Science Test tomorrow

We worked really hard today to wrap up our Rocks and Minerals unit and prepare for THE TEST tomorrow.  Students have their science notebooks to go through tonight and I suggested if they were keen they could watch Bill Nye and The Magic School Bus on Youtube again tonight.  They should be able to tell you:

- uses for rocks and minerals

- how rocks break into soil

- describe a rock by its color, lustre, texture, and hardness

- describe the parts of soil

- how rocks change

- the rock cycle

Rocks and Rolls

Visiting with Mrs. Paolini is the best part of our Wednesday.  Every week.  Your student should be bringing new books home every week to read with you.  Read 20/10 everyday and then returning them to school on Tuesdays to get new books.  We have lots of great titles in our library and I am more than happy to help find new things to read.

Magic School Bus is always a student favorite!  We looked at Rocks and Rolls today and then tested our rocks for hardness.  Some rocks were very soft and could be scratched by a mere fingernail, other rocks were soft and could be scratched by a penny.  If a metal nail scratched our rock it was considered medium and a glass scratch makes our rock hard.  Tomorrow we will do a vinegar test for the presence of sea creatures that died long ago!  Science test - Rocks and Minerals will happen Friday morning.

Counting Frames

Nelson shared his counting frames with us today after we read, "The Warlord's Beads."  We were all fascinated by his knowledge of a simple way to quickly and accurately count larger numbers.  We talked about the efficiency of the base 10 system but also questioned if we could use a base 2 system.  The story itself gave us a look at the history of the abacus while telling us how they could be helpful.

We tried a new method for gathering information from a nonfiction text today.  We used the acronym PEEK - P is for reading the picture, E is for each heading, E is for ending - good information is given at the end, K for what I know.  Each one is to prepare the brain for important information to come.  We then practiced using a graphic organizer and our social studies text books looking at a page about the traditions and celebrations of Tunisia, Ukraine, Peru or India.  Ask your child what they learned about the traditions of their country and what they will be teaching the rest of us.

We are trying to wrap up our science unit on Rocks and Minerals and finishing centre work up.  We will be having a science test.  Check with your child and see how they are feeling about their science work.

Mavericks are selling Kernels Popcorn at lunch time - $2.00 a bag goes toward their fundraiser.

Mathman Rounding

The website Mathman Rounding was being played during math this morning on the Smartboard - it appealed to a lot of the children and they wanted to play at home.  It can be set to round numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000.  Sit with your child as they play and see what they know about rounding numbers.
We used a number line to round numbers today - keeping in mind the strategy of the poem we learned yesterday.  Children were then rolling dice and rounding the numbers to the nearest 10 or 100.

We've noticed that nonfiction books, such as our social studies text book and the rocks and minerals books we've read, have a lot of information in them and sometimes it is difficult to determine the important information.  Good readers are able to sort the information and figure out what is most important.  We were given six items to take camping - a sleeping bag, a deck of cards, a flashlight, lipstick, T.V. remote and an umbrella.  Students were to determine which was very important, kind of important and not important at all and provide a reason.  Part of the challenge is to convince me that they have made the right choices.  We will play games like this in several different ways several different times to help students determine importance.

Pillars of Care Assembly Friday @ 8:15 - congratulations to Sadie, Yoyo and Tahseen

I'm off to Ottawa tonight for the Grey Cup so a substitute will be here tomorrow and Monday.  I will be back Tuesday to send you all the news of the classroom.

Go Stamps GO!

Introduction to Rounding

'I can round numbers to the nearest 10 or 100.' is the math strategy we worked on today.  It is the beginning step for creating personal strategies for addition and subtraction - if you can round a number to a more 'friendly' number to work with it will make things easier.  Ask your child if they found the chant we learned helpful for rounding.

Four or less,

let it rest. 

Round down.

Five or more, 

Raise the score 

Round up!

We talked and wrote about our personal family traditions and customs and then tomorrow we will look at traditions and customs in other countries.

We read a great new story today called 'The Raft' - we looked at it for how the character changes, all the animals that appear on the raft and the relationship between the boy and his grandmother.  Everyone had some word work to do afterward.

Sticker math homework tonight.  Due back tomorrow
Fun lunch tomorrow

Zones of Regulation

The four zones of regulation were introduced this afternoon to help students describe how their brain and body feel.  We created an anchor chart together of each zone, blue, green, yellow and red with a short description of each zone.  We then played a game of charades and acted out an emotion - guessing which zone they were from.  Teachers at Beddington are using the zones to help students with their peer relationships and understand their own personal feelings.  This will be work we carry on all year.

