Update from Ms. R

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is for each of the children to write a fiction story in his/her writing journal about the band-aid stuck in the journal. There is also a math sheet reviewing 3D geometry concepts covered in class this week. This homework is due on Friday, February 2nd.

Please note:

* Term 1 parent/teacher interviews are on the evening of Thursday, February 15 and the morning of Friday, February 16. At this time of year, the interviews are optional. However, I will be sending home an interview selection sheet next week in case you wish to have an interview.

* Our LIBRARY DAY (Day 1) now falls on TUESDAYS . Please help your child to remember to return his/her library book each week.

Important Dates:

February 14 - Term 1 report cards go home

February 15 (evening) and February 16 (morning) - optional parent/teacher interviews

February 16 - P.A. Day (no classes)

February 19 - Family Day holiday

February 23 - Kiwanis Festival choir performance at North Toronto Collegiate

March 12 to 16 - March Break holiday

March 30 - Good Friday holiday

April 2 - Easter Monday

News for January 26

News for January 26, 2018

On Friday, our class calculated that there are 99 days of school left this year…and there’s so much more to learn and do!

In writing, the children were challenged with a unique reading response activity. After reading the book, Lost and Found, the children were asked to write a story about the penguin in the story.  Actually, the class was asked to give a voice to the penguin character, since the penguin does not say anything at all in the story! To help them understand how to write a story from the penguin’s point of view, each child learned how to fold an origami paper penguin, to help them “tell” the penguin’s story. (Of course, folding origami anything is a great way to also review concepts in 2D geometry and symmetry.)

In reading, the children are doing an author study of the books of Robert Munsch. In our guided reading groups, we talked about what makes his books (or any story) funny and then applied these ideas to the other Robert Munsch books that they heard during our read aloud times. Did you know that Robert Munsch was “discovered” while telling his stories aloud to children when he worked at a daycare? Here is the link to Robert Munsch’s official website: 

https://robertmunsch.com

In science, the class began the unit, “Grow and Changes in Animals”. First the class learned about the six major groups of animals: mammals, fish, birds, insects, reptiles and amphibians. Then we talked about the characteristics of each. For example, birds have two legs and bodies covered in feathers. Next the children worked in partners to sort animals pictures/names and create posters showing what they learned. 

In math, the children learned about three-dimensional or 3D figures. They learned how to identify prisms and pyramids. The students also learned how to count the faces, edges and vertices of any figure and how to apply the math names of these figures to real-life objects. The children also learned about “3D skeletons” or three dimensional figures made using toothpicks for the edges and plasticine for the vertices. The class later wrote about how they made these figures.

Later in the week, the class learned about the 5 Platonic solids, 3D figures with faces made up of only polygons with equal length sides. These are a triangle-based pyramid (4 equilateral triangle faces), a cube (6 square faces), an octahedron (8 equilateral triangle faces), dodecahedron (12 regular pentagon faces) and an icosahedron (20 equilateral triangle faces). The children even managed to work together to create a HUGE 3D skeleton of an icosahedron. Did you know the Platonic solids were studied by the ancient philosopher/mathematician Plato who was born in Greece over 2,400 years ago?

In art, the children learned how to sew pages into the cover of a book to make a journal. Did you know that the pages of hardcover books are sewn into the book? Later in the week, the students used the art journals they made during a drawing lesson. The class was also introduced to the many drawing instruction books in our classroom that they can use if they wish.

Finally, the children learned the two most difficult homophones in English: it’s/its and their/there/they’re. Even adults have trouble with these! 

***The Room 204 Interview Show will return with two (possibly three) interviews next week! The teachers are so busy, it has been difficult to schedule time for them to come to our class.

Books read aloud this week:

Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers

I Want My Dad Back by Robert Munsch

Mortimer by Robert Munsch

We Share Everything by Robert Munsch

Pigs by Robert Munsch

Robert Munsch - A Biography by Chelsea Donaldson

Update from Ms. R

Update from Ms. R

Please note that our LIBRARY DAY (Day 1) now falls on TUESDAYS . Please help your child to remember to return his/her library book.

The homework for this week is for the students to visit our class blog with an adult and to complete the questions on the worksheet provided. There is also a math sheet reviewing patterning and symmetry. This homework is due on Friday, January 26th.

