Music and Language

Hi everyone!

During Music over the last week, we have been looking at and listening to the various instruments in an orchestra.  Check out the new link on the right side of the website featuring the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

In Language we are learning to read and eventually write adventure stories.  We have been working on what all stories have: title, characters, setting, problem and solution, events (to solve the problem) and an ending.  I am looking forward to writing adventure stories.  I have heard some funny ones already!

Christmas Break is near!

Hi everyone!  We are all getting very excited for the upcoming holiday and being able to spend time with family and friends.  The next five days of school will have special Christmas activities in Language and Math.  On Friday there will be some fun Primary wide activities for the whole morning, like we did for Halloween.  Also on Friday will be pajama day.  Feel free to dress comfortably.

I hope that you all enjoy your Christmas vacation and I will see you in the new year.  I can't wait to hear about all your adventures.

Inferring

Over the last 2-3 weeks, we have been learning to infer so  we can understand a variety of texts.  We have looked at various advertisements for toys, airline companies and cars to determine what the author of the advertisements were trying to tell us.  What is the hidden meaning of the text??  We have learned to use the clues from the text and our background knowledge to 'read between the lines.

We have also read two books that had no words and had to figure out what the author really meant.  They were so much fun to 'read'!

Comic Strips

We learning to turn our recount writing into comic strips.  Check them out this week when you come for parent/teacher interviews!

Simple Machine Inventions

Student worked extremely hard on their simple machine inventions.  They did a wonderful job.  One student incorporated 4 simple machines, how creative!  Way to go everyone!  Check out the pictures below.

Daily 5 and Recount Writing

Over the last week we have been learning how to choose our own Daily 5 Centres based on a few expectations.  We learned that we must complete our Work on Writing centre EVERY DAY and all the other centres at least once throughout the week.  We place stickers or dots on a chart to help us keep track of what we have done so we can make the appropriate choice.

We are finishing up with our recount writing and learning to edit with a partner to make our writing better.  Using the skills we learned on Halloween about comic strips, we will be transforming our recount writing into comics!!  Look for pictures of our comics to be posted on the blog.

RAZ-KIDS AND PRODIGY MATH

HI EVERYONE!  We have started back on Raz-kids for our Listen to Reading Literacy Centre.  This will be available at home again this year.  Also starting this week is a new online math program that I am testing out.

ProdigyMathGame.com is a pokemon themed math based program where kids get to build their own avatar and battle characters by answering math questions correctly.  This game is linked to the Ontario curriculum and progresses students along at their level and own pace.  We will take one period a week of our math to test out this program.  Feel free to access this free program online too. Just click on the link on our blog to access.  Students have been given a username and password to access.

Enjoy and let me know what you think.