Category: Class News

Fun with Magnets

We have completed a mini-unit on magnets.  Students had fun experimenting with them and finding out what will attract (stick) and what will be repelled (not stick) to the magnets.  We learned about the poles, how some metals are naturally magnetic, and how some can be made to be magnetic.  Some of our experiments were a bit challenging due the age of our magnets and the need to get them re-magnetized!  This will hopefully be looked into before they are used again.  Oh, well.  It was fun to play with them.

Writer’s Workshop Published Books

While some students are off at ESL the rest of the class has been working on improving their writing and developing their sense of story.  Students write stories and, once they have a few completed ones, they then choose one to ‘publish’.  The stories are edited by the students (and with the teacher), covers are made, stories are written on ‘good copy’ papers, an ‘About the Author’ page is completed, and the books are ‘published’.  Students then get to read these to the whole class – similar to our ‘Guest Reader’ visits.

Beginning next week, ESL students will be staying in class during our Writer’s Workshop times.  I look forward to working through this process with them so their stories can be added to our growing collection of student written/published books.

Student Guest Readers

For the past few months we have been sharing some of our favourite books (and showing our greatly improved reading skills) to the class during our “Guest Reader” times each day.  Students choose books, practise them on their own and with a friend, read the book to me, and then share it with the whole class in the ‘seat of honour’ – the teacher’s pink chair!

We are currently on Round 4 (each student is now reading their 4th book to the class).  Once the student has finished reading their book the other students share their thoughts on how the student did – including their choice of book, their volume level, and the clarity of reading.

It has been a great opportunity for shared reading and enjoyment of a variety of books.

Hip Hop Lessons

Our Hip Hop lessons began today.  Although we have only had one 45 minute lesson so far, it is already coming together.  By Friday afternoon it should be spectacular!

Students need to wear black and/or white clothing on Friday for the performance as our song is from the movie, “Happy Feet” which is about penguins.  The music is very lively and the students are having a lot of fun learning the steps.

I hope you get a chance to come by on Friday (2:00 p.m.) to see the whole school perform in our gym.

Plants That We Eat

Students have been learning about the parts of a plant that we eat.  In partners, they used grocery flyers to make collages for: stems, flowers, roots, leaves, seeds, and fruits.

Students really enjoyed this activity.  It quickly became apparent that some of the partnerships had an easier time with this activity as we found that there were more foods which came from certain parts of the plants.

Those partners who worked with ‘fruits’ and ‘seeds’ found a lot more food products from those two groupings.  The most challenging plant part to find foods from was the ‘flower’ group.

When students found a food item that they didn’t need for their own collage they scurried around and gave the pictures to the partnership that did need it.  This was a great collaborative effort by the whole class.

This activity also gave the students a better understanding of our food sources.

C.A.R.E. Kit Lessons

We are nearing the end of our lessons on personal safety.  The students have been actively involved in learning how to stand up for themselves in an assertive manner.  I hope you have taken the opportunity to discuss with your child the lesson papers which have come home at the end of each of our sessions.  It is important that the students are hearing the same message about their personal safety from both their school and their home.  Together we can work to keep the children safe.

Nasturtiums

We have been watching and nurturing our seeds into these plants.    The students decorated these terra cotta pots and then we planted nasturtium seeds.  These will be sent home next week for the students to look after as they develop their flowers.

Texture – An Element of Art

In our continuing lessons on the Elements of Art we have recently been exploring ‘texture’.  Texture is how something feels – or how it looks like it feels.  Students spent some time practising with various everyday items and doing crayon rubbings.  They then created pictures which they segmented and coloured using differently textured plates to create the illusion of different surfaces.