News for May 12

News for May 12

This week the students learned about algebra, read about more caterpillar facts and even designed and created jewellery!

In math, the students continue to review patterns. This week, the focus was on number patterns. The children practiced extending growing (increasing) and shrinking (decreasing) patterns and how to properly write the pattern rule for any given pattern. For example, the pattern rule for 24, 29, 34, 29, is "Starting at 24, add 5 each time." Later in the week, the class was introduced to grade-level algebra concepts. Basically, algebra works with finding unknown numbers in a different way. It also helps to develop logical thinking skills. For example, the children are familiar with the format, 8+5= ?. However, how do we solve 8+?=13, when the unknown quantity is in an unfamiliar place?

In writing, the children created cards for Mother's Day. They worked on their stories about their treasure jars. They also wrote reflections on their Ojibway art they created last week, and made connections to the animal clan that they chose. Each child made a poster with their art and writing and now these are on display in the hall outside of our classroom. The children also learned how to write the singular possessive correctly, using " 's". For example, "the book belongs to Domo" becomes "Domo's book".

In social studies, we talked about how people, 200 years ago, had to constantly think about having enough food and fresh water and having a safe place to live. We discussed how modern families really don't have to worry about these things each day. The class watched another episode of "Little House on the Prairie" to see how pioneers worked together to help each other have enough food and money for their families.

In science, the class continued to make their observations of their caterpillars. Some caterpillars are now 4 cm long! (Recall that they were about 1 cm long when we got them last week.) The main job of a caterpillar is to eat, so that is why they are growing so fast and create so much frass! The children drew diagrams of the life cycle of the butterfly in their science folder. All insects go through a 4-stage life cycle of egg-larva-pupa-adult. For a butterfly, the caterpillar is the larva stage, the pupa is the chrysalis stage and the butterfly is the adult stage. The class learned that the patterns on butterfly wings are made up of tiny, coloured, overlapping scales. The children wrote down questions that they have about the caterpillars to help guide our research. Did you know that there are over 12,000 different kinds of butterflies in the world? Did you know that caterpillars breathe through holes in the sides of their bodies called spiracles? Did you know that the Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus first wrote about Painted Lady butterflies in 1758? That's 259 years ago.

The grade 3 students met for six periods this week as they continued to learn how to write the EQAO standardized test by reviewing math concepts, reading comprehension strategies and writing correct and complete paragraphs. During these times, the grade 2 students go to Ms. Ceneda's class. Only one more week to practice and review before the testing begins the week of May 23rd.

Finally, each child designed and created a beaded necklace to give as gifts to their mothers on Mother's Day. They also wrapped them in tissue paper and ribbons!

Books read aloud this week:

The Butterfly Alphabet by Kjell B. Sandved

The Butterfly House by Sarah L. Smith

Tank and Fizz by Liam O'Donnell and Mike Deas (He is the  illustrator who will visit our school on May 16.)

How Pizza Came to Our Town by Dayal Kaur Khalsa

Little House on the Prairie (DVD): The Hundred Mile Walk