News for February 14

News for February 14

Well, a four-day week turned into a three-day week due to the severe weather alert and the TDSB school closures on Tuesday. However, we had a great time learning about the history of the Canadian Flag, answering student-generated survey questions and celebrating the 100th day of school and Valentine's Day!

On Monday, it was the 100th day of school. In the morning, the class did math activities based on the number 100. Photos from this time can be found in a separate posting.

The class learned about Flag Day. In Canada, Flag Day is celebrated on February 15th each year. The maple leaf flag was first flown in Ottawa, on February 15, 1965, which makes the flag 54 years old. The students learned the history of how the design of the flag was chosen and how the first fabric flag was made. The children made their own paper Canadian flags and wrote some facts about the flag. These are now on display in the hall outside of our classroom.

The students wrote their own survey questions to learn more about the children in our class. The students went around to each desk and answered the questions of other children. Then the students tallied up the results and created bar graphs of the information.

On Thursday, the children created paper bag mailboxes for Valentine's Day. At the end of the day, the students delivered their valentines to their fellow students and had some time to read the kind messages and to enjoy some small treats.

In cursive writing, the class only had time this week to learn how to write the letter y.

We talked about Family Day and how it first became a holiday in Ontario in 2008, 11 years ago. So it's a very "new" holiday. We talked about activities that the children could do on Monday with their families to share some time together and make new memories.

We filmed the next episode of The Room 222 Interview Show. This week our guest was Mr. Culakovski. He is one of the vice-principals at our school. This video can be seen in a separate posting.

Finally, the students had their first swim lesson! Mr. B and Mr. C went over the safety rules and behaviour expectations and the children had about 30 minutes of time in the pool. (Please note that after the long weekend, swim class (Day 2) will be on Fridays.)

Books read aloud this week:

The 100 Shirts of Mr. Lee by Nancy Rawlinson
Our Flag - The Story of Canada's Maple Leaf by Ann-Maureen Davis
Valentine's Day - Celebrations in My World by Reagan Miller.