The Room 5 Interview Show - Ms. Standing

This week we interviewed Ms.Standing. She is an Early Childhood Educator (ECE) in our Learning Buddies kindergarten class.

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to complete the math worksheet reviewing probability and a reading comprehension worksheet with a non-fiction story about seeds. This homework is due on Friday, May 1st.

Important Dates:

May 7 - We will be pretending it's Thursday, May 7th, 1815 in Room 5. The students will be cooking and eating lunch in the classroom that day.
May 18 - Victoria Day Holiday - no classes on this day
June 5 - P. A. Day - no classes on this day
June 10 - Primary Concert (evening) at Hodgson Senior Public School
June 24 - Term 2 report cards go home
June 25 - Last day of school for the year

News for April 24

News for April 24

This week was Earth Week at Davisville P.S.! The students made hats out of newspaper, created a display called "The Story of Wool" for the school's Eco-Fair in the library, turned off all the lights for an hour and attended the Earth Day assembly on Wednesday.

In math, the class continued to talk about probability. We set up a tracking chart and, using tally marks, tracked the number of times the students (and teacher) said the words, certain, likely, equally likely, unlikely, impossible, fair and unfair. The students talked about fair and unfair spinners and how using a die and flipping a coin has outcomes that are equally likely. The students did a "peek box" experiment and using the result tried to reason and predict the number and colour of the cubes in the box. At the end of the week, the students played a game to determine the probability of rolling the numbers 2-12 with two dice. Did you know that when you roll two dice it's more likely to roll a 6, 7, or 8? That's because there are for example, three different ways to roll a 6 (3+3, 2+4, 1+5).

In writing, the students continued to work on their "box" stories. They also did an EQAO reading comprehension activity to help the students improve how to read and answer questions more carefully and accurately.

In science, the students started the unit on plants by talking about the starting point in the life of a plant, the seed. The children set up an experiment to sprout these seeds in a clear plastic bag in order to see what actually happens when water is added to dry seeds.

Our Eco- Fair project was to tell "The Story of Wool". As a class we discussed the steps from sheep to finished product and the students each wrote about the steps and we assembled a display with weaving and corking.

This week on The Room 5 Interview Show, Scarlett and Lucas interviewed Ms. Standing. She is the Early Childhood Educator (ECE) in our Learning Buddies kindergarten classroom. This video can be seen in a separate posting.

The students learned how to make printing plates by recycling foam produce trays. After creating two separate designs, one for the centre and one for the border, they brushed the plates with paint and printed them on thick paper. After, the children each wrote an art reflection to express their thoughts about their art and the artistic process.

Books read aloud this week:

The Soda Bottle School: The True Story of Recycling Teamwork by Laura Kutner
Outstanding in the Rain: A Whole Story with Holes by Frank Viva
A Book With No Pictures by B. J. Novak
The Book With a Hole by Herve Tullet

Here is a video of the school and how they made it out of soda pop bottles:

100 Books Party 2015!

Update from Ms. R

THANK YOU to all the families for your support this week with our 9th Annual 100 Books Party! We had lots of food and it was wonderful to see so many parents join us in our celebration of reading and writing.

The homework for this week is to write a story (fiction or non-fiction) in the homework writing journal about our 100 Books Party. There is also a math review sheet with an EQAO math practice word problem and questions from our new math unit on probability. This homework is due on Friday, April 24th.

Here is our principal, Mrs. Farrelly, with some students at our party. The class remembered, from Mrs. Farrelly's interview last week, that she likes Zesty Cheese Doritos...

News for April 17

                                  

News for April 17

This week the students spent a lot of time getting ready and celebrating our reading 100 read aloud books. The final activity was on Thursday morning when the class welcomed almost 300 people through our classroom for our 100 Books Party! The class also made hundreds of bookmarks with hand-dyed wool and a candy taped to the back to remind our guests that reading is "sweet". We even made homemade chocolate fudge to serve on the snack table. A video of students presenting information about our books can be found in a separate posting.

In math, we spent the first part of the week applying math concepts to analyzing some characteristics of our 100 books. The students weighed the books on a scale (36 kg) and measured how tall the pile was (79 1/2 cm). They laid them end-to-end along the hallway and they measured 27 m and 33 cm long. The students also counted up the number of pages read, the number of fiction vs non-fiction vs near-fiction books, the number of male vs female authors and finally, the number of books published before 2006, in 2006 and after 2006.(The year 2006 was the year the students were born.) The children presented this information in the classroom on the day of the party and in a video. (This video can be seen in a separate posting).

At the end of the week, the children began the new math unit on probability by reviewing the key probability words: certain, likely, equally likely, unlikely and impossible.

In writing, the children finished their book reports and wrote out the good copies to display on their desks for our party. The class also learned about dictionaries and how to use them for looking up word meanings and spellings.

The class continues to prepare for the EQAO test. This week they read a long poem and answered multiple choice and short answer questions after reviewing strategies for answering these kind of questions correctly and completely.

In social studies, the students continue to learn about living in Canada 200 years ago. The class watched a few National Film Board films about life in Canada in the 1800's. They also learned an easy form of knitting called corking, spool knitting or French knitting. In the pioneer spirit, they actually made the corker they are using to knit, using recycled materials..Recall that most of the fabrics humans use (then and now) are either woven or knitted.

We visited our Learning Buddies in Mr. Grundy/Ms. Standing's kindergarten class this week. The grade 3 students each chose a book to read aloud to their buddies and then after discussing the book, helped their buddies to complete reading response worksheets.

Books read aloud this week:

What! Cried Granny by Kate Lum
The Velveteen Rabbit (short chapter book) by Margery Williams

The Room 5 Interview Show - Mrs. Farrelly

This week we interviewed Mrs. Farrelly. Mrs. Farrelly is the principal at our school.

