A great first week of 2014!

Hello families of room 205s. I hope everyone had a great week! Here in room 205s, we were busy bees! Here are a few highlights of what we accomplished:

We finished the book Hana's Suitcase, we listened to the grade 4's present their science projects, the grade 5's chose organs and began researching for their science project on the Human Body, we reviewed who Gandhi was and his significance to our world and we studied multiplication tables using Minute Math (grade 4). 

Math Congress - Below is today's Math Congress. Students were challenged to solve this problem and as usual, they worked very hard in their groups, collaborating and sharing their math knowledge to solve the problem. Ask your child who had more money in their bank account at the end of 13 weeks - Ellen or Tanya?

MATH CONGRESS - Friday January 10, 2014

 Extravagant Ellen and Thrifty Tanya each have bank accounts. Ellen has $500 and Tanya has $200.  Ellen withdraws $15 each weekend while Tanya deposits $12. At the end of 13 weeks, what is the difference in their bank accounts? Can you find a week when there is only a $3 difference?  Solve this problem using pictures, numbers and words.

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever”. –Gandhi    

Quote Reflection -  This quote was given to the students this week as part of the BFYB program. The students were asked to 'reflect' on this quote by explaining, in their own words, what they believed Gandhi meant. They were asked to give specific examples of how they live life to the fullest each and every day and the importance of always doing this. When sharing their reflections, many of the students began their paragraph with the sentence, If I were to die tomorrow, I would.... Although this is often a difficult topic to discuss, I believe we had an excellent and informative discussion on how to live life to the fullest each and every day and try our best to always 'be in the moment.'

Habitat Projects continued...enjoy the pictures of the grade 4 students who presented their Toronto Zoo habitats this morning in class.

AFRICAN ELEPHANT - DENIZ

 KING COBRA SNAKE - JAKE

 DOLPHIN - INDIA

Reminders:

• Friday Reports - due on Monday January 13, 2014
• Friday January 10, 2014 - We will have a guest speaker coming to our class to discuss the Holocaust as a follow up to Hana's Suitcase (Max Friedman-Cole's grandfather)
• Grade 5 Human Body Project - due January 29, 2014
• Upcoming field trip to see the play Noob at Lorraine Kimsa Theatre (February 19th) - more information to follow in the next few weeks
• PA Day - January 24, 2014
• Please label all clothing that comes to school

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND. THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT AND GUIDANCE OVER THE FIRST TERM. 

LOOKING FORWARD TO AN AMAZING 2014 IN OUR CLASSROOM!!

Mrs. Mendelson