Amaryllis Update!

The amaryllis has bloomed! It is so beautiful! Thank you so much to George and his family for taking such good care of our class plant over the holidays.

Holiday message and update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a story in the homework writing journal about the magnifying glass each child received on Friday. There is also a math worksheet reviewing the link between addition and multiplication that the class learned about this week. This homework is due on Friday, January 9th, 2015.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the students and their families a safe and happy holiday and all the best in 2015!

I would also like to thank everyone for the very generous gifts and the beautiful book with the children's photos, writing and art! Please know that each day I feel it is an honour and a privilege to teach the wonderful children in this class.

News for December 19

                                      

News for December 19

The students did a wide variety of activities during the days leading up to the winter holidays.

In math, the children finished the unit on 2D and 3D geometry and began the next math unit on multiplication. Multiplication is really two concepts. One is repeated addition of equal groups and the other is the notion of multiplicative thinking. The students learned about how to represent addition of equal groups with an addition sentence (for example, 3+3+3+3=12)and as a multiplication sentence (for example, 3X4=12). They also learned about how to arrange the equal groups into rectangles or squares to show that 3X4=12 or 4X3=12. Reading 3X4 as "three groups of four" reminds students of what is actually happening in multiplication.

Later in the week, the children did an investigative writing activity using magnifying glasses. The magnifying glasses magnify objects 5X (five times) larger than their actual size. By selecting things in the class to see and writing about how the magnifying glass gives more information to their eyes, the students are able to understand the "mulitplicative thinking" part of multiplication.

This week the class had a homophone challenge that reviewed the 11 sets of homophones that we have studied so far this year. The children did worksheets, solved word search puzzles and even participated in a game show style question and answer activity to help them remember not only how to spell the homophone words but also when to use them.

If you would like to create your own word search puzzle, visit this site:

www.AtoZTeacherStuff.com/word-search-maker/wordsearch/php

The students learned about the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. They helped to make potato pancakes fried in oil called latkes, and eaten with applesauce. The children worked in pairs to figure out how many candles are needed to light the menorah over the eight days of Hanukkah and wrote down their thinking about how they solved this problem. The class also learned how to play a popular Hanukkah game called Dreidel.

The class went to the gym on Thursday to sing holiday songs with the other children in the primary division of our school. The highlight of this annual event is always when the teachers lead the students in the singing of "The Twelve Days of Christmas". (Which the class can tell you is a very old English song from 1780. So when singing this song, we are singing words from 234 years ago!)

The class began to prepare a play about King Midas, called "The Golden Touch". Working in two separate groups, the children read their parts and by the end of the week, they were organizing props and costumes.

Additional activities included a final tie-dye project and re-potting our amaryllis plant. In keeping with the winter holidays theme, each of the students also had the chance to make a small beaded penguin figure and a small graham cracker house decorated with candy!

And finally some words from Dr. Suess:

"Please tell all men,
That peace is good,
That's all that needs,
To be understood."

Books read aloud this week:

The Flying Latke by Arthur Yorinks
I Have a Little Dreidel by Maxie Baum
The Twelve Days of Christmas by Jan Brett
365 Penguins by Jean-Luc Fromental

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to read the paragraphs about city and rural (country) life and complete the Venn diagram about things that are the same and things that are different. There is also a math sheet reviewing how to mentally fold up a 2D drawing of connected shapes (called a "net") into a 3D figure. This homework is due on Friday, December 19th.

Toy Drive Update!

Our school collected over $2,500 worth of toys to help families in need. Thank you so much for your support.

News for December 12

News for December 12

This week the students finally finished the project on the Davisville School bell. Each child created a small poster with facts about the bell and put them on the wall beside the bell in the office. Did you know that the bell was made in Troy, New York in 1860, seven years before Canada became a country? The class also made a short video about the bell.


In math, the children continued to explore 3D or three-dimensional shapes in many different ways. The class learned that each figure has edges, faces and vertices. The students examined 3D solids, cut and taped paper figures, used toothpicks and plasticine to create "skeletons".  They learned how to visualize the 3D figure from a 2D "net" pattern. They even created a huge icosahedron (20 equilateral triangle faces).

The class reviewed how to write letters and address envelopes to write letters for our school's "Holiday Mailbox". Our school has a long-standing tradition of writing letters to students and staff at this time of year.

The class continued to learn the words, vocabulary and history of many traditional holiday songs from this time of year. Did you know that the song "Let it Snow" was actually written during a heat wave in July 1945  by US songwriters trying to feel cooler during a heat wave.

The students finished the good copies of their fictional stories about our school's bell. These are now a part of a class book, for everyone can read the stories of their classmates.

The class watched the DVD of the children's holiday classic movie, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. They learned how to take notes while watching the movie, then used their notes to answer questions about the story elements (characters, setting, problem/solution).

Books read aloud this week:

Snow Cat by Dayal Kaur Khalsa
You Are Stardust by Elin Kelsey
Underwater Dogs by Eric Castell

Create a Snowflake!

Create hexagonal paper snowflakes on the computer using this program:

snowflake.barkleyus.com

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a fiction story in the homework writing journal that has something to do with Chinese Checkers. The math worksheet reviews the characteristics 3D figures. This homework is due on Friday, December 12th.

*** Winter is here! Please ensure that your child comes to school with all the outdoor gear needed to play outside. Students go outside daily for AM recess (15 minutes), lunch recess (30 minutes) and PM recess (15 minutes). Your child needs a winter jacket, winter boots, a hat (if the jacket has no hood), mittens and snow pants (for warmth, not just for when there is snow). Thank you!

News for December 4

                                     

News for December 4

At the beginning of this four-day week, the children learned about advent calendars ("adventus" means arrival in Latin) and how they are traditionally used to countdown the days until Christmas. Our class made our own advent calendar to countdown the days until the winter holidays. Each child wrote a letter, gathered up treats and small gifts and put them in a decorated envelope. Everyday a child's name is chosen randomly to receive this daily gift from their friends in our classroom.

In social studies, the students learned about communities (places where people live and work) and the two major types of communities (urban and rural). This week the children watched a DVD on mining communities and did some research on farming communities. The students also created folded paper toys that revealed cool facts about farming in Ontario. (Did you know that the wool spun from the fleece of one sheep measures over 200 km long? That is the distance from Ottawa to Montreal!)

In math, the class learned about Venn diagrams and how they are used to compare and sort information. They used these overlapping circles to compare characters in stories and to compare different 2D shapes. At the end of the week, the students began to learn about 3D geometry. They learned the features of prisms and pyramids (faces, edges, vertices) and how the shape of the base of the figure determines the name of the figure (for example, square-based pyramid).

The students visited their kindergarten learning buddies in Room 103 this week. They taught their buddies The Snowflake Song and then helped them make little books with the words from the song and decorated the books with snowflakes. When the students got back to our classroom, they reflected on their teaching experience. They noted that their buddies were very interested in making the little books and would "read" their books by singing the song.

The children created their own Holiday Songbooks, containing the lyrics to many traditional seasonal songs. Along with choral reading the words to the songs, the students learned the history of the songs and the meanings of unfamiliar words. (Did you know that the song Jingle Bells was written in 1857 and was written as an American Thanksgiving song?)

The children used what they know about the hexagon shape of snowflakes to help them fold and cut six-sided paper snowflakes. These snowflakes are now decorating the walls by the coat hooks in our hallway.

Books read aloud this week:

Winter's Coming - A Story of Seasonal Change by Jan Thornhill
All About Ontario by Barb McDermott
Frosty the Snowman by Jack Rollins
Circles of Round by Signe Sturup