Monday, March 31, 2014

Our Play About Honesty

The class performed this play, on stage in the gym, for the whole school today, during the morning assembly. The audience loved it! The students worked very hard to get ready for this performance and it showed.
Great work everyone!

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Our 100 Books Party!

Here is a video of all the math activities the students did using our 100 read aloud books. There are also some photos and videos from the party.

***The video will be posted soon!***

Update from Ms. R

THANK YOU to all the families for sending food, helping out and coming by to see the amazing work done by the students at our 100 Books Party! It was a great success! The class estimated that we had over 217 people through our class on Friday morning. Great work everyone!

The homework for this week is to read the non-fiction story about the job of a school principal and answer the reading comprehension questions. The bonus question about writing a letter to our principal, Mrs. Farrelly, is optional. There is also a math worksheet reviewing what the students learned about fractions of a whole object (as opposed to a set of objects). This homework is due on Friday, April 4.

Many parents asked for the recipe for the "Room 5 Fudge" that the students made to serve at our party. Here is the simple, but delicious recipe:

Ingredients:

3 cups chocolate chips (We used a combination of milk and semi-sweet chocolate chips.)
1 can (300 ml) sweetened condensed milk (We used Eagle Brand.)

* Slowly melt and stir the chocolate chips and the sweetened condensed milk together in a saucepan until well combined. Pour into an 8" by 8" pan. (We lined the pan with waxed paper.) Refrigerate overnight or until hardened (about 4 hours). Cut into small squares and serve.

News for March 28








News for March 28

This week the students worked hard to get ready for our class celebration, the 100 Books Party, finished sewing their sock creatures and practised our play about honesty (to be performed next Monday).

The students worked in small groups to create posters to communicate the math ideas we learned last week about the 100 books we've read aloud so far this year. The students commented on the length of the books end-to-end, the height of the books piled on top of one another, the weight of the books, how many books were fiction and non-fiction, how many were soft cover and hard cover, how many books where written by male authors and female authors and finally how many pages we read altogether. This  information is now in a video and can be seen in a separate posting.

The class set up displays of their work on their desks. Each desk had a copy of his/her favourite read aloud book, a book report on that book, the fairy tale book that he/she wrote, the sock creature he/she made with a book about the creature around its neck. They also made over 200 bookmarks (to give to guests as a thank you for coming to our party), made a delicious batch of chocolate fudge and rolled up the classroom carpet (so as not to get it too dirty with spilled snacks.)

The children finished sewing their sock creatures using the bodies they sewed on the sewing machine last week and using needles and thread to sew on arms, tails, mouths and eyes. Then they worked on writing "character profiles" about their sock creatures (name, where they live, what they like to do...). Finally the students wrote little books with this information in it to hang around the necks of their finished sock creatures.

In cursive writing, the students learned the letters, i, u, w and y. That makes 9 letters learned and only 17 more to go...

The class began the unit on fractions by learning the different ways to divide shapes into halves, thirds and quarters. They learned that fractions are equal parts and can be thought of making a "fair share".

Our class is responsible for the school assembly about honesty next Monday morning. The children read through the script on Monday and chose their roles. We figured out costumes and staging, made signs and props and rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed...

In social studies we continued the unit on communities by watching a DVD called What's a Community? The class learned that all communities are the same because people need to have jobs, places to live and food to eat. However, how the people do these things is different from community to community.

Finally, our class welcomed two new pets to our class. They are two African Clawed Frogs and their names are Mr. and Mrs. Pickles. They live in our classroom fish tank with our water snails, George 1 and George 2. Thank you so much to Wendi Gardner for these frogs. (Wendi is a sign language interpreter at our school.)

Books read aloud this week:

Sock Monkey and the Glass Doorknob by Tony Millionaire
Everything's Coming Up Sock Monkeys by Bonnie Connelly
! (Exclamation Mark) by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and tom Lichtenfeld
The Bookshop Dog by Cynthia Rylant
The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore by William Joyce.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

The Room 5 Interview Show!

This week our guest was Pat McCarthy. He is the chief caretaker at our school.


Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is for each student to write a story of the child's choice (fiction or non-fiction) in the homework writing journal. Also, there is a sheet of math work and cursive writing practice. This homework is due on Friday, March 28th.

NOTE TO PARENTS

On Friday, March 28 from 9:00 to 11:30 we are having our annual 100 BOOKS PARTY! Families are invited to come and see the wonderful work of the students in Room 5.