Important Dates:

February 14 - Term 1 report cards go home

February 15 (evening) and February 16 (morning) - parent/teacher interviews

February 16 - P.A. Day (no classes)

February 19 - Family Day holiday

March 12 to 16 - March Break holiday

March 30 - Good Friday holiday

April 2 - Easter Monday

News for January 18

News for January 18, 2018

This short week, marks the ending of Term One at school. The students learned about adjectives, how to make an air-powered pinwheel toy and how two Toronto teenagers launched a Lego Man into space!

In math, the class repeated the math “bell-ringer” activity, where students went from desk to desk solving tangram puzzles, but this time the children solved the tangrams designed by the students. After all this practice, some students were solving tangram puzzles in 13 seconds! The children then used what they know about the properties of polygons to help them understand and identify lines of symmetry and shapes that are congruent (same size, same shape). The class learned how to use a math tool called a “mirra” (a piece of plastic that can reflect and image but is also see-through), to help them both find the line of symmetry in a shape and draw the congruent side of a design.

In writing, the children finished their poetry books. The poems were so creative! The students also made “personal dictionaries” containing all the word wall (spelling) words from Term One. The class was challenged to count how many words we learned how to spell correctly and the answer is…125 word wall words! The children also practised using and spelling some of the homophone words we have learned so far this year.

The class learned about adjectives, or words that describe or give more information about something. After reading a “boring” story, the students had a chance to rewrite the story to make the writing more interesting to read by adding adjectives. For example, “I saw a cat in the park.” By adding adjective words, the sentence has more information, “I saw a big, grey cat in the water park.”

In science, the class reviewed the parts of the water cycle and we talked about real world examples of evaporation (puddles disappear after a rainstorm), condensation (bathroom mirror fogs up after a shower) and precipitation (rain/snow depending on the outside temperature). The class talked about what air is, why it is important to living things and where it is found. There was also some discussion about air pollution and how to keep the air around us clean. Did you know that the biggest air polluter comes from car and truck engines? So choosing to walk, bike or take the TTC when possible, is always a good choice to keep the air clean! 

The children also did an experiment to prove that air exists by putting paper towel at the bottom of a plastic cup and putting the cup upside down into water. The paper stays dry because the air in the cup stopped the water from getting in! Finally, each child made a toy that uses air to work. After folding and cutting a square of paper, a pin (that’s why it’s called a pinwheel) is put into the corners of the paper and pushed through the eraser of a pencil. Moving the pinwheel or blowing into the “pockets” of the pinwheel, the pinwheel will spin powered by air!

In art, the students finished both sides of their art journal covers so they are dry and ready to put the paper inside next week.

The class started an author study of the Canadian author Dayal Kaur Khalsa. This week we read aloud her book, The Snow Cat and then watched the National Film Board movie based on the book. The children compared and talked about how the book and movies were the same and how they were different. Here is the video:

https://www.nfb.ca/film/snow_cat/

The class had its last class with our mindfulness meditation coach Miss Judy. Miss Judy led the children through a full meditation time of focus and belling breathing, working cooperatively and moving and holding dowel sticks in the air without dropping them. 

At the end of the week, the class learned the true story of two Toronto high school students, Matthew and Asad, who put a Lego man into space in 2012. The Lego man went 24 kilometres up into the air before gravity brought it back to Earth. After reading aloud a book about how these young men completed this challenge, they watched a TV news report about them and then…a video of these two young men on our class interview show 6 years ago! (My class at the time, in Room 5, asked them to be on our show and they agreed.) The class then talked about how having dreams and goals is important and how the story of Matthew and Asad, proves that with hard work, dreams can come true! Here are the links:

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Lum1DMTdccE (TV news video)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WexPcZ_9qfU (Interview show)

The Room 204 Interview Show will return next week!

Books read aloud this week:

The Moccasin Goalie by William Roy Brownridge

The Snow Cat by Dayal Kaur Khalsa

The Snow Cat (National Film Board film) by Sheldon Cohen

Growing Patterns - Fibonacci Patterns in Nature by Sarah Campbell

Lego Man in Space - A True Story by Mara Shaughnessy

The Room 204 Interview Show!

This week, our guest was Mrs. Farrelly. She is the principal of our school.

Update from Ms. R

Please note that our LIBRARY DAY (Day 1) currently falls on Mondays. Please help your child to remember to return his/her library book.

The homework for this week is for the students to write a fiction story about polygons in their homework writing journals. (Please know that this is a suggestion only, if your child wishes to write a different fiction story that is acceptable.) There is also a math worksheet reviewing patterning skills. This homework is due on THURSDAY, JANUARY 18TH (since Friday is a P.A. Day).

