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

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)

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

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