Friday, December 30, 2016

Update from Ms. R


Thank you to all the families for the generous gifts I received. They are not necessary, but they are very much appreciated! I wish all the students and their families a safe and happy holiday!

The homework for the holidays is that there is no formal homework. HOWEVER...the students are expected to read for 20 minutes (or more) EACH day. Please encourage your child to maintain his/her daily reading routine. During holiday days of unstructured time, it's easy to forget, but it is very important in the early primary years for children to read every day.

***Note for parents***
In January, our class will have lunch at a later time. Students will still eat lunch in the same place (Room 305) but now they will play outside from 11:35 - 12:05 and eat their lunches afterwards from 12:05 - 12:35.

Important Dates:
January 9 - First day of classes for 2017
January 20 - PA Day - no classes
February 17 - PA Day - no classes
February 20 - Family Day holiday
March 13 to 17 - March Break holiday

News for December 23


News for December 23, 2016
This week, the children did a variety of activities leading up to the Winter Holidays.
In math, the students continued to practice writing and telling time and how to use a calendar. The children are required to tell time from both analog and digital clocks and to show time on an analog clock face and write down digital time.
The class discussed nursery rhymes and learned the history of "Mother Goose" and focused on feeling the beat of these poems and recognizing the rhyming words. Did you know that "Mother Goose" is a fictional storyteller invented around 1780 when the poems and songs were first published? (The authors are generally unknown as these traditional English poems were passed on orally through the generations.)
A few weeks ago, I took a photo of each student with a HUGE icosahedron (20-faced geometric figure). This week, we reviewed the type of poems the children learned how to write (rhyming, list, acrostic, shape/concrete and haiku). The students were challenged to write a poem about his/her photograph, using one of the poem styles they learned about. These are now on display in the hall outside of our classroom.
The students learned how to create a sphere-like figure using paper circles. They also learned how to make paper chains. These were used to decorate our class Christmas tree. The children also learned how to make a moving paper sculpture that demonstrated how a plant with a flower grows!
By the end of the week, our class had collected all the Food Bank money donations from other classes. After counting all the bills and coins, the final total was $412.25! As a class, we wrote a letter to the Daily Bread Food Bank to tell them what we did, how much money we raised and our hopes that the money will help people and families who don't have enough money to buy food.
On Wednesday, Ms. Standing visited our classroom to talk about her Hanukkah family traditions. (Ms. Standing was a kindergarten ECE at our school and she is now in teacher's college.) The children listened to her read aloud a Hanukkah story and helped grate potatoes to make potato latkes, a traditional Hanukkah dish served with applesauce. While the latkes were frying, the children learned how to spin a dreidel (top-like toy) and play the dreidel game. In groups, the students played dreidel following the rules linked to the Hebrew letters on the dreidel. Finally, we got to eat the latkes...they were delicious!
The children also learned how to play Chinese Checkers. Did you know that Chinese Checkers are not Chinese (the game was invented in Germany) and not really checkers? The game was invented in 1892 and was given its name in 1928 by a toy company that thought it would sell more games using that name. This is a great game for young children as it is easy to learn and allows for developing personal strategies for winning. (I recommend this as a great board game for families looking to find alternatives to electronic games.)
The class finished learning about and singing the songs in their Holiday Songbooks. There is a lot of history to the songs that we hear around this time of year. Did you know that the oldest song we learned was "The 12 Days of Christmas"? People have been singing that song for over 230 years! The last song we talked about was "Auld Lang Syne" a song traditionally sung on New Year's Eve to remember friends and family and the memories of the past year. Did you know that song was originally a poem, later set to music, by the Scottish poet Robbie Burns?
The children went to the gym twice this week. The first time was to see a play put on by the core French students and the second time was to sing holiday songs. Of course, the students in our class did very well singing since they had studied and practiced most of the songs! It is a tradition at our school to stand up at the end of the sing-a-long and sing and do the actions of the song, "The 12 Days of Christmas". To be with all the primary division students and singing together was a great way to finish off the week before the winter holidays.

