News for March 31

News for March 31

In math, the class continued to practice multiplication facts and their application to solving word problems. We had quick daily quizzes to help the students retain their multiplication facts. The class continued the unit on fractions by focusing on using fraction language and concepts and applying these to sets, or groups, of objects. Finally, on Friday, the children finished the unit by reviewing fractions of a whole and fractions of a set.

The students continue to work on our Lego City. The buildings are now on four separate "islands" with roads. The children are still writing their Lego stories using the buildings as the settings for their stories.

As part of the science unit on structures, each student is researching a famous structure from around the world. We will learn about 21 structures from Stonehenge to the Sphinx!

In social studies, the class continued to learn about the early settlers in Upper Canada. (Recall Canada did not officially become a country until 1867.) The focus was on the United Empire Loyalists, who came from the USA to remain loyal to England. People came from Ireland because of the potato famine, which meant there was not enough food to eat. American slaves came to Upper Canada because Upper Canada had laws against slavery. These people all came to live in Upper Canada in search of a better life.

The children were individually weaving small pieces of fabric to create bookmarks. About half of the class finished this week and many decided to weave another bookmark on their looms!

The students reviewed the "power of the twist", where many materials, like thread, wool and rope, become stronger when twisted. They listened to how humans, at first, twisted wool fleece by hand, then by drop spindle, then by spinning wheels, to create wool yarn. This yarn, in turn, can be woven or knitted into socks, sweaters, blankets and other things. Each child had a turn to try using a spinning wheel.

The children learned a pioneer song, "When I First Came to This Land". This song tells a story, in cumulative rhyme, of a pioneer man arriving to a new land and how he made a house, farmed the land and raised a family.

The students watched an episode of the long-running TV series, "Little House on the Prairie". It was very informative to see how people lived in North America over 150 years ago, as the story of the pioneer family, the Ingalls, unfolded. 

The class began a novel study using the read aloud book, "The Iron Man" by Ted Hughes. To reinforce the comprehension strategy of "making a picture in your mind", in order to understand what is happening in the story, the children were asked to continuously draw pictures on paper as they heard the action in the story. They could refer to these drawings to help them remember story details each when reviewing what had happened previously in the story. 

There was no Room 204 Interview Show this week. The show will return next week with two new episodes.

Finally, on Friday, the class went to the gym to watch a performance of the play, "Into the Woods" as presented by the students from Spectrum Alternative School.

Books read aloud this week:

The Iron Man by Ted Hughes

Little House on the Prairie - A Harvest of Friends (DVD)