Pumpkin website

Jack-O-Latern

Word work

We did Making words for our word work today.  The students were given letters and made as many words as they could using different combinations of letters.  The letters they were given are below:

a   e   e   i   c   f   l   p   r   s 

The challenge after making as many words as possible was to use all of the letters above to make one big word.  No one figured it out so I am posting this to give students an opportunity to figure it out at home and tell me in the morning. 

Diwali

The students participated in a variety of activities to learn about Diwali. 

Diwali

Diwali is perhaps the most well-known festival in India! It is a religious Hindu festival, and is also known as the ‘Festival of Lights’. During this time, people decorate their homes with candles and clay lamps. People will wear fancy, new outfits and participate in a family puja (worship). People will also share special treats and sweets with their friends and neighbours.

We watched videos, read books, did a dance from India and Yoga.  The students compared, using a venn diagram, Diwali celebrations with a holiday that we celebrate in Canada. The students created a post card drawing and describing what it would be like if the were in India during Diwali. We learned about the art of rangoli and used a rangoli to begin a math project that we will continue with tomorrow. Each color in the rangoli will be given a number and the students will count how many parts of the rangoli are that color.  We will then do some adding to figure out the total value of the rangoli colors. 

Tomorrow we will also learn about the Taj Mahal and do a guided drawing of it in our visual journal.

We are not doing new words for this week with it being Halloween on Thursday and a PD day on Friday.  We will work on making words on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Students will be given letters that they need to make as many words as possible with and then try to figure out the word of the day that uses all of the letters.

SCIENCE - BUILDING SKYSCRAPERS

As part of our Building topic in Science the students will be using the information we learned about the Leaps of building skyscrapers to design and build their own.  During the week of November 4-8 each student will plan, design and create a skyscraper.  Students are invited to bring any materials form home that they would like to use for their building project (eg paper towel roles, boxes, tinfoil).  There are 6 categories that the students will need to think about when designing and building their structure.
1. Materials - strong but light
2. Resistant to wind
3. Blocks heat
4. Resistant to earthquakes
5. Speed - how quickly it can be built
6. Mobility - how can the high floors be accessed

October 24, 2019

A field trip form for the Jack Singer Concert Hall on November 13th has been sent in the students folders today.  They will be watching the COP performance of "Haydyn and the Symphony."  Please sign the forms and pay $20 by November 6th.   We will require 3 volunteers for this field trip so please email me if you are able to help out and you have your security clearance.

There is also a Scholastic book order in the Home Communication folder.  Book orders are due Monday, November 4th. 

Pumpkins were sent home today as we have finished the math and art activities with the pumpkins.  Ask your child what the height, weight and circumference of their pumpkin was.  Thank you for sending in a pumpkin with your child to help us do some hands on math activities with measurement.

October 23, 2019

We started our work with pumpkins today.  The students have created a visual journal page with a pumpkin vine border to record their findings over the next few days.  We made predictions today for the weight in kilograms, height in cm and circumference in cm.  We also ordered our pumpkins from smallest to largest and reviewed ordinal numbers.  Ask your child what the ordinal number was for their pumpkin. 

We explored using oil pastels to create a side view of the pumpkin.  We also watched a video and read a book about the life cycle of a pumpkin.  We will be adding facts to our visual journal page after watching the video a second time. 

Words for the week October 18, 2019

Please see below our list of word work words for this week.

PUMPKINS, PUMPKINS, PUMPKINS

IMPORTANT: Please bring a small to medium sized pumpkin to school on Monday or Tuesday.  We would like all students to have one by Wednesday October 23^rd.  We will send them home at the end of the week on Friday so families can still use them for Halloween.  We won’t be carving the pumpkin at school. The pumpkins will be supporting our math, language arts and art programs.

October 17, 2019

Math(Number Sense) : This week we have focused on numbers to 1000 using place value charts, number words, expanded form( 124 - 100+20+4) , base ten blocks and numbers. One activity we used to reinforce the concept was a game called Junk It.  Students drew three lines beside each other and then 2 lines off to the side.  Rolling a die 5 times, they create the biggest 3 digit number they can using the 2 Junk it lines to put the numbers they don't want.  We then used the greater than, less than and equal to signs to compare their number with the partners number. 

Novel Read (Comprehension):  We started the book Because of Winn Dixie this week and have been applying comprehension strategies to deepen our understanding of the novel.  We are focusing on using QUESTIONS to reinforce comprehension. Today we talked about thin questions - questions that have "right there answers" such as who? where? what? and why? questions.  We also learned about thick questions - questions that require "think and search" such as Why do you think....? How would you feel if...? Would you...?  After reading some chapters from Winn Dixie the students chose one character to describe and then ask 5 questions they'd like to know about the character.  When your child is doing their home reading, encourage them to ask questions after reading a few pages or a chapter.  We are also practicing the skill of asking questions with non-fiction text as we read biographies about important people around the world.  In Science, we are asking questions after watching the different sections describing the Leaps of building that was applied to the design and building of the Burj Khalifa. 

October 15, 2019

Please see our list of words for word work this week. We are short one day this week from the holiday so we will not have time in class to do alphabetical order and LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK.  Students that feel they would like the extra practice with these words are encouraged to practice extra at home this week.