Books read aloud this week:
The Velveteen Rabbit by Marjorie Williams (finished)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess (book and DVD)
My First Mother Goose by Rosemary Wells
I Have a Little Dreidel by Maxie Baum
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (DVD)
The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming - A Christmas Story by Lemony Snicket
Merry Christmas, Squirrels! By Nancy Rose

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Update from Ms. R


The homework for this week is to write a story (fiction or non-fiction) in the homework writing journal. The suggested topic was "snow". Some story ideas we shared were stories about a snow monster, magic snow and what the world would be like if snow was vanilla ice cream. There is also a math worksheet reviewing time concepts covered this past week. The homework is due on Friday, December 23rd. 
***Please note: Recently, many children have not been handing in their homework on the due date. I would appreciate your help by making sure your child hands in his/her homework on time. Thank you.

Food Bank Project Update
Thank you so much to all the families who contributed money to our class Food Bank project! We collected money from all the classes in the school this week. The children each had a chance to speak on the morning announcements to advertise this worthy cause. They all did an excellent job! The class will finish counting the money next week and we'll write a letter to the Daily Bread Food Bank letting the people there know that the students at our school have donated money to help others.

Important Dates:
December 23 - Last days of classes for 2016
January 9 - First day of classes for 2017

News for December 16


News for December 16, 2016
This week, the children were very busy, as usual, learning about telling time on analog clocks, writing about science experiments and even reading about how the "sandwich" got its name. (Did you know that it was named after an English gentleman, John Montagu, The 4th Earl of Sandwich? Sandwich is the name of a town in England.)
In math, the children reviewed the units that humans use to measure time. The day and the year are based on science facts. A "day" is the time it takes for the Earth to rotate once on its axis and a "year" is the time it takes for the Earth to go around (orbit) the sun once. The other measures, seconds, hours, weeks and months were invented by humans to create smaller chunks of time. The class looked at calendars and answered questions like "What is the date 9 days from March 11th?" The children also learned the equivalent time measures because many of these must be memorized as they cannot be easily figured out. For example, 1 year = 52 weeks. The students practiced reading and writing times and drawing time correctly on an analog clock face. In grade 2, the students are required to read and write the time to the quarter-hour (9:00. 9:15, 9:30 and 9:45). Grade 3 students are required to be able to read and write the time to five minute intervals (9:05, 9:10 etc).
In art, the children created collages based on the illustrations in the book "Wabi Sabi" that was read aloud this week. Using only torn paper (construction paper, newspaper, magazine pages) the students glued their paper pieces to create animals and other images. "Wabi sabi" loosely translates to "finding beauty in ordinary things". The students made beautiful "wabi sabi" art from scraps of paper.
In writing, the class continued to learn about and write poems. We focused a lot on Japanese poems called "haiku". These are short poems that emphasize the "beats" or syllables in words. The basic pattern is three lines of words. The first line has 5 beats, the 2nd line has 7 beats and the 3rd line has 5 beats. The students wrote haiku poems based on the torn-paper collages they made and the paper snowflakes that they created last week. Here is a haiku that we wrote together as a class:
Snowflakes are falling,
They are very delicate,
None identical!
In science, the children wrote their observations on the liquid/solid crystal experiment they set up last Friday. They learned about the scientific method, where scientists record the materials they used, what they did, what they observed and why it happened. Recall the students dissolved borax powder in hot water to make a clear solution and left a pipe cleaner in the cup over the weekend. On Monday, the borax came out of the solution and made beautiful, cube-like crystals on the pipe cleaner and the plastic cup! They class talked about how this happened. At the beginning of the experiment, the borax dissolved in the hot water. It "hid" in between the large spaces between hot water molecules. When the water cooled down, the water molecules got closer together and the borax could no longer "hide". So the borax made crystals on any surface it could find. We also made a connection to ice crystal formation that we discussed last week. (Recall a snowflake needs a tiny speck of dirt in the centre to form the ice crystals.)
The students looked at soil and what is found in any type of soil. There are inorganic (non-living) things like rocks and organic (living or previously living) things like sticks. The children set up and experiment to see what happens to a leaf buried in soil over time. Each child buried a piece of leaf from our potato plant into a small cup of soil. This project will take a few weeks and we will revisit this experiment when the children return to school in January. 
The children continued to learn about and sing traditional winter and holiday songs. This week they sang, "All I Want For Christmas is my Two Front Teeth", "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" and "The Hockey Song", among others.
Books read aloud this week
Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein
The Hockey Song by Stompin' Tom Connors
Those Can-Do Pigs by David McPhail 
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams (chapter book)
Frosty the Snowman (DVD)


