News for June 6

News for June 6

Another four-day week in Room 222, but the children were busy learning about multiplication, simple machines, sewing sock creatures and practising their speed stacking skills!

In writing, the students wrote an art reflection on the process of creating their M. C. Escher art. The artwork and artist reflections are now on display in our classroom. The children are now officially finished their dos-a-dos or back-to-back books! On one side there is a fiction story about a caterpillar and on the other side there is a fiction story about a butterfly. These are now available in our classroom library for the children to read the other children's books.

In reading, the guided reading groups read the next two chapters of Geronimo Stilton's Little Book of Happiness. This week we discussed how true happiness can't be bought from a store and that it is things like spending time with family and friends that is truly valuable.

In math, the class began to learn about multiplication and how it developed as a way to make the repeated addition of equal groups easier. For example, 2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2=20 becomes 10x2=20. Mathematicians are always looking for shortcuts! The children brainstormed the kinds of items that come in particular groupings, for example, there are five fingers on a hand, there are 12 eggs in a carton of a dozen eggs. The children solved a problem of how many chopsticks we would need to have a meal, to show the connection between repeated addition and multiplication. The students worked in pairs to find the twelve multiplication facts from 1-6 using dice. (These will be used to co-create a multiplication chart next week.)

In science, the lass learned about two additional types of simple machines, the screw and the lever.
The children heard read aloud books about these machines, collected names of examples of these and watched a couple of videos. The students chorally read about screws and answered reading comprehension questions. Each child also did an activity to prove that a screw is actually an inclined plane wrapped around a rod or cylinder by wrapping a paper inclined plane around a pencil. Here are the videos that the children watched:

In art, the students began making their soft sculpture sock creatures. After choosing two socks, each child chose a sock for the body and turned it inside out. (Recall when sewing, items are always sewn inside out!) Then it was time to go to the sewing machine to cut and sew the legs. Afterwards the students each stuffed the body of her/his sock creature. (This is a multi-step project that requires patience!)

The students learned how to do the 6-stack in Speed Stacking. They also learned how to use the official Speed Stacking timing mats.

Finally, on Thursday the class participated in our school's annual Jump Rope for Heart event to raise money for the Canadian Heart & Stroke Foundation. The children went to the auditorium to watch a performance of the play "Mary Poppins" presented by the grade 7 and 8 students.


Books read aloud this week:

Get to Know Levers by Karen Volpe
Get to Know Screws by Paul Challen
Panorama - A fold-out book about animals around the world by Fani Marceau
The Glass Doorknob - A Sock Monkey Adventure by Tony Millionaire