News for June 7, 2018

News for June 7, 2018

This 4 day week the children learned about school bus safety, learned about division and everyone started to knit using their homemade corkers!

Writing

The class had a chance to go to an assembly on Tuesday to listen to the Canadian author Andrew Larsen talk about his books and the job of being an author. 

Everyone in the class has now finished writing and drawing their comics. These are now part of a class book for children to read during independent reading times.

The students used a book-making idea from our visiting author Andrew Larsen to fold and staple a HUGE piece of paper into a homemade book. The children then planned stories about their recycled box art sculptures in their journals and they have now started to create graphic novels using their homemade books.

Math 

The children reviewed beginning multiplication as repeated addition of equal amounts. They learned how to use a “multiplication times table” to answer multiplication questions. The children also solved word problems using multiplication. 

Next the class was introduced to division, as the opposite of multiplication. Basically taking a number of objects and creating various numbers of equal groups. 

Science

This week the class learned about a fourth type of simple machine: the pulley. The pulley is a machine that makes lifting and moving things easier and uses a rope and a wheel (or curved surface). Did you know that a zip-line is a pulley? Do you know that the main parts moving an elevator up and down are pulleys?

The children also watched a video to learn more about the six types of simple machines. Here is the link:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=fvOmaf2GfCY

Art

The children did a drawing challenge where they drew pictures of their recycled box art sculptures using only white pencil crayon on black construction paper.

Oral Communication

The two groups of children continue to practice performing the play about honesty and integrity. The students are now working on positioning their bodies so they face the audience and do not block other performers and making sure everyone speaks loudly enough for the audience to hear. The children have costumes, made signs and props to use to help their acting.

Extra

The children are now all using the corkers that they made using cardboard tubes and coffee stir sticks. Corking (also called French knitting or spool knitting) is a type of knitting that creates a narrow tube of fabric. It is a good way to introduce children to standard knitting. In the past, both men and women would knit. My maternal grandfather was a fisherman in Nova Scotia and he would knit his own socks to pass the time on a long trip! It takes patience and perseverance to master corking but once the student learns it, they are keen to practice and several children now have measured their corking at over 50 cm!

Every class in our school attended an assembly about bus safety this week. First children learned the bus safety rules and then the class went on a real school bus and learned where the emergency exits are and everyone practiced a safe exit through the back of the bus. This information is very important as all the students will be bussed to our temporary school location at Vaughn Road Academy for the next two years starting in September. 

Books read aloud this week:

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren (chapter book)

Get to Know Pulleys by Karen Volpe