Sunday, December 11, 2016

Food Bank Project

This year our class is in charge of collecting money for the Daily Bread Food Bank. Did you know that there are families in Toronto that don't have enough food to eat? If every person at our school gave $1.00, we will be able to collect over $500.00 to give to the Food Bank to help others.
Each student made a labelled collection jar to give to other classrooms to help collect the donated money. The children now are taking turns explaining about our project, during daily morning announcements.

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to read the non-fiction story about school principals and answer the questions provided. The children are also asked to write a letter to our school principal, Mrs. Farrelly, which they will mail to her through our school's December Holiday Mailbox program. There is also a math sheet reviewing counting money and making change. This homework is due on Friday, December 16th.
Important Dates:
December 12 to 16 - Food Bank donations collected (and counted) by our class this week.
December 23 - Last days of classes for 2016
January 9 - First day of classes for 2017

News for December 9


News for December 9, 2016

In writing this week, the children started to learn about poems. The class learned how to write concrete (shape) poems, list poems, and acrostic poems. We read books written in rhyme and the lyrics of songs and the children wrote rhyming poems and new lyrics to an old song.
The class created "Holiday Songbooks". There is a tradition of singing seasonal songs at this time of year and there is a rich history of the popular songs that are played and sung. The class created folders to hold the words to the songs (also known as lyrics) so they could read and understand the words and use the lyrics to singalong to the recorded version of the songs. We also talked about when the songs were created and figured out how long ago the song was written. Did you know that the song "The 12 Days of Christmas" was written in 1780? That means when we sing that song we are singing words that were written 236 years ago!
In math, the students continued the money unit by practising making change. In grade 2, the students are expected to be able to make change from amounts paid of $1.00 or less. In grade 3, the students are expect to be able to make change from amounts paid of $10.00 or less. The standard method is to start at the value to be paid and count up and end at the amount paid. For example, if a pencil costs 78 cents and you pay with $1.00, the change is 79,80 (two pennies), 90,100 (two dimes). So the change is 22 cents. The students could also simply subtract 100-78=22.
In science, the class began to talk about liquids and solids. We also discussed what happens to water molecules as the temperature of the water changes. Basically, in solids the molecules are in a fixed position. In liquid water, the molecules have more space between them and can "flow" and in hot water, the molecules have more energy and there are larger spaces between molecules (gas/steam/water vapour). The children began an experiment dissolving borax crystals into room temperature water. Some of the crystals dissolved but not all of them. When the crystals were stirred into hot water ALL the crystals disappeared (because there was more space between the molecules). The students placed twisted pipe cleaners in the hot water/borax solution and left them over the weekend to see what happens...
The children asked to learn more about making sculptures. So, one way is to use wire. The children experimented with wire and plastic beads to make small hanging sculptures that now hang in the hall outside of our classroom.
The students learned about snow this week. We read aloud books about how snowflakes are formed into hexagon shapes because of the shape of water molecules. Did you know that the water crystals of a snowflake need to form on something? So every snowflake has a speck of dirt in the centre of it. The class also learned the true story of Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley, the first person to photograph snow to show how beautiful each snowflake is. (He also took these photographs over 100 years ago!) The children also experimented with different kinds of paper to fold and cut paper snowflakes. They also learned how to fold a hexagon shape (more difficult as it requires folding paper into thirds) to cut a more "correct" hexagon paper snowflake.
Finally, Mrs. Upfold, Ryland's grandmother, came to our class on Thursday to discuss the Christmas traditions in their family. She read holiday books, showed decorations and shared family photos. Finally, she taught the children how to decorate holiday cookies with icing. What a sweet way to end her visit with us. Thank you so much for coming to our class Mrs. Upfold!
Books read aloud this week
The Bookshop Dog by Cynthia Ryland
My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes by Eve Sutton
Flyaway by Lesley Barnes
Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Snow Crystals - Photographs by Wilson A. Bentley
The Story of Snow - The Science of Winter's Wonder by Mark Cassino
A Fly Went By by Mike McClintock







