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.

The students will be starting non-fiction writing this week.  We will begin by looking at different text features found in non-fiction books followed by writing non-fiction (research) writing pieces.  You can included non-fiction reading into your snuggle up time at home to help introduce the features of non-fiction.  In Math, we are working on Money.  We are identifying the different coins and how to count money in different ways, such as showing 25 cents in three different ways.  We will then slowly start making change.  You can help at home by counting by fives and tens. As for Science, the grade one students are looking at the use of electricity as an energy source. They are looking at how much we use electricity and how we can minimize the use. The grade two students continue to work on the unit: Air and Water.

I hope everyone enjoyed the Easter holiday.  The students started a new recount today about their weekend.  They only had time to start their brainstorming web.  Ask your child, what they have to remember what to put into their recounts.  As for Math, we started our new unit today, which is money.  Today, we discussed how to identify all of the coins, the names and the denominations.  We listened to a song about coins to help us with the symbols on the coins.  Do you know the different symbols?

The grade one students are working on their energy unit in Science.  Today they finished their energy chains.  The grade two students are learning about air with Mrs. Wilson.