November 16th - 20th

Congratulation to our VIP student this week.  The students really enjoyed listening to Mr. C present his poster and learning about the items that are important to him.  Great job!

Language Arts

During Reading Workshop this week I read a story called Baloney by Jon Scieska and Lane Smith.  I used this book as a mentor text to teach the students how to use context clues to increase comprehension.  In this story Henry is an alien school kid who needs to come up with one very good excuse to explain why he is late for szkola, again. Otherwise, his teacher Miss Bugscuffle promises, it's Permanent Lifelong Detention.  When attempting to decipher the meaning of a new word, it is often useful to look at what comes before and after that word. The surrounding words can give readers helpful context clues about the meaning and structure of the new word, as well as how it is used.    This book is full of nonsense and unknown words.  By using the clues around the words, the students were able to determine the meanings of these nonsense words in the story.

In Writing Workshop the students completed their 3rd Traveling Book entitled "Halloween Riddles."  At our Halloween party I took a picture of each student in their costume.  The next week we talked about describing their costumes using creative word choices.  The students then wrote 4 clues about their costumes, without giving away what they were.   We hope you enjoy reading the students riddles and trying to guess what each student was for Halloween.  Here is a little preview of what to expect!  Can you guess what this student was by using the clues?

We also continued to work on our handwriting skills this week by focusing a few more "kite string" letters.

Math

In math we covered the following curricular goals:

• Use patterns to skip count by 2s, 3s, 5s & 25s.
• Decide whether skip counting by 2, 3 or 5 should be done given endpoints on a number line with a specified number of places.

Science

We started our Hearing and Sound Unit in science this week.  I began the unit by reading the story "The Listening Walk."  This is a story about a father and child that take a walk together and listen to the sounds around them.  Then our class went on our own listening walk to identify the sounds we hear inside the school, as well as outside.

Social Studies

 This week the students coloured the flag of India and discussed what the symbol and represent. The National flag of India is a horizontal tri-color of deep saffron (kesari) at the top, white in the middle and dark green at the bottom in equal proportion.  In the centre of the white band is a navy blue wheel which represents the chakra.  The deep saffron represents courage and sacrifice, the white represents peace and truth and the green represents faith and chivalry.  The Chakra signifies the spreading of spiritual blessings and well being. 

Twin Day was so much fun.  Even Mrs. Rothfos was able to find a twin for the day!

Thank you so much to the parents and students that have brought in donations for the Devon Christmas Elves.  We will be accepting food and toys until December 10th.  

Also a big thank you to the students that brought in items for Christmas shoeboxes!  Your generosity is greatly appreciated.