Sunday, December 4, 2016

Sock Puppet Movies

Here are the sock puppet movies that the student groups made:


Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a book report on a book that has been read at home, using the worksheet provided. There is also a math sheet reviewing money concepts covered this week. This homework is due on Friday, December 9th. 
Parent Notes:
If possible, please send a box of tissues to class with your child. There is a lot of sickness going around this time of year and we seem to be going through a lot of boxes of tissues!
Help your child's understanding of money by letting them count up the change in your wallets, make small purchases independently at a store and being responsible for a weekly allowance. Money concepts and understanding is a very important math unit that we cover at school because students will always need to manage money at all stages of their lives.

Important Dates:
December 8 - Multicultural Night (6:00 pm - 7:30 pm)
December 23 - Last days of classes for 2016
January 9 - First day of classes for 2017

News for Dec. 1


News for December 1, 2016
A four-day week does not stop our class from covering a wide range of activities! From learning about Canadian money and writing letters, to creating a homemade advent calendar, the students were busy...
The children finished their letters and drawings for Queen Rania of Jordan. Recall we read her book, "The Sandwich Swap" and even re-created the story by making hummus and eating the same food as in the story.
The children learned about "book reports" and why and how they are written, to help children understand and think about the story in book they've read. The challenge was to pick one of the six "Martha the dog" books that were read aloud to the class and write about the book in a structured way. That is, to recall story elements (setting, characters, problem, solution) and to reason through questions such as, "Which character did you like the best? Why?" and "Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why?"
In math, the children continued the unit on money. They had a chance to look at actual Canadian coins and bills with magnifying glasses and we discussed the information on coins and the security features on the bills. Did you know that the "loonie" was originally supposed to be a picture of a voyager in a canoe (from the Canadian silver dollar), but the picture had to be changed because the original stamp design was lost or stolen and to prevent anyone from counterfeiting the dollar coin, they had to introduce a different design?
The children learned how to create equal values of money using different combinations of coins. They practiced determining and writing money values using the dollar and cents signs (for example, $0.75 is equal to 75¢).
The class drew and used a Venn diagram to compare the two pieces of art they created last week (polygon art and curved line art). They also wrote an art reflection on the artistic process, areas for their improvement and what kind of art they would like to try next.
The students learned about our school's December tradition, "Holiday Mailbox". This month the students are encouraged to write letters to friends and staff members. The goal is to have the children review how to write letters and address envelopes correctly. It's fun to write and receive  letters! This activity will continue until the school breaks for the winter holidays
We filmed the last sock puppet movie this week. The movies can be seen in a separate posting.
The class learned about the Christian tradition of advent calendars. The word "advent" in Latin means "arrival", and Christians would count the days until December 25th, or Christmas Day. Eventually, advent calendars were made for this purpose, usually involving opening small doors or gifts for each day. The class now has a store-bought advent calendar that has an owl sticker behind a small door for each day.
In Room 204, we built on this tradition by creating our own advent calendar to count the days until the winter holiday break. Each child decorated an envelope for a particular numbered day, put some small gifts inside and wrote a letter to the person who gets their gift. Now, each day, the star student randomly selects a name and that person gets to take the designated envelope for that day. This is a wonderful exercise in patience! Every student knows that each child will eventually get an envelope of gifts but they have to wait for their turn.
On Thursday, our whole school had permission to chew bubble gum for five minutes before recess. We read aloud a book on the invention of bubble gum. Did you know that the first bubblegum was pink because that was the only colour available in the lab at that time?
Finally, the children learned about the German mathematician August Moebius. (We have daily readings from an alphabet book on math concepts.) Moebius (or Möbius) discovered that putting a half-twist on a paper strip creates a ring with only one side! So the students experimented with creating Moebius strips and, by drawing a line on the middle of the strip, proved it has only one side! When you cut along this line, something spectacular happens. The small ring becomes one large ring, but twice the size! A version of the Moebius strip can be seen in the standard recycling symbol, to illustrate the never-ending cycle of materials.
Books read aloud this week
Perfectly Martha by Susan Meddaugh
Loon by Susan Van de Griek
Chicken Soup With Rice by Maurice Sendak
Colour My Canada by Elina Diaz
Pop! The Invention of Bubblegum by Meghan McCarthy


