Sunday, June 26, 2016

Update from Ms. R

The homework journal was sent home with children on Friday for the last time. I wrote each child a letter in their journals thanking everyone for being part of such an amazing group of learners this year!

Important Dates:

June 28 - Report Cards go home
June 29 - Last day of classes for the 2015-2016 school year
September 5 - Labour Day - Statutory Holiday
September 6 - First day of classes for the 2016-2017 school year

News for June 24


News for June 24
What a week! From being evacuated to Hodgson on Tuesday to Canadian Tire Play Day on Friday, the students in Room 204 were very busy...
On Tuesday, our whole school was evacuated to Hodgson Senior Public School because our school building had no electricity and no water. The basement had flooded and caused an electrical fire. Luckily our friends at Hodgson Senior Public School gave all the students at our school a place to go and be safe. Unfortunately, I had just come from home myself and I had no materials for the children to use, but I managed to scrounge some paper and crayons for the students. Francesca was amazing, leading the children in games and the students were able to talk and play games among themselves. Luckily the power and water were back on at our school building by the end of the day.
The students finally learned the secret to a card trick I showed them last week and then practised doing the trick with a partner. 
The children learned about the French art technique of "papier mache" (layering paper and glue to create a rigid structure). They then covered balloons with three layers of paper to make a three-dimensional forms that they will turn into sculptures next week.
The students rehearsed and rehearsed the play "Honesty is the Best Policy" and finally presented it to all the grade 1, 2 and 3 classes on Friday afternoon. We had two presentations of the play, one with grade 2 actors and one with grade 3 actors. The children did an amazing job!
The class attended two assemblies this week to watch performances by other classes and to see various presentations to students.
On Friday morning, our school was very lucky to have staff from Canadian Tire come to our school and organize a Play Day. The students participated in a variety of activities from standard athletic games to colouring designs on t-shirts!
On Monday, June 20th at 6:34 pm, it was the official beginning of summer. The class discussed why this happens...it's because the axis of the earth is tilted and now the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun in it's orbit around the sun. This year it was also the night of a rare "strawberry moon", when the first day of summer is also the time of a full moon. (The last one was seen in June 1967 and the next one will be in 2062!)
The students watched an old Looney Tunes cartoon ("One Froggy Evening - 1955) about a time capsule and then remembered about the time capsules they created in October of last year. After being hidden away (along with Flash Domo) 10 months ago, it was fun for the students to look at the letters they wrote to the "future" students of Room 204. They also read their wishes and predictions and compared their heights and the sizes of their hands and feet! A lot has happened in our 10 months together in Room 204.
Books read aloud this week:
Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale by Gerald McDermott
The Runaway Beard: A Hairy Tale by David Schiller
How Summer Came to Canada retold by William Toye
The Boy with Square Eyes by Juliet and Charles Snape

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Pioneer Village Presentations

Our Field Trip

Here are some photos from our field trip:

Update from Ms. R

Happy Father's Day to all the Room 204 families!

Well, our concert went very well indeed. The children worked very hard on their presentation and it showed! It was wonderful to see all the parents there to see the concert.

There was no homework assigned for this week.

(Please click on the image to see the full picture.)

