This week, our guest was Ms. Tiralongo. She is a teacher at our school.
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Update from Ms. R
Homework
The homework for this week is for students to teach an adult how to play the Mad Libs writing game, then answer a few teacher reflection questions. There is also a math worksheet reviewing concepts covered this week. This homework is due on THURSDAY, March 29th (since Friday is a holiday).
Note to parents - Ideas for encouraging non-digital activities at home
*Mad Libs*
Mad Libs is a fun game to play! It helps to review parts of speech (nouns, adjectives, verbs), to read text and often introduces new vocabulary. The result is a very silly story and it is a very engaging and educational game. You can buy books of Mad Libs, download story frames from the internet or play online. There are lots of sites with Mad Libs games. Here is one resource:
http://www.squiglysplayhouse.com/mobile/madlibs.php
Important Dates:
March 30 - Good Friday holiday
April 2 - Easter Monday
April 6 - 14th Annual 100 Books Party! (AM only)
May 21 - Victoria Day
June 8 - P.A. Day
June 28 - Last day of school for students
September 4 - First day of school for the 2018-2019 school year
News for March 23, 2018
News for March 23, 2018
This week the children finished their chapter books, learned about animal adaptations and created art inspired by the famous artist Andy Warhol!
Writing
The children proofread their typed stories and assembled their books, (front cover, story, illustrations, author biography, back cover) and bound all the pages together using coloured twist ties.
Next the class wrote book reviews! Each child read another child’s chapter book and wrote a letter to the author. In the letter, the book reviewer wrote about his/her favourite part of the story, gave a suggestion to improve next time and asked a question about the story. These chapter books are now in class book binders for the students to read during independent reading times.
Finally, each student wrote a reflection on the glovetopus chapter project. It took almost a month to complete this project! The books the children made are wonderful! (Remember to come by on April 6th for our 100 Books Party to read your child's book and see his/her glovetopus that inspired the story!)
The students got to play Mad Libs again to create silly stories to read and share with a friend. It's a great way to review and use parts of speech words (nouns, adjectives, verbs).
Reading
The children worked with a partner, in our guided reading groups, to read the first half of the non-fiction text “Animal Tails”. They began to complete graphic organizers to record their research information.
Math
The class began the unit on fractions by learning the math vocabulary necessary to use when understanding the concepts. Whole (hole), half/halves, third, fourth and quarter are the fractional words for this grade. Fractions are fair shares of a group or equal parts of a whole. We worked on looking at different ways to show fractions. Also, the children learned how English uses some of these words for ordinal numbers or words that tell the order of things, like first, second, third and so on.
At the end of the week, the children learned more about Roman Numerals. The students use Roman Numerals to write the date (for example, 23 III 18) and sometimes for the numbers on chapters when writing longer stories. Did you know that people don’t use Roman Numerals anymore because that number system does not have a zero?
Science
The class continued our unit on animals by looking at adaptations that animals have to become better suited to their environments. Animals can use camouflage to help blend in with their surroundings. We also discussed the roles of predators and prey. Did you know that robins use their tail feathers as an “umbrella” to keep their babies dry when it rains?
The children talked about how plants and animals have adapted to desert (dry) environments. The class watched an episode of The Magic School Bus (All Dried Up) to help them learn more about things that live in the desert. Did you know that most desert animals are nocturnal (active at night)? That’s because it is cooler at night after the sun has set.
Social Studies
The class talked about the first day of spring (March 20) and how the tilt of the earth is the reason for the seasons. It takes 365 days for the earth to make one trip around the sun and the trip is divided into four parts spring, summer, fall, winter and each season lasts for 3 months.
The children learned about the Iranian new year Nowruz and its traditions. We visited a beautiful Nowruz holiday table (called a Haft-Seen table), near the office, and learned about some of the symbols of this holiday.
Art
The students began the week by learning about how the egg is a symbol of spring and is an important part of many spring holidays and traditions. Each child created a large paper egg-shape and decorated them with oil pastels. These are now on display in the hall outside of our classroom.
The class learned about the American artist Andy Warhol. He was inspired to make art using images of common things and famous people. One of his most famous paintings is of cans of Campbell’s soup. Did you know that one of these paintings is worth over 11 million dollars? The students then used their treasure jars (old Dole peach jars) to create art like Andy Warhol. After sketching the jar, they made drawings using pencil, sharpies and watercolour pencils.
Oral Communication and Media Literacy
Our guest on the Room 204 Interview Shows this week was Ms. Tiralongo. She is a grade 2 teacher at our school. Please see this video in a separate posting.
