Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Happy Holidays and Our Week in Review

Last week was a terrific week.  The highlight of  it was when we participated in a Mystery Skype with a fourth grade class from Brampton, Ontario (in Canada).  We asked and answered YES or NO questions, and used atlases and chromebooks to research. What a wonderful way to make our learning about Canada come to life!  We hope to participate in more Mystery Skypes throughout the year.












Below are links to 2 surveys - one for parents, and one for students.  These surveys will allow you both to share your thoughts about the  year thus far.  I hope you take some time to complete them.


STUDENT SURVEY


PARENT SURVEY

Crafting 
We crafted with the students from Mrs. Williams class this week.  It was fun to get together, and we enjoyed creating our crafts.




We gave VERY SUCCESSFUL December speeches!  Below are pictures and videos.






























Have a wonderful vacation.  I hope you enjoy time with family and friends!

Friday, December 12, 2014

Our Week In Review

What a busy week we had in room 24!

During reading this week, we focused on learning how to read non-fiction texts.  We have been reading texts about dogs, which has been an extension of our last Interactive Read Aloud, Little Dog, Lost.   The children have really enjoyed reading and learning about different types of dogs.  We have also viewed several short video clips, and read several short articles about different types of dogs, using this website (Animal Planet). We are working on writing an essay connecting reading to facts about our families, in order to find the "perfect" dog for each family.  Of course, many students know that they won't be getting a dog anytime soon!


On Tuesday we were treated with a presentation from Mr. Marzoratti, Antonio's dad.  He talked to us about his job and how he uses science every day.  We loved seeing the chips and the items he brought that were printed with a 3-D printer.







We have also been working hard to get our fiction stories published.  We have been getting better and better at using the chromebooks, and our typing is improving.  If anyone wants to practice typing (in order to improve typing speed and accuracy), this free website may help.  If you practice for 15 minutes, and have a parent sign in your assignment notebook, you will earn a chip!




Division has been challenging for many students.  With each day of practice, the children become more confident.  At this time, we are learning how to apply our division skills to word problems, and how to use the remainders appropriately.  There are some videos (under homework help) which should help students who are still have difficulty with the steps of division.  Knowing multiplication and division facts with automaticity will help with division problems.  If your child is still struggling with facts, nightly practice will alleviate some of the stress he/she is experiencing.  Students who have been practicing nightly have been earning chips to use at our class store.  Our division test is scheduled for Thursday.

Our chorus concert was a huge success!  Congratulations to everyone!






Today we enjoyed a day to celebrate Little Dog, Lost.  We played Win, Lose or Draw with vocabulary words from the story, and enjoyed watching Homeward Bound.  Students brought in stuffed animals (dogs or cats) to keep on their desks. We also had the chance to shop at our class store! It was a great day!























From the Teacher's Desk

  • Blog Update ~ Some of you may have noticed that I have changed some of the blog  format.  I have created some links across the top of the page, which will bring you to other pages in our blog.  The most helpful at this time is the "Homework Help" tab.  Please let me know if you have any questions.
  • Report Cards ~ Report cards went home today.  I realize that these cards are a big change for both the students and parents.  If you haven't had a chance, you may want to view the Report Card information presented at the information nights.    You can find the presentation here.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Homework Help!

We have been learning "low stress division".  Many of the children are worried about completing problems independently.  If your child is having trouble, or unsure of how to proceed, the videos below should provide help.



Here is a video created by one of our students. Thanks Avery!