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