News for February 24

News for February 24

This four-day week had the children acting in plays, learning about air and water in the environment and how maple syrup is made!

Our class glovetopus chapter books are now finished! Each student now has a deep appreciation for the amount of work it takes to create and publish a book. The last steps were to design a "table of contents" and assemble all the pages, in the proper order, and staple the pages together. 

Every child had a chance to read another student's chapter book and write the author a book review in the form of a letter. The reviewer wrote about what they liked about the book, and why, and what they could do next time to make his/her writing even better. These books and letters are now part of a whole class book that the children can access during our independent reading time.

In math, the class learned about the standard units of measure for capacity (litre and millilitre) and mass (kilogram and gram). Capacity is the measurement of the amount that something can hold. Mass is the measurement of the amount of "stuff" is something. On Earth, mass is equivalent to "weight" (due to the force of gravity). The difference between mass and weight is important as the weight of something can change (things weigh less on the moon, for example) but the mass of things do not change.

In our guided reading groups this week, we read about and discussed how maple syrup is made. Canada produces the most maple syrup in the world. This information is in preparation for our discussion and celebration of "Pancake Tuesday" next week.

In science, the class talked about air. It's invisible but so important! Did you know that air is mostly nitrogen gas with a bit of oxygen gas? (There are also trace amounts of water vapour, argon and carbon dioxide in air.) Earth's air is in a layer around the Earth called the atmosphere and is kept there because of the pull of gravity. Using straws and tissue paper, the students used what they know about air to play a "pass the paper" type of game. On Friday, the children created pinwheels, a toy that needs air to work, by blowing on the pinwheel or moving the pinwheel itself through the air. The students then wrote the directions on how to make a pinwheel toy in their writing journals.

Two of the three Reader's Theatre groups performed their plays this week. The actors all did a great job! The third group will be filmed next week. These videos can be seen in a separate posting.

The students began to talk formally about fairy tales. Several stories were read aloud and we compiled a list of "fairy tale rules" that apply to these types of stories. (For example, in many stories, animals act like humans.) We also started a list of the fairy tale stories that we know. The children began to write their own fairy tales based on existing stories (e.g., "The Three Little Spiders" instead of "The Three Little Pigs").

The class learned the cursive letters, "l, e, f, v". (Only 4 more letters to go...)

Our guest this week on the Room 204 Interview Show was Ms. Tiralongo. She is a teacher at our school. This video can be seen in a separate posting.

Books read aloud this week:

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren (chapter book - now finished)

Rivers of Sunlight - How the Sun Moves Water Around the Earth by Molly Bang

Once Upon a Time - Barnyard Tales (The Little Red Hen, The Ugly Duckling, Chicken Little) retold by Marilyn Helmer

Rumplestiltskin retold by Edith Tarcov