October 1 - October 5

 This week in Room 10 and 11

Students continued working on reading to themselves as well as with partners. As a class, students read the story Word Collector by Peter H. Reynolds. This story is about a boy who loves interesting words and collects them. In the end, he loses all of his words but is happy that others can now share in his joy when they find these exciting words. After the story, students became word collectors and looked for words they thought were interesting and recorded them in their reading response journals. These are words that students will be able to use in their own writing. Ask your child to tell you at least one interesting word he/she collected while reading this week.

Students continued to work on adding descriptive vocabulary in their writing. They were given a picture of a shared experience (the playground or an amusement park). With their peers, they brainstormed descriptive words, focusing on sight and sound words. Then they created a list or web to record their ideas. With these ideas, students independently wrote a piece of writing using criteria to guide them. After writing and revising their work, students used the criteria checklist to identify areas that they did well and areas in which they can improve. Some examples of students using the criteria to improve their work were, “I got a check because I have two sound words but I want to push myself and add even more!” or “I didn’t get a check because I don’t have enough descriptive sight words. I need to go back and add them.” The class will continue to design and use criteria in all tasks as a way to improve their own work and give feedback to others. This weekend, ask your child what he/she did well on his/her writing task today and what he/she is going to work on.

The students continued to review and practice basic facts and mental math strategies. They used their knowledge of doubles to identify and practice another mental math strategy: near doubles. Students practiced these strategies through games with partners. While exploring the strategies, students looked at numbers using the sentence starter “I notice….” Ideas that students noticed while examining the doubles and near doubles were “I noticed that all the answers are going up by two every time when they are doubles” and “I noticed that all of the answers for near doubles are odd.” Ask your child to give you an example of a double and a near double.

In science, the students continued learning about hearing and sound. After determining that sound can be measured in decibels, students explored different areas in the school and measured how loud or quiet they are using an app. Students learned how loud sounds can be and were surprised to learn that a police siren can be 120 decibels. Since sounds can be so loud, students learned that ears can be damaged and we all must keep them safe. One example of how we can keep our ears safe is by moving away from the loud sound. After learning more about how we hear, students explored animals and their hearing. They practiced beginning research skills while researching a specific site on laptops. They were looking for information on three animals with very good hearing and some interesting facts about them. This weekend, ask your child which animal has the best hearing and also some interesting facts they learned about animals and their hearing.

To finish the week and prepare for Thanksgiving this weekend, as a class, students read the book Memoirs of a Goldfish by Devin Scillian. Students discussed how we should really stop and reflect on people and things we are thankful for. They then recorded their ideas on a piece of paper that they brought home to share with you, their families.

In P.E. students began practicing their basketball skills. They started by working on dribbling with their dominant and then non-dominant hand. They also practiced chest and bounce passes. Today, they got a special day in P.E. where they played a game of strategy with Mr. Newman.

Thank you

Thank you in advance to the parents who are able to come with us to our Telus Spark field trip on Wednesday, October 10th.

Upcoming Dates

October 8th - No School - Happy Thanksgiving!

October 10th - Field Trip to Telus Spark 

October 13th – Scholastic orders due

October 15th - School Photos

October 22-25th - Swimming AM -Div 1

October 25th - Fun Lunch

October 26th - Non-Instructional Day (PD)

Reminders

-Swimming field trip forms were due on Friday. If you have not sent them in, please do so on Tuesday.

-We still need volunteers for our upcoming swimming field trips, which will be October 22nd-25th. If you can volunteer, please email your child’s teacher.

-Scholastic orders are due Friday, October 13th.

Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy the weekend with your families.