Important Dates:

January 19 - P.A. Day (no classes)

February 14 - Term 1 report cards go home

February 15 (evening) and February 16 (morning) - parent/teacher interviews

February 16 - P.A. Day (no classes)

February 19 - Family Day holiday

March 12 to 16 - March Break holiday

March 30 - Good Friday holiday

April 2 - Easter Monday

(*For all holiday and P. A. Day dates, please go to the "calendar" section of the Toronto District School Board website at tdsb.on.ca.)

News for January 12

News for January 12, 2018

Our first week of school for the year 2018 had the students writing poems about lemons, solving tangram puzzles and organizing our first episode of The Room 204 Interview Show!

In math, the children reviewed two-dimensional (flat) polygon shapes in geometry and learned about the ancient Chinese puzzles called Tangrams. Using the seven tans (pieces), they solved tangram puzzles and shared their strategies. The class did a “bell ringer” activity and solved 19 different tangrams in about 20 minutes. At the end of this activity, the children could solve a tangram puzzle in less than 30 seconds. Some students could solve these puzzles in 15 seconds! Later in the week the students designed their own tangram puzzles. We will be using these homemade tangram designs in another activity next week, when children will be able to solve the puzzles designed by the students. The tangrams they designed will become part of a class book that will be available in our class library.

The class reviewed and practised how to analyze and solve repeating patterns. The children are now able to recognize the “pattern core”, determine how many terms are in the pattern core, label the pattern as, for example an AB pattern and figure out what terms come next in the pattern. Then each student worked with a partner to use objects from around the classroom to create repeating patterns. I took photos of the patterns and the children analyzed the patterns printouts. These are now part of two class books (the class made a lot of patterns), that are now part of our classroom library.

In writing, the class continued to write poems. This week the students learned about similes, or how to use comparisons to give information for the reader to make a picture in his or her mind. For example, “blue is like the sky without clouds” or “Domo looks like a brown rug”. Using this idea, the children wrote simile poems about colours. Later in the week they applied this idea to write a poem using the 5 senses, inspired by a small piece of lemon! For example, “a lemon tastes like sour candies” or “a lemon feels like hippopotamus skin”.

In science, the class learned about the water cycle. In grade two, the children are required to know and understand the terms evaporation, condensation and precipitation. The class did a simple evaporation experiment by putting large drops of water on their desks and seeing that, overnight, the water disappeared. Where did it go? The water evaporated into a gas and became part of the air in our classroom. The class watched two episodes of The Magic School Bus, one about water and one about air. Of course the crazy weather this week allowed for a lot of discussion about precipitation! Did you know on Friday at 9:00 am the temperature was 7 degrees Celsius and after afternoon recess, around 2:00 the temperature was -2 degrees Celsius? In five hours the temperature dropped 9 degrees Celsius and we saw rain, freezing rain and snow, all in one day.

In art, the students learned how to use watercolour pencils. These look like coloured pencils, but they contain dried watercolour paint. After colouring a design, water is added and the colour turns into paint! The class used these watercolour pencils to create front and back cover designs on thick paper. These will be used to make the covers for personal art journals with blank pages next week.

Finally, the class began a new long term project that is a tradition in my classroom, The Room 204 Interview Show! The children talked about how to learn more about a person. For some people you can use google on the computer or get a book from the library or a store. However, for most people, you have to ask the person questions directly to get more information about him/her. We talked about the parts of a TV or internet interview show: credits, theme song, questions, the role of the audience. The children made a list of the people in our school that they would like to learn more about. They wrote down the questions that they would like to ask. They learned a class song to sing at the beginning of the show. Students will work in pairs to interview some adults in our school. Finally, we filmed our first interview on Friday. Dallin and Daniela interviewed the principal of our school, Mrs. Farrelly. This video can be seen in a separate posting.

Books read aloud this week:

Three Pigs, One Wolf and Seven Magic Shapes by Grace Maccarone

My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes by Eve Sutton

The Tomten by Astrid Lindgren

The Tomten and the Fox by Astrid Lindgren

Wabi Sabi the Cat - A book of Japanese Haiku poems by Mark Rubinstein 

All the Water in the World By George Ella Lyon

The Magic School Bus: Water (DVD)

The Magic School Bus: Air (DVD

Amaryllis Update (4)

The amaryllis has bloomed! The flowers are so beautiful!

😃🌺😁

Amaryllis Update (3)

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