Sunday, November 27, 2016

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a story in the homework writing journal, using as many words ending in "-ite" and "-ight" as possible. A list of words the class compiled of these kinds of words was taped by the students into each of their journals for reference. There is also a math sheet reviewing money concepts learned in class this week. This homework is due on THURSDAY, December 1st (since Friday is a P.A. Day).
Note to parents:
Please tuck a clean pair of socks and a second set of mittens or gloves into your child's backpack. The students often get their socks/gloves wet when playing outside during recess times and so it's nice to have a clean, dry pair to wear, if necessary.
Important Dates:
December 2 - P. A. Day (Teacher Union Federation Day) 
December 8 - Multicultural Night (6:00 pm - 7:30 pm)
December 23 - Last days of classes for 2016
January 9 - First day of classes for 2017

News for November 25

News for November 25

This week, the children finished off the geometry unit by sorting figures with similar attributes and building a giant icosahedron! The class learned about the English mathematician, John Venn who, over 100 years ago, developed the Venn Diagram, or logic diagram, of two over-lapping circles. This diagram is used to compare things and sort them into one or the other attribute with the ones with both attributes placed in the overlapping section and those that have none of the criteria are placed on the outside of the diagram.
The students are now learning about Canadian money and how to identify coins, count coins and write down money amounts.
The class read about how compasses work and each child learned how to use a real compass. A compass shows where "north" is and once you know where north is, the other directions are also known. A compass aligns to the north magnetic pole. Did you know that the north magnetic pole moves about 60 kilometres a year? It used to be in Canada for many years, but now it is slowly moving northwest towards Russia. We also compared using a compass to the GPS (Global Positioning System) many phones use now for directions. A GPS system uses information from satellites orbiting the earth to help give directions.
The children worked in their production groups to create movies using their sock puppets. We watched a short cartoon to see the other kinds of information in a movie called the "credits". The groups had to create pages with the title, "starring" information, who made the movie and a "the end" page. The students also picked opening and closing music. Most of the movies were filmed this week, but because of absences, we haven't quite finished. Look for a separate "sock puppet movies" posting next week. After each performance the children in the audience shared what they thought the performing group did well and what they could do next time to improve their performance.
After reading the book, "The Sandwich Swap" where two girls who question the contents of each other's lunches, we decided to recreate the girls sandwiches to learn about different foods. I read this book aloud as part of our school's Anit-bullying Week, to help illustrate how to react to things that might be different or strange from what we know, so that we don't hurt each other's feelings. So, we made homemade hummus with pita bread and noted that the ingredients are from all over the world! We cannot have peanut butter at school so we used "Wow Butter" (a soy-based spread) and strawberry jelly. The students were very gracious and most children tried everything. There are many recipes for hummus available on the internet, but if you would like to know the recipe that we used, please see a photograph in this posting.
The class finished their polygon art (using straight lines and polygons to make and colour designs) and mounted their art on black paper. Then the children experimented with curved lines to make spaces to colour. Next week the students will compare the process and results of creating these two pieces of art.
Our guided reading groups this week did something special. As a connection to our working with 3D geometric shapes, we talked about 3D photos and movies and how they are made. The students also had a chance to use 3D glasses to read non-fiction books about animals. It's really amazing how the way the photos are made (slightly over-lapping) and using glasses with one red and one blue lens, can fool the human brain and make the photo look three-dimensional (but when you touch the photo it feels flat).
Books read aloud this week
Martha Walks the Dog by Susan Meddaugh
Martha and Skits by Susan Meddaugh
The Sandwich Swap by Her Majesty Queen Raina of Jordan
G is For Googol - A Math Alphabet Book by David M. Schwartz




