Mrs. Mendelson's Class: 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...