News for April 18

News for April 18

This four day week, the students began to weave bookmarks, learned the traditions of Easter and Passover and began to do math activities with our 100 read aloud books!

In math, the children began the week by reviewing the concepts learned in the fraction unit. The class also learned how to write two-digit number words greater than 20. For example, the number 34 is written with a dash or hyphen between the tens digit and the ones digit...thirty-four. At the end of the week the children brainstormed the ways the class can use math concepts to learn more about our 100 read aloud books. First, the children worked together to lay the books end-to-end down the hallway to measure how long the line of books is...27 metres and 62 centimetres. Stacked vertically, the books measure 76 centimetres tall. The books also weigh 36 kilograms.

In writing, each student chose his/her favourite read aloud book from the 100 books we's shared together. The children wrote a book review of the book, going through the standard writing process of rough copy/edit/revise/good copy. These book reviews will go on display at our party on the morning of May 1st.

In science, the children reviewed the water cycle, or how water is recycled in the environment and watched an episode of The Magic School Bus that explores the water cycle. We also talked about water pollution and saw a video about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, to inform our discussion about reducing plastics in the environment. Here is the video:

In social studies, the class learned about two holidays: Easter and Passover. The class heard read aloud books and discussed the history of the holidays and some of the traditions and activities associated with these celebrations. The children also made spring baskets by reusing tuna cans and shredding scrap paper. In each basket were symbols of spring and the Christian holiday of Easter: baby chick, carrot, chocolate eggs and a large decorated egg. (The students decorated the plastic eggs by putting patterned plastic sleeves on the eggs and plunging them in boiling water to "shrink" the plastic around the shape of the egg.) After learning about the history of the Jewish holiday Passover, the children had a chance to try Matzah, a whole wheat cracker that is a traditional food at this time of year.

The class videotaped the last episode for the year of The Room 222 Interview Show on Tuesday. This week, our guest was Mr. Pearce. He is a supply teacher at our school. This video can be seen in a separate posting.

On Monday, the class was introduced to Bob the cat, a new member of our classroom. Bob is a mechanical or robot cat. Bob is in our class because the children learned about a real-life Bob the cat who helped a young man in London, England. The class heard three read aloud books about Bob and saw a video of the real Bob the cat and his owner James. Here is the video:

Finally, the class continued to work on preparing for our 100 Books Party. The children began to create bookmarks to give to our guests as a thank you for coming to our party. We estimated that we have to make 280 bookmarks!

The children also began to weave bookmarks for their personal use. The students used recycled cardboard to create a loom and used yarn to create the "warp" or vertical threads of fabric and the "weft" or horizontal threads of fabric, added by putting the yarn in the repeating pattern of over and under the warp yarn.

Books read aloud this week:

Bob the Cat by James Bowen
Bob to the Rescue by James Bowen
Where in the World is Bob? - Street Cat Bob's Adventures by James Bowen (read aloud book #100)
The Matzah Man - A Passover Story by Naomi Howland
The Easter Egg by Jan Brett