Today during our computer lab time, we worked on improving the speed of our basic addition and subtraction facts. Here is a link to the website we used.
This reporting period, our Language Arts writing goals focused mainly on informational writing. First we worked on our non-fiction penguin themed writing. Once our penguin theme unit ended, we moved onto procedural writing in the form of "How To" booklets. To kick off our procedural writing unit, I searched through Pinterest looking for ideas that the students would find fun and engaging. I came across the cutest activity that required the kids to write the instructions for blowing a bubble. The fact that they got to chew bubblegum in class had them hooked immediately. Our "How To Blow a Bubble" writing and craftivity turned out great. They were on display in the hallway until today.
The bubblegum writing activity turned out so well that I immediately knew any other procedural writing activity needed to be as hands-on as possible. So that is exactly what we did! Over the last two weeks, students were partnered-up with another class member. Each group was given an envelope containing pictures that could be manipulated to "make" whatever product they were writing "How To" instructions for. There were 10 different products in total and each student completed approximately 6 activities each. I wish we could have completed all ten activities, but with the terrible round of the cold and flu which hit our school, it was nearly impossible. Let's hope that it is all behind us now!
(*if you are another teacher reading this post, I highly suggest you check out this resource. It is amazing. Just click here .)
This is an example of the "How To Make A Pizza" packet.
Grade one students manipulated the pieces to make the product, then sequenced the steps using transitional words as well as completing a cut and paste activity. Grade two students completed a sequencing activity but then wrote the instructions out, including transitional words, rather than the cut and paste portion. The students loved this unit and their procedural writing as well as their reading skills certainly improved. Tomorrow, we will be publishing our favourite "How To " activity to display in the hallway along with a cute craftivity.
In other news...
Anti-bullying Day was successful. Check out our classroom full of pink shirts.
Our first lesson had the students acting as the molecules in solids, liquids, and gases. Next, we created a tri-fold book to demonstrate our understanding, which also included a quick sorting activity.
Our second lesson involved some experimentation with changing states of matter through cooling and heating. After our experiments, we watched a music video on the changing states of matter. By the end of the video, we were all singing along.
We were still singing it today!
Over the next week or two, we'll have a little more fun with some messier experiments involving more changing states of matter. We'll try and keep everyone posted as we take more photos.
Don't forget that tomorrow is Anti-Bullying Day.
Remember to wear your pink t-shirts!
-Mrs. Singh
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Our study on communities is well underway. Last week we focused on types of communities (rural, suburban, urban) and the people that live and work there. We moved onto learning about how communities have changed over the years. We looked at photographs and books from when our grandparents were children as well as old photographs of Port Kells. Afterwards, we worked in groups to create venn digrams to compare communities of the past to communities of the present present as well as to demonstrate our learning. This week, we continued our study by learning about basic human needs and wants. We were inspired by another group of children from Surrey and watched a YouTube video they had created describing the differences between needs and wants. After much discussion, we decided that we wanted to create our own video. First, we each drew a picture showing one of the basic human needs. Next, we were provided with the following sentence stems:
I need ___________.
I want ___________.
Finally, here is the video we created this morning.
Divisions 4 & 5 have been skipping their little hearts out in gym for the past two weeks. We're getting ready for the big Jump Rope For Heart event day on February 13.
This important event will help raise money for the Heart & Stroke Foundation. Many students brought home fund raising forms this past week, however if you would like to register online, just click here. A BIG thank you goes out to Mrs.Tarnowski for organizing this important event at our school.
Here's an inspirational video of the Jump Rope For Heart Skipping Team to help get us pumped and excited for next week.
I have a bunch of videos and photos to post today, so I will let the pictures do most of the talking.
Physical Education
We were so successful improving our hula hooping skills that we have now moved onto skipping. This is one talented group of kids. Check out our moves.....
Every Friday, the entire school meets in the gym to participate in our school wide Health Hustle lead by Mrs. Tarnowski. Here's a peek inside our gym during last Friday's Health Hustle.....
Non-Fiction Writing
We are wrapping-up our study of penguins and non-fiction text features. We completed some amazing penguin reports, which are now on display on the bulletin board outside of our classroom. Come on down our hallway and take a look when you have a chance.
We also had a chance to integrate a lot of artwork into our penguin theme unit. Last week we were very fortunate to have Mrs. Barone working in our classroom. One of the amazing things about Mrs. Barone is that she is also an artist. She was able to share her artistic talents with us and we created some amazing pieces of artwork.
These penguins are just the cutest things I have ever seen.
We are also loving "Ready Freddy! The Penguin Problem" by Abby Klein. We only have two chapters left to read and we're eagerly awaiting to see how the story ends.
Math
After completing a very successful unit on place value skills, we decided to revisit even and odd numbers. Here is a cute bulletin board display that ties in perfectly to our new study of communities. The students created almost identical houses as well as some creative and colourful houses. The identical house were all given an even address whereas the colourful and creative houses were given an odd address. Welcome to Even and Odd Street.
Social Studies
Speaking of communities, last week's focus was on community helpers. We took the opportunity to improve our inferencing skills while learning about the people that work and contribute to the success of our community. Students were divided into groups of two and were assigned one community helper. We researched books and created clues about our special helper. The class then worked together to examine each of the clues and used their background knowledge (schema) to guess the community helpers.
This week, we will be learning about the changes that have taken place in our community. It will be fun to research and learn about what school was like for our grandparents.
Last Thursday, we celebrated Family Literacy Day. The morning's events were successful and the students loved dressing up as their favourite characters. We started our day's activities by meeting in the gym for a whole school assembly. We listened to Mrs. Souder read Woolbur, a story about a spunky adorable sheep who is not afraid to be himself.
Next, Amy and Puneet helped me read Pete the Cat: Rocking In My School Shoes (one of our classroom favourites) to the entire student population and some of their family members.
After meeting in the gym, we moved to several different areas throughout the school to read with our parents, grandparents, sisters and brothers.
Many of the students chose to dress up as their favourite characters. Here are a few of our awesome costumes.
