100th Day, Winter Fun, Surprise Parties, and Valentines

It's been a crazy week! Monday was 100th Day. The students completed a booklet of several activities, including 100 math questions, and some writing and drawing activities. The students who brought collections of 100 enjoyed sharing them with the class. 

In Language, we read the poem "Le bonhomme de neige" as a shared reading. We looked up Norway, which was mentioned in the poem. We compared information we found on Norway and inferenced from the poem with what we had already learned about Sweden, which is just east of Norway, and with Russia. We decided that they would have similar climates and seasons based on geography and other given information. This was a great link with some of the things we have learned about in Social Studies. The students reviewed the "ou" and "on" sounds in "Tourlou" and "Gaston". We finished up a cycle of reading centres. We will begin a new cycle next week along with writing centres. 

In Math, the students got quite a bit of practise with 2-digit addition and subtraction without regrouping. We looked at addition with regrouping and why regrouping was done, both with base 10 blocks and with a written algorithm. The class will have opportunities to practise this independently next week. We will also begin looking at subtraction with regrouping. 

In Social Studies, we continued to learn about Russia. We also learned about why Valentine's Day is celebrated. It was an interesting discussion about kings, soldiers, laws, prisons, and friendship. The class then completed a follow-up written activity and coloured a friendship wreath. 

On Wednesday, we had Primary Winter Fun Day in the afternoon. The students seemed to enjoy all of the activities planned for them. Thank you very much for all of your help preparing hot chocolate for over 200 students, Wendy Lehmann, at my hot chocolate station. Yesterday we helped Mme Deloughery's daughter, class, and Mrs. Hilton prepare a small surprise party for an important birthday. Today, we celebrated Valentine's Day in the afternoon. Thank you very much to the parents who sent in treats and bought/prepared valentines with your child. They are so excited when they open all of their valentines. 

I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day and Family Day and that it's not too cold to enjoy some of the activities taking place in the area!

Snow Days and More

With cancelled buses on Monday and being away sick on Tuesday, there was a lot to get done this week. Our shared reading was the poem "Le Bonhomme de neige" and we discussed new vocabulary quite a bit. The students practised the "ch" and "gn" sounds in "Le chariot" and "La campagne". As a read aloud on Monday, I shared the book "L'année magique des bonshommes de neiges". 

In Math this week, we began a new cycle of math centres focusing on 2-digit addition and subtraction. We started without any regrouping but we will get to that next week. The computer centre is set up with the Prodigy game. I have changed the game content to reflect our latest unit so the students will now be practising addition, subtraction, missing terms in equations, and word problems. With only 3 class computers, we have also been using the iPads that are stored in our classroom, when they are not in use by other classes. 

On Wednesday afternoon, we had a visit from KFL&A Public Health. The two women did a presentation on the importance of hand washing to prevent the spread of germs. (Especially important this time of year with so many viruses going around!) They then split the group into two and had them each take a turn to properly wash their hands. 

In Social Studies, the class learned about the tradition of Groundhog Day. They were quite surprised that it dated back to the 1600s. We also learned about Russia and will complete some activities on that country next week. 

On Monday, we will be celebrating the 100th Day of School by completing some language and math activities on the number 100. Please remind your child that he or she is encouraged to bring a collection of 100 small objects or drawings to share with the class. 

Next Friday afternoon, we will be having a Winter Primary Play Day, weather permitting. As the classes will be outside quite a bit that afternoon to rotate through various stations, please ensure that they are wearing warm layers and that they have spare mitts and socks at school that day if they do not already have extras there. 

Have a great weekend and enjoy all the snow we will be continuing to get over the next few days!

Literacy Week

It's been such a busy short week with all of the literacy activities taking place around the school! In language, we read the poem "Neige" as our shared reading. We discussed the imagery in this poem and the word choices of the author. The students practised the "eu/eur" sounds in "Les oeufs" and "Les joueurs de soccer". I finished up doing GB+ assessments and I'm very pleased with the class's continued progress in reading levels. They have been progressing steadily since September. Reading levels for book-in-bag have also been adjusted. They also completed an independent reading test with comprehension questions. They did a short writing assessment to demonstrate their understanding/use of the conventions we've been working on (capitals, punctuation, and sentence structure). So many assessments this time of year when report cards are coming up. 

We didn't get a lot of math done with all the interruptions, but we did get the problems of the week done, some discussions on comparing 3-D solids and skeletons, and some time to work on finishing up incomplete math work. Next week we'll be back to doing our daily five language and math centres. 

There were lots of Literacy Week activities. On Monday afternoon, we had "Drop Everything and Read". I did a read aloud and then the class had some time to read independently. On Tuesday, we had Reading Buddies in the middle block with Mme Adamson's Grade One class and in the last block with Mme Anne's Kindergarten class. 

Wednesday was Pyjama Day for K-2 and in the afternoon our class joined Mrs. Burke's class to read by flashlight in the library. On Thursday morning, we went to the music room to participate in a sing-along with Mme Judd. One of the songs was a new song by Jack Grunski about reading!

I'm sure the students enjoyed Friday's PA Day with all the snow we got on Thursday! I was busy at school working away on reports but I would have much rather have been out enjoying the snow with my boys. Now we're back to the cold weather so I really don't want to head outside until it's tee-shirt weather again! 😄

Have a great weekend!!

Finally Warm!

I'm so glad it's finally warming up, even though it's supposed to get cold again. Luckily the students didn't have too many recesses inside.

This week in Language, we read the poem "La neige au village" for our shared reading. The students practised the "ou" and "oi" sounds in "Un ours" and "Le soir". I read "La vie secrète des bonhommes de neige" as a read aloud. The illustrations in this book are so fun as there tiny hidden pictures on each page. This class had fun getting into small groups to lead the class in practising this week's word wall words. Another activity that the class seemed to really enjoy was a writing activity based on a movie with no dialogue. They watched the movie "Ormie" and then we discussed what had happened in the film. We watched it again another day, reviewed what had already been discussed, and then added any ideas that were missed. Then the class wrote a retell about what happened in the film using the ideas they had come up with as a group. 

In Math, we did a mini lesson on fractions. Each week, the daily math problems have been getting a little more difficult and every once in awhile, we need to do a little mini-lesson in order to be able to complete the questions. The class did some sorting 2-d shape activities on the SMARTBOARD. We also did another word problem in small groups. It was similar to the last problem; however, this time it was on 3-d solids instead of 2-d shapes. 

This week, we finished up activities on Italy in Social Studies. We will begin looking at Asia next week. In Music, we did activities on slow and fast tempos. The class continued to work on their 2-d shape art in Visual Arts. Some are finished but a few others still have a bit to do. Look for them soon on the hall bulletin boards. Don't forget, next week is Literacy week and there will be several activities going on throughout the week, especially Wednesday which is pyjama, flashlight, stuffy, and blanket day!

Have a great weekend and enjoy the warm winter weather before it gets cold again!