Dear families,
I hope you enjoyed the sun this lovely November Saturday!
Thank you to our Computer Lab volunteers - Ellie's mom and Ruby's mom. Thank you also to Riley's mom who was our Mystery Reader this week, and to Dylan's and Claire's moms who helped out with pizza lunch. Thank you also to Matthew's mom who made play dough for the class!
This upcoming week is the Scholastic Book Fair in the Library. The children in Group 1 will be going on Thursday, and the children in Group 2 will be going on Tuesday. If you wish your child to buy books, please send their money in a plastic baggy marked with their name. Thank you!
In this weekend's TDSB bag your child's work on the book study of "Where the Wild Things Are" was sent home, along with their weekly snuggle book. Please return the snuggle book each Monday so that other children can read it.
This week we read several versions of The Three Little Pigs, starting with a very old version written in 1960. I think the children enjoyed reading all the other versions from the library that are in our classroom. We talked a lot about how they are the same and different and which they like better and why. We also did a Venn comparing the Troll and the Wolf. We also made cute piggy art from construction paper. On the tummy is a letter to the big bad wolf. I've typed up the children's ideas of what to write to the big bad wolf - they are so cute!
We also did a graphing activity; the children had to take turns with a spinner, which would land on a picture of either straw, sticks or bricks. Each time it landed on one of those three, they had to colour in one rectangle of the graph. Which ever they landed on the most and reached 10, they had to decorate a little house with that material. The follow up activity is to write if that was the best material for the house, or not. The Seniors helped the Juniors with this activity.
The children enjoyed building structures in class this week and were proud to show them to their classmates. They built houses in groups and then explained how they did it in front of the class. Great job! They also decorated three paper houses with real straw, sticks, and "bricks" (sponge painted), and retold the story using puppets. I recorded the children's descriptions of the structures they built and will send copies home when the Folktale unit is done.
On the Smartboard, we did guided reading of "How to Make Piggie Pie" and a simple version of "The Three Little Pigs," both of which will go in the children's Folktale Folder when we have finished this unit of inquiry. The homework for the SKs is to draw pictures and write how to make piggy pie. We did this together on the Smartboard first. The JK homework is to just read and colour this booklet.
Continuing with our science inquiry on the weather, we talked about the wind, like the wolf, blowing things down! Also, that snow is flakes of ice. The children brought some ice inside to our science table.
With our Grade 2 Reading Buddies, the children read and coloured a version of The Three Little Pigs that has a happier ending (the wolf runs away) than the traditional tale.
We had a visit from Hector from the Brentwood Library this week. The children listened to stories, sang songs, and learned about all the fun things to do at a public library.
On December 15, it will be "Wear a Festive Sweater Day' at LKS to raise money for the Seeds of Hope. It is also the day of an Author Visit in the Library, and is our Sharing Assembly in the morning. We will be singing holiday songs for you. It would be great if the children could wear a festive hat on this day for the assembly.
That's our news for this week! Next week will be all about castles and several versions of the classic tale Cinderella. Our Dramatic Play area is now decorated by the children as a castle and looks amazing!
Please send in shoeboxes and toilet paper rolls for our castles (as many as you can please). We also need 28 small baby food jars with lids. Thank you!
I hope you have a lovely weekend!
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Week of November 23-27
Hello families,
This week was all about The Three Billy Goats Gruff and bridges. We read several versions of this classic folktale including "The Three Bully Goats" (which transitioned well into a discussion about bullying and bully awareness week) and "The Three Billy Goats Fluff" (which is a cute version in which the troll can't sleep due to the "trip trapping" of the goats' hooves and they have to come up with a solution to not bother the tired troll). We sequenced the story and its different versions and retold it. We also watched a video on the Smartboard called "What Makes Bridges so Strong?" Then four of the tables had the task of building a bridge out of tubes, various sizes of wooden sticks, and tape. Two tables had only small marshmallows and toothpicks. It was great that some of the children remembered that the triangle shape is often used in bridges. Many of the children also recalled going over bridges and their conversations and cooperative play and problem-solving was great to hear. After they built the bridge they drew it and wrote what the bridge HAS, CAN (do) and IS. We followed up with this activity by sponge-painting the setting of the story (dried/eaten grass, water, bridge, green grass), and by cutting gout and making puppets. The children's wonderful teamwork and thinking is on display on our hall bulletin board.
The children also made Troll and Ogre puppets and they will go home next week. They look awesome! Thank you Cole for bringing in Jan Brett's book "The Trouble with Trolls." We also graphed and tallied our answers to the question, "Would you throw the troll over the bridge or would you make friends with the troll?" I was impressed that more than twice as many children said they would make friends with the troll. :)
Please send in shoeboxes and toilet paper rolls for our castles ( as many as you can please). We also need 28 small baby food jars with lids. Thank you!