Books read aloud this week:
Animal Tails by Donna Swan
Winter’s Coming - A Story of Seasonal Change by Jan Thornhill
How Pizza Came to our Town by Dayal Kaur Khalsa
The Book with a Hole by Herve Tullet
A Nest Full of Eggs - The life cycle of a robin by Priscilla Belz Jenkins
Andy Warhol - Pop Art Painter by Susan Goldman Rubin
All Dried Up - The Magic School Bus (DVD)
Sunday, March 11, 2018
Update from Ms. R
Homework
The homework for this week is…there is no formal homework! HOWEVER, each child promised me that he/she would read for 20 minutes (or more) each day. I did send home an optional practice sheet of cursive capital letters, because many of the children had asked to learn these on their own. Also, the school’s Parent Council sent home small slips of paper to ask for a toonie as part of a fundraiser to collect money to help pay for school buses for TDSB students with disabilities.
- PLEASE NOTE: Our LIBRARY DAY (Day 1) now falls on THURSDAYS . Please help your child to remember to return his/her library book each week.
Note to parents - Ideas for encouraging non-digital activities at home
*PLAYING CARDS*
A deck of playing cards can be used for a lot of different activities! The class spent time this week learning about the history and make up of a deck of cards. They also learned a magic trick, an addition/subtraction game, a standard card game (Go Fish) and how to use cards for building towers. There are lots of sites on the internet with ideas on how to use playing cards with your child. Try teaching your child a favourite card game that you know or look up the rules for a new game. Standard games that children usually enjoy playing are: Crazy Eights, Snap and Cribbage. (FYI Cribbage requires a separate Cribbage board.)
Important Dates:
March 12 to 16 - March Break holiday
March 30 - Good Friday holiday
April 2 - Easter Monday
May 21 - Victoria Day
June 8 - P.A. Day
June 28 - Last day of school for students
September 4 - First day of school for the 2018-2019 school year
News for March 9, 2018
News for March 9, 2018
This week the children made a video of animal facts using their research posters, learned how movies tell a story and how to use a deck of playing cards to play games and do magic tricks!
Writing
Our glovetopus chapter book project is basically finished. Each child has finished editing and revising the rough copy of his/her book and each child made a front and back book covers. This week, each child wrote an “author biography” about him/herself including a photo of each child this his/her glovetopus, to include in the book. I will be typing the good copy of these chapter books. The students will bind their books when they return after the break.
The class learned about some parts of speech. This week we focussed on nouns and adjectives. Later, the students used what they learned about nouns and adjectives to play the game “Mad Libs” to write a very silly story!
The children learned how to write the cursive letters m, n, v, x and z. The student now know how to form all the lowercase cursive letters. The children even had a chance to practise their “signatures”.
Reading
This week, during our read aloud and guided reading times, the class watched the movie, Dolphin Tale, based on a true story of a rescued dolphin who lost her tail fin and the dedicated people who helped her swim properly again by giving her a prosthetic tail. We talked about how a movie story has the same elements as a story in a book, but has additional features such as music.
The children kept track of the story by filling in a graphic organizer as they watched the movie.
At the end of the week the students wrote a reflection on the film’s story by answering comprehension and opinion questions.
The real Winter the dolphin lives at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida. Here is a link to the website:
Math
In math, the children did a variety of activities using playing cards. First, the class learned the history of playing cards and worked with a partner to discover the features of a standard deck of cards (e.g., There are 52 cards with 26 red cards and 26 black cards…so it’s equally likely to pick a red or a black card). Did you know that 200 years ago playing cards were sometimes used as money?
We discussed magic tricks and how they are truly tricks and there is no “magic”. The students learned a card trick and practised the trick with a partner. Next, the children learned a game to practise addition and subtraction, using only the number cards of the deck. Then, the class learned the rules for the game “Go Fish” and played this game in groups of four. Finally, the children watched a video of the Guinness World Record holder for stacking playing cards and then tried stacking playing cards themselves. It’s harder than it looks! Here is the video link:
Science
The children finally finished their animal research posters. They used these posters to create a science video by picking out cool facts about his/her research animal and presenting them aloud to the class. The posters will be displayed in the hallway outside our classroom after the break.
Social Studies
The class learned the traditions and history of St. Patrick’s Day. This is a special day in Ireland but it is also celebrated all over the world. It is named after a priest, St. Patrick, who lived in Ireland 400 years ago and taught the 3 lessons of hope, love and faith using 3-leaf clovers. Occasionally, a four-leaf clover was found (called a shamrock) and these were considered good luck.
Oral Communication and Media Literacy
Our guest on the Room 204 Interview Shows this week was Ms. Waung. She is a grade 1/2 teacher at our school. Please see this video in a separate posting.
Books read aloud this week:
Dolphin Tale (DVD)
St. Patrick’s Day by Carmen Bredeson
Life-Size Zoo by Teruyuki Komiya
More Life-Size Zoo by Teruyuki Komiya
Life-Size Farm by Teruyuki Komiya
Sunday, March 4, 2018
Update from Ms. R
Homework
The homework for this week is to write a story of the child’s choice in the homework writing journal. Some possible ideas we discussed were stories about aliens or a fiction story about his/her research animal (e.g., an anaconda snake as a superhero). There is also a worksheet with cursive writing practice and math review. This homework is due on Friday, March 9th.
