Important Dates:
June 28 - Report Cards go home
June 29 - Last day of classes for the 2015-2016 school year
September 5 - Labour Day - Statutory Holiday
September 6 - First day of classes for the 2016-2017 school year
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Update from Ms. R
The homework journal was sent home with children on Friday for the last time. I wrote each child a letter in their journals thanking everyone for being part of such an amazing group of learners this year!
News for June 24
What a week! From being evacuated to Hodgson on Tuesday to Canadian Tire Play Day on Friday, the students in Room 204 were very busy...
On Tuesday, our whole school was evacuated to Hodgson Senior Public School because our school building had no electricity and no water. The basement had flooded and caused an electrical fire. Luckily our friends at Hodgson Senior Public School gave all the students at our school a place to go and be safe. Unfortunately, I had just come from home myself and I had no materials for the children to use, but I managed to scrounge some paper and crayons for the students. Francesca was amazing, leading the children in games and the students were able to talk and play games among themselves. Luckily the power and water were back on at our school building by the end of the day.
The students finally learned the secret to a card trick I showed them last week and then practised doing the trick with a partner.
The children learned about the French art technique of "papier mache" (layering paper and glue to create a rigid structure). They then covered balloons with three layers of paper to make a three-dimensional forms that they will turn into sculptures next week.
The students rehearsed and rehearsed the play "Honesty is the Best Policy" and finally presented it to all the grade 1, 2 and 3 classes on Friday afternoon. We had two presentations of the play, one with grade 2 actors and one with grade 3 actors. The children did an amazing job!
The class attended two assemblies this week to watch performances by other classes and to see various presentations to students.
On Friday morning, our school was very lucky to have staff from Canadian Tire come to our school and organize a Play Day. The students participated in a variety of activities from standard athletic games to colouring designs on t-shirts!
On Monday, June 20th at 6:34 pm, it was the official beginning of summer. The class discussed why this happens...it's because the axis of the earth is tilted and now the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun in it's orbit around the sun. This year it was also the night of a rare "strawberry moon", when the first day of summer is also the time of a full moon. (The last one was seen in June 1967 and the next one will be in 2062!)
The students watched an old Looney Tunes cartoon ("One Froggy Evening - 1955) about a time capsule and then remembered about the time capsules they created in October of last year. After being hidden away (along with Flash Domo) 10 months ago, it was fun for the students to look at the letters they wrote to the "future" students of Room 204. They also read their wishes and predictions and compared their heights and the sizes of their hands and feet! A lot has happened in our 10 months together in Room 204.
Books read aloud this week:
Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale by Gerald McDermott
The Runaway Beard: A Hairy Tale by David Schiller
How Summer Came to Canada retold by William Toye
The Boy with Square Eyes by Juliet and Charles Snape
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Update from Ms. R
Happy Father's Day to all the Room 204 families!
Well, our concert went very well indeed. The children worked very hard on their presentation and it showed! It was wonderful to see all the parents there to see the concert.
There was no homework assigned for this week.
(Please click on the image to see the full picture.)
News for June 17
News for June 17
This was probably the busiest week of the year...a field trip, a concert and Pioneer Day!
The children learned how to solve crossword puzzles. Then they solved a crossword puzzle based on clues about math concepts we learned in Room 204 this year.
The students finished writing all the word wall words in their personal dictionaries this week...over 200 words!
In math, the children learned facts about playing cards. Did you know that a package of cards is called a "deck" and that there are 13 hearts (red) + 13 diamonds (red) + 13 clubs (black) + 13 spades (black) = 52 cards.
On Tuesday, the students went on their field trip to the Bata Shoe Museum and the University of Toronto Imaging Facility. At the museum, the children painted Dutch-style wooden shoes and learned about the history of First Nations footwear. At the university, the children used light microscopes to look at seeds, electron microscopes to look at fruit flies (Drosophila) and confocal microscopes (that uses lasers) to look at fruit fly eyes. Finally, they watched some experiments with liquid nitrogen! Photos from that day will be presented in a separate posting.
The students worked on creating a gift for someone special in his/her life. They designed a photo holder using wire and wrapped the present in wrapping paper decorated with tessellated hexagons!
Friday was the last day of our school's healthy snack program. The students wrote thank you letters to Chris the Snackman to thank him for providing snacks to our class this year. (They also wrote thank you cards to all the presenters on our field trip.)
Our Pioneer Village was finished this week and the students practised their presentations. On Friday, the groups were videotaped sharing what they learned about their pioneer buildings. This video can be seen in a separate posting.
Pioneer Day, June 17, 1816 was a great success! The students made a lunch of baked beans, corn, cornbread pancakes, carrots, cheese, pickles and homemade butter. Finally the class had fresh strawberries and blueberries with sweet tea for dessert and they had raisins and popcorn for a snack. The children practised their math facts using blackboards and chalk, they prepared their pioneer village presentations, they heard the fairy tale, The Bremen town Musicians (which was written by the Brothers Grimm, 200 years ago in 1816). Finally the students learned about writing with feather, or quill, pens and they each had a chance to try to write and draw using this type of pen and ink. They learned about the famous "pangram" sentence that contains all 26 letters of the alphabet:
"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."
The students finished their art based on the work of the Dutch artist M. C. Escher. These are now on display in the hall outside of our classroom.
Books read aloud this week:
A Shiver of Sharks: A Collections of Aquatic Collective Nouns by Patrick George
Go FIgure: A Totally Cool Book About Numbers by Johnny Ball
On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein by Jennifer Berne
The Bremen Town Musicians (1816) by The Brothers Grimm
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Videos seen in class this week
The class watched a video about the Dutch artist/mathematician, M. C. Escher.
They also watched a video about the northern lights or Aurora Borealis.
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