Sunday, November 20, 2016

Update from Ms. R

It was wonderful seeing so many parents this week to talk about the children's work in Room 204! Thank you so much for coming by for a visit.
The snow and cold weather has finally arrived! Please make sure your child comes to school with a winter coat, snow pants, boots, hat, mittens/gloves and a scarf. The students are outside for morning and afternoon recesses (15 minutes each) and for lunch recess (30 minutes). Please put your child's name on EVERYTHING. This helps them (and me) find lost items. If you need a permanent marker to help do this please let me know and I will send one home with your child.
The homework for this week is for each student to interview a parent. Each student is to ask the adult the questions on the "Parent interview Sheet" and then write down the answers in sentences. These interviews will become part of a class book. There is also a math worksheet reviewing 3D geometry concepts covered this week. This homework is due on Friday, November 25th.
Letters were sent home on Thursday regarding a case of pediculosis (lice) that has been found in our class. Please read this letter for prevention and treatment information. You can also visit the Toronto Public Health website at www1.toronto.ca and search the keyword "lice".
Important Dates:
December 2 - P. A. Day (Teacher Union Federation Day) 
December 8 - Multicultural Night (6:00 pm - 7:30 pm)
December 23 - Last days of classes for 2016
January 9 - First day of classes for 2017

News for November 17


News for November 17
This short week the children solved tangram puzzles, learned about the human brain and made sock puppet characters for their movies and of course, much more!
In math, the children reviewed their 2D or two-dimensional geometry by learning about the Chinese puzzles called "tangrams". There are 7 pieces or "tans" to each puzzle set. The challenge is to solve how the tans are put together to make various pictures. At this level, the shape of each tan is given, but in a true tangram puzzle, only the outline is given. The students practiced solving the puzzles and at the beginning it took about a minute to solve the puzzles but as they practiced and shared strategies, most students were taking less than 30 seconds to solve a puzzle and some took less than 15 seconds! The children then designed their own tangram puzzles for their friends to solve. (These student-made puzzles will become part of a class book.) The students continued on to 3D or three-dimensional geometry by creating 3D figure "skeletons" with toothpicks (edges) and small pieces of plasticine (vertices). The students also created paper 3D figures by cutting and folding paper patterns called "nets" to create different kinds of prisms and pyramids.
The students worked to solve 2 math challenges this week, one identifying and counting right angles and one identifying and counting attributes of 3D figures.
The class was divided into groups of three to work together to make a movie. There are a lot of decisions to make and tasks to do when making a movie. This week, they planned the movie stories (characters, setting, problem, solution) and created sock puppets that will be the "stars" of their movies.
The students worked very hard to get their work ready for display for all the parents to see during parent/teacher interviews. The "How-to" pillows books were finished, as well as, the artwork using living things (stamps using potatoes and thumbs). The class learned how to create a border from their potato stamp images to surround the art they made using their thumbprints and fine, black art markers. The children then wrote art reflections to show their analyses of their artistic process. For example, "What was the hardest part about making your art? Why?"
The children started an author study this week by reading books by the author/illustrator Susan Meddaugh. She creates stories about "Martha" who is a talking dog. (Ask your child how Martha is able to speak English...the answer is quite interesting!) Several of her books were read aloud this week and we will continue this project next week.
In social studies, the class reviewed the basic directions of north, south, east and west. Then the directions in-between (northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest) and the convention of placing these direction names on a "compass rose". They practiced identifying directions on a map.
The students have been interested in what exactly a "brain" is. This topic came up in discussion because we were talking about how plants know where the sun is (phototropism) but plants don't have brains. Animals do have brains and human brains are the most complicated ones! We started by identifying three main areas of the brain that are easy to understand for primary-grade children: the pre-frontal cortex (decisions), the amygdala (fight/flight) and the hippocampus (memories).
Books read aloud this week
You Are Stardust by Elin Kelsey
Martha Speaks by Susan Meddaugh
Martha Calling by Susan Meddaugh
Martha Blah Blah by Susan Meddaugh



