It is a short week this week therefore, the students will not have spelling words this week.  I have been emphasizing in class the importance in reading every night as the number of students exchanging snuggle up books and logging onto Raz Kids has decreased.  As a result, the students made paper cubes that had different questions they could answer after they read their books.  We discussed in the class that reading is thinking and that we read for meaning.  Many of the students are learning that reading is not just about being able to read the words on the page, but being able to retell the story and make connections.  Once the students finish their cubes, they will bring them home to use after reading each book.  We also had a smart board lesson on Fractions today.  We reviewed the vocabulary words: numerator and denominator and drew pictures of different fractions.  Ask your child if a fraction is bigger or smaller than one whole.  

The students have been working on their new Language unit: Non-Fiction.  To start, they have been looking at different text features found in non-fiction books.  If you have any non-fiction books at home, see if your child can identify some of the features.  They are learning that we read non-fiction writing differently than fiction stories.  Ask your child why we read non-fiction books.  Today, they looked through magazines to look for text features and cut and pasted the text features they found.  We will continue to look at text features before they start responding to non-fiction books and writing their own non-fiction reports.  We have also started a new Math unit: Fractions.  Today, we looked at what the denominator and numerator represent.  Ask your child what a half, quarter, or third means.

I can't believe it's already the month of May.  During the month of May, the students will be working on non-fiction writing pieces.  We have just started this unit by discussing some of the features in non-fiction writing.  Ask your child to tell you a few of them.  We will be looking at different text features for the rest of this week, which will then be followed by non-fiction writing.  As for math, the students are adding and subtracting money.  We will be doing this the for the rest of the week and then by next week, we should be learning about fractions.  The grade one students are working on Energy in science.  They have finished their "Saving Energy" posters and will begin to create an energy saving device.  The grade two students are still conducting experiments on both air and water in science class.