Week of January 14-18

Dear families,

It looks like we are finally going to get some snow this weekend! The children will be so happy!

This week the sight words were COME and LOOK. "Come look at the penguins!" The Jolly Phonics letter sound of the week was Ff.

The children have a new seating plan at their tables and are working well. Periodically Mrs. Mosun and I will re-arrange the seating plan to optimize learning and so the children can make new friends. We are also thinking about which children will work together well in Grade One.

In our inquiry on Penguins, we learned more fun facts about the Emperor Penguin. With their Grade 4 reading buddies, the children read and coloured a life cycle wheel and booklet about this amazing penguin. They also watched a short video about the Macaroni penguin. To explain how penguins and other antarctic animals don't get cold in freezing water, I sealed lard (fat = blubber) in a bag, and made it into a sleeve. Then the children took turns putting their hand in the bag of "blubber" and then in a tub full of ice. They observed that they didn't feel cold at all! We talked about how penguins, like all life, adapts to the environment around us. Kids wear coats, hats, mitts, boots and snow pants to keep them warm and dry! We also saw an amazing slow motion video of penguins launching themselves out of the water back onto land. We will finish up with our penguin inquiry next week and then the kids will bring all their learning home to show you!

To tie into our numeracy unit of Measurement, the children used Goldfish crackers to measure a paper penguin (a non-standard unit of measurement). They measured their penguin with the crackers facing upwards, and then sideways, but not both at the same time, because the children know that measuring tools need to be the same size. They also measured each other with their footprints, remembering to start at the edge and not leave spaces. The children also played with our scales, comparing different objects and numbers of objects. As a STEM learning activity, they are playing a penguin puzzle game and "Rush Hour." Playing games at home are an excellent way of strengthening numeracy skills.

The January Scholastic order is due Monday. Thank you for supporting Scholastic!

Thank you so much to Reina's mom who was our Mystery Reader this week!

I hope you have a fun weekend. Friday is a Report Card Writing Day for teachers. See you on Monday!