Hello Families & Happy Friday! I hope that everyone has been staying warm in this terribly cold weather! I also want to wish those of you who have been sick a speedy recovery. There is lots going around right now and our class has been hit especially hard. Miss Tucker has also been away and so her class has joined ours the last two days. It has been fun learning together : ) Keep reading to find out what we have been up to!
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In Language Arts we worked on writing in our journals about winter. We watched a video and discussed some facts about winter first. Then the students used this information to craft sentences remembering to use capital letters at the start, a period at the end and spaces between our words We are also working on elaboration in our writing. Students are being challenged to write more than one sentence on a topic and to use juicy words in their writing.
We also listed to a story about a bear that is sleeping so soundly nothing can wake him up. Some animals sneak into his cave to get out of the cold and end up having a party. When the bear wakes up he is sad he missed all the fun! We examined one sentence from the story in particular to see what the author did to make that sentence interesting. We noticed that she used juicy words such as 'lair'. We also noticed that she used describing words (a.k.a. adjectives) to help paint a picture in our head. Next we came up with a list of some other animals and brainstormed some words to describe them. Finally the students created their own sentences using their describing words and draw a picture to go with it.
In reading, we reviewed the /ch/ and /sh/ sounds. The students worked on making words using letter cards that contained those sounds and practiced their decoding skills to blend and segment words when reading. We also worked on listening for sounds in words using a Word Ladder activity. In this activity, there are as series of pictures next to a ladder. On each rung of the ladder students must write the word to go with each picture. The catch is that from one word to the next only one letter changes. They must listen for the letter that has changed to form a new word.
In math, we continued to explore numbers to 100. We worked with the TLC carpet to order numbers to 100 and have been learning strategies to quickly find numbers on the 100 chart. Students are also learning to use the chart to tell what is one more or less than a given number.
In Social Studies, we talked about who the Metis people are and learned about their history. Students learned that the Metis nation was here before Canada became a county! Their people are a mix of First Nations and European cultures. We discussed some of the important symbols associated with the Metis people and learned about a unique art form called Metis Dot Painting. This is similar to pointilism in that it uses dots rather than strokes to created images. The students selected one of the various symbols from the Metis culture to draw and then paint. They turned out fantastic!
In Health, we read a book entitled "Size of the Problem". The students learned that there are three sizes of problems: small, medium and big. Through the story they learned that the size of the problem determines the size of the reaction. If I have a small problem (e.g. someone budged in line), but I react as if it were a big problem (e.g. shouting, hitting, shoving, screaming) then I have not only not solved the problem, but I have made it worse! We discussed many scenarios that could happen, what size of problem it was and how we could handle it.
- 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!
- Please ensure your child has proper clothing for the weather. While we may not be going out for recess and lunch on really cold days there is always the possibility of an unexpected fire alarm, late busses or other events in which warm clothing is necessary.
- Book Fair next week! Your child brought home a flyer with information about our Book Fair. We will not have our regular library book exchange while the book fair is going so your child may keep any books they have for the following week.
Dec. 5-8 - Book Fair
Dec. 5 - Deadline for Gingerbread House Decorating Night
Dec. 10 - Deadline to donate to Christmas Hampers
Dec. 15 - Deadline to order for Dec 15 Healthy Hunger Lunch (Mucho Burrito)
Dec. 15 - Gingerbread House Decorating Night
Dec. 22 - Last Day of Classes
Dec. 23 - Jan 8 - Winter Break
Jan. 9 - Classes Resume
Feb. 3 - No School
Feb. 16-17 - Teachers Convention/No School
Feb. 20 - Family Day/No School
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