News for November 2

News for November 2

This week the children measured the height of the school, wrote about their personal special day traditions and celebrated Halloween and Diwali!

In math, the students continued the unit on linear measurement by reviewing the benchmarks for standard units such as centimetre (width of a little finger). Then they practised picking the appropriate units for measuring the length of various items (for example, a mouse is measured in centimetres not metres). The children also did some math activities, related to other subjects to apply their math skills. For example, they were challenged to add up the number of items that the main character, Elmer Elevator, put into his knapsack (over 55 items). On Halloween, the children each put 5 unwrapped caramels into the pot to melt to make caramel apples. How many caramels altogether? Just skip count by fives...

The class brainstormed ideas to solve the challenge from last week to measure the height of the school. We ended up going into the stairwell and having one half of the class on the first floor at the bottom of the stairs and the other half on the third floor at the top of the stairs. A loooonngg piece of plastic ribbon was dropped down from the third floor to the first floor. This plastic ribbon was placed along the floor on the hallway outside of our classroom to be measured using metre sticks and the school's three floors measure 10 metres tall! This piece of ribbon is now displayed in out classroom to remind the class just how long 10 metres is.

In writing the class learned about how to write a basic book review and how to express their opinions in writing. Then each child wrote a book review about the chapter book read aloud, My Father's Dragon, writing down what the book was about and their opinion of the book and why they liked or didn't like the book.

The children finally finished creating their books containing their stories about fish. Then these books were distributed among the class for the students to read a peer's book. Then, after reviewing the parts of a letter, each child wrote a letter to the student author of the book he/she read. These finished books and letters to the author will become part of our classroom library for children to read during independent reading time.

In guided reading the students worked in small groups to read the book The Special Day. The learning goal was to connect the illustrations with the text, looking at how the pictures reflect the information in the text and how the illustrations often show information that is not written about in the text.

In social studies, the class did an extension activity to the themes in the guided reading book, The Special Day. The children were asked to write about the special days in their lives and why these times are special to them. The students then put their words on construction paper leaves and worked cooperatively to create a "special day tree" and displayed their work in the hall outside of our classroom. At the end of the day, the class gathered to reflect and share on the activity.

In science, the class sorted their research animals into the 7 different animal groups using the sorting rules. For example, a panda bear is in the mammal group because it has fur on its body. The research questions the students generated last week were put into a graphic organizer to help the children look for and write down the facts they learn about their chosen research animal. Each child received a library book or an encyclopedia volume to read and to find out the answers to some of the research questions.

On Halloween, the children learned about the history of the symbols and activities of Halloween. Did you know that it was originally called All Hallow's Eve and was shortened over time to "Halloween"? The children worked on Halloween themed worksheets, created a little spider with fabric and beads and they unwrapped caramels to melt into a caramel sauce for dipping apples into for a Halloween treat.

On Friday morning the class celebrated Diwali! Parents came to the school and the children learned the story and traditions of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. The students made lanterns and had a chance to try traditional snacks as well.

Pillow project update! The children used black permanent marker to create designs on plain cotton fabric. Later in the week, they added colour to their fabric pieces using fabrics paints in squeeze bottles in the three primary colours.

Books read aloud this week:

My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett (chapter book - finished)
The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
The Special Day by
The Incredible Bouncing Chowder by Peter Brown
Halloween Is...by Gail Gibbons
The Tailypo by Joanna Galdone