Super Sentences

This week, we have started to take our sentences more seriously! We are learning strategies to create detailed and descriptive sentences. This week, EVERYONE was excited to write about their Thanksgiving Feast's! We have been training ourselves to find the 5W's in one another's sentences.  Take a look at the ANCHOR CHART we created together. It will be posted in our classroom as a helper for ALL.

We use the words 'BUMP IT UP' a lot while we are learning. It is a gentle and positive way to ask students to improve the quality of their work. We all learn from our mistakes, and 'bumping it up' allows each student to try and figure out how to improve upon their work. Below is a picture of me modelling a 'BUMP UP'.

If this picture is confusing to you, your child should be very happy to explain it to you. 

Happy Thanksgiving

We celebrated Eucharist today with St. Jules School.  It was a wonderful example of how strong the power of prayer can be when many are 'gathered in His name'. I wish you all a sunny, safe and blessed Thanksgiving weekend. Ask your child if they remember what letters (and words) they can see when they look closely at the cross. Someone wise once showed me that when you look at Jesus upon the cross you can see the letters (t-shape of the cross, and y- shape of His body). It is a simple reminder to always say 'THANK YOU' to Jesus for all of our blessings.

SCHOOL FUNDRAISING

Our Fall Fundraiser has officially kicked off! Frannie the Fox, our classroom mascot, is encouraging everyone to do their very best in trying to sell one item (cookie dough or magazine) to a family member or a combination of 3 or more items if they would like to earn prizes. Be sure to ask your children what the school wide incentives are! A huge shout out to Evelyn! She was the first to make a sale and return her envelopes to school. Thanks for being a leader Evelyn!

If you are struggling to make a sale but would like to participate, please let me know. I have a few fundraising angels (friends & family) who like to help when they can.

Estimation Challenge

Once a week our class takes on an Estimation Challenge . I set up a clear container and fill it with something. Together we discuss what a reasonable estimate may be for the total amount.  Almost like a carnival Guessing Jar. It is a fun and effective way to practice our Spatial Reasoning Skills. In order to have a close estimation, students must think hard about the shape and size of the figure. They also must consider how full the estimation jar is. Today, we tried it for the first time and Ethan was our strongest estimator! Cohen and Swedlan were also quite close.  Ethan's estimate of 38 was just one over our total (it was 37). Cohen and Swedlan both estimated 40. Stay tuned for the next challenge.

Here, Jirou and Austin are VERIFYING by counting the items from the jar.

Ethan was very accurate with an estimate of 38! Way to go Ethan. 

Fairy Tales and Folk Tales

In Literacy we will be taking a look at common features found in Fairy / Folk Tales.  It is a way for us to look deeper into a simple story to see how it is built. We are learning that Fairy Tales usually

• Begin with "Once upon a time", or "Long, long ago"...
• Involve magical powers and magical things
• Have imaginary good characters and imaginary evil/bad characters
• Can not be real
• Often involve royalty
• happen in far away lands or magical settings
• problems are solved with a happy outcome
• There is a lesson to be learned

We will be comparing several different Fairy Tales, however this one of my personal favourites! 

It is one of a few books I've saved from my childhood. I love sharing it with my class each year.

The Terry Fox Song

Please enjoy this motivating song written about Terry Fox. Remember to wear red and white tomorrow and don't forget your Twoonie  for TERRY.

Math Time!

Everyone was working hard today trying to solve today's math question. Today we looked at a very "OPEN" question. An "OPEN" question allows for MANY DIFFERENT CORRECT ANSWERS. Take a look at how our lesson progressed today.

First, I presented the kids with our question:

On a graph about pets owned by children in our class, I counted more dogs than cats. What might the graph look like?

Students then worked in partners to create their graphs.

Once, all of the graphs were completed, I chose 2 for us to view and discuss as a class.  We looked at Jirou and Scarlett's graph. It had a title, lables, and an accurate scale (left side). Also it was in line with our question and display's more dogs than cats.

Lastly, I pushed the thinking forward by asking if I was 'allowed' to add in labels for 'birds' and 'fish'. At first everyone said "no" but could not give me enough proof to explain why I couldn't.

 I added in the categories and we re-read the original question.  The class realized that it was okay for me to add extra labels as long as..."MY GRAPH SHOWS MORE DOGS THAN CATS" as stated in the question.

We will continue looking at different questions about data and graphing.