Everyone started with a series of numbers this morning in math.  If they were in order from greatest to least correctly they were put under the TRUE label if not we put them under the FALSE label.  We looked at our data and found WAY more were under the false label so we looked for other ways we could sort the numbers.  Some of us then played Deal It with a partner to compare numbers while others used computers or wrote riddles on ordering numbers.

A good first impression is important for an author to hook their readers and get them interested in their work.  We spent time working on getting our stories finished and editing them.

Pillars of Care assembly Friday @ 8:15

I can construct, label and interpret bar graphs.

Everyone was randomly dealt a playing card to begin our math lesson.  We then created a bar graph in the pocket chart by the suits - hearts, spades, club, and diamonds to answer the question:
"Which suit did you draw?"
Everyone then colored their own graph to match the data on the class graph and answered a few questions.  A journal entry was written with 3 things Mr. Hebert could learn by reading our bar graph and 1 question he might still have.  We were then all exhausted and went for lunch!

First Impression - a writer needs to make a good first impression on their readers so the reader will want to read on!  Students shared the opening sentence of the books they have been reading and we noticed that authors make a good first impression with:

• a problem
• conversation
• fact
• a question
• action
• a sound

and then we went off to practice by writing our own first impressions in a story written by us!

"Which earth material will absorb water the best?"

We started science this morning with the question; "Which earth material will absorb water the best?"  Using the scientific model for experiments (because we are scientists😉) first we made a prediction about the earth material (clay, gravel, sand or soil) we thought would absorb water the best.  Everyone wrote in their notebooks a prediction and voted on the class chart.  Soil was the winner during predictions.  Ask your child which earth element they predicted.  We used inverted water bottles and put each earth material into the neck of the water bottle and added 1/2 cup of water.  We watched all the water pour right through the gravel, the sand immediately went through before the water was even added, the soil didn't have room to hold the 1/2 cup and the clay held all the water added to it.  It was great fun and we learned a lot.  We will finish up our scientific writing of our results tomorrow.

If there are any geologists out there who would consider answering a few of our questions about rocks and soil we would love to have you as a guest in our classroom.

We shopped at the book fair for some new reading material.  Book fair will be open Thursday night and Friday morning during interview time so be prepared - some of us have wish lists!

Book orders due tomorrow
Fun Lunch order due Monday

I can recognize the various components of soil.

We read 'Dirt' by Steve Tomecek and pulled out facts about the components of soil.  We added our notes to the mind maps we started last week about sand, soil, gravel and clay.  We realized that Mr. Tomecek's book was not like the other nonfiction books we've read so far.  We are good readers and we noticed that he used cartoon drawings instead of photographs, there was no Table of Contents and there was not a glossary.  But, we liked how he gave us information that was easy to understand.  Tomorrow we will conduct and experiment using these four components of soil.

We used Mathletics during math today to practice our number sense.

Ask your child what station they went to in physical education today.

Fun Lunch orders went home today - due back THURSDAY
Book orders are due Thursday

3 Stars And A Wish

"I can help other people get their work done."
"I can run 12 laps of the gym."
"I can read musical notes."

So went our discussion about things we are good at.  We brainstormed all sorts of things we might be good at at school.  We then told our partner 3 things that we are good at in school.  Then we switched things around and talked about things we want to get better at.  My wish would be to ...
These are things we will share with you Thursday night or Friday morning.  Please be sure to book an interview time be going to the school website.

Sticker math this morning:

Sadie saw 22 chicken and sheep legs on

her way to the farm.  How many chicken 

and sheep did she see?

We started with 10 minutes of independent work.  Children could have circled the numbers.  Underlined the question.  Boxed the important words.  To help themselves get started.  They could have used pictures, numbers or words or a combination of all three.  They could have talked with a partner after the 10 minutes was up to see what they were doing.  They could have joined me at the carpet to go over a plan to get going.  Ask your child how they solved the problem.

Book orders due Thursday Nov. 16

Book a conference time on-line.

Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then

We used non-fiction text to add to our notes about sand today as we work towards being able to identify the properties of soil.  We found out that sand can be many colors including black!  Ask your child why sand might be black.

We continued to compare numbers today - everyone was rolling there own numbers with the math dice.  Choice was made by each child if they were going to roll tens, hundreds or thousands.  We are getting very good at using the greater than and less than signs.  Now we need further work on reading them!

We began a summary of Princess Hyacinth using a graphic organizer of: Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then to help us include the important details of the story.  We also re-read the story looking specifically for those elements.

