News for November 6

News for November 6

Our week began with the students sewing together their decorated pieces of fabric using a sewing machine. Then they each stuffed their pillows with polyester stuffing and sewed the pillow closed with a needle and thread. These pillows will be used in the classroom during the year to make chairs more comfortable to sit in and the carpet more comfortable to sit on during read aloud times. 

The class began a big writing project this week about the pillows that they made. They are creating displays that will include a procedural writing (non-fiction) piece about how to make a pillow, from beginning to end. The children learned some key words to help with this writing: first, next, then, finally. The other writing piece for the project is a fiction story that has the pillow as a character, setting or object in the story. The students each had his/her photo taken with the finished pillow to add to their finished pillow project poster.

We talked a lot about Remembrance Day this week, both the history of this day and how it is observed in Canada. The children learned a song using American Sign Language that reminds us that on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month (November) we remember those that fought to make Canada a free country. We discussed the symbols of peace (for example, the poppy and paper crane) and are using these symbols as part of our monthly calendar pattern. Did you know that the circular peace sign was designed in 1965 and uses the semaphore flag code for N and D standing for nuclear disarmament?

In our guided reading group time, groups read and discussed the fairy tale, "The Shoemaker and the Elves". We talked about how fairy tales were used to teach moral lessons in times long ago when many people did not go to formal school and could not read or write. The children also made a connection to the story because they were sewing things this week just like the shoemaker and elves in the story.

In math, the students learned about ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd...) versus cardinal numbers (1, 2,3...) and how to use these numbers to describe the position of things. The children also practiced extending patterns with two or more attributes changing (for example, colour, size and position). They also practiced addition and subtraction with regrouping (grade 2 - two digit; grade 3 - three digit).

In art, the students first finished their journal covers on thick paper using sharpie markers and watercolour pencils. Next they folded in half different kinds of papers (plain, coloured, squared, tracing and even paper made out of bananas!) to create the pages for their journals. Then they used a needle and thread to sew the pages to the journal cover (and added beads for decoration). Finally, they used a variety of drawing instruction books to practice their drawing skills in their new handmade art journals.

On Friday, the students attended the annual Bus Safety Presentation, consisting of watching a video and actually going on a bus to practice safe bus procedures and evacuation. 

What a busy week! We even had time to watch a video of Pete Townshend (the guitarist for the band, The Who) demonstrate his "windmill" guitar-strumming technique. This is the inspiration for one of the ways the students physically practice their word wall (spelling) words each week.

Books read aloud this week:

Sadako's Cranes by Judith Loske

The First Drawing by Mordecai Gerstein

What Does Peace Feel Like? by V. Radunsky

The Peace Book by Todd Parr

Where Poppies Grow by Linda Granfield

The Book With No Pictures by B. J.Novak