  9 - Classes walk to Hodgson for concert rehearsal
December 10 (eve) - Winter Concert @ Hodgson Senior Public School - (students to arrive at 6:30 PM)
December 19 - Last day of school for 2013
December 20 - P. A. Day
December 23 to January 3 - Winter Holidays
January 6, 2014 - First day of school for 2014

News for November 22







News for November 22

This week the students continued to work on their science research posters. Each child has chosen an animal and is now creating a poster to communicate the results of their research. Using information from encyclopedias and library books, the children are learning some very cool facts and writing them down on their research sheets. (Did you know that a whale shark can grow to be 12 metres tall? That's two metres taller than our school!) The children also practiced a drawing technique where the artist breaks down the image into shapes to help draw the picture. Then they used this technique to draw pictures of their research animals and glued them on their posters.

The class continued the unit on poetry by writing poems using information they got from their five senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste). It was fun to write poems about lemons by actually seeing, listening to, feeling, smelling and tasting lemons! The students also began to learn about rhyming words and began to write some rhyming poems.

In math, the children began the unit on graphs and how humans use these information pictures to get information. The class learned the vocabulary words survey, survey question, tally marks, data, graph, key, pictograph and bar graph. The children reviewed how to use and count tally marks. They learned how to read information from pictographs and bar graphs. They also learned how to figure out how many people answered a survey question and how to compare one answer to another. (For example, "There are 16 more people that have a zippered lunch bag than have a velcro lunch bag.")  The students also answer a daily survey question and analyze the resultant bar graph. (Did you know that the favourite snack in our class is potato chips?)

The students ended our social studies unit by reviewing all the work they did and each child wrote a reflection on what they liked to do the best and why.

The class did a couple of new working with words activities this week. They played around with the beginning sounds of the homophones write/right. The students managed to find 22 rhyming words! The children also played the word game "How to turn a hen into a fox" by replacing letters in the words. This helped the children review the vowels and consonants in the alphabet and helped them play with letter sounds.

The class watched a video of the lion from one of our read aloud books. The book Christian the Lion tells the story of a real lion that lived in London, England and was successfully re-introduced into a wildlife park in Kenya. Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5vRPKIS5UM

We also learned about the friendship between a tortoise and a hippo when we read the book, Owen and Mzee: The story of a remarkable friendship. Here is the link to their website:

owenandmzee.com

The children worked in groups to read the scripts for a Reader's Theatre play based on the nursery rhyme "Old Mother Hubbard". The students worked hard to make sure that they faced the audience and read their lines clearly and loudly.

Our class project to create a large 100 chart in the stairwell is now over halfway finished. On Friday, the number "56" was added to the chart.

Books read aloud this week:

Christian the Lion (part 2) by Anthony "Ace" Bourke and John Randall
Owen and Mzee by Craig Hatkoff
The Velveteen Rabbit (chapter book) by Margery WIlliams

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Update from Ms. R

Thank you to all the families for coming by the classroom this week to talk about the wonderful work the children have done so far this year.

The homework for this week is to write a story in the homework writing journal that includes the six colour words we have been studying for our word wall. The words are the primary colours (red, blue and yellow) and the secondary colours (green, orange and purple). The students were also asked to do some preliminary research on the animals they picked for their science projects.

News for November 14



News for November 14

This four-day week the students finished up the math unit on linear measurement by learning about metres and kilometres. The children learned how to measure things that can't easily be measured by using rulers and metre sticks by measuring using a piece of string and then measuring the string. The class used this method to measure the height of the school! We wrote a letter to Pat the chief caretaker last week and asked for his help. He came to our class and told us that he would be happy to help us. The children also estimated how tall the school was. So, he climbed up to the roof and dropped down a line of orange plastic ribbon. Then we measured the ribbon by arranging it in a straight line down the hallway. It measured 10 m and 37 cm ! (Congratulations to Ivy whose estimate of 10 m and 6 cm was the closest.)
The students worked very hard to finish their family trees. They wrote out the names of their parents and their mother's parents (maternal grandparents) and father's parents (paternal grandparents). The students then glued this information along with sentences about their favourite new and old traditions and the reason their parents chose their first names. These finished family trees are now on display in the hallway outside of our classroom.
The students learned about shape poems (also called concrete poems) this week and wrote some original shape poems. 
The children used playdoh to create colour wheels. A colour wheel shows how the primary colours (red, blue and yellow) and secondary colours (green, orange and purple) are related. The students actually made their own secondary colours by mixing together primary colours (for example, blue + yellow = green). The students also learned that mixing all the colours together make brown and mixing white with a colour makes a tint and mixing black with a colour makes a shade.
Each child picked an animal to research for his/her individual science project. The students learned how to use stencils to create titles on their posters.
Finally, on Thursday, each student wrote a letter to his/her parents to thank them for coming to our class for a parent-teacher interviews and pointing out things for them to look at during their visit. 
Books read aloud this week:
Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Suess
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess
Christian the Lion by Anthony (Ace) Bourke and John Rendall

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Remembrance Day

How to fold a paper (peace) crane

Here is a video showing the steps to fold a paper (peace) crane:


Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to complete the math (measurement) and language (poetry) homework sheet. This homework is due on THURSDAY, November 14th.

