Happy Channukah!

To all those families celebrating Channukah, I'm wishing you a very Happy Channukah. On Thursday, I brought in a menorah and together as a class, we lit the candles and sung the special Channukah prayer. I read the students a story about the meaning of Channukah and we discussed all the wonderful  foods traditionally eaten on Channukah such as potatoe latkes and jelly donuts. These foods are fried in oil to commemorate the oil in the temple that lasted for 8 days and 8 nights instead of only 1 day. This is the miracle of Channukah and the reason why we light candles for 8 nights..Traditionally, children receive Channukah gelt (coins) and play the dreidel game with their family and friends.

 I have included a link to a very cute video made by the Macabeats about Channukah that the students watched today and really enjoyed!

This is the video by the Macabeats...enjoy!

What a busy busy week we had!

Hello families of Room 205s. Thank you to all the grade 5 parents for supporting your child with their most recent project - creating an Explorer's picture book for grade 2 students. The students presented their work to Ms. Whittington's grade 2 class this week who absolutely loved hearing all about the explorers and their journeys to Canada many years ago. Ms.Whittington commented on the maturity level of their reading and the hard work that was evident in their books. The grade 2's loved listening to their stories and seeing all the creative and colourful illustrations in the books. Well done grade 5's!

 

Student teacher - Miss Gamliel was planning on finishing her teaching block on Friday November 22nd. However, she was in a small car accident on Wednesday morning and her doctor advised her to rest for a few days. She is feeling fine, just a little stiff and is resting at home. The students were planning on making her a goodbye party on Friday afternoon and have been busy working on the most beautiful 'goodbye' card. We hope she will be back one day next week to finish off her teaching block and celebrate with the students. She's been a real asset to our gifted classroom and we will all miss her. If you would like to send in a personal message to Miss Gamliel or have your child write a card at home, please do so over the weekend and return it to school by next Monday or Tuesday. Thank you.

Math Congress - See if you can solve this one! Ask your child to help you out if you get stuck...

 MATH CONGRESS

 How much does each person weigh?

November 22, 2013

Fred weighs half as much as Frank and Finnigan weighs three times as much as Fred. Together, they weigh 720 pounds. How much does each person weigh? Solve this problem using pictures, numbers and words.

Math - The grade 4's had their unit test on Geometry this week and received their tests back. Most of the students did very well on these. Please ask your child to see their test, sign it at the top and have them return it to school and show me. The students that were asked to make corrections should have them completed over the weekend and shown to me on Monday. Thank you for your help with this. Our next unit will be Data Management. Students will be drawing bar graphs, pictographs, circle graphs and examining the range of different data.

The grade 5's have been working on the Data Management unit this week. In this unit, they will learn the terms range, mean, average and mode as well as examine and draw different types of graphs looking at intervals and samples used. They will also learn the term bias and how it affects certain data.

Next project - Many students are eager to begin their next project and are asking me daily, "Mrs. Mendelson, when are we getting our next project?" Well the answer to this is in about a week or so. The class has worked very hard over the past month on their Medieval Scrapbooks and Explorer's books and I feel that they need a rest period! As much as they love projects, learning, creating and exploring, I feel strongly that children also need some down time. When the next project is released, you will hear about it!

Hana's Suitcase - Miss Gamliel began reading the book, Hana's Suitcase, to the students this week. She introduced the book with a personal story about her grandfather, who was only 5 years old and was in the Holocaust. His father was killed but his mother survived and eventually they moved to Israel. 

Hana's Suitcase is an incredible story for children as it tells the story of Hana and George Brady who were living in Nove Mesto, Czechoslovakia in the early 1930's. This was a small town of 4,000 people. There were very few Jewish families living in this town at the time. In fact, Hana and George were the only Jewish children in Nove Mesto. The story flips back and forth between Hana, George and their families who were involved in the tragic and horrific events of the Holocaust and Fumiko Ishioka, a young Japanese woman from Tokyo, who runs a small Holocaust Museum. It is told specifically for young children and the author does an outstanding job retelling the horrible events leading up to the Holocaust. It is a true story that covers the themes of survival, courage, hardships, family and suffering.  Please ask your child about the book and I'm sure they will be happy to relate what we have read so far.

