Ms. Vanderwel's Room: November 2022

Thursday, November 10, 2022

This Week in Room 21...

Happy Friday! I hope everyone was able to stay warm this week! It looks like the weather will be improving for next week so no more indoor recesses and lunch : ) Here's a look at what we have been up to this week.

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In Language Arts, we continued to look at the parts of a sentence. Students also assessed their own work to ensure that they were remembering to include a capital letter at the start of their sentence(s), spaces between words and also a period at the end. They also began to examine some mentor sentences to identify elements that make a good sentence. For example, this week we looked at a sentence from the book "Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type". They noticed that the author bolded some words and used words that create a sound effect. The students then created similar sentences modelled on the example with their own animals and sound effects (i.e. onomatopoeia).

In reading, students have also been very busy sorting pictures based on initial sounds, building words containing target letters and reading text using their knowledge of letter sounds and high frequency words. This week students brought home a Spelling Booklet with our first set of words. There are suggestions in their booklet for some fun ways to practice these words and their general spelling skills at home.

In math, students learned how to represent numbers up to 20 using tens and ones blocks. The learned that numbers greater than ten can be expressed as '10 and ___ more'. For example, the number 14 is 'ten and four more'. They worked with base ten blocks to build and identify numbers and played a fun place value game to develop their skills.

In Art, students created some lovely poppies which were displayed in the gym for our Remembrance Day Assembly. The students did an excellent job of participating quietly and respectfully in today's assembly.

Important Information & Reminders:

Continue with Home Reading. If you are finding the books to easy or to hard please let me know so that we can adjust the level.

Please have your child return their Spelling Booklet each Monday.

Students are strongly encouraged to have a water bottle at school in order to eliminate the need for frequent trips to the fountain throughout the day. The BEST bottles have a FLIP TOP not a screw top. Please send one if you have not done so. Thank you!

Upcoming Events & Dates to Remember:

Nov. 11 - Remembrance Day/No School

Nov. 24 - Parent-Teacher Conferences (pm)

Nov. 25 - Parent-Teacher Conferences/No School

Dec. 5-8 - Book Fair

Dec. 22 - Last Day of Classes

Dec. 23 - Jan 8 - Winter Break

Jan. 9 - Classes Resume

Friday, November 4, 2022

This Week in Room 21....

Hello! Here's a sneak peek at our learning this week!

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This week the students began learning to write in their journals using ideas from their Fact Pocket. We watched some videos about bats, owls and spiders. After brainstorming some facts that we learned about each animal the students wrote one, two or three sentences in their journals. The students are really focusing on beginning each sentence with a capital letter, leaving spaces between their words and putting a period at the end of the sentence. They included some excellent and very detailed illustrations with their work.

Students also worked on a number of Literacy Station activities that reviewed the concepts of rhyming words, alphabet sounds, sorting pictures based on beginning sounds, building letters and practicing "Heart Words".

In math, we continued to build numbers using ten frames and learning to subitize numbers up to 20. We discussed different strategies for recognizing numbers at a glance without having to count all the dots. The students did a great job of noticing smaller groups of numbers or arrangements of dots that help the to determine the total number without counting.

They also worked on creating a number line using ten frames. We had some good conversations around where to place various numbers on the number line and why. Should the numbers be close together or spread out and how far? (This was our first attempt. I did not get a picture of the final number line as it fell down before I could get a picture!)

We finished off the week by completing a "Today's Number" routine in which students had to represent a number using ten frames, tally marks, pictures and words.

In Science, we talked about how our senses keep us safe and discussed different situations in which our senses could help to alert us to danger. We watched a video on our senses and safety and completed an activity sheet to go with it.

Video Link

In gym, we continued working on ball skills. The students learned how to do a bounce pass, chest pass and shoot on the net. They also played a fun game called "Sharks & Minnows". The "sharks" stood in the middle of the gym, while the "minnows" tried to dibble the ball past the sharks to the opposite side. If a student lost his or her ball then they became a shark.