Hello everyone,

I apologize for the late update!

Most students have finished their presentations on their procedures.  The procedure with the rubric will be coming home at the end of this week.  You should have also seen your child bring home their math unit on measurement with their evaluation mark. This week, we will begin our new writing unit on letter writing and continue to retell stories and make connections during our reading block.  In math, the students have been working on two and three dimensional shapes and figures.  Your child should have brought home a cube and square-based pyramid made our of toothpicks and marshmallows along with a paper cube.  We have introduced the different shapes and figures as there are many to learn.  We will however, be looking at the different edges, vertices, and faces as we progress in the unit.  This week, the students should complete IXL I.1 and I.2.  These two strands will help identify the 2D and 3D shapes/figures.  We have also started addition in math by looking at all the different ways to add to a particular number.  Ask your child all the ways to add to the number 4 (0+4, 1+3, 2+2, 3+1, and 4+0). In our Local Community unit, the students have been identifying significant community helpers and how they satisfy our needs and wants.  They made riddles to guess particular community helpers.  The riddles will go home at the end of the week.

Happy New Year everyone! The first week back is always a bit slow as we are all trying to get back into the routine.  We have been wrapping up three units: Measurement, Procedural Writing, and Energy.  We will be starting new units next week.  In math, we will be working on 2 and 3 dimensional shapes and figures, letter writing in our Language Program, and The Local Community for Social Studies.  As a wrap up to Measurement, the students and I had individual conferences as their assessment piece.  The students are currently making their final copies for their procedures and will have the opportunity to take them home next week.  We ended our Energy unit with electricity and power failures.  As a kick off to our new math unit, the students used geoboards to identity different 2D shapes.  Please continue to read and retell books with your child.  Ask them what happened in the beginning, middle, and end.

Last week was a short week, but the students were still able to learn a new poem and make another procedure.  We created a class procedure on How to Make Hot Chocolate.  If you were wondering why your child came home with a chocolate mustache last week, you now know why.  The students also continue to practice measuring length.  We are working on the importance of taking our time to be accurate in our measurement.  The students had a scavenger hunt to find different yellow strips that they had to measure using cubelinks.  You can practice measuring at home by using other non-standard units such as, paper clips, spoons, bottle caps or anything else you can find.  This week, we will be working on choosing the appropriate unit of measure.  In Science, We have been learning about different energy sources, but took a little break from it to discuss our five senses by doing a few experiments.  We listened to sound effects to see if we could identify the sounds, smelled different scents to see if we could figure them out and even tasted without using our sense of sight. Was your child brave enough to do it? Ask to find out and see if  they remember the five senses.

Happy Monday everyone!

The students continue to work on procedural writing in our Language program.  We started the unit by doing procedures together as a class and small groups and moving towards independent work.  Last week, the students created a procedure on how to make ice-cream. Yes, the students made real ice-cream AND it was delicious.  They learned the importance in being specific in their steps.  Ask your child why they needed to be specific in our procedure on how to make ice-cream. In Math, the students continue to measurie the length of different objects using non-standard units of measure, such as their own hands and feet, cubelinks, and paper clips. We have been estimating the measurement and then finding out the actual.  A few things they have measured books, desks, their feet/arms, and name tags.

The students had a fun morning with scientist Judy for our Scientist in the School workshop on Energy last week.  It was a great kick off to our new Science unit. We have also started our new unit in Math.  The students have just started Linear Measurement.  We have discussed why measurement is important and what we need to remember when we are measuring different objects. The students will have a brief quiz on patterning this week. Please note that your child should have brought home a letter and rubric about Procedural Writing.  Please return the rubric to school with your initials/signature to show that you have read the expectations.  We will use this rubric at school to assess their writing.