Reminders:

• Friday Reports are due on Monday November 25th
• Forest Hill's Wish List Campaign is running - Parent Council is asking for donations of any amount to help improve our school (please see school website for more specific details)
• Project Give Back "grabbers' sheet is due this Wednesday and should be completed by then
• Recorder class is on Wednesday November 27th *please ensure your child brings their recorder to school that day
• Please label ALL ITEMS brought to school. We have a collection of unnamed jackets and hats at the back of our classroom that will be taken to the lost and found if they are not claimed.

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT AND GUIDANCE.

HAVE A WONDERFUL AND RESTFUL WEEKEND!

Mrs. Stacey Mendelson

GRADE 5 EXPLORERS BOOKS...

The grade 5's presented their Explorer books to Ms. Whittington's grade 2 class this morning.  The grade 2's absolutely loved being read to by the older students and our grade 5's loved sharing their wonderful books with the younger students! IT WAS A HUGE SUCCESS!!

Here are some photographs of our students reading to the grade 2's as well as photographs of the grade 5's who presented to our class this afternoon....

Medieval Scrapbooks are wonderful!

Hello families and students of Room 205s! I hope everyone has enjoyed their week. The students in our class have been actively engaged in a variety of activities and events this week. They did an amazing job leading the Remembrance Day Assembly on Monday in the auditorium. They sang Imagine by John Lennon and read a variety of poems and statements that explained the significance of this day. A big thank you to our student teacher, Miss Gamliel, for leading the ceremony and patiently rehearsing with all the students. Overall, we received a lot of positive feedback and many teachers commented on how meaningful the ceremony was.

Medieval Scrapbooks - Thursday was an exciting day for us as the Medieval Scrapbooks were due and the presentations began! Several students had an opportunity to present their work to the class. We've seen evidence of very hard work and a great deal of creative effort put into these books. Two students showed us a video of a game show and an interview which were both thoroughly entertaining!! Thank you very much for assisting your child with this project and helping to create success in their learning. Enjoy some pictures below...

Math Congress - This week students were given a Math Congress about geometric solids, consistent with our math unit on Geometry. I made a promise to the class that this week they could choose their own groups for congress as opposed to the groups being chosen for them. This seemed to work out very well! 

MATH CONGRESS – GEOMETRIC SOLIDS

November 14, 2013

Brett has an assignment to paint all of the geometric solids for a museum display in New York. His directions are use the least amount of colour on each solid but NO sides that touch should be painted the same colour. Explain how many colours will be needed for each of the following solids: cube, triangular prism, hexagonal prism, octagonal pyramid, pentagonal pyramid. 

Is it true that the greater the number of sides,  the more colours are needed? Explain your thinking using PICTURES, NUMBERS AND WORDS.

Media Literacy - This week in Media Literacy we moved from looking at ad slogans and jingles in commercials to a discussion of the way ads can create and send positive messages to us as media consumers.

We had a very interesting discussion about self-esteem and how advertisements can affect a person's sense of self worth. We noted that some advertisements can make us feel bad about ourselves, maybe because we don't look like the people in the ads or we can not afford what is being sold.

Looking at the Dove Beauty Campaign; however, showed us another side of the industry. We learned about how to improve our self image and the self image of others, how to boost people instead of put them down, and how to positively effect one another so that we can all have strong self esteems and the ability to see ourselves in the same positive way others see us.

Please take this opportunity to have a look at the Dove Campaign, if you haven't seen it already we hope you like it as much as we did!

Blankets needed for the Philippines -  Ellen Schwartz, the founder of Project Give Back, has started a Call to Action week. Through the Lady of Assumption Church, PGB is asking students to bring in slightly used and clean blankets to assist the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. I told the students about this initiative today and they all seemed interested in helping out. If your family is comfortable doing this, please send a blanket to school next week with your child.  They will be picked up at our school next Friday November 22, 2013. There is also a donation box in the office for students to donate money to this very important cause. Thank you for your assistance with this matter. 

Math - The grade 5's had their Geometry test this past week and they will be returned to them on Monday. Our next unit in math is Data Management. The grade 4's will have their unit test next Thursday November 21st, 2013.

Art - This week we read about and viewed the artwork of Marz Jr. He is famous for his "Skyscrapers" which are displayed in museums all over the world. Students drew beautiful skyscrapers based on the artwork of Marz Jr. They are displayed in the showcase in our hallway. Here they are...

