News for October 19

News for October 19

This week the class learned about two-digit subtraction (without regrouping), learned how to tie-dye fabric and, on Friday, welcomed our new student teacher to our classroom!

In math, the class reviewed strategies for subtraction. Children at this age will count backwards, use a 100 chart, fact families or use addition strategies to help them solve subtraction questions. This last strategy uses addition (which many children find easier) to help with subtraction. For example, 9-5=? is solved by making a dot or tally mark for every number counting up to 9 or asking what do you have to add to 5 to get 9? Fact families are the addition/subtraction sentences relating 3 numbers. For example, the fact family for 2,6,8 is 2+6=8, 6+2=8, 8-2=6, 8-6=2). The students then learned how to set up and solve two-digit subtraction questions to get the difference or answer to a subtraction question, keeping in mind the placement of the digits to show the correct place value. Of course, the class then applied these skills to solve word problems.

The children also continued to review ordinal number use as well. Later in the week, the students began to talk about linear measurement, using non-standard units. They used plastic cubes to measure a variety of items in the classroom.

The children continued to work on their fish books. Many children have finished their good copies and are working on their illustrations. Some children are still finishing up their good copies.

We are now over halfway through our chapter book read aloud of My Father's Dragon. The class has been discussing ways to help understand what is happening in a story that does not have pictures. One strategy is to "make a picture or a movie in your mind" as the author writes about what characters look like and what is happening in the story. Earlier in the week, we wrote down the things we knew about the dragon in the story (e.g., it has gold wings) and each child drew what they think the dragon looks like. Then the children wrote about how the strategy of "making a picture in your mind" helps them to understand a story. These drawings and comments are now on display in the hall outside of our classroom.

In our small guided reading groups this week, together we read aloud a funny book, Moira's Birthday by Robert Munsch. The learning goal this week was to read aloud with expression using the unusual spellings and the ! marks to help tell our brains how to say words in a story. For example, an ! tells the reader to say words loudly and with more energy and writing a word "aaaaaand" tells the reader to stretch out the word when it is said.

In science, the students reviewed the seven basic ways to sort the animals we find on earth. Each child selected an animal to research so our class will learn a lot more about 18 different animals! The class will be presenting the information on posters. The children learned how to use stencils to create large capital letters to make titles for their posters. A large title is important so that it is clear what the poster is about.

In art, the class learned about basic pigment colour mixing (which is different from mixing coloured light). Using Play Doh, the students created an artist's colour wheel to show the three primary colours (red, blue, yellow) and then mixed the doh colours to create the three secondary colours (green, orange, purple). Mixing all the colours together in equal amounts, made a sort of grey/brown/purple colour.

The students also created large portfolios to collect their work over the course of the year. They learned how to draw large "chunky" letters to draw their names on one side of the portfolio and the school year information (2018 to 2019) on the other side.

There is a tradition in my class of making pillows for the children to use on their chairs and on the carpet when listening to read aloud books. This week we began the project by tie-dying cotton fabric. Each child folded and twisted his/her fabric piece and wrapped elastics around it and put clothes pins on it. Then the students put the wrapped up fabric pieces into blue dye. The fabric pieces all have beautiful designs on them and look wonderful hanging up in the classroom. Next week, the children will design a second piece of fabric for their pillows...

On Friday, we welcomed Ms. Gashi to our class! She is a student teacher from the University of Toronto, Ontario Studies in Education (OISE) program and she will be in our class full-time for the month of November.

Books read aloud this week:

My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Ganett (chapter book, continued)
Math Counts - Length by Henry Pluckrose
Moira's Birthday by Rober Munsch (guided reading groups)