News for October 21

News for October 21

This week, the students began talking about our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. The students did not know a lot about him and when we tried to find a book about him, we couldn't find one. So the class agreed that we should work together to write one ourselves! The children began by asking questions about Mr. Trudeau's life and job. Then we used the internet to help answer the children's questions. The students each took a fact and created a page with an illustration and a fact. We put together these pages to make a class book. Did you know that the Prime Minister's favourite food is sushi? Did you know that before he was Prime Minister, he was a high school teacher? 

When researching information about our Prime Minister, a few children asked if he had a pet. The Trudeau family does have a pet! It's a Portuguese water dog named Kenzie. Then the class agreed to write fiction stories about Kenzie the dog. Did you know that Portuguese water dogs have extra skin between their toes to make them really good swimmers?

In math, the children learned about cardinal (counting) numbers (1,2,3...) and ordinal (order) numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd...). The class reviewed a variety of addition and subtraction math strategies. They learned about "fact families" and how numbers are related. For example, using the numbers 3,5,8, there are two addition facts connecting them ( 3+5=8 and 5+3=8) and two subtraction facts connecting them (8-5=3 and 8-3=5). The children also used base 10 blocks and place value charts to help them understand two digit addition and subtraction without regrouping. The students also practiced solving word problems using these skills

The students learned about the formal stages of the writing process. The first stage is to plan the story (characters, setting, problem, solution). The next stage is to write the rough copy. Then the writer must edit (correct mistakes) his/her writing. Finally, the story needs to be presented as a good copy (student written or typed). Technically, there is a stage after editing, called revising, where words are added or changed, but the students will not formally do this stage until later in the year. 

After creating colour wheels last week, the students wrote stories using the primary and secondary colours. Every time the children wrote red, blue, yellow, purple, green and orange, they wrote the words using the appropriate colour crayons. The children then made little "colour" story books after they wrote their good copies.

In science, the children learned the ways that scientists sort living things: animals [vertebrates (animals with spines) and invertebrates (animals without spines)], plants, fungi, protozoa (single-called animals and plants) and Monera (bacteria).  The class also talked about different ways that animals eat and move.

The class learned how to use water colour paints on thick watercolour paper. Each child painted a front and back cover for their colour stories.

The class is learning the American Sign language (ASL) alphabet. This week the children learned the signs for A, B, C, D and E.

The children created large work portfolios by decorating pieces of bristol board folded in half. The students will use these work portfolios to collect pieces of writing, math problems, projects and artwork over the course of the school year.

The children learned how to safely use an iron to iron flat the pieces of fabric they designed. Then the students worked with me to power an electric sewing machine to sew their two pieces of fabric together to make their pillows.

Books read aloud this week:

Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe (chapter book)

The Tree of Life - The Incredible Biodiversity of Life on Earth by Rochelle Strauss