Important dates:

November 13 - Progress Report Cards are sent home.
November 14 (after school and evening) - Parent/Teacher interviews
November 15 - P. A. Day - No classes - Parent/Teacher interviews (morning)
November 22 - Parent Council's Movie Night
December 20 - P. A. Day
December 23 to January 3 - Winter Holidays
January 6, 2014 - First day of school for 2014

News for November 8








News for November 8

Our Amaryllis plant is growing!  The students are excited about our daily “Amaryllis Update”.  Each day, the Student of the Day gets to measure and chart the growth of our amaryllis plant.  It is now over 3.5 cm tall.  

This week, the students began the unit on linear measurement in math.  The students explored non-standard units of measure, such as measuring with cubes and straws.  Students became skilled at estimating, measuring and recording with non-standard units of measure through measuring their height and the length of their legs, hands and thumbs.  

Towards the end of the week, the students started to learn more about standard units of measure, starting with the  centimetre. The students wondered about the height of our school and if it could be measured. To answer this question, the class wrote a letter to the school’s head caretaker, Pat.  He visited our class on Friday and said he would be happy to help us with this project. The students will work with Pat next week to actually measure the height of the school. 

Over the past week, Room 5 has been busy listening to, talking about and writing poems as part of our poetry unit. Many poems were read aloud to the class and the students even got a chance to listen to a recording of the poet, Michael Rosen reading some of his poems. The children thought carefully about how poets choose words to help the reader create images in his/her mind. The students wrote “acrostic” poems (ones in which the first letter of each line spells out a particular word) including one about their favourite food.  These poems were so descriptive that we got hungry just reading them!

We also talked about trees this week -- actual trees and family trees.  As part of our social studies unit on “Changing Family and Community Traditions”, the students have started to create their own family trees, pulling together some of the  research they have done on their families and their traditions.  

The students talked a lot about Remembrance Day this week. The children learned about the symbols for peace (peace signs, poppies, white doves, paper cranes) and the reason why Canada observes Remembrance Day on November 11th. (The reason is that the end of World War I took effect at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of that year, November 11, 1918.) The children practiced the Remembrance Day song they learned last week. They cut out the large poppies they painted last week and even learned how to fold an origami paper (peace) crane. Each student folded two cranes, one to keep and one to send to the Hiroshima Peace Project in Japan. Some children also got a chance to work with a partner to fold really big paper cranes use large pieces of paper. These painted poppies and large paper cranes will be used to decorate the gym for the Remembrance Day assembly next Monday.

Finally the children wrote 33 words about what peace means to them. The number 33 was picked because 11 + 11+ 11 = 33, using the symbolic number of 11 from the time and date we observe Remembrance Day. The class made a video of all the peace activities we did this week, including each student reading aloud her/his peace message. (This video will be posted in a separate blog posting).

Books read aloud this week:   

Length by Henry Arthur Pluckrose 
A Poke in the I by Paul B. Janeczko and Chris Raschka
The Peace Book by Todd Parr
Sadako (And the Thousand Paper Cranes) by Eleanor Coerr
Where Poppies Grow by Linda Granfield

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a story (fiction or non-fiction) in the homework writing journal. The students can choose to write about anything they wish. Some suggestions from the class were: Halloween, the Grand Canyon or sewing pillows...

Please note:

The cold weather has finally arrived! Please make sure that your child arrives at school dressed to spend time outdoors. The children are outside for 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the afternoon and 30 minutes at lunchtime.

ALL STUDENTS need to have "indoor shoes" to keep at school. Children must have footwear on at all times when they are in school. If students wear boots to school and do not have indoor shoes, they must wear their boots all day.

News for November 1








 
 
News for November 1
 
Halloween week is a busy week at school. Early in the week the students made little spiders. On Wednesday, we carved a "Domo pumpkin" for sale at the Fall Family night. On Thursday, we made caramel apples! First the students unwrapped caramel candies and melted them in a pot with a bit of cream until smooth. Next each student pressed a popsicle stick into an apple. Then the apples were dipped into the caramel. Finally, each child added sprinkles to his/her caramel apple and put it on a non-stick mat to harden. The students participated in our school's annual Halloween Parade around the neighbourhood. It was wonderful to see all the children's costumes. After recess, the students settled in to enjoy their Halloween treats (and watch some Pink Panther cartoons).
The students finished writing, drawing and inking their comic strips. These are now on display in the classroom along with their rough copy to show the process of planning to final good copy.
Our pillow project was finally finished this week. The students stuffed and hand-sewed their pillows and are now using them to make themselves comfortable in their chairs when they sit at their desks. The children then learned about "procedural writing" and how it is used to write instructions on how to do something.
Using the key words, first, next, then, finally, each child wrote about the steps to create a pillow. This project used the full writer's process of planning, rough copy, editing and good copy stages. This writing was turned into a group of "How to make a pillow" books which are now on display in the hallway outside of our classroom.
The children learned how to play a cooperative writing game called "Dice Stories". The students work with partners and take turns rolling a die and writing only that number of words. The stories can get very silly!
In math, the students learned about decreasing or shrinking patterns and how to recognize them and figure out the pattern rule. After reviewing the three types of patterns (repeating, growing (increasing) and shrinking (decreasing), the class completed the final assessment.
Our class planted a flower bulb called an Amaryllis. We are measuring and graphing it's growth over the next several weeks.
On Friday, we started to talk about Remembrance Day and the symbols of peace in our world. The children painted red poppies on large pieces of paper. The class also learned a Remembrance Day song and the American Sign Language signs that go with the words. 
Books read aloud this week:
Scary Poems for Rotten Kids by Sean Ohuigin
Halloween by Molly Aloian
Domo Unplugged by Holly Kowitt
Happy Haunting Amelia Bedelia by Herman Parish
Squirrelly Gray by James Kochalka