Ah, the last week of school...
It's a happy/sad time of year. It's fun to think about the summer holidays and grade 4 in the fall but also sad to say good bye to friends and their time in grade 3.
The class this week learned about acronyms. Acronyms are invented words made up by using the first letter of each word in a group of words. For example, the word "laser" is an acronym formed by the first letter in each of the words, "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". Laser is so much easier to write and say! We also talked about initialisms (which are sometimes called acronyms) and what they mean. For example, FYI (for your information), AM/PM (ante meridiem or "before noon"/post meridiem or "after noon") and BTW (by the way).
The students learned about collective nouns (ex. family, assembly) and about the weird names that we have in English for different groups of animals. Did you know that a group of snails is called a "walk or rout of snails" or that a group of frogs is called "an army of frogs"?
The class calculated the number of days of summer vacation by adding the vacation days in June, July, August and September. Altogether there are 5+31+31+7= 74 days of summer holidays this year.
The children collected samples of their work all year in large folders called portfolios. The students reviewed their work, selected some of what they felt was their best work and shared their choices with the class before taking their portfolios home.
In math, the students used playing cards to play the game "The Greatest Number" to practice what they know about place value. They also used their cards to try to build the tallest tower of cards. They watched a video about Bryan Berg who is in the Guinness Book of World Records for building the tallest tower of cards without glue. Here is a video of his work:
Each day the students watched a part of the movie, "Because of Winn-Dixie" and discussed the movie and the parts of the story (characters, problems, solutions).
Finally, after ten months, the students opened up the Room 5 time capsule box! Inside were the little books the students made in September. It was fun to see what they wrote and to talk about what changed, what didn't change and which of their wishes and predictions came true.
Francesca asked our class to to a Speed Stacking demonstration at the beginning of the year-end athletic assembly. It was fun to stack fast in front of an audience!
Henry and Audrey at the Imaging Facility at the University of Toronto loved their thank you cards! They asked me to remind the children to remember to "think like a scientist". By that, they mean to remember to be curious about the things around them, ask questions, create theories and never stop learning about the world!
I'm in a different classroom (Room 204) next year teaching grades 2 and 3 and Room 5 will be a grade 5 French immersion classroom. Ms. Farrelly gave our class permission to take some books home to keep and to read over the summer. Each student was instructed to choose 10 books (basically to read one book a week over the ten weeks of summer) or more to take home. The children were reminded that reading is a skill that must be practiced and that reading helps to make anyone a better writer too!
The children helped to clean up the class by cleaning the top of their desks with....shaving cream! They spread and smooshed the foam around and then used an old football trading card to "shave" the desks clean.
FINALLY, the students finished off the last day of school with a party. They had treats and watched the DVD of our primary concert.
What a great year we had together!
Books read aloud this week:
Because of Winn-Dixie (DVD) - based on the book of the same name by Kate DiCamillo
A Crackle of Crickets - A Compilation of Insect Collective Nouns by Patrick George
A Drove of Bullocks - A Compilation of Animal Collective Nouns by Patrick George
A Shiver of Sharks - A Compilation of Aquatic Collective Nouns by Patrick George
A Filth of Starlings - A Compilation of Bird Collective Nouns by Patrick George
Wild Ideas - Let Nature Inspire Your Thinking by Elin Kelsey
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