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
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