The Room 5 Interview Show!

This week our guest was Ms. Konjhodzic. She is the music teacher at our school.

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a book report on a favourite book and answer some math questions on money using the worksheet sent home with each student on Friday. This homework is due on Friday, February 28th.

Please Note: 

The cold and wet weather outside means that often socks and mittens get wet! Please tuck a fresh pair of socks and mittens in your child's backpack so that they can be dry and comfortable for the whole day. Recall that the students are outside for 15 minutes of recess in the morning and afternoon and 30 minutes at lunchtime (60 minutes in total).

News for February 21

News for February 21

This four-day week saw the students doing everything from learning to knit to making cash registers to writing a story while pretending to be a penguin!

The students heard the story Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers once again. Then we talked about what the silent penguin might have been thinking in the story. The students then learned how to fold an origami penguin to help them pretend to be a penguin so they could each write a story from the viewpoint of the penguin.

The children took the vocabulary words they chose previously and worked in their table groups to create posters to display these words and their definitions. 

The students learned how to write a basic book report. After hearing the story What? Cried Granny by Kate Lum, each student wrote about their favourite parts in the book, how the pictures helped to tell the story and how the author could have improved the story.

This week, Vishnu and Ivy interviewed Ms. Konjhodzic. She is our music teacher. The video can be found in a separate posting.

In math, the class continued to talk about money. The focus is now on adding money amounts and solving math word problems. We are creating a "Room 5 Store"! The students brainstormed what we would need to create a store and on Friday, the children began to work with a partner to make their own cash registers.

In guided reading, the children read about the important of country flags in our world and how they are designed to reflect something about the countries they represent.

The children learning about knitting and how knitted fabric is made. To help them learn how to knit, the students each made a knitting "corker" and began to knit using the wool they dyed with Kool-aid last month.

Books read aloud this week:

My Father's Dragon (chapter book - finished) by Ruth Stiles Gannett

The Flag Book by Letta Potter

What? Cried Granny by Kate Lum

The First Drawing by Mordecai Gerstein

The Room 5 Interview Show!

Our guest this week was Ms. Mantello. She is the librarian at our school.

Update from Ms. R

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe and happy Family Day holiday on Monday!

Please remember that Thursday, February 20 from 6:00-8:00 it's our school's first Family Fitness Night. I hope to see you there!

The homework for this week is to complete the language worksheet on Canadian symbols.There is also a math worksheet with practice questions from our math unit on money. This homework is due on Friday, February 21st.

News for February 14

News for February 14

On Monday this week the class celebrated the 100th day of school! The children did a lot of activities to help them understand the amount of 100. They counted and strung 100 "Froot Loop" cereal pieces. They drew and stamped 100 times on a 100 chart. They played with bags of 100 marbles, football cards, straws and cubes. They worked in small groups to link together 100 paper clips and measure how long the chain was. Of course we also finished creating our 100 pieces of CD art in the stairwell by our school.

In math, we reviewed skip counting by 2, 5, 10 and 25. This strategy helps students to count coins. The children learned and practiced counting coins and figuring out which coins can make different given amounts of money.

In writing, the students each read a typed version of their fairy tale stories. Then, the stories were read by another student and that student wrote a letter to the author of the story telling him/her the best part of the story, how they could improve the story and asked a question about the story. Finally, the author got a chance to read the letter and write a response to the question. These letters are now part of a class book.

The class learned about Flag Day. In Canada, Flag Day is on February 15 each year. It celebrates the day that the Canadian flag first was flown in Ottawa, on February 15, 1965. That makes the flag 49 years old. The students learned how to make a Canadian flag, focusing on the symmetry of the centre maple leaf. These flags are now on display in the hall outside of our classroom decorating our Winter Olympics display.

The students learned the story of St. Valentine. (Did you know it is thought he lived 1,700 years ago?) They created heart flower Valentines, wrote Valentine letters to their families, folded origami hearts and decorated paper bags for their Valentine "mailboxes". Of course, on Friday the students exchanged Valentine cards and enjoyed treats at our Valentine's Day party.

The class went to the gym to see a performance celebrating Black History Month. The musicians and dancers entertained the students with drumming and dancing and even taught the students a dance.

Books read aloud this week:

My Father's Dragon (chapter book - continued) by Ruth Stiles Gannett
The 100 Shirts of Mr. Lee by Nancy Rawlinson

Here is a video showing some of the crazy shirts of Mr. Lee! (From a 100 days project done with my
class five years ago in 2009.)

 

The Room 5 Interview Show!

This week our guest was Ms. Francesca. She is the gym teacher at our school.

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a story (fiction or non-fiction) in the homework writing journal that has something to do with money. Some ideas were a fiction story about a lost coin or a non-fiction story about Chinese money. There is also a math worksheet with activities related to our new math unit on Canadian money. This homework is due on Friday, February 14th.

Next Friday is Valentine's Day! For the students that wish to give cards to other students in the class, each student wrote the names of the students in the class in his or her agenda.

News for February 7

News for February 7

Well, we ended the week with Friday being day #99 in our count of the number of days of school so far...with only 88 days left to go!

In math, we continued to practise reading and writing analog and digital time. The students began to talk about elapsed time or the time it takes to go from the beginning of an event to the end of that event. The students also worked together to create small analog clocks to represent all the transition times listed on our daily schedule.