The Room 5 Interview Show - Ms. Schneider

This week we interviewed Ms. Schneider. Ms. Schneider is the Vice-Principal at our school.

Update from Ms. R

100 BOOKS PARTY!

Our 9th annual 100 Books Party is this Thursday, April 16 from 9:00-11:15.

This is a celebration of reading and writing to be held in Room 5.  All family members are invited to join us. Even if you can drop in for only 5 minutes, it would mean a lot to the children.We hope to see you there!

***Please remember to bring in food for the party. Chips, cookies, cut up fruit and cheese are all appropriate choices. We will have over 300 people come through our classroom and in the spirit of being good hosts we want to make sure everyone has a treat to make sure they remember that reading and writing are "sweet".

The homework for this week is to complete the reading comprehension activity and the review worksheet on division. This homework is due on Friday, April 17th.

Remember that students post daily to our class Instagram account. Below are two students recording a short video for last Friday's post. You can follow us @planet5news on any Apple device or go to www.instagram.com/planet5news and click on any photo for more information.

News for April 10

News for April 10

The big news for this four-day week was the start of our Room 5 Interview Show project. Each week two students will interview an adult that works at our school. This week the class decided which questions to ask and made the signs for the show. We did two interviews since next week we will be so busy with our 100 Books Party! The video interviews can be seen in separate postings.

In math, the students continued to look at fractions of a set and linked that knowledge with what they know about multiplication and division. They also created a folded book and designed images to demonstrate what they know about whole, quarter, third and half fractions and releated those fractions to parts of a whole and to equal groups of a set of numbers.

In writing, the children chose their favourite books from the 100 books we read so far this year. Each child wrote a book report based on his/her favourite book. They answered questions like: Why did you chose this book? Would you recommend this book to a friend? How do you think the author could have improved the book? Do you think the story would make a good movie/play/game? Why?

In social studies, the class continued to examine the differences between modern life and life in Canada over 200 years ago. This week the class looked at making things out of wool. They learned how to wind the skeins of yarn we dyed last week into balls. They created looms out of cardboard and learned how to weave fabric using the "over-under" pattern to make a bookmark. They also had a chance to see the range of things made of wool from sheep by looking at examples of scarves, hats socks, mittens, quilts and toys.

The students rehearsed the Reader's Theatre play, "Canada, Here We Come!". The class is doing this particular play because the story is set over 200 years ago and we are currently learning about how people lived long ago. Group 1 presented their play on Friday and Group 2 will present next week.

The children began the preparations for our 100 Books Party next week. They folded little books to make invitations to give to their families and to staff at the school. The class calculated the number of students that we have invited to help us plan the party. The students created bookmarks (with candies) to give to our guests as a thank you gifts for attending our celebration.

Books read aloud this week:

The Origami Master by Nathanial Lachenmeyer
The Magic Fan by Keith Baker
Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett

Update from Ms. R

*Special Announcement*

You are invited to Room 5's annual 100 Books Party! This is a celebration of reading and writing to be held in Room 5 on the morning of Thursday, April 16th, from 9:00 - 11:15. All family members are invited to join us. Even if you can drop in for only 5 minutes, it would mean a lot to the children.We hope to see you there!

This week the homework is to write a story in the homework writing journal that takes place 200 years ago. This is to get the children to think about what life was like 200 years ago, as we are discussing that in our current social studies unit (Canada's people 1780-1850). Also there is a math worksheet reviewing the work on fractions we did this week. This homework is due on Friday, April 10th.

News for April 2

News for April 2

This four-day week the students learned about two holidays that are observed this time of year: the Jewish holiday of Passover and the Christian holiday of Easter. Easter was a very important holiday for many people in Canada from the time it became a country in 1867. That is why Canadians have a holiday on Good Friday and Easter Monday. After boiling eggs in hot water, the students sprinkled wax crayon pieces on the hot eggs and the wax melted together to create patterns on the eggs.

In math, the students looked at fractions of a set of objects. Using math cubes the children practised dividing groups of cubes into different equal groups. The children are required to recognize fractional parts of a whole and of a set.

In writing, all the sock creature books are now finished and on display in the hallway outside of our classroom. The children wrote individual biographies of their sock creatures and used this info to make small books to hang around the neck of their creatures.

We visited our Learning Buddies in the Room 103 kindergarten. This week the kindergarten students taught the Room 5 students a card game to help the young children understand and practice their "10 facts" or the combinations of two numbers that add to ten.

In art, the children learned about the Mona Lisa. They learned the story of what historians know, and don't know, about Leonardo da Vinci's most famous painting. Did you know that da Vinci loved this painting so much that he never gave it away or sold it? He took it everywhere with him. The class learned the details of the Mona Lisa by colouring in parts of it, to make their own interpretation of the painting.

In social studies, the children focused on the daily lives of people who lived in Canada over 200 years ago. One thing many had to do was to make their own clothing and household items. The students learned about the story of wool from sheep to yarn. The class participated in dyeing naturally white wool (from New Brunswick) with Kool-aid to make a variety of different colours.

The students did a whole class choral reading of the play Canada, Here We Come (changed from Oregon, Here We Come to reflect the pioneer experience in Canada). This is a longer and more challenging play than our previous effort. The children will perform the plays in their groups next week.

In computers, the students visited the sited 20g.net to play the game 20 questions electronically.

Books read aloud this week:

Pelle's New Suit by Elsa Beskow
Jack and the Beanstalk retold by Susan Pearson
The Easter Egg by Jan Brett
The Matzah Man by Naomi Howland.