Sunday, November 13, 2016

Update from Ms. R


The homework for this week is to write a story in the homework writing journal that has shapes in the story in some way. A rectangle, triangle and hexagon are stamped in the journal and could be characters in the story, shapes that make a building in the story or the setting could be in "Shapeland". There is also a math worksheet reviewing the geometry concepts covered this week. This homework is due on THURSDAY, November 17th (since Friday is a P. A. Day).
Thank you to all the families for the Remembrance Day donations. We raised $53.15!
Important Dates:
November 16 - Progress Reports go home
November 17 (evening) and November 18 (morning) - Parent/Teacher interviews
November 18 - P. A. Day
December 2 - P. A. Day
December 23 - Last days of classes for 2016
January 9 - First day of classes for 2017

News for November 11


News for November 11
This week the class folded origami cranes, wrote peace messages and even sent a package to the Prime Minister of Canada!
In math, the children reviewed two-dimensional shapes by folding paper cranes and by solving tangram puzzles. The students then learned about three-dimensional figures and the three attributes found on each: vertices, faces and edges. They learned how to identify prisms and pyramids and how to match figures with their proper names.
The students finished their "how-to" books about how to make a pillow. Each child bound the books with a "stick" binding, using elastic bands and popsicle sticks. These books are now on display in the hallway, outside of our classroom.
We took a potato that started to grow roots and planted it in soil to see if it will grow into a proper potato plant. Each child designed a simple pattern to be carved in a potato and used as a stamp to create all over patterns on paper.
For Remembrance Day, the children learned that on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, on the 11th month of November, Canadians remember those men and women who gave their time and their lives to help keep Canada and other places in the world peaceful and safe. The class learned a song in American Sign Language (ASL), drew and cut out red poppies and learned how to fold paper peace cranes. After learning about the different symbols of peace, the students each wrote 33 words of peace (11 + 11 + 11 = 33). On Friday, the children read their peace messages and made a video. We also attended a Remembrance Day assembly in the gym.

***The video will be posted soon!***

In social studies, the class learned the basic directions of north, south, east and west. We talked about the Province of Ontario and what is north, south, east and west of it. The children located the 5 great lakes and learned their names and order west to east.
In science, the students learned about the legend of Johnny Appleseed, who 200 years ago devoted his life to planting apple trees around the United States. He did this because he felt that apples were a healthy food that should be easily available to everyone. The students finally took home their navy bean plants after reflecting on the amazing transformation of how, a hard, dry navy bean can turn into a beautiful, green plant.

Finally, the class wrote a letter to our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. Recall, we wrote a biography of him (since we couldn't find a children's book about him) and the students wrote adventure stories about their family dog, Kenzie. We put the letter, book and 19 stories into a box and mailed it to Ottawa. Hopefully he, or someone from his office will write us back!

