News for October 19

News for October 19

News for October 19

The class started the week by learning about Fearless Felix Baumgartner, the man from Austria who broke several world records when he jumped from 38 km above the earth, last Sunday. The students wrote reports on this news event and then wrote his or her opinion about trying to do something like that! Here are the links to the videos that we watched:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh1gChG3C2o&feature=BFa&list=FLrf7MEeyaVUPvn3w3vxTC7w

and  http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/49409914/#49409914

The children each finished their pillows this week by hand sewing the opening shut using a needle and thread. After learning about the key words for writing instructions, (first, next, then and finally), the students began writing instructions on how to make a pillow. The children each had his/her photo taken holding the photo for the cover of their instruction books.

We reviewed the parts of speech and used this knowledge to play "Mad Libs". This is a story writing game where you use what you know about parts of speech to choose words to complete the story. Since you do not read the story before you play, this exercise ends up creating some very silly stories!

In math, the students reviewed subtraction strategies. The easiest strategy is to use what you know about addition to help you with subtraction. By reframing the question, it's easier to solve. For example, 12 - 8 =? becomes "what do I have to add to 8, to get 12? The class also learned a clever substraction game where 3 people play to guess the value of the card on your forehead. The students also learned how to generate "fact families" or related math facts. For example, if you know 7+8=15,
you also know 8+7=15, 15-8=7 and 15-7=8.

In computers, the students practiced their subtraction strategies online. Here is the site they used:

http://www.fun4thebrain.com/subtraction.html

The topic of safety and rules for the playscape was discussed this week. Did you know there was a small old sign on the fence that has the playscape rules on it? Most of us did not! The sign is so small, so high up and covered in vines! We decided to write a letter to Ms. Farrelly about getting a new sign made. We wrote about what the problem was, what we could do to fix it and how a new sign will help the students, teachers and parents. Ms. Farrelly even came up  to our class to get the envelope with the letter in it! She promised to write us back to let us know if we can get a new sign.

Our class visited with our Reading Buddies in Room 101 on Friday. This week, the kindergarten children drew a picture and their grade 3 buddy wrote down the story that went with the picture. These pictures and stories will be put in a binder and given to Room 101 as a "Reading Buddies Story Book".

The QSP fundraiser is over for another year. The school had an assembly in the gym to celebrate the hard work of the students and to recognize the efforts of all the students to raise money for our school. Emma in our class won the prize for the most sales! Luckily our class also won frozen treats for the whole class.

In science the students did several experiments to learn the best way to make a strong and stable bridge. Using plastic cups and paper, they constructed bridges that would hold a heavy load. We talked about human-made and animal -made structures. The students chose which structure they would like to know more about, and that became the topic for our first independent research project of the year. (This is a school-based project, to be completed at school.)

Books read aloud this week:

Safari - A Photicular Book by Dan Kainen
Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe (chapter book)

Learning American Sign Language with Room 5 - Episode 6

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a story in the homework writing journal about objects in the classroom coming alive after the students and teacher leave for the day. (This idea was inspired by our read aloud book, "The Little Red Pen" where the teacher's marking pen and other items come alive and have an adventure.) The second piece of homework is a two-sided worksheet that reviews the addition strategies we discussed this week. This homework is due on Friday, October 19th.

News for October 12

News for this (short) week:

The students finished writing and illustrating the biography of the Canadian author/illustrator, Dayal Kaur Khalsa. Each student presented a researched fact on her life, an opinion essay on his/her favourite book written by Dayal Kaur Khalsa and an oil pastel artwork of a scene from one of her books. All this information is now in a binder and is officially the second class community book of Room 5!

A friend of mine from the Canadian Children's Book Centre, Gillian O'Reilly, asked our class to read and review the new math picture book, Counting on Fall by Lizann Flatt. We read the book together and talked about it. We then talked about opinion and how everyone may feel differently about something but the important part is to communicate why. Then the students wrote letters to Gillian expressing their opinions about the book's story and illustrations. These letters will be sent to Gillian and hopefully, the class will get a letter back from her.

In our guided reading groups this week, all students read about the structures made by humans and animals and the types of materials humans use to make strong and stable structures.

The children worked in pairs to participate in the Room 5 Structure Challenge! Using only 15 sheets of paper and masking tape they created structures that had to be around 30 cm high and hold as many books as possible. Students had to apply what they know to create a successful structure. (Remember the power of the triangle!) Everyone did a great job but the winners were Marina and Sauyma. Their structure held 31 books, beating the previous class record of 25 books!

In math, the students finished up our unit on word problems by completing a very tricky word problem with more than one answer. Working with a partner, they had "two brains and four hands" to find all the solutions. The children presented their answers on large paper and these final solutions are now on display on the bulletin board outside our classroom. Later in the week, the class reviewed different addition strategies. Using double facts (e.g., 4+4=8) and 10-facts can help speed up answering addition questions.

In computers, the students explored the Lego website at http://www.lego.com/ .

The students worked very hard to learn how to spell and use the tricky homophones there/their/they're. One strategy is to remember the sentence, "They're with their friends over there."

The class showed an interest in the tallest building in the world so they watched a video of the top ten tallest buildings in the world:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tx_jYEV34k

Books read aloud this week:

Counting on Fall by Lizann Flatt
Amazing Buildings by Kate Hayden
From Mud Huts to Skyscrapers - An architecture book for children by Christine Paxmann
The Little Red Pen by Janet Stevens

Learning American Sign Language With Room 5 - Episode 5

Update from Ms. R

We had a wonderful ending to our week together as we made butter, bread and vegetable soup to celebrate Thanksgiving.

I would like to wish all the families of Room 5 a safe and happy holiday!