- PLEASE NOTE: Our LIBRARY DAY (Day 1) now falls on THURSDAYS . Please help your child to remember to return his/her library book each week.
Note to parents - Ideas for encouraging non-digital activities at home
*BUILDING*
Children LOVE to build things! The students brought home their glovetopus houses, cars and rocket ships this week, that were made out of discarded Kleenex boxes and scrap paper. To the untrained eye, these sculptures may not look like much, but to your children they are beautiful. (I encourage you to take a moment and ask your child about his/her sculpture.). In class, the children worked intently and shared ideas on how to make, for example, windows and doors with “locks”.
At home, please save old cardboard (e.g., tissue boxes, paper towel tubes, cracker boxes), plastic containers (e.g., yogurt cups, pudding cups) and scrap paper (e.g., old magazines, envelopes, greeting cards)…really anything that can be reused. Have a container of supplies for the children to use independently: scissors, masking tape, clear tape, pencils and markers. Then, let the creating/experimenting begin!
TIP: There comes a time when children's art is sometimes too large to keep. Take photos or videos of your child with the artwork before making room for more creations!
Important Dates:
March 12 to 16 - March Break holiday
March 30 - Good Friday holiday
April 2 - Easter Monday
May 21 - Victoria Day
June 8 - P.A. Day
June 28 - Last day of school for students
September 4 - First day of school for the 2018-2019 school year
News for March 2
News for March 2, 2018
This week the children celebrated the Quebec winter holiday called “Carnaval”, did math probability experiments and they even had a gym class with me as their teacher!
Writing
Our glovetopus chapter book project is almost finished. Each child has finished the rough copy of his/her book and now the children are working on editing and revising their work and creating illustrations. (I will be typing the good copy of these chapter books.)
The children learned how to write the cursive letters b, k, l and e. Only six letters to go!
Reading
This week our read aloud books focussed on the lives of cats and lions. The children learned about the life cycle of a cat. Then they learned the true (non-fiction) story of a lion in England who was kept as a pet in London, but eventually returned to Africa. The students then saw a video of the real Christian the lion reuniting with the young men that helped raise him.
Here is the video: https://youtu.be/Sju3kSTAzdI
Finally, the children heard the read aloud book “A Lion in Paris”. It is a fiction story about a lion who leaves Africa to go and live in the city of Paris.
Math
In math, the children did a variety of probability experiments to determine which outcomes were more or less likely to happen. They flipped coins, rolled one die, rolled two dice and even “peeked” into a sealed mystery box to predict the number of different coloured cubes in the box. Flipping a coin to get heads or tails is equally likely. Rolling one die to get 1,2,3,4,5 or 6 is equally likely. The class found that when rolling two dice, it is more likely to get a roll of 6, 7 and 8 (because there are a number of different addition combinations to make each of those totals) but less likely to roll a 2, 3, 11 and 12 (because there is only one combination to make each of these totals).
Science
The class continued to learn more about an odd English language tradition of animal collective noun words or names for groups of animals. Did you know that it was started hundreds of years ago as a parlour game for very rich people to make up the most creative name for a group of animals? The children learned the collective nouns for their research animals, for example, an “ambush” of tigers or a “raft” of penguins. They also each created a drawing to illustrate their animals collective nouns to be included on their research posters.
The class also learned, in detail, about the life cycle of a cat. Did you know kittens lose their baby teeth before they get their adult teeth, just like humans?
The children wrote sentences using the science facts they researched about different animals. They are now writing the “good copy” of these sentences on their research posters.
Social Studies
The class learned the traditions and history of “Le Carnaval de Quebec” or the Quebec Winter Carnival. The traditional colours are blue and white, as these are the colours of the Quebec provincial flag. The mascot is a large snowman figure called “Bonhomme Carnaval”. Did you know that the celebration lasts for 17 days and over a million people visit Quebec City to celebrate Carnaval every year?
Here is a short video about Carnaval: https://youtu.be/HzG9TbY53nI
On Thursday, the children celebrated Carnaval at school by attending a magic show, playing outdoor games, going to face painting and eating pancakes.
Oral Communication and Media Literacy
Our guest on the Room 204 Interview Shows this week was Ms.Comor. She is a grade 3/4 teacher at our school. Please see this video in a separate posting.
Books read aloud this week:
How Things Grow: From Kitten to Cat by Sally Morgan
Christian the Lion by Anthony Bourke and John Randall
Curious George Makes Pancakes by Margaret and H. A. Rey
A Lion in Paris by Beatrice Alemagna
Compilations of Animal Collective Nouns (four books) by Patrick George
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