News for June 17




News for June 17

This was probably the busiest week of the year...a field trip, a concert and Pioneer Day!
The children learned how to solve crossword puzzles. Then they solved a crossword puzzle based on clues about math concepts we learned in Room 204 this year. 
The students finished writing all the word wall words in their personal dictionaries this week...over 200 words!
In math, the children learned facts about playing cards. Did you know that a package of cards is called a "deck" and that there are 13 hearts (red) + 13 diamonds (red) + 13 clubs (black) + 13 spades (black) = 52 cards. 
On Tuesday, the students went on their field trip to the Bata Shoe Museum and the University of Toronto Imaging Facility. At the museum, the children painted Dutch-style wooden shoes and learned about the history of First Nations footwear. At the university, the children used light microscopes to look at seeds, electron microscopes to look at fruit flies (Drosophila) and confocal microscopes (that uses lasers) to look at fruit fly eyes. Finally, they watched some experiments with liquid nitrogen! Photos from that day will be presented in a separate posting.
The students worked on creating a gift for someone special in his/her life. They designed a photo holder using wire and wrapped the present in wrapping paper decorated with tessellated hexagons!
Friday was the last day of our school's healthy snack program. The students wrote thank you letters to Chris the Snackman to thank him for providing snacks to our class this year. (They also wrote thank you cards to all the presenters on our field trip.)
Our Pioneer Village was finished this week and the students practised their presentations. On Friday, the groups were videotaped sharing what they learned about their pioneer buildings. This video can be seen in a separate posting.
Pioneer Day, June 17, 1816 was a great success! The students made a lunch of baked beans, corn, cornbread pancakes, carrots, cheese, pickles and homemade butter. Finally the class had fresh strawberries and blueberries with sweet tea for dessert and they had raisins and popcorn for a snack. The children practised their math facts using blackboards and chalk, they prepared their pioneer village presentations, they heard the fairy tale, The Bremen town Musicians (which was written by the Brothers Grimm, 200 years ago in 1816). Finally the students learned about writing with feather, or quill, pens and they each had a chance to try to write and draw using this type of pen and ink. They learned about the famous "pangram" sentence that contains all 26 letters of the alphabet:
"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."
The students finished their art based on the work of the Dutch artist M. C. Escher. These are now on display in the hall outside of our classroom.
Books read aloud this week:
A Shiver of Sharks: A Collections of Aquatic Collective Nouns by Patrick George
Go FIgure: A Totally Cool Book About Numbers by Johnny Ball
On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein by Jennifer Berne
The Bremen Town Musicians (1816) by The Brothers Grimm





Thursday, June 9, 2016

Videos seen in class this week

The class watched a video about the Dutch artist/mathematician, M. C. Escher.



They also watched a video about the northern lights or Aurora Borealis.


Update from Ms. R

This week the homework is to write a letter to me in the homework writing journal. I've asked the students to go back to September 2015 on the class blog and go through the activities each month and review what we did together this year. In their letters, the students must write about three things they enjoyed doing (and why), three things they did not enjoy (and why) and some suggestions for me to improve my classroom program. These letters will help me improve my teaching practice and help the children reflect on our year together. This homework is due on Friday, June 17th.
IMPORTANT DATES
June 14 - Bata Shoe Museum/University of Toronto field trip
June 15 - Concert @Hodgson Senior Public School - 6:30 pm start time 
June 17 - ***Pioneer Day - It's June 17, 1816 in Room 204! Students will make and eat lunch in class.
June 18 - Fun Fair - fundraising event 
June 19 - Father's Day
June 28 - Term 2 Report Cards go home
June 29 - Last day of school for the year
***June 17, 1816 ...Students will NOT need to bring a lunch on this day. We will be preparing food in class and eating our lunch together in Room 204. Students are encouraged to dress like a pioneer that day. Two hundred years ago girls wore skirts or dresses and boys wore pants and button up shirts.
A photo from our school's Jump Rope for Heart event on Monday.

News for June 9

News for June 9

The students of Room 204 worked hard during this short four-day week!
The children started a new language activity each day called "Fun With Words". The children played the game "How to Turn a Hen into a Fox" (ask your child to show you how it's done). They also solved word searches using our word wall words. At the end of the week, we began to talk about the English tradition of giving odd names to collective names of animals. Did you know that a group of caterpillars is called an "army", a group of butterflies is a "kaleidoscope" and a group of worms is a "clew"?
In math, the students learned about the artist/mathematician, from Holland, M. C. Escher (1898-1972). He studied and created tiling or tessellations, where a repeating shape covers the area of a surface without overlapping or leaving gaps between the shapes. The students coloured one of Escher's designs and then created original tessellation designs of their own.
The children learned about the phenomenon of the Aurora borealis, or northern lights. A character in the book, Mary of Mile 18, thought seeing the Aurora Borealis was good luck. Did you know it's best seen at night, in winter near the North Pole?
Our miniature Pioneer Village is now finished and the groups are currently doing research on their buildings. The students are writing their research facts on cards and practicing for their video presentations.
The students have rehearsed for the concert each day this week, reciting our poem and learning the dance routine and getting ready for their performance in next weekend's concert. The concert is on Wednesday, June 15th at 6:30 at Hodgson Senior a Public School. They are only on stage for five minutes but the students have a great performance prepared! Don't miss it!
The children also had some time to rehearse our class play!
Books read aloud this week:
Mary of Mile 18 by Ann Blades
The Onion's Great Escape by Sarah Fanelli
The Crackle of Crickets: A Collection of Insect Collective Nouns by Patrick George

