Dear families,
We finished our unit on Oceans and all the children's wonderful work went home in Friday's mail bag. The children have practiced reading everything they worked on, so I hope you will ask them to share what they learned with you! A family field trip to the new aquarium downtown would be a perfect ending to this unit! Some of the children's work is on display on the bulletin board and will go home after the March Break.
We also learned about Jellyfish and Starfish, and more facts about sand and seashells, for example that we use sand for making glass, bricks, concrete, sandpaper, even nail files. Needless to say I brought those items in from home to show the children and I think they found it interesting! I also brought in some large scallop shells to add to the class collection and the children were quite interested in how animals make shells and use them for shelter, too. A special thank you to Megan for bringing in a real starfish! Thank you to Christopher as well for bringing in shells and coral from his trip to Turks and Caicos, and to Izzie and Claire for bringing in ocean animal toys.
Our class will be watching a presentation by the Shoestring Opera on March 24 in the afternoon, in the gym. I'm sure the children will love it!
We also had fun playing "Fish Sticks" and "Fish Out of Water" numeracy games with Goldfish crackers - counting them and adding them up, then eating them of course!
We also finished our author study on Marcus Pfister's Rainbow Fish books, and the children make a colour-by-number rainbow fish of their own. The children played a fun board counting game called "Shark Attack." Playing board games reinforce numeracy skills. The children also made a pirate treasure map look old by painting it with strong cold tea. They also read and coloured a little book on safety; they recognized the "skull and cross bones" from a pirate's flag, and were reminded never to touch anything with that symbol on it at home.
Our new popcorn words were GO, and TO. The next ones will be HAVE and SAW. Please continue reading with and to your children over the March Break. They have come so far and I am so happy with their progress! I have sent home new journals for everyone. I hope the children have lots to write about over the holidays. I look forward to reading them and seeing their drawings!
Not to forget the upcoming St. Patrick's Day (which takes place over the March Break), we made a little leprechaun and wrote about him/her, and about what we would do if a leprechaun gave us gold. Cute! For homework I sent home a mini St. Patrick's Day word book.
At the next sharing assembly on March 24, Sophie, Sabrina and Luca will be receiving certificate for Honesty. Well done!
On Friday, the children participated in a recording of "O Canada" and wore red and/or white.
The next Scholastic Book Order is due on April 30. I will submit the March orders at the end of the month.
That's the news from Room 166. I hope you have a very restful and enjoyable March Break. It will officially be Spring when we come back!
Friday, March 13, 2015
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Week of March 9-13
It's hard to believe that there is only one more week of school until the March Break. When school resumes, it will officially be Spring! Many of the children have talked about their past or upcoming vacations to warm climates with beaches, so our Ocean Unit has been interesting to the children. I've learned a lot too! We want to spend one more week on this unit, and next week we'll be learning all about Sand (what it is, how we use it), seashells, and marine mammals. Look for additions to our hallway bulletin board! Our classroom bulletin board looks great with the children's "submarine windows" and writing about what they can see (what they drew) outside their window. This was simple pastel and watercolour and looks really effective.
This week we compared and contrasted the Great White Shark and the Killer Whale (without being scary!), using two hula hoops as a Venn Diagram and simple sentences about the animals that the children had to put in the correct place. We also practiced our three poems "Smiley Shark," "Lobster," and "Crab." The kids continued to bring in interesting things from their house: a shark tooth, a beautiful conch shell, books about the ocean, coral, shells, barnacles, sand from California, and photos. Wonderful!
We learned interesting facts about the Octopus and the Jellyfish this week, and watched a short video by Animal Planet. We also played a word game in which the children had to place three different letters in a submarine window to make a real word (i.e. sub, tub, rub) As well, the children came up with 25 different words hiding in the word S-U-B-M-A-R-I-N-E. Way to go! Writing them out is the SK homework this weekend. The Juniors played a upper and lower case letter matching game called "Fishing for Letters" with a bingo dabber. We also read "The Rainbow Fish" and started a mini book study on this wonderful book about getting along and being a friend.
Continuing on with our Popcorn Word work, the SKs tallied and graphed how many times they "spun" WHO, HAVE, CAME, ARE, WENT, and WILL. They also played a "roll and read" game with those words on paper cubes. The next popcorn words are THIS and WILL.
When we learned about mollusks, I brought in some real pearls for the children to see and also some plastic ones to compare.
Our science experiment about pennies in vinegar and salt continues to interest the children; we left the pennies in the mixture, and after about a week they started to turn dark again, and now the salt has separated from the vinegar is moving up the sides of the cup! There is also a blue colour in the salt from the copper oxidizing. We talked about copper a bit and how it changes to bluish green, and the children learned that we have copper in our houses, too.
We also had a mini lesson on oil and water not mixing with the roof repairs going on! The children of course wondered about the tar smell and learned that tar comes from oil and it is used on roofs so that water won't go through!
Thank you to our parent volunteers: Sabrina's mom (who I forgot to thank last week!), Tessa's mom, and Adam's mom. Thank you as well to Caden and Will from Mrs. Wilson's class who pair-share read to the children.
I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!
This week we compared and contrasted the Great White Shark and the Killer Whale (without being scary!), using two hula hoops as a Venn Diagram and simple sentences about the animals that the children had to put in the correct place. We also practiced our three poems "Smiley Shark," "Lobster," and "Crab." The kids continued to bring in interesting things from their house: a shark tooth, a beautiful conch shell, books about the ocean, coral, shells, barnacles, sand from California, and photos. Wonderful!
We learned interesting facts about the Octopus and the Jellyfish this week, and watched a short video by Animal Planet. We also played a word game in which the children had to place three different letters in a submarine window to make a real word (i.e. sub, tub, rub) As well, the children came up with 25 different words hiding in the word S-U-B-M-A-R-I-N-E. Way to go! Writing them out is the SK homework this weekend. The Juniors played a upper and lower case letter matching game called "Fishing for Letters" with a bingo dabber. We also read "The Rainbow Fish" and started a mini book study on this wonderful book about getting along and being a friend.
Continuing on with our Popcorn Word work, the SKs tallied and graphed how many times they "spun" WHO, HAVE, CAME, ARE, WENT, and WILL. They also played a "roll and read" game with those words on paper cubes. The next popcorn words are THIS and WILL.
When we learned about mollusks, I brought in some real pearls for the children to see and also some plastic ones to compare.
Our science experiment about pennies in vinegar and salt continues to interest the children; we left the pennies in the mixture, and after about a week they started to turn dark again, and now the salt has separated from the vinegar is moving up the sides of the cup! There is also a blue colour in the salt from the copper oxidizing. We talked about copper a bit and how it changes to bluish green, and the children learned that we have copper in our houses, too.
We also had a mini lesson on oil and water not mixing with the roof repairs going on! The children of course wondered about the tar smell and learned that tar comes from oil and it is used on roofs so that water won't go through!
Thank you to our parent volunteers: Sabrina's mom (who I forgot to thank last week!), Tessa's mom, and Adam's mom. Thank you as well to Caden and Will from Mrs. Wilson's class who pair-share read to the children.
I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!
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