News for March 22

News for March 22

This first week back after the break, the class was busy learning to add and subtract two-digit numbers with regrouping, creating flat, paper versions of themselves and writing new lyrics to a Johnny Cash song!

In math, the children learned the theory behind how to correctly add and subtract two-digit numbers and practised solving these kinds of questions independently. Using what they know about place value, the children demonstrated how to get the answers using place value blocks and how to regroup ones into tens (for adding) and tens into ones (for subtraction). By the end of the week, the children were able to solve these questions using the standard method. The class also practised how to apply these skills to solving word problems.

In social studies, the children have all now completed their graphic organizers to collect facts about their chosen research countries. They each took their facts and are now writing complete sentences on their posters. The students also created paper flags to put on the posters.

The class began a reading/writing project based on the chapter book "Flat Stanley". Using a class set of books, the students read the first two chapters chorally and we discussed the story elements. The main character "Flat Stanley" has an accident and is flattened to only one centimeter thick. The book is about his adventures. On Friday, the children had a chance to create a flat character of themselves out of thick paper. What adventures will these characters have?

The class learned about the contractions couldn't, shouldn't and wouldn't and how to use these words correctly. We also looked at ten (of many) digraphs (or consonant blends like "sk" and "br") and how to identify them to help with reading and writing.

The class finally finished learning how to write the 26 lowercase letters of the alphabet. The students reviewed writing their letters and practised writing their signatures. The students are now able to choose to write their work in printing or cursive. They are also now able to read cursive writing.

The students learned about the Hindu spring festival of Holi. We talked about why this day is celebrated and how it is celebrated. There are lots of bright colours! Here is the link to the video that we watched:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1hs5FO_Oqk

As a connection to our social studies unit, the class listened to the song, "Everywhere Man" by  Johnny Cash. In this song, he sings about all the places that he has visited. He even sings the names of Toronto and Ottawa! Our class rewrote the lyrics to include all the names of the countries that we are learning about. We sorted the names by the number of syllables to help. Our version of the song will be included in video to be made next week. Here is Johnny Cash's version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM_ncuwDtcE

The class attended an assembly on bus safety on Thursday.

Finally, Ms. Reinelt was our guest this week on The Room 222 Interview Show. This video can be seen in a separate posting.

Books read aloud this week:


Chicken Little retold by Marilyn Helmer
The Seven Little Kids by the Brothers Grimm
The Three Bears retold by Paul Galdone
Goldilocks and Just One Bear by Leigh Hodgkinson
Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown (chapter book - reading chorally as a whole class guided reading activity)