MATH: We introduced the students to graphing using their minutes from reading to create a graph using Google Sheets to keep track of their minutes over the year.  We will also be practicing reading data on graphs with the Book a Day votes that we have been doing each week. 

SCIENCE:  We are continuing to learn about the different leaps of building that has occurred over the years which has contributed to sky scrapers being taller and stronger. Today the students worked on Leap 2: Materials.  We discovered that buildings that were made of stone were too heavy too make really tall.  Ask your child what materials were used to make a building strong and light. 

DANCE MAT TYPING:  Students are encouraged to practice typing using the link below.

Dance Mat Typing

SOCIAL STUDIES SUPPORT REQUESTS

SOCIAL STUDIES Support Requests

Do you have a relationship with India, Peru, Tunisia, Ukraine or local Indigenous Tribes? 

Several classes (Ashby-Winters, Boshmann, Cooper and MacQueen) are currently putting together collections of artifacts of each of these populations to use with all four classes.

To give you an idea of artifacts we are looking for, Mrs. MacQueen has put together a Ukrainian Collection with the following items;

- folk tale book written in both English and Ukrainian (The Snow Grandparents -students act out)
-comic books in Ukrainian
-children book in Ukrainian
-traditional dancing costume pieces (headpiece, sash, beads, slippers)
-wooden beaded boxes
-pictures of children in traditional costumes from different regions of Ukraine
-pictures of traditional religious celebrations (Easter, Church Service, Wedding)
-pussy willows
-nesting dolls
-copy of the Ukrainian alphabet
-Ukrainian egg making kit

Really, anything that you think would enhance the learning of the culture and country. Please write a brief description of what the item is and it's cultural importance. We will return all items to you at the end of the school year. We will be sure to bag items carefully. If you wish to make any items donations, please mark your wishes on the bag that you send them in.

If you wish to send in traditional food or make a presentation for any one or all classes, please contact your child's individual teacher.

Thank you for your help!

October 10

Reminder that there is no school on Friday October 11th and no school on Monday October 14th.

We worked hard today to add up all our numbers from our September reading minutes.  After sharing several strategies we got the answer of 5886 minutes.  We decided to make it our goal as a class to read 6000 minutes as a whole class for October.  Each student is encouraged to increase their reading minutes for the month of October.

This week we spent some time learning about the story of Anne Frank.  We are reading a variety of biographies to learn the stories of people around the world.  We are also connecting to the RIGHTS of the CHILD through some of the picture books we have been reading as well as the biographies. 

In Science we have started watching a video about the Burj Kkalifa and the different leaps in technology that were required to make this the tallest building. So far we have learned about the importance of MOBILITY and the discovery of safe elevators.  Leap 2 is about MATERIALS and the need to find something light but strong to build tall buildings.

Math Homework

We have been working on adding the numbers from our September Reading calendar to get the total number of minutes each student read in September. Some of the students shared their strategies today that allowed them to successfully find the answer.  Some students need more time to work on finding their final answer so if your child has their math notebook in their home communication folder please help your child remember to finish this task.  It would also be awesome if parents could check to make sure the answer is accurate.  We will be adding all of the class numbers together to find out how many minutes the whole class read.

Word Work - October 7

Please see the list below for this weeks words:

This is the routine that we follow for word work each week:
Monday: copy the words into a list, Sort and Record the words into the patterns
Tuesday: Alphabetical order and Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check
Wednesday: Five great sentences using words from the list
Thursday: Rainbow words or pyramid words and Practice using a variety of tools(keyboard, magnetic letters, stamps, Bannagrams,etc.)
Friday: Blind sort test with a partner

October 3, 2019

It was a very busy day as we explored various locations downtown.  The morning started at the Peace Bridge to sketch and make predictions about the story of the Peace Bridge.  We then walked to Princess Island Park to warm up in the sun and enjoy our snacks.  We spent some time at the Jamieson Place to observe the bio wall.  It was fun to take the escalator to the Devonian Gardens and then took the C Train back to Library School.  We finished our day with a quick presentation fromShane Keating.

 
 

 

 
 

October 2, 2019

We had the privilege of learning from three presenters today at library school. Our first expert was  the artist in residency who is an illustrator that is currently working on publishing a children's book.  She taught us how to use shapes for drawing and with her guidance we all drew amazing buffalos. 

Lisa Hardy, the Facilities Design Lead, presented information about how we design and build structures for the community.  We got to see some of the original architecture designs from the beginning of the building process.  We examined some of the materials and discussed why certain materials were chosen for the library.

In the afternoon after some time outside on a playground, we visited Elder Alice in the Indigenous meeting room.  She shared stories from her culture and from the past.  Below are some pictures of the table that was designed and built by an indigenous artist to symbolize the Indigenous culture. 

 
 

October 1, 2019

We had another full day of exploring and learning at library school.  It was really exciting to get to go into the back to discover the cool system that is used for book returns.  The students spent some time exploring levels 3 and 4.  As they made discoveries, they sketched and wrote what they noticed and what they wondered.  In the afternoon, we had a presenter come to show us postcards from the past and how they tell a story of what was happening at that place and time. 

If students have a library card they are welcome to bring it to library school this week to sign out a book if they would like.  We found out today that the library books can be returned at any location.