Here is a video of our class rehearsing our performance for the school concert. Enjoy!
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Read Every Day!
I spoke to the students about remembering to read EVERY day over the summer holiday. If students do not read, their reading fluency and comprehension decrease and will be at a lower level when they start school again in September (as compared to when they left school in June). Computers are wonderful...but they are not the only way to pass the time over the summer! Children should play outside, play with friends, draw, paint, build and read. You don't want to get "square eyes" from looking at electronic screens!
(Click on the image to see the full picture.)
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Update from Ms. R
Thanks for a great year! We learned a lot and had fun together in Room 204.
It was a pleasure and a privilege to teach this awesome group of students.
I would like to wish all the families a safe and happy summer break!
News for June 29
News for June 29
Ah...the last week of school...so much to do...so little time left!
The class figured out how many days long the summer vacation is...68 days. They added one day left of June, plus 31 days in July, 31 days in August and 5 days in September (1+31+31+5=68 days).
The students learned the basics of how to create card towers or a house of cards. After watching a video of Bryan Berg, the world record holder, the students realized that making card towers without tape or glue is very difficult! But the children all tried their best. It just takes a lot of practice!
We read books about the word tricks, palindromes and anagrams.
The class looked through their portfolios for a last time and reflected on the work they have done this year and the progress they have made since September of last year.
The students finally painted their papier mache sculptures white and then with bright colours to finished them off.
The class learned about the math puzzles called "flexagons". These are math-based paper tricks that take a "two-sided" piece of paper and after some folding, cutting and taping create an apparently flat object that has 4 sides. The children made a tetrahexaflexagon (four sides, six sections), but there are many, many variations to this basic idea.
We finally estimated the ages of some of the trees in our school yard. The oldest tree is the silver maple tree facing Davisville Avenue near the baseball diamond by the playscape. It's around 130 years old. The basswood tree by our school exit door is around 120 years old. The students measured around the tree using measuring tapes and using the idea that 2 cm represents about 1 year of growth, they used calculators to estimate the age. These are just estimations because different kinds of trees grow at different rates and variations in the environment influence rates of growth as well.
The children wrote thank you notes to Ms. Francesca, the gym teacher, Ms. Konjhodzic, the music teacher, Mrs. Farrelly, the principal, Ms. Schneider, the vice-principal and the caretakers. It's important for the children to show their gratitude for people who help them. One of the nicest and simplest things one can do is simply say "thank you".
The children cleaned out the insides of their desks and took home any personal items. On the last day of school, everyone cleaned the tops of their desks using shaving foam! It's a fun way to clean off the dirt and use the foam to write words and draw pictures. The classroom smelled very "fresh" afterwards!
Books read aloud this week:
Mom and Dad are Palindromes: A Dilemma Forwards and Backwards by Mark Schulman
ANN and NAN are Anagrams: A Mixed Up Word Dilemma by Mark Schulman
Take Away the A: An Alphabeast of a Book! By Michael Escoffier
What Do You Do With an Idea? By Kobi Yamada
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!
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
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
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