News for September 15

News for September 15

The first full week of school had the children learning more about numbers, creating line art and performing in plays!

In language, the class talked about how stories can be sorted into three types: fiction (not true), non-fiction (true) and near fiction (a combination of fiction and non-fiction). The class talked about reading skills. We discussed how being able to “decode” or read text is not enough…the reader needs to remember and understand what is read (reading comprehension). We sorted the 26 letters of the alphabet into 5 vowels and 21 consonants and reviewed letter sounds (phonemes). The class then read a short fiction text and answered questions about the story to show their understanding. If the student does not know the answer to the question right away rereading the text is an excellent strategy to help.

Each child has a treasure jar in his/her desk to store little treasures that they find. This week the class made labels for their jars. (Children always find little things that they want to keep and this treasure jar is a safe place in which to keep them.)

The four drama groups worked very hard this week to rehearse their plays of “The 3 Billy Goats Gruff”. They chose costumes and practised their lines and helped each other to do his/her best. The groups performed the plays in front of the class and the plays were videotaped. These videos can be seen in a separate posting.

After reading the book “The Secret Life of Squirrels”, the class learned some facts about squirrels. Did you know that squirrels live everywhere in the world except Australia and Antarctica and can be as small as 10 cm or as large as 1 metre? The students then practised writing sentences by picking 3 squirrel facts and writing about them. We also watched a video of the author of the book and how she photographs squirrels for her books. Here is the link:

http://thechronicleherald.ca/metro/1124882-bedford-woman-puts-squirrels-in-the-picture

In math, each child created their own 100 chart by writing the numbers from 1 to 100. The class talked a lot about skip counting. Skip counting is a math strategy that helps to count a large number of things faster. One activity had the children tried drawing as many happy faces as they could in one minute, then grouped them by 2’s or 5’s to help them count how many they drew.  The students learned how to play a “Guess the Secret Number” game. Using the hundreds chart, they track if the guessed number is smaller or bigger than the target number, slowly narrowing down the options until the correct number is chosen.

In art, the class learned about the most common element of art, the line. They each drew a long, curving line and then coloured in the spaces. We talked about how artists give titles to their work, and then each student chose a title for his/her work. The students then each wrote a reflection on the art by writing the artist’s name, title and what he/she thought was done well on the finished art. This artwork and the artist’s reflections are now on display in the hall outside of our classroom.

The students learned more about our country’s national anthem, “O Canada”. Did you know that every country in the world has its own national song or anthem? We reviewed the English words to help us sing the anthem correctly each morning. The class also learned the American Sign Language (ASL) signs used. As well, the students learned the ASL signs for “thank you” and “sorry”.

The students learned a trick to do with a paper clip and a piece of paper. First they learned the history of the standard paper clip. Did you know it was invented in 1867, by Samuel Fey in the USA? The object of this lesson was to challenge the students to do something that is tricky to learn. Some children get it right away and others have to keep trying. Some become teachers and help others. In the end they all managed to learn how to do the paper clip trick and hopefully learned a bit about perseverance. Here is a link to a how-to video:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cCRRqPYIWsY

Finally, the class attended an assembly in the gym hosted by our vice principal, Ms. Robertson, to review the safety rules at our school. 

Books read aloud this week:

The Secret Life of Squirrels by Nancy Rose

Books! By Murray McCain

Squirrelly Gray by James Kochalka

The Golden Rule by Ilene Cooper