News for December 5

It was a four day week, but the students were busy making and writing about snowflakes, creating posters for our FOOD BANK fundraiser and wrote letters as part of our school-wide Holiday Mailbox program.

Math - The children practised solving two-digit addition and subtraction (no regrouping) questions and word problems. We talked about the words in math word problems that indicated if the question needs to be solved by adding (e.g., altogether) or subtracting (e.g., give away). The children are expected to solve two-digit addition and subtraction questions vertically, with the digits of the same place value lined up appropriately.

The class has been watching, measuring and graphing the growth of our amaryllis plant. This week, we saw the plant enter a new phase of its growth as it grew an average of 3-4 cm each day! It now meausures 22 cm tall (and there is a second flower bud now growing).

Writing - The class reviewed how to write a letter and learned how to address it with "to" and "from" names and addresses. The children wrote letters to the principal, other teachers and to their friends. The class also learned that to get a letter in return, it's a good idea to ask questions so the the recipient will be more likely to write a letter back.

The children did a compare and contrast writing assignment based on their science knowledge of real snowflakes and paper snowflakes. They discussed in their table groups how they are the same (e.g., hexagon shape) and how they are different (e.g., one is made of ice and the other is made of paper). The students wrote, edited and created a good copy to put on a poster with one of the paper snowflakes that they made. These posters will be displayed on the bulletin board in our classroom.

Reading - In our guided reading groups, the children chorally reread the story, Jillian Jiggs, and learned how to recognize rhyming words and we collected these to be used in a future project. The class read aloud a poem titled, The Snowman, collected the rhyming words and answered comprehension questions.

Art - The students learned a way to cut paper snowflakes that uses a six-sided, hexagon shape. Using tracing paper, which is thinner and easier to cut, they folded and cut designs to make paper snowflakes. The class used folding guides to help them fold the paper into thirds, which is difficult to do. We talked about how cutting paper snowflakes is a form of "kirigami" (Japanese for cutting paper), where paper areas are removed to make "negative space" and that it is the removal of paper that creates the design.

Media Literacy - The children learned how to use the "5 W's" (who, what, when, where, why) to help them put complete information on a poster. They used this strategy to make posters to advertise our class food bank project. These posters will be put around the school to remind all students and staff in our school to donate money to our project.

This week, students began to write and read food bank fundraiser reminders on our morning announcements. By the end of this project, all students will have a chance to be on the morning announcements.

Books read aloud this week:

Jillian Jiggs by Phoebe Gilman
The Wonderful Pigs of Jillian Jiggs by Phoebe Gilman
Jillian Jiggs and the Great Big Snow by Phoebe Gilman
The Incredible Bouncing Chowder by Peter Brown