The homework for this week is to read the non-fiction story about ant farms (insects build tunnels too...) and answer the comprehension questions. There is also math work reviewing 4 digit place value (thousands, hundreds, tens and ones) and how to solve codes (1:1 object mapping). This homework is due on Friday, October 12th.

News for October 5

News for October 5

This week the children made a lot of progress on their pillows. They each ironed both pieces of fabric that they designed. Then, using a sewing machine, they each sewed the two pieces of fabric together, remembering to leave an opening for the stuffing. The students are now using their pillows at their desks.

In science, the students experimented with cardboard strips and paper fasteners to try and figure out which geometric shape is the strongest. (They discovered it's the mighty triangle!) We looked at the structure of domes and how they are strong structures. We looked at geodesic domes that use triangle shapes in their construction (like the sphere at Ontario Place) and tried to create a large one, but we hit some trouble and will have to rethink our approach next week.

In language, the class reviewed verbs and adverbs and how to recognize them in sentences. The students played a few "word ladder" games, where the children have to use their letter-sound knowledge to change one word into another. The students reviewed how to write a letter, and then practiced by writing a letter of "thanks" to a family member to give to them this Thanksgiving holiday.

Further to our author study of the Canadian author, Dayal Kaur Khalsa, the students wrote facts about her life, and these will become part of a class book. The children also began creating artwork using oil pastels of their favourite part of one of her books. During our Thanksgiving feast, the class watched the National Film Board's adaptation of her book, The Snow Cat. Here is the link:

http://www.nfb.ca/film/snow_cat/

In math, the class focused on the proper way to answer a math word problem. The steps to remember are: draw a picture, write a number sentence, write a word sentence and consider if the answer makes sense. The children worked in groups and partners to experience how different students approach solving a problem. Then each student tried using the learned strategies to solve problems alone. The students were also introduced to the concept of codes and how one-to-one object mapping help them crack a code. The class also looked at the concept of 1000, in terms of place value and how relatively big the number is (ten groups of 100).

We visited with our Reading Buddies in Room 101. This time each student chose a book from our class library to share with their buddy.

Finally, on Friday, the students worked together to make butter, bread and soup for our Thanksgiving feast. For the butter, the children each shook a mixture of 35% cream and a touch of salt in a jar until the butterfat separated from the liquid (whey) to make butter. The class learned about the organism yeast and how it makes bread dough rise. Each student stirred the batter to make the bread dough. The children brought in vegetables, which they each washed and cut and put into the soup. All through this time, the class practiced thinking like scientists and looking at the changes that occurred and what remained the same and what was different. Finally, the students ate together, being thankful for all the good food. We even had a visit from the principal, Mrs. Farrelly!

Books Read Aloud This Week:

How Pizza Came to Our Town by Dayal Kaur Khalsa
Family Vacation by Dayal Kaur Khalsa
Six Dinner Sid by Inga Moore
Thanksgiving - A Canadian Holiday by Julies Markes
Stone Soup by Jon J. Muth
Snow Cat by Dayal Kaur Khalsa

Learning American Sign Language With Room 5 - episode 4

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to read and follow the steps to draw a cartoon monster and then write a story about the monster. This drawing and story are to be written in the homework writing journal. The children also brought home a math worksheet. This homework is due on Friday, October 5th.

Important Dates:

October 2 - QSP fundraiser assembly - QSP envelopes go home
October 4 - Scholastic orders due
October 5 - Class Thanksgiving celebration
October 8 - Thanksgiving Day - no classes on this day
October 31 - Halloween - Parade after lunch

News for September 28

News for September 28

This week the students learned about the concept of a time capsule. We talked about things that change and don't change over time.The students each made a small book that contained a photo and recorded their height, weight, and outlines of their hands and feet. They also wrote letters to their "future" selves writing about what we've done so far this year and made some predictions about what we might do. All of the envelopes will be sealed away in a box and not opened again until June 27th 2013!

The students watched an old cartoon with a time capsule theme:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRnX4quv5W4

In math, the children learned about the concept of least and greatest numbers, the symbols < (less than) and > (greater than) and how to use place value to compare numbers. The class also played a game using cards to create the greatest or smallest four digit number using the same digits.The students also learned how to round numbers to the nearest 10 or 100. Rounding numbers is important for the skill of estimation. On Friday, the class wrote the first math test of the year to finish the unit.

The class had a chance to go to the gym to watch the deaf actor/mime performer, Chris Welsh.

In science, the students continued to learn about the stability of structures. One factor is the nature of the building materials (for example, wood cubes make better structures than glass marbles). The children had a chance to experiment with ways to make paper stronger. Immediately, the students figured out that folding makes the paper more stable. But then, they discovered that rolling and crumpling also are good ways to add stability to paper structures.

The class visited the computer lab for the first time this week. The students reviewed the class blog postings and explored a fun education site: http://www.funbrain.com/

The students learned how to use letter shapes to create simple line drawings. For example, how to use a lower case "h" to learn how to draw a helicopter. (This lesson was also a way to practice following step-by-step written instructions.)

As an extension to our guided reading group activity (where the students read the story, "I Want A Dog"), the class watched an animated version of the story and looked at what was the same and what was different about how the story was told as a book compared to as it was told as a short movie. Here is the link to the movie version:
http://www.nfb.ca/film/i_want_a_dog/

Books Read Aloud This Week:

I Want A Dog  by  Dayal Kaur Khalsa
Julian by Dayal Kaur Khalsa
Ganesha's Sweet Tooth by Sanjay Patel
Iggy Peck Architect by Andrea Beatty
Structures of the World by Room 5
The Diggers by Margaret Wise Brown

Learning ASL with Room 5 - episode 3

This week the students learned to spell their names and their "sign names"..