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Important dates for June

June 6 - Jump Rope for Heart event (donation envelopes due)
June 10 - PA Day - no classes
June 14 - * Bata Shoe Museum/University of Toronto field trip (forms send home on Friday)
June 15 - Concert @Hodgson Senior Public School - 6:30 pm start time (info sent home this week)
June 17 - Pioneer Day - It's June 17, 1816 in Room 204! Students will make and eat lunch in class.
June 18 - Fun Fair - fundraising event 
June 19 - Father's Day
June 28 - Term 2 Report Cards go home
June 29 - Last day of school for the year

* We need at least two parent volunteers for this trip. We are going with Ms. Gambin's grade 3 French Immersion class. Please let me know if you wish to join us!

* June 17, 1816 ...Students will NOT need to bring a lunch on this day. We will be preparing food in class and eating our lunch together in Room 204.


Friday, June 3, 2016

Update from Ms. R

After a very intense week, with our classroom set up and routines completely changed, I have given the students (and myself) a break. By this I mean, there is no formal homework this week. However the children have been asked to learn the words to the song we are going to sing at the concert and they are also working on their own short dances that they do within the dance performance. A copy of the song lyrics were sent home on Friday.
Our concert is on Wednesday, June 15th at 6:30 pm. A flyer with more information was sent home with your child this week. Mark the date! You don't want to miss your child's performance!
***WE HAVE CHANGED OUR CONCERT PERFORMANCE AND WILL NO LONGER BE 
PERFORMING THIS SONG*** (We will be reciting a poem instead.)
For your reference, we are saying/singing "Forever Young" by Bob Dylan, but the class is using the  Louisa Johnson version. Louisa Johnson is an amazing world class singer, so we are attempting a recitation of the lyrics with a sing-song feel.



The students are also dancing to the song, "Wrapped Up" by Olly Murs (featuring Travie McCoy). They are all dancing together, but there are several times when the children are creating their own dance movements.

News for June 3




News for June 3

This was a very crazy week for the students of Room 204! After weeks of preparation, the grade 3's finally experienced the three days of EQAO standardized testing and the grade 2's spent time in Mr. Hinrichsen's class. However, we managed to do other activities in-between the testing times.
We have now finished the Word Wall Word (spelling) program for the year. The class is now focussing on Fun With Words activities. This week, the children learned about synonyms (words with similar meanings) and antonyms (words with opposite meanings). The class also reviewed homophones (words that sound the same but with different spellings and different meanings) and parts of speech (nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs). 
The class rehearsed the play "Honesty is the Best Policy" and they began staging the various scenes and planning the props and costumes they require.
The class talked about the capybaras (world's largest rodents) that escaped from the High Park Zoo last week. Did you know that capybaras are native to South America, grow to one metre long, don't have tails and are semi-aquatic mammals (live half their life in water)? We also read aloud the true story of Capyboppy, about a family that had a capybara as a pet. 
The students learned more about the settlers or pioneers that came to Canada 200 years ago and how they lived. Most of the people that came to Canada at that time, came from England, Scotland, Ireland and the United States. The children learned about the things that would be in a typical family home, for example, the hearth (fireplace) and candles. Each student received a bandana or kerchief to wear when we are doing pioneer activities to help remind them of living 200 years ago. Bandanas were very useful and were used for head coverings, napkins, handkerchiefs and much more. At the end of the week, the students worked in groups to start creating buildings for our miniature Pioneer Village that we are making.
In the pioneer spirit, the children each made a skipping rope by measuring the length from the armpit to the floor and doubling that number and cutting that length of rope. The students will use these skipping ropes for the Jump Rope for Heart event on Monday, June 6th.
The children started to learn and practice the song and dance that they will perform at the concert on June 15th. The performance is only 5 and 1/2 minutes long but the students are learning how much work and practice goes into making a successful performance!
Books read aloud this week:
Forever Young by Bob Dylan and Paul Rogers.
Capyboppy by Bill Peet
Mary of Mile 18 by Ann Blades