News for January 8

News for January 8

This first week at school for 2016 was a busy one!

In math we began the unit on measurement. Starting with how to measure length, the students measured how long things were with non-standard units (e.g., crayons) and standard units (e.g., centimetres, metres, kilometres) the students measured different things in the classroom. The big project was to measure the length of the school by measuring the length of the second floor hallway! The grade two students used their bodies (non-standard units) and the grade 3 students used metre sticks (standard units). The results? The hallway is 114 metres and 71 centimetres long OR 96 and 1/2 students. (We estimated the half a student. We didn't actually cut a student in half.) We also looked at measuring mass/weight using grams (about the mass of one paperclip) and kilograms (about the mass of a box of salt).

In writing, the children learned about the "author biography" section of a book that talks about the life of the author of a book. Since the students recently wrote chapter books, they each wrote an author biography of him/herself and these will be included in their final published books.

Word Wall news! The class figured out that we learned 100 word wall words so far this year. So many, that there wasn't any room left on the word wall. So each child created a "personal dictionary" and as a review, they each wrote the words alphabetically into their personal dictionaries.

In science, the students worked in pairs for the final paper structure challenge! Using a maximum of 30 pieces of paper and masking tape, the challenge was to create a strong and stable paper structure at least 21 cm tall that would hold the most dictionaries. The winning structure was made by Emma and Braeden using only 15 pieces of paper. Their structure held 23 dictionaries and two full book bins!

In science/writing the children used the their research on various man-made structures around the world and created fact books. These are now on display in the hallway outside of our classroom.

The students also learned about some structures that animals make. We focused on the honeycomb made by honeybees. Did you know that honeybees make the hive by creating hexagonal prisms made of wax? Did you know that honeybees use their wings to fan the nectar so the water evaporates and concentrates the sugar into honey?

The class used a few new reading comprehension strategies by reading a non-fiction text about spider silk. The students learned that reading the questions before reading a story helps the reader learn and remember the important information in the story. The children also learned how to use yellow highlighters to highlight important information. Did you know that spiders don't just use their silk to make spider webs? For example, they also use the silk to wrap around egg sacks to protect the eggs inside from predators before the spiderlings hatch from the eggs.

Finally, on Friday, the students began to learn how to do cursive writing. The reasons for learning cursive writing is so that the students learn how to read cursive writing, how to write their signature and how to write faster (since when writing cursive the pencil isn't constantly being taken of the page and repositioned).

Books read aloud this week:

The Sheepover: Sweet Pea and Friends by John and Jennifer Churchman

The Honeybee Man by Lela Nargi

Animal Homes (ebook) by Saranne Taylor

My Name is Bob the Cat by James Bowen

Christian the Lion by Anthony Bourke and John Randall