News for November 12

News for November 13

This four-day week, the children focused on learning about and preparing for, observing Remembrance Day on Wednesday. The children practised folding paper cranes (while reviewing 2D geometry concepts embedded in the process) which were then used to create a wreath that was taken to the primary Remembrance Day assembly. We discussed what peace means and the students then wrote 33 words about peace (based on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month or 11+11+11=33). Our class was asked to perform the song they learned about Remebrance Day using words and American Sign Language at the primary assembly. Finally, the children made a video of the students each reading his/her peace message along with the poppies that they painted. This video can be seen below:

In math, the class began the unit on 2D (two-dimensional) geometry by discussing what they already knew about flat geometric shapes (or polygons). They learned the basic attributes of a 2D shape: number of sides, number of vertices and number of angles. They learned that the number of each of these attributes are always the same for any given shape. They went on a "shape hunt" in the classroom and discovered that in places made by humans, the most common geometric shape is the rectangle. For example, a triangle has 3 sides, 3 vertices and 3 angles. After reading the book, The Greedy Triangle, the class learned that the more sides/vertices/angles a polygon has, the more it looks like a circle. We even used a long length of string with the ends tied together, to demonstrate this. The students used elastic bands and geoboards to create different kinds of 2D shapes. They used geodot paper to draw the shapes that they created on their geoboards. We also discussed the various Greek origins of the geometric names. For example, geo (earth) + metry (measurement) and poly- (many) + gon (angle).

The students are almost finished their pillow projects. What a lot of work! The children not only created a pillow, but they each wrote a "how-to" non-fiction story on the steps required to make a pillow and a fiction story using his/her pillow somehow in the story. These finished projects will be put on the bulletin board in the hallway outside of our classroom next week.

The class began using a set of ipad minis for guided reading time. We read a book together as a class and on another day the students worked with a partner to read another book. This week we focused on books about two of the elements of art, shape and line.

In art, the students continue to work in their art journals independently and in response to various art challenges that I give them. This week, I photocopied the photographs of the children with their pillows and they cut and glued (collaged) it into their journals and created a design or scene around their photos. Also, after receiving a Starburst candy, why throw out the wrapper when it can be taped into their journal and made and decortated into something else...a present? A building? A car?

Books read aloud this week:

***Please note that many students enjoy using drawing instruction books by the artist, Ed Emberley. We have several in our classroom but there are many titles available on-line and in the public library.

A World of Your Own by Laura Carlin

The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns

What is a Line? (ebook) by Susan Markowitz Meredith

What is a Shape? (ebook) by Tea Benduhn

A Lion in Paris by Beatrice Alemanga