Books read aloud this week

The 100 Dresses by Eleanor Estes (chapter book - finished)
Sadako's Cranes by Judith Loske
The Peace Tree From Hiroshima - The Little Bonsai With a Big Story by Sandra Moore
Three Pigs, One Wolf and Seven Magic Shapes by Grace Maccarone
The Potato King by Niemann

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Update from Ms. R


The homework for this week is to complete the Canada worksheet reviewing the names of the provinces and territories and important facts about Canada. The children are not required to memorize this information, but they are encouraged to use the "Provinces of Canada" song we learned to help them. (The children each correctly completed this same sheet in class and and have it in a "top secret" envelope to use if he/she needs it.) Fair warning...the students have been asked to teach the song to an adult! There is also a math worksheet reviewing geometry concepts learned this week. This homework is due on Friday, November 11th.
Notes:
1.  A bright yellow interview request form was sent home with each child on Friday. Please use this form to indicate your 1st, 2nd and 3rd time choices for a parent/teacher interview. Hopefully, I will be able to give you one of the times you choose, but if that is not possible, I will select a time close to your chosen times. I will send home a note with your child indicating your interview time. If for any reason you need to cancel or change the interview time between now and November 17th, please let me know.
2.  Our class is collecting money for Canadian veterans for Remembrance Day (November 11th), to help them pay for the cost of the poppies and for the various charities they support. 
3.  If you have a special tradition, talent or hobby that you would like to share with the students, please let me know. We love having visitors in our classroom!

News for November 4



News for November 4
There was a lot going on this week from celebrating Halloween to learning about the Mexican holiday "Dia De Los Muertos" or The Day of the Dead to learning about parallel lines and right angles to sewing art journals! Whew!
We began the week by learning about and celebrating All Hallow's Eve or Halloween. The students learned how to make caramel apples, did various holiday crafts and listened to a "ghost story". They even solved a math challenge to figure out how many caramels we needed to use to make the caramel apples. In the afternoon, we put on costumes and walked, with the rest of the school, in a Halloween Parade around the neighbourhood. At the end of the day, the class enjoyed their homemade caramel apples while watching a dvd of Domo's adventures.
In writing, the children reviewed the steps to make their pillows. First, as a group, we talked about all the things the class had to learn how to do to create a finished pillow. Next, the students wrote directions, with enough details, to show another person how to make a pillow. Writing these type of directions is called "procedural writing" and is a type of non-fiction writing that helps children write more information into their sentences, as well as, practising writing information in a sequence. These directions will be made into "How to" books next week.
In math, the students learned how to identify pairs of parallel lines and how to spot them in polygons. We also talked about angles (the distance between two adjacent lines attached at one end). The three types we discussed are right angles (where a horizontal line meets a vertical line), angles smaller than a right angle (acute angles) and angles bigger than a right angle (obtuse angles). The class also discovered that as more sides and angles are added to a polygon, the more the shape looks like a circle. Mathematicians consider that circles have have 0 sides, 0 vertices and 0 angles (since they have an infinite number of sides/angles/vertices). The class also started to learn how to sort two-dimensional shapes by their attributes (for example, if a shape has a right angle or not).
In science, the navy bean seeds have sprouted both roots and leaves. The children recorded their observations each day in their science folders. At the end of the week, the students planted half of their sprouted seeds in soil and left half on the damp paper to see the importance of soil to the health of plants. The children learned about the life cycle of plants and trees and drew the life cycle of the navy bean in their science folders.
In social studies, the class began to learn more about Canada. They learned a song to help them remember the names and the order of the provinces and territories, from east to west. They labelled and coloured maps of Canada and learned some important facts about our country. Did you know that Canada is 149 years old and became a country on July 1, 1867? 
Every child now has a homemade art journal! They created designs on the covers and learned how to sew the pages inside. These journals will now be used by the children during their choice times.
Finally, on Friday, Lucia's mother came in to talk about the Mexican holiday, "Dia De Los Muertos" or "The Day of the Dead". This is a holiday that their family observes to celebrate the lives of family members that have passed away. Lucia read aloud a book that talked about traditions of this day. She showed photographs of what people do to celebrate this holiday. We even had some Mexican hot chocolate and "pan de los muertos", which is a special bread baked only at this time of year. Thanks so much Lucia for taking the time to come and share this information with our class!
Books read aloud this week:
The Tailypo - A Ghost Story by Joan Galdsone
The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns
The 100 Dresses by Eleanor Estes (chapter book)
Dia De Los Muertos by Roseanne Greenfield Thong