January 14th, 2019 week with Ms. Selimos

Hello Parents and Students,

We “warmed up” the school week with a Social Studies/Health lesson on the topic of GENEROSITY; one of our 4 Circle of Courage goals.  The bulletin board in the hallway features personal paragraphs about generosity and how generosity has applied to each of them this 2018/2019 school year. Thank you to Hana, Malika, and Leila for reading their paragraphs over the intercom to the ENTIRE school.  So proud of you!

On Monday morning, Ms. Holtby came for a visit!  It was SO NICE to have her with us in the classroom.

We have moved on to UNITS 4 in Gr.  1 and 2 of Math Makes Sense.  This unit is the MEASUREMENT UNIT for both grades and involves children reading dates on a calendar and solving problems involving the number of days in a week and the number of months in a year.  The children will also use non-standard units to estimate, measure, compare and order objects by length, height, distance around and mass.  Non – standard units (no cm rulers) = using cubes, craft sticks, paperclips, and more for measuring. 

We focused on the calendar for math last week with the Grade 2s.  Your child should be able to READ the days of the week and the months of the year.  Here are some questions to ask your child:  How many months are there in one year?  How many days in this month (show them a month on a calendar at home)?  Name the month BEFORE April.  Name the month 2 months AFTER May.  How many days are there in one week?  How many days in two weeks?  If today is Tuesday, January 24^th, what is the day of the week 3 days later?  Which is the second month of the year?  In which month is your birthday?  Which month comes before your birthday?  We played a “Months/calendar” game. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPeAo1hz8GA   Calendar song

On Tuesday we measured the GINGERBREAD MAN using craft sticks, after predicting his length and then we compared our own body lengths to his.  We did a fun activity on Tuesday afternoon with our Learning Buddies, where we measured body part lengths using cubes. 

On Wednesday, the Grade 1s explored area using letter size paper (large unit) and individual card from a deck of cards (small unit).  They investigated the surface of their desks and chairs, making predictions and then covering them to see how much space they took up.

The Grade 2s used 2 different units:  cubes and colorful links to measure length of different objects.  The children concluded that the larger the object of measurement, the better it is to use a larger unit to measure with.  Example:  Use craft sticks to measure the classroom door, rather than cubes.  Cubes will take forever!  The number will be smaller.  On Friday we will go on a scavenger hunt looking for items in the classroom and in the school using the following measuring tools: 7 straws, 5 paperclips, 10 cubes, 3 markers.

 Our latest SCIENCE UNIT is MATTER (solids, liquids, gases). We watched the Brain Pop video about matter and created a chart on the whiteboard of our background knowledge about matter.  We discussed vocabulary including:  properties, characteristics

Matter games:  http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/gamesactivities/gases.html

             http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/8_9/solid_liquids.shtml

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhhFwdJqvfw               MATTER SONG

Watch the following video with your child:  http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/states_of_matter/molecules.swf   Ask your child if the particles are closest together for a solid, liquid or gas.  ANSWER:  solid   Ask your child which particles move the fastest. ANSWER: gas

Our phonics letter of the week was Mm.  Malika thought it was an awesome letter. ;) We brainstormed many food words beginning with Mm, explored rhymes and solved mystery sentences.  They children were able to successfully figure out the sentences with “m” words. 

New French action song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh5RVcbsNyc  La Neige Tombe Sur Mon Nez                         Please act out WITH YOUR CHILD.

Our new PWIM (Picture Word Inductive Model) poster this week focuses on our February winter trip experience.  Read the PWIM words (see photos) at home with your child.  Choose 5 to 10 words and see if your child can place them in alphabetical order. The children are SUPER excited about this hiking/cooking adventure in February. More details to follow.  I NEED PARENT VOLUNTEERS.  So far, we have two parents joining us.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Ms. Selimos and Ms. Daniels