At the end of the week, the class reviewed the features of the six coins in Canadian currency and how to use what they know about skip counting to help them count the value of groups of coins.

Each student finally finished making his or her art journal by counting out 15 sheets of paper and folding and sewing the paper to the journal cover. Then, the first art lesson to do in the journal was how to draw the Olympic rings since the 22nd Olympic Winter games in Sochi, Russia began on Friday.

During a whole group choral reading activity , the children read aloud (then sang) the lyrics to the 1967 Centennial song "A Place To Stand" that celebrates living in Ontario.

The students each wrote a reflection on their weaving projects. They used the helper words, first, next, then and finally to guide them in remembering the steps in creating their woven bookmarks. They also wrote their opinions on what they thought was the easiest and the hardest part about making the bookmarks. This writing and the fabulous bookmarks are now on display on the bulletin board in the hall outside of our classroom.

The students learned how to use a spinning wheel and how it is very important to twist fibres to make them stronger. Using pieces of sheep's wool the children discovered how weak the fleece is at first but then how strong it was after it was twisted. Other examples of the "power of the twist" are sewing thread, rope and steel cables. Later in the week, each student worked with a partner to twist some yarn that they dyed to create a twisted cord friendship bracelet.

We talked about the 50th anniversary of The Beatles first performing on American TV and how important not only this event was but also the importance of The Beatles contribution of over 200 songs to popular music. When we were in the library, the class saw the actual clip from 1964.

As a link to a book we read and our last science unit, the students went outside and each made a snowball and put it in a ziplock bag. We put these snowballs in the freezer and plan to take them out in June to remember winter!

Books read aloud this week:

Groundhog Day by Michelle Becker
Sadie and the Snowman by Allen Morgan
The Beatles Were Fab (and They Were Funny) by Kathleen Krull
Penguins: Unusual Birds by John St. Denis
My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett (chapter book)

The Room 5 Interview Show!

This week our guest was Ms. Schneider. She is the vice-principal at our school.

 

Room 5 Flat Movie!

Finally, here are the photos and videos from our class project based on the book Flat Stanley:

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to complete the math worksheet on time concepts and the Canada map and facts activity sheet. The students each brought home the analog clocks they made to help them practice reading and showing time. Remember to sing "The Provinces of Canada" song to help you remember the names of the provinces and territories!

Important Dates:

February  7 - Family Skate Night - 6-8 PM at Ramsden Park (across from the Rosedale Subway)
February 12 - Report Cards go home
February 13 (evening) - Selected parent/teacher interviews
February 17 - Family Day Holiday
February 20 - Family Fitness Night
March 7  - no classes on this day
March 10 to 14 - March Break Holiday

News for January 31

News for January 31

The class began the week with a new math unit on time. We reviewed how humans divide up time into blocks called seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years. The class counted how many jumping jacks they could do in one minute. Sometimes a minutes feels like a long time! We also talked about analog and digital clocks. In grade two the children are expected to read and write time to the quarter hour. That means they should be able to read, write and understand analog and digital clocks on the hour (e.g., 2:00), quarter hour (e.g., 2:15), half hour (e.g., 2:30) and three quarters past the hour (e.g., 2:45). The students did a lot of practicing and even made their own analog clocks with the short hour hand and long minute hand to help them practice.

During our library time, the class had a chance to watch a video based on the pattern we had in our calendar this month to show the power of doubling. The students saw that, starting with 1 and doubling that number every day, after 26 days, we got to 33, 554, 432 (32 million, five hundred fifty-four thousand, four hundred thirty-two)! It was a great way to introduce how to read place value to 8 places. Here is the video:



Students finished up their fairy tale stories, making sure to edit his or her writing to catch mistakes before "Old Red " (Ms. R's red pen) sees any mistakes. These stories will be typed and made into books. Also half of the students had a chance to talk or conference with Ms. R to talk about their math and writing and talk about what goals he or she has to improve. The other half of the class will conference with Ms. R next week.

The children learned how to weave fabric using a cardboard loom and the wool we dyed last week. When finished, the fabric will be big enough to make woven bookmarks. Many children are on their second piece of weaving!

We continued our social studies unit by learning some facts about Canada. Did you know that Canada is 147 years old and became a country on July 1, 1867? The students also learned how to find the 13 provinces and territories on a map of Canada as well as the locations of Toronto and Canada's capital city, Ottawa.

The second episode of The Room 5 Interview Show was filmed this week. Jordan and Morgan interviewed Ms. Schneider, the vice-principal at our school. Did you know that she has two children and a dog in her family? Find out more by watching our show! The video can be found in a separate posting.

The class learned more about Chinese New Year (this year is the year of the horse). We cooked a feast of rice with vegetables and ate fortune cookies, shrimp crackers and other goodies. According to the Chinese Zodiac, students born in 2006 were born in the year of the dog but if the birthday is in January, they were born in the year of the rooster.

Finally, on Friday, the class watched a DVD about school bus safety and after lunch they got to actually go on a bus and practice going out the emergency exit.

Books read aloud this week:

The Fairy Tale Princess: Seven Classic Stories From the Enchanted Forest by Su Blackwell
* (We read The Princess and the Pea and The Twelve Dancing Princesses)

The Four Musicians (The Bremen Town Musicians) by The Brothers Grimm

Lighting Our World - A Year of Celebrations by Catherine Rondira

The Gingerbread Man retold by Jim Aylesworth

Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers