Category: Class News

Value Lesson – with charcoal

We spent an enjoyable (but rather messy!) afternoon on Friday working with a new art medium – charcoal sticks.

Students began with a shape that they cut out of tag board.  They coated the edges of this with charcoal and then placed the piece of tag onto their white drawing paper.  Using a finger they pushed the charcoal ‘dust’ off the tag piece and onto their paper ensuring that they remove it completely around the circumference of the shape.

Through repeating this process, and overlapping the outlined charcoal shapes, they each covered their drawing paper with a very interesting, and unique, design.

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

Last Wednesday our class joined the rest of the primary classes on a wonderful field trip to the VSO.  Students were impressed with the incredible architecture of this classic theatre – from the large chandeliers to the inlaid ceiling.

Students enjoyed hearing the wonderful music – some new to them and some that they already knew from our school’s music listening programme that Mrs. Schwarz runs for us every day.

Valentine’s Day

In addition to our full and busy 100’s Day today, we had time to deliver Valentines to our friends – and some teachers, too!  These were all sent home today for students to enjoy opening up as we had no time to do so during our busy day.

Thank you to all who sent in snacks for today.  Some were eaten today, but with an afternoon that included – a 45 minute badminton lesson, 45 minutes with Mr. Phelps in Music, and the last half hour with Mrs. Levington in the library – we didn’t have a lot of eating time.  These have been kept in the class to finish up tomorrow and then any containers will be sent home.

 

100’s Day Celebrations

We had a great day today!!  Wow, were we ever busy!  We have spent the last two days getting ready for our celebrations.  Thank you for helping your child get their 100 collection posters finished last weekend.  They look fantastic!!

In class students made crowns with 100 items drawn on them – in ten groups of tens – which we attached to headbands that had 20 stickers arranged in a pattern and labelled with the numbers counting from 5 – 100 by 5’s.  Today students made Fruit Loop necklaces with 100 cereal pieces – 10 groups each of 10 pieces in different colours.  Most students made lovely patterns.  Colton challenged himself and did his whole necklace in two colours counting by twos!

Thank you to all who sent in a collection of 100 small food items.  Some of the grade twos divided these into individual containers which were enjoyed at Recess time.

All in all, I believe that it was a successful 100th day of school.

100’s Day is Coming!!!

100’s Day is a special day for primary students.  It is the 100th day that we have been in school this school year.  The actual date fluctuates in any calendar school year, depending upon holidays and other school interruptions.

This year, for us, the date falls on February 14th which is also Valentine’s Day.  In order to get all the activities done that we like to do for these two days, I am sending home a tag board 100 poster for the students to arrange their 100 collections upon.  There is a letter explaining all of the needed information attached to this poster.  It is coming home tomorrow so that you may spend some time on the long weekend to get this completed.

Thank you, in advance, for helping your child collect and glue their collections on this poster.  They may colour/decorate the board first before they glue their items on it.  Please ensure that they put their names on this poster.  Also, please use liquid white glue so that the items will stick solidly on the poster as these will put put up on the bulletin board.  Once the glue is dry it is not very visible.

 

 

Did You Fill a Bucket Today?

We have been working on thinking more about what we say and do, and how our words and actions affect those around us.  This is a great book that Mrs. Levington recently bought for our school library, and lent it to us to read in our class.

We had a great discussion following our reading of this book and we are now using the language of this book in our daily interactions.  Students are focussing on being a ‘bucket filler’ and not a ‘bucket dipper’.  Ask your child about this book and have them explain the concept to you.

 

Class Penguin Research Centre

We have been busily learning about this resourceful and fun bird!

Students have been working (in their partnerships) on researching their chosen bird.  Thank you for helping your child with some extra computer work at home.  The partners are currently adding the final touches to their note-taking papers in preparation for completing their final research booklets and posters.  They will then be orally presenting their work to the class.

We are also really enjoying the adventures of Mr. Popper’s Penguins through our read aloud of this book.

 

Penguin Research

We began our enquiry into penguins by creating a ‘KNOW’ (or THINK we know) chart and a ‘WONDER’ (what we want to know) chart.  Please note that ALL ideas are recorded at this point and will be proven – or disproven – by the end of our unit.

We followed up with a visit to the Library to explore the penguin entries in the on-line World Book database via the laptops.  Students have now been put into partnerships and they have chosen the penguin that they want to research in-depth.

Beginning this week the student-partnerships will spend 45 minutes each Tuesday on the laptops doing research on their chosen penguin.  We also have an extensive collection of fact-based books in the classroom and the library.  Students will collect information on their data sheets and then formulate this information into a report format.  These reports will be orally presented to the class at the end of the unit.

Early last week I sent home a letter about the World Book on-line resource, along with how to access the penguin websites which I have attached to my Delicious account – a link on this blogsite.  Feel free to explore the on-line sites at home with your child.  They should be able to tell you the name of their specific penguin – although, these were just chosen at the end of the day on Friday so they may not be totally clear on how to pronounce their penguin’s name yet:)