As an introduction to our next folktale, The Three Little Pigs, we went on a walking excursion around the shale pit, looking at the houses and fences - deciding which was strong, stronger, strongest. A large wall made of large and heavy rocks at the back of the pit was a clear winner. It was also a very windy day and this will lead nicely into our discussion of wind and the role it plays in the story. I sent home a wind vane kit if your child wishes to make one at home -- you just need a play-doh container and lid and a pencil.
The home work for this weekend for the SKs is to fill in the blanks with Troll adjectives to make a poem, and draw an accompanying picture (we did the adjectives in class on chart paper). They can also do the word search. The JKs should cut out and sequence the story pictures.
We also started talking about castles since they are in a lot of folk and fairy tales. The children made them from paper bags and we looked at and talked about the features of some famous castles (Windsor, Neuschwanstein) as well as our own Casa Loma. Thank you Theo for bringing in the home made castle from your house. We will start making ours too once more show boxes are sent in.
Thank you to Cole's dad who helped out in the Computer Lab, to William's mom who was our Mystery Reader on his special day, and to Martel's mom who also helped out in the Computer Lab.
Some of the children must be growing quickly because they are finishing their morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack by lunchtime and don't have anything left over for afternoon snack time! Please be sure to send In enough healthy snacks for the whole day. I always have extra but they are just goldfish because I can't store perishable food for long in my fridge.
The last day to hand in any holiday Scholastic orders is tomorrow. Thank you!
That's the classroom news for this week - I hope you have a terrific week and look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!
This week was all about The Three Billy Goats Gruff and bridges. We read several versions of this classic folktale including "The Three Bully Goats" (which transitioned well into a discussion about bullying and bully awareness week) and "The Three Billy Goats Fluff" (which is a cute version in which the troll can't sleep due to the "trip trapping" of the goats' hooves and they have to come up with a solution to not bother the tired troll). We sequenced the story and its different versions and retold it. We also watched a video on the Smartboard called "What Makes Bridges so Strong?" Then four of the tables had the task of building a bridge out of tubes, various sizes of wooden sticks, and tape. Two tables had only small marshmallows and toothpicks. It was great that some of the children remembered that the triangle shape is often used in bridges. Many of the children also recalled going over bridges and their conversations and cooperative play and problem-solving was great to hear. After they built the bridge they drew it and wrote what the bridge HAS, CAN (do) and IS. We followed up with this activity by sponge-painting the setting of the story (dried/eaten grass, water, bridge, green grass), and by cutting gout and making puppets. The children's wonderful teamwork and thinking is on display on our hall bulletin board.
The children also made Troll and Ogre puppets and they will go home next week. They look awesome! Thank you Cole for bringing in Jan Brett's book "The Trouble with Trolls." We also graphed and tallied our answers to the question, "Would you throw the troll over the bridge or would you make friends with the troll?" I was impressed that more than twice as many children said they would make friends with the troll. :)
Please send in shoeboxes and toilet paper rolls for our castles ( as many as you can please). We also need 28 small baby food jars with lids. Thank you!
As an introduction to our next folktale, The Three Little Pigs, we went on a walking excursion around the shale pit, looking at the houses and fences - deciding which was strong, stronger, strongest. A large wall made of large and heavy rocks at the back of the pit was a clear winner. It was also a very windy day and this will lead nicely into our discussion of wind and the role it plays in the story. I sent home a wind vane kit if your child wishes to make one at home -- you just need a play-doh container and lid and a pencil.
The home work for this weekend for the SKs is to fill in the blanks with Troll adjectives to make a poem, and draw an accompanying picture (we did the adjectives in class on chart paper). They can also do the word search. The JKs should cut out and sequence the story pictures.
We also started talking about castles since they are in a lot of folk and fairy tales. The children made them from paper bags and we looked at and talked about the features of some famous castles (Windsor, Neuschwanstein) as well as our own Casa Loma. Thank you Theo for bringing in the home made castle from your house. We will start making ours too once more show boxes are sent in.
Thank you to Cole's dad who helped out in the Computer Lab, to William's mom who was our Mystery Reader on his special day, and to Martel's mom who also helped out in the Computer Lab.
Some of the children must be growing quickly because they are finishing their morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack by lunchtime and don't have anything left over for afternoon snack time! Please be sure to send In enough healthy snacks for the whole day. I always have extra but they are just goldfish because I can't store perishable food for long in my fridge.
The last day to hand in any holiday Scholastic orders is tomorrow. Thank you!
That's the classroom news for this week - I hope you have a terrific week and look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!
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