News for September 22

News for September 22

This week the students wrote a class book about Canada, made “Ojo de dios” crafts with yarn and even had a letter we wrote together about respect read aloud on the school’s morning announcements!

In math, the class continued to review skip counting each day, but now with different starting points. For example, count by tens starting at 6. The children used skip counting by two and making groups of two to help them determine if a number is odd or even. They used skip counting by ten to begin to understand the place value concepts of our number system and reviewed how to use ten frames to help with counting. Did you know that you can make any number in the world with just ten digits? The digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 are very powerful because the value of the digit depends on the place that you put it.

I wrote a story about our class with everyone's name in it. The children wanted to read the story but there were some problems. If the story had no spaces between the words, it was impossible to read. If the story had no capital letters and no periods, it was also very difficult to read. So the students worked to add capital letters on names and at the beginning of sentences and periods at the end of sentences. We don't want to read in a world without capital letters and periods! :-) The class also practised following written directions and sequencing sentences. By rewriting the sentences they practised how to print perfect sentences. 

The class learned about time capsules and how they are used to give people in the future a glimpse of what life was like in a previous time. First we watched an old “Looney Tunes” cartoon to help explain what a time capsule is. Then we talked about making our own time capsule! The children each made a book about his/herself, recording facts like age, height and wishes for the future. After the books were assembled, we wrote a letter to “The Future Room 204” explaining all the activities we have done so far this year. Finally, we sealed the books and class letter into a box to be opened on June 28, 2018, the last day of the school year. It will be interesting to see the kinds of things that changed and those that didn’t. Here is a link to the cartoon: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3bvb6s

In social studies, the class learned more about Canada. The children created maps showing the 10 provinces and 3 territories, the cities Toronto and Ottawa (Canada’s capital city). We also collected some interesting facts about Canada. Did you know that Lacrosse is the national game of Canada? Finally each child created a page with one fact and we assembled these pages into a class book.

The students learned about a traditional craft from Mexico called “Ojo de Dios” or “god’s eyes”. These are considered to be good luck and are made using wood and yarn. First the children glued two popsicle sticks together in the form of an X. Then they experimented with winding different coloured yarns around the X to create the finished craft. These are now on display inside our classroom.

The class discussed the word “respect” and what it means. As a class, we wrote a letter to our vice-principal, Ms. Robertson, to explain our understanding of respect (since it is the TDSB character trait for September). She liked our letter so much that she read our letter on the morning announcements.

Books read aloud this week:

Ganesha’s Sweet Tooth by Sanjay Patel

Hey Little Ant by Phillip and Hannah Hoose

Colour My Canada By Eliana Diaz

Terry Fox - A Story of Hope by Maxine Trottier

Follow the Line by Laura Ljungkvist