 This is a photograph of Marz Jr. busy at work:

Reminders:

• PA Day (no school) - Friday November 15, 2013
• Friday Reports are due Monday November 18, 2013
• Grade 5 Explorers Book is due Monday November 18, 2013

We met Kate DiCamillo!

Author Presentation - We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to BSS to hear Kate DiCamillo speak to approximately 300 students. She was wonderful! Using a power point presentation, she described her childhood and her path to becoming a writer. She explained that although she had more than 470 rejection letters from publishers, she kept on going and persevered as she loved reading and writing. She now has 17 published books and 3  more on the way. She accepted questions from the audience and Graham, Amador and Alex from our class were chosen to ask her a question. They both asked about the characters from Tale of Desperaux. After the presentation, Kate allowed the students to take pictures with her as she casually walked around the room, engaging with the students. 

A special thank you to Max's mom and Jake's mom for accompanying us on this trip.

Remembrance Day Assembly - On Monday November 11th, our class along with Ms. Hollins' class, will be leading the junior school assembly for Remembrance Day in the auditorium. Students will sing the song Imagine, by John Lennon (hopefully they have sung this for you at home!), and they will each have several lines to read from a variety of poems including 'In Flanders Fields.' These poems all include descriptions of why we commemorate this special day of remembrance. Our class made beautiful red poppies that they will use during the ceremony. 

We are asking the students to wear a black shirt and black pants for the assembly on Monday afternoon. If possible, the top should have very little writing on the front. We have also asked them to bring in a small flashlight (if you have one) for the assembly. Please make sure your child's name is labelled clearly on the flashlight. Thank you for your help with this. 

Here are the lyrics to Imagine. We encourage the students to practice singing this over the weekend in order to memorize the words and become very familiar with the tune.

Recount writing assignment - The students have been learning about Recounts and the specific criteria needed to write a proper recount. Ms. Gamliel assigned them a writing Recount writing assignment that was due on Wednesday November 6, 2013. Many of the students have handed in their final draft of this writing piece and Ms. Gamliel will be marking them. There are still some students who have not handed in their recount. The know who they are and I'd like them to hand this in by Monday November 11, 2013. They have had a lot of time to work on this in class and have all received descriptive feedback from Ms. Gamliel as to how they should revise their writing. The recounts are hung up in the hallways outside our classroom.

Report Cards and Interviews - Progress reports will go home with the students on Monday November 11, 2013. The students are marked under 3 categories for this report: Progressing very well, Progressing well and Progressing with difficulty for each of the subject areas. 

Thank you to the parents who have requested an interview. I have tried my best to accommodate either your first or second choice. If you have not yet emailed me about an interview time, please do so as soon as you can. If you cannot make it to school, I am happy to accommodate you with a phone interview.

I look forward to meeting with you and discussing your child's progress to date in the gifted program. 

Math Congress - Here is today's congress which the students solved quite quickly! Even though they arrived at the answer quickly, the challenge is to explain the strategies they used to the class using math vocabulary through numbers, pictures and words. 

MATH CONGRESS - The Eternal Preschool  

Friday November 8, 2013

A teacher named, Hope Springs, entered the Eternal Preschool at 8 am on a Monday morning just in time to witness what turned out to be a flu epidemic at the school. By 8:30 am, half the children were sent home sick. By 9:30 am, half of the remaining children were sent home. By 10:30 am, half of the remaining children were sent home. By 11:30 am, half of the remaining children were sent home. By that time,  it was lunchtime and there were only two children left at school. How many students were in the class at the beginning of the day? USE PICTURES, NUMBERS AND WORDS TO EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWER.

Grade 4 Medieval Scrapbooks - The scrapbooks are due on Thursday November 14th. Students should come to school that day ready to present their scrapbooks to the class. This is the last weekend they have to work on this project. I appreciate your assistance in encouraging your child to complete the final parts of this very exciting project!

Grade 5 Explorer's Book - This is book is due on Monday November 18th. Students should come to school that day prepared to read and explain their explorer's book to the class. They will also have an opportunity to read their explorer's book to the grade 2 students at our school which should be very exciting!

Math - We are continuing to work on our Geometry Unit. The grade 5's will have their unit test this Wednesday November 13th. The grade 4's will have their unit test the following week. The test date will be announced on the next blog. Please ensure your child has his/her own protractor as we do not have a class set. Thank you.