We will be needing lots of food for the party. This is the one time of year that I ask parents to contribute food for an event. There will be over 200 staff and students coming through our classroom that day. We need lots of snacks! Suitable savory items are potato chips, corn chips, crackers and pretzels. Suitable baked goods are mini-muffins, cookies and brownies. Gummy bears, twizzlers and wrapped candies are also welcome treats. Please make sure that everything is pre-cut into finger food sized portions.

PLEASE make sure all food is nut-free!

Thank you so much, in advance, for your help. See you there!


News for March 21









News for March 21

This week the class began the preparations for our annual 100 Books Party that is happening next Friday, March 28th.

The students began the week by learning about two holidays. Holi is a Hindu holiday celebrating colour and St. Patrick's Day is a Christian holiday celebrating the Irish saint, St. Patrick.

The students finished their book reports this week. They wrote out their good copies and prepared them for display at our 100 Books Party next week.

One of the traditions in Room 5 is to sew sock creatures. This week the students chose their socks and used the sewing machine to make the bodies, arms and tails. They also stuffed the bodies and hand sewed the stuffing openings closed.

Each student began to write a character profile for his/her sock creature. What is it's name? Does it have a job? What is it's favourite food?

The class began to learn cursive handwriting this week. It's important to learn how to create cursive letters in order to be ale to read cursive writing, to understand that cursive writing is faster than printing and to be able to sign his/her signature. This week, the students learned the letters a, d, g, c and q.

The students learned how to origami fold little paper books and used these little books to create party invitations for the Room 5 families and school staff. The children also started making bookmarks to give as a "loot bag" type of gift to our party guests next week.

In math,  children had a chance to apply learned math concepts to our study of our 100 books. Working in small groups, the students worked to put all the books in numerical order. Next they tallied which books were fiction and non-fiction and which were hardcover and softcover. Then they looked at the authors and tallied if they were male or female. Finally, they added up all the pages in all 100 books. We read aloud almost 4, 000 pages! The children also weighed the books, measured how tall the pile of books was and how long the books were when laid end-to-end. Did you know that the 100 books laid end-to-end is longer than 19 students laid end-to-end and is two and one half times taller than the school?

The guest on our Room 5 Interview Show this week was Pat, the chief caretaker for our school. This video can be found in a separate posting.

Books read aloud this week:

Infinity And Me  by Kate Hosford
Where Do You Look? - A book about homonyms by Marthe and Nell Jocelyn
Hinduism by Katherine Prior
St. Patrick's Day by Carmen Bredeson
The Lego Movie Handbook by Ace Landers (...because we LOVE Lego in Room 5!)
Brad The Wonder Baby by Di Bates (guided reading book)
Once Upon A Memory by Nina Laden
A Million Dots by Andrew Clements

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Websites for addition and subtraction games

Here are some websites to go to that have games to practise addition and subtraction:

http://www.factmonster.com/math/flashcards.html

http://www.fun4thebrain.com/addition.html

http://www.fun4thebrain.com/subtraction.html

http://www.abcya.com/math_match.htm

http://www.math-play.com/soccer-math-subtracting-two-digit-numbers/subtracting-two-digit-numbers.html

The Room 5 Interview Show!

This week our guest was Ms. Maloney. She is the drama teacher at our school.

)

Update from Ms. R

I would like to wish the families of Room 5 a very happy and safe March Break!

The homework for this week is to complete a math worksheet with questions practising subtraction with regrouping. The language worksheet has two short stories with comprehension questions. This homework is due on Friday, March 21.

Please note:

On March 28 our class will be having a 100 Books Party (morning) - Families are welcome to join our celebration! There will be food, music and of course lots of books! (More information will follow next week.)

News for March 6







News for March 6

This four-day week had the students doing everything from writing a 17 chapter book in one day to making (and eating) pancakes!

The week began by the class going to the gym to the assembly on fairness and ended by the class going to the gym on Thursday, to see the grade three students perform the songs and story of The Lion King and attending a sports assembly at the end of the day.

In preparation for our 100 Books Party, the children had a chance to review the read aloud books and choose his/her favourite book. The students created a picture using plasticine (and the techniques of author/illustrator Barbara Reid that they learned from watching videos in our library time), showing his/her favourite part of the story.