Rememberance Day Assembly @ 10:30 tomorrow
Donations accepted for poppies
Wear service uniform

Comparing Numbers

We started comparing numbers today using greater than and less than symbols.  We worked all together to compare numbers and read the symbols and also created an anchor chart together to remember how to read the symbols.  Tomorrow we will practice on our own.

We looked at four different earth elements - sand, clay, soil and gravel and created mind maps to describe each one.  Tomorrow we will add to what we know when we read for information from non-fiction text.

Domino contractions was our game today.  We learned about two words coming together to make a new word and an apostrope taking the place of the letters that were dropped.  We are very good at recognizing contractions.

Remembrance Day service Friday @ 10:30 donations can be brought for the Poppy Fund.
Service uniforms can be worn by our Brownies and Cubs.

What makes a story a fairy tale?

Lockdown practice happened in our building around 9 this morning.  We did well as a large group sitting in a small space for about 20 minutes.  Ask your child how they felt during the drill.

Sticker math was a bit difficult this morning.  It involved three steps and three digit numbers.  Students will be working for 10 minutes before they can ask a question from now on.  They all know  to help themselves get going they must first read the question, then read the question again, circle the numbers, underline the question and box the important words and make a plan to get started.  Teaching them persistence when the going gets tough they must also have a question, not 'I don't get it' when they come to me.  I've told them it is not my job to tell them the answer but rather encourage them in their plan to answer the question.  I will ask them questions "Why do you think that will work?"  "How do you know that is the answer?"  To get them thinking like the math experts they are.

We had a friendly little competition in table groups to come up with all the elements a reader would find in a fairy tale.  Interesting answers to "What makes a story a fairy tale?" then we brainstormed all the fairy tales we knew.  Moving into reading the story, "Princess Hyacinth" we looked at it's fairy tale elements and completed a graphic organizer.

"Why do we wear a poppy?"

"Why do we wear a poppy?" was the question we explored this afternoon.  We had a look at a couple short videos to try and find the answer.  We found out that we wear a poppy to remember.  We wear a poppy because it was the flower that grew in the battlefields of WWI.  We wear a poppy for the people who gave their lives so we may have our freedoms.  In preparation for Friday's assembly we each made a poppy that will go onto our class wreath.  The students who belong to a service group (Brownies, Cubs, Cadet, Forest Rangers) are invited to wear their dress uniforms to take part in the service which will begin at 10:30 am.

Bill Nye the Science Guy is a favorite of all children in science.  Today we had a look at 'Rocks and Soil' and then answered 4 questions from the video.  We are working on answering in complete sentences and using capitals and periods properly.

We are getting really good at using place value to describe numbers.  Today some of us worked on representing numbers in different ways while others used Mathletics.  Just a reminder that Mathletics and Xtramath are available for students to use at home and are excellent practice.

Read 20/10

Boots✔
Snowpants✔
Toque✔
Mittens✔
Winter coat✔
All with names put in them please!!  My coat room is already bursting with winter clothing that appears to belong to no one.  PLEASE.  PLEASE.  PLEASE.  Put your child's name on their things.

Learning Plans

The learning plans that we will share with you at interview time on November 16 and 17 are well under way.  We started with a short video called "Soar" so we could talk about setting goals and the strategies that will help us accomplish that goal.  Ask your child about their literacy goal.

Beddington is currently collecting donations for the veterans food bank and toothbrushes for The Drop in Centre.

There is also a great competition going on for the worst mustache  - votes are each a loonie

Have a great weekend - stay warm

Our day was super productive!!  We accomplished a lot - especially considering it is November 1.

We have been using 'Finding Winnie' as our mentor text this week and we have enjoyed learning how Winnie-The-Pooh came to be.  We watched a short video today on how the books by A.A. Milne were taken by Mr. Walt Disney and turned into a famous cartoon.  Then, we re-read part of the book and pulled out the verbs, past, present and future.  We are pretty good at recognizing a verb.  Everyone then used their own books and did the same activity on their own.

Sticker math was a bit tricky this morning because a lot of us are finding it difficult to put our thinking into words on the paper.  The word explain causes many of us to panic.  I want my students to take a risk, deepen their curiosity and be up for a challenge not look to me to give them the answers in math.   Time is given for problem solving and we do struggle but it will be worth it in the end.  Support your child at home by making sure there are opportunities for play with blocks, and puzzles and games to help the math thinking along.

We visited Mrs. Paolini in the Learning Commons today so everyone has new reading material tonight.  Read 20/10.