Some videos shown this week...

Here is a video of the REAL street cat named Bob...

Soon they will be releasing a movie about Bob...starring Bob!




Finally, a video of Christian the lion and the reunion of Christian, Ace and John in Kenya after one year...

News for October 14

News for October 14

The students were very busy, as usual, during this four-day week.

In math, the students learned how to use place value blocks to represent numbers. They answered place value riddles (for example, "Which number has four groups of ten and nine ones?") They reviewed how to easily add and subtract 10 from a number. Also they used place value blocks to play "Race to 100 (or zero)" to simultaneously represent numbers on the 100 chart and as place value representations. This concept is integral to understanding how the basic addition and subtraction algorithm works for multi-digit numbers.

The children learned about dice by making their own (for the weekly homework assignment this week). Did you know that the top face and bottom face always add up to seven? Dice can also have a pattern of dots or cardinal numbers to represent the 6 numbers on each die.

The class learned about how humans like to sort words into groups (also known as "parts of speech"). This week we focused on nouns and adjectives. A noun is a person, place or thing and there are two types: common nouns and proper nouns. An adjective is a word that gives more information about a noun. Did you know that if you remove all the adjectives from a formal sentence, it usually makes sense? (For example, The boy saw a cat. OR The small boy saw an orange cat.) So, adjectives aren't really necessary, but they give more information to sentences and makes writing more interesting to read.

To practice using adjectives, the children read, "The Boring Story" where the only adjective used  was the word "boring". The students got the message that using different adjectives makes writing more interesting and then had a chance to write in some adjectives of their choice.

The students were part of a writing experiment. Each child was given a story that I wrote about the class. However, in the first version, there were no capital letters, periods or spaces between words. It was almost impossible to read! Then they read a version that had spaces between words but no capitals or periods. The children realized the importance of using capitals and periods when writing in English, so that it is easy to read. Then the students had the job of "correcting" all the mistakes...

The class practiced how to correctly answer reading comprehension questions after reading a text. Reading comprehension is basically a test of the reader's understanding of a text. Answers are required to be in the form of a sentence, which is very difficult for many students. The text this week was a non-fiction story about hippos.

The children created "time capsules". They learned that people often create time capsules to collect information about what is happening now and seal it up to be opened at a later date. Usually these time capsules are placed in the foundations of new buildings. Our time capsules collected information about each child. The students made small books and in these books they recorded their height weight, the size of one hand and one foot. They wrote down their wishes and predictions and even got a "lucky" nickel. After taping in photos of themselves and making front and back covers, each child put his or her time capsule book into a box. As a class, we wrote a letter to "the future Room 204" and put it in the box too. It's a Room 204 tradition to put our "Flash Domo" stuffy into the box too. We sealed it all up and will not look at it until June 30, 2017!

In science, the children created a video highlighting cool facts from each of their research posters. The class also listened to, and discussed several different read aloud books about real animals that help to understand how animals interact with humans and each other.

In art, the class discussed colours! We reviewed the primary colours, blue, red and yellow and learned about the secondary colours created by mixing the primary colours. The students experienced this first-hand by mixing primary colours of playdoh to make green, orange and purple. Then they experimented by mixing a colour with white (to create a "tint") or with black (to create a "shade"). Then they mixed a bit of blue, red and yellow together, but soon realized this makes a muddy, grey/green/brown colour. Finally the children put the colours on a standard "colour wheel" and wrote down some colour addition sentences (for example, blue + red = purple).

The children created the designs for the second piece of fabric for their pillows. After drawing a design on white fabric using a permanent Sharpie marker, the students added colour by painting their pieces of fabric with acrylic paint.

On Friday, the children participated in the annual Terry Fox Run at our school. We talked about who Terry Fox was, why he is considered to be a Canadian hero and how the money we collect is used for cancer research. Did you know that Terry Fox received an Order of Canada medal? The class counted the money in our Terry Fox collection jar and we collected $71.95 for cancer research. Thanks Room 204!

Books read aloud this week:

Bob to the Rescue - A Street Cat Named Bob Adventure by James Bowen

Christian the Lion: A True Story by Anthony (Ace) Bourke and John Randall

Terry Fox by Douglas Coupland

Owen and Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship. By Isabella and Craig Hatkoff

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is for each student to teach an adult a math game and then write a reflection on the experience. Each child made two dice and assembled the game board and other pieces needed. After teaching the game, each student must answer the questions on the teaching reflection sheet, using sentences. The game board and all game pieces can be kept at home and played again. The completed reflection sheet is due to be handed in on Friday, October 21st.

Notes for parents:

1) Students have been instructed to write down the title of the books and the number of pages read in their agenda EACH DAY. (Recall reading for at least 20 minutes each day is part of the daily homework, along with studying the weekly spelling words.)

2) When possible, please let me know if children are going to be leaving school early or will be away. You may leave a note in your child's agenda, write me a note or email me. The office staff are very busy and do not always communicate with me if you take your child out of school during recess, lunch or if the class is with a specialty teacher.

3) All adults entering our building for ANY reason, must check in at the office. This rule is in place for the safety of all the students in our school.

Update from Ms. R

Thank you to all the families for coming to Curriculum Night this week. It was wonderful to meet everyone and to share and talk about the great things the students are doing in Room 204.

The homework for this week is to write a story in the homework writing journal (fiction or non-fiction) that has something to do with Thanksgiving. Ideas we discussed in class were writing about our Thanksgiving feast in Room 204 (non-fiction) or a story with the setting of Thanksgiving in a home where family members were chasing the turkey (fiction). There is also a math worksheet for students to answer a word problem and to write and answer his/her own word problem. This homework is due on Friday, October 14th. 

News for October 6

News for October 6

A four-day week had the students busy doing everything from saving a tree to being thankful for the good things in their lives.

