Jingle Bells and Jerseys

We began the week with our Jingle Bell Walk. As you can see in the photo, we collected quite a bit of food for the Food Drive. We also added some Colour House points for each of the houses.

In language, we reviewed the "ph" spelling for the "f" sound in "Le téléphone". We also read the poem "La joie de vivre" and used our visualizing and wondering jot thought strategies to help us better understand it.

This week's words and sentences focused on the "a" sound.

In our guided writing groups, we looked at the verb "être".

We had another funny visual prompt for working on writing.

Our flexible seating is working well, students writing on the floor, students writing at tables, students writing on counters.

In math we began our new unit on 2-d shapes and symmetry. 

In guided groups, the students learned about the characteristics of the various shapes. We look at the number of sides (côtés) and vertices (sommets).

The grade threes were given different shapes in their guided group and then had to figure out what the name of the shape was. They then had to explain to the group how they figured it out. (What were the characteristics that they used?)

The grade twos had to figure out what three shapes together would equal a certain total of sides or vertices.

The students used 2-d shapes and tangrams to answer questions when doing math alone.

One of this week's games was to match a shape with its name.

In another group activity, students experimented with making shapes on geoboards.

Here they are making shapes with popsicle sticks.

In this activity, students are learning to sort shapes into a Venn diagram by their characteristics.

In science, the grade threes learned about what exactly makes a structure. The grade twos learned about ramps and wedges.

In social studies, the grade threes looked at the symbols for Ontario, the flower and the bird. The grade twos did some activities on London, England.

In visual arts, the students are learning about how shading adds dimension to a picture and how to use several shades of the same colour to create a shading effect.

In music, we are learning a song for the Holiday Concert that the whole school