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!