On Monday, the students went outside with Mrs. Farrelly and Ms. Robertson to put copies of the letter that our class wrote about the tree. Recall that Mrs. Farrelly asked our class to research the tree and create a sign to stop students from climbing the tree for safety reasons. 

In math, the students reviewed how to use base ten math manipulatives to help them show their understanding of multi-digit numbers. It is very important for their future number sense, that each child knows that, for example, the "2" in the number 327 means "20 or 2 groups of 10". The children also had a tricky math challenge problem this week because they were given a problem with six correct answers! The students rose to the challenge and many figured out more than one answer.

In science, the children worked very hard to finish their animal research posters in time for curriculum night. They completed the research sheets on the animal they chose. They learned about how to make effective posters to communicate what they learned. The poster needs a clear title, an illustration and facts printed correctly and clearly. These are now on display in the hall outside of our classroom.

In writing, the students answered comprehension questions about the story, Stone Soup. They also worked on finishing the good copies of their fiction stories about Frisko the Squirrel. These are now in our classroom library for children to read during our independent reading time. 

On Wednesday we had our Thanksgiving feast! After reading the book, Stone Soup, the students applied the lesson of the story by each bringing a small vegetable to class and we used these vegetables to make delicious soup! The children washed and cut up the vegetables, added some water and salt and heated it to 100 degrees Celsius to boil and cook. Finally we added some instant rice. The class also had whole wheat bread with homemade butter! The students took turns shaking a jar containing 35% whipping cream with a bit of salt. After a lot of shaking, the butterfat separates from the whey (like buttermilk), and there is a lump of butter in the jar! We had a great time as the students practiced their table manners by asking fellow students to "pass the butter" and saying "please" and "thank you".

The students wrote thank you cards to their families and made small posters communicating what they are thankful for in their lives. These posters are now on display in the hall outside of the classroom.

In our class students are encouraged to write the date on everything so they have a record of when they did their work. Monday, October 10, 2016 can also be written Oct. 10/16 or 10X16. The last way uses Roman Numerals to indicate the month. October is the tenth month of the year and the Roman Numeral for 10 is X. The class learned the history of Roman Numerals and how to write the numbers from 1 - 12. Over 400 years ago, Leonardo Fibonacci discovered the Hindu-Arabic number system (0 - 9) and how place value can make any number in the world. Fibonacci also introduced zero (0) to the Western world.

The children started their pillow projects this week by learning how to tie dye fabric. Each student twisted and tied white fabric and dipped it in blue dye. This technique makes beautiful blue and white patterns.

Books read aloud this week:

A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen

Stone Soup by Jon J. Muth

Where in the World is Bob? By James Bowen

Eye to Eye - How Animals See the World by Steve Jenkins

Fun With Roman Numberals by David Adler

Update from Ms. R

I apologize for my absence on Friday due to sickness. Due to all the changes in the classroom this week, I decided to tell the supply teacher to give some "catch up" homework to the students that are new to our class and give the rest of the students the week off. So the homework for the new students is to complete the "All About Me" two-sided worksheet, so they can each have a page in our class book of biographies. This homework is due on Thursday, October 6th (since Friday is a P. A. Day).

On Thursday afternoon, our school had a real fire evacuation. There was an electrical problem in the basement which triggered the fire alarm. Everything was okay in the end and I was very proud of the children as they quickly and quietly left the building. It wasn't easy standing in the rain!

PLEASE NOTE:

Curriculum night is Thursday, October 6 from 6:00 to 7:00 pm in Room 204. I hope to see you there!

The Terry Fox Run date has changed to Friday, October 14th.

There is a PA Day on Friday, October 7th. (There are no classes on that day.)

News for September 30

News for September 30

What a week! Room 204 is now a combined grade classroom with both grade 2 and grade 3 students. We were sad to say good bye to ten students as they went to their new classrooms, but we were happy to welcome ten new students to our class. From grade 3 gifted screening testing, to school pictures, to a real fire alarm evacuation, it was a very eventful week.

The grade 3 gifted screening testing was done this week each day, for three days this week. The whole class participated in learning how to do the practice tests in the morning. Then in the afternoon, the grade 3 students went to Mr. Hunter's class for two periods and the grade 2's came to our class. We creating paintings, made paper toys and even watched some Pingu cartoons!

In science, the children used what they learned about researching squirrels last week, to help them begin animal research projects of their own. The children each picked an animal that they were interested in. We organized the projects so that every student is researching a different animal. That way, when the projects are finished, not only will each child be an expert on one animal but also, as a class we will learn about 20 different animals! At the end of the week, the class began to learn about how scientists classify or sort animals into different categories (birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, mammals). 

The children learned how to use stencils. They used alphabet stencils to put a easy-to-read title on the poster papers for their animal research projects.

The class reviewed the 17 word wall (spelling) words that we have learned so far, so that the new students could catch up. Recall it is expected that the students remember how to spell these word wall words....for the rest of their lives! :-)

In math, the class reviewed patterns in the 100 chart and skip counting forwards and backwards. The students taught the new members of our class how to play the math game "Race to 100" (addition) and "Race to 0" (subtraction) but this time the children used two dice. The children also worked on completing mini-books of math questions reviewing number sense concepts.

The math challenge this week had the student partners using their "two brains" to solve a challenging math word problem. It was great to see the children use the strategy of drawing a picture to help understand what the problem requires them to find. There were many different approaches to solving the problem and all of them got the correct or close-to-correct answer.

Books read aloud this week:

Thing Thing by Carey Fagan

More Life Size Zoo by Teruyuki Komiya

Life Size Farm by Teruyuki Komiya

The World That Loved Books by Stephen Parlato

Underwater Dogs by Seth Castel