In math, the students reviewed how to do two-digit subtraction without regrouping. Then the class used place value blocks to help understand two-digit subtraction with regrouping. Finally, the children learned how to perform the standard algorithm when using pencil and paper to solve these difficult kinds of questions.

The students used what they know about two-digit addition and subtraction to help them buy things and make change at the Room 5 Store. The students made two trips to the store so that they could spend all of the "Room 5 dollar" (or 100 cents) that each student earned last week. (The children also learned about some of the new security features of the Canadian polymer $20 bill!)

On Monday, the students noticed that our classroom clock did not show the correct time. In fact, it would spin around every once and a while. This continued on Tuesday morning and prompted me to remark that the clock going crazy would be a good idea for a story. Then...that is exactly what we did! Each student wrote a chapter of our class book, The Day The Clock Went Crazy. Even our principal, Mrs. Farrelly had a chance to read our 17 chapter book (written in just one day).

On Tuesday, it was Mardi Gras (Pancake Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday). The class learned the history of this day, both the religious history and the past and present celebrations. The students helped to mix, cook and eat pancakes which we ate with strawberry jam (just like the character Jack, in the book Pancakes, Pancakes!).

The children learned a story making activity to help them make personal and text connections to seemingly unrelated subjects. The class was introduced to a "story pouch". This is a string of beads and charms of different things like cherries, a whistle and a lightning bolt. The students practised by choosing a charm and making a connection to a book or a personal experience and explaining the connection.

The students were sad to say good bye to our drama teacher Ms. Maloney, as she is taking time off to have her baby. Luckily she agreed to appear on the Room 5 Interview show this week. This interview can be found in a separate posting.

Books read aloud this week:

In Grandpa's Day: Memories of Pioneer Life (Norma Fleck Award nominee) by Roxanne McLaren
Pancakes, Pancakes! by Eric Carle
Mardi Gras and Carnival by Molly Aloian

Sunday, March 2, 2014

The Room 5 Interview Show!

This week our guest was Mr. Hinrichsen. He is a grade 3 teacher at our school.


Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to complete the math worksheet of questions to practice addition of two-digit numbers with regrouping. The language homework is to write a fiction story in the homework writing journal. The challenge is to write a story about the paper pocket with blue or pink paper inside that is glued into the writing journal. This homework is due on Thursday, March 6th. (Please note this is one day earlier than usual, since next week is a short week.)

Important Dates:

March 7 - No classes (* Please note this is a P. A. Day for administration and support staff only. It is an unpaid day for teachers.)
March 10 - 14 - March Break
April 18 - Good Friday
April 21 - Easter Monday
May 19 - Victoria Day

News for February 28







News for February 28

This week the students began the unit on adding two-digit numbers with regrouping. The students used place value blocks to help them understand the regrouping of 10 ones into 1 group of ten. Then they explored using the standard algorithm to add two-digit numbers. The students are beginning to use this skill to help them finish our math unit on money by using what they know to "buy" items at the Room 5 Store.

In our guided reading groups, the students began the social studies unit on Communities by reading several stories on what makes a communities and on different communities in Canada. The class learned that a community is a place where people live, their homes, jobs and the food they eat. But, depending on where they live in the world the homes, jobs and food may be very different.

The students finished their stories exploring "voice" as they wrote as if they were the penguin, in the story Lost and Found, telling his side of the story. The children also folded lots and lots of origami paper penguins! These stories are now on display in the hallway outside of our classroom.

The children learned the words of the Roman Emperor,  Marcus Aurelius (121-180 CE) to help guide them successfully through life. Each student made a one word poster to make up the words in the three sentences and these wise word posters are now on display in the stairwell outside of our classroom to help not only the students of our class but of the whole school. Here are the voices of our class:



On Thursday, the whole school celebrated Quebec Carnival! The students had a great time eating pancakes, playing hockey, bowling and curling, making buttons and getting tattoos and having their faces painted. And of course, we saw Bonhomme Carnival the snowman. Whew! What a great day we had together! Then on Friday, each child wrote a thank you letter to our librarian and French teacher, Ms. Mantello, who organized all the activities. (Ms. Mantello told me how much she appreciated the comments of the children and their suggestions for next year.)

Books read aloud this week:

The First Drawing by Mordecai Gerstein (finished)
I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr.
Thing Thing by Cary Fagan
Postcards From Space: The Chris Hadfield Story (Norma Fleck Award nominee) by Heather Down