Reminders:

• Friday Reports are due on Monday November 11th, 2013
• Please have your child wear a black shirt and black pants for Monday's assembly
• Please send in a small flashlight on Monday that will be used at the assembly
• PA Day on Friday November 15th
• Progress reports will be sent home on Monday November 11th, 2013

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND ASSISTANCE.

THE STUDENT'S WORKED VERY HARD THIS WEEK AND THEIR CREATIVITY IS SHINING THROUGH IN ALL THEIR WORK.

 HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND!

Mrs. Mendelson

Halloween and other fun events!

“Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.”

-Lao Tzu

Happy November to all! This week was busy buzzing with all the sugar and excitement of Halloween! Thank you to Nina Moritsugu for arranging the class party and thank you to Alex's mom and Zed's mom for coming in to help set up. Also, thank you to all the parents for sending in the delicious snacks and home baked goodies. The students really enjoyed eating and watching the movie, Ink Heart.

Here are our students all dressed up and ready to party!

Recounts - Ms. Gamliel, our student teacher, worked with the class this week on writing Recounts. She read several examples of recounts and explained the specific criteria and vocabulary that are needed in order to write an excellent recount. Ms. Gamliel read them an example of a recount and then she completed a shared writing activity with the class. They wrote a recount on The Terry Fox Run our school had at the end of September. Ms. Gamliel explained the sequence of paragraphs needed to complete the recount and students were asked to write a first draft of their own recount on any given topic.

Ms. Gamliel will edit and revise these with each student over the next few days. The first draft of the recount is due on Monday November 4th and the good copy is die on Wednesday November 6th.. The recount can be typed or neatly written and should include a title and an illustration as well as three detailed paragraphs.

Here is Ms. Gamliel teaching the recount lesson...

MATH CONGRESS - Friday November 1, 2013

A bell rings every 4 minutes, a second bell rings every 6 minutes, and a third bell rings every 10 minutes. If all three bells ring together at 3:00pm, in how many minutes will they ring together again? Solve using pictures, numbers and words together with your group.

The students found this week's congress fairly easy to solve compared to other ones they've received this year. However, what I really enjoyed seeing were the variety of strategies used to solve the problem by the various groups in our class. Great work today!

Read Aloud and Drama Activity - Today, Ms. Gamliel, read the students a wonderful book called And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell . This is a heartwarming story about two male penguins who are given an egg by the zookeeper in which they sit on waiting for it to hatch. Once it does, this becomes their baby named Tango. The big message in this story is that all kinds of love can create a family.

After reading the story, Ms. Gamliel encouraged students to use their critical thinking skills to discuss topics on family such as: what makes up a family?, who is in your family? and what does the word family mean to you? The students shared very openly personal stories about their own families of origin. After this, the students were divided into small group and performed a drama "tableau" activity based on a specific scene from the book. They really enjoyed doing this activity!

Social Studies - We are wrapping up our two social studies units and will begin science next week. The grade 4's will be studying Animal Habitats and the grade 5's will be studying the Human Body. I look forward to teaching both of these units. The culminating projects will be assigned in several weeks and I can guarantee you that the students will be excited as they encourage creativity, knowledge and imagination.

The students should be well on their way into working on their Medieval Scrapbooks and European Explorers Children's Book. They have had some time in class to work on these; however, the majority of their work should now be done at home. If you have any questions regarding these assignments, please email me for further clarification..  

Reminder of due dates:

-Medieval Scrapbook is due on November 14, 2013

-European Explorers Book is due on November 18, 2013

(presentations will occur on the day the assignment is due)

Math - We have been busy working on our Geometry unit in math. The students have been identifying triangles, measuring and drawing angles, and identifying all different types of quadrilaterals including parallelograms, kites, trapezoids, rectangles and squares. Please make sure your child has his/her own protractor for school.

In math class, we also discussed the different types of polygons (closed sided figure) and how many there are. We had a lot of fun naming the ones we knew and guessing the names of the ones we did not know! Take a look below at the sheet that was given to the students. This gives the mathematical name for polygons up to 20 sides. The student's really enjoyed learning these names!

Reminders:

• Walking trip to BSS for Kate DiCamillo's presentation - Thursday November 7, 2013 (am only)
• Friday Reports - due on Monday November 4, 2013
• Student's should practise the recorder for approximately 5-10 minutes each day
• Food Drive goes until the end of November - Please send in non perishable items with your child to be dropped off in the box in front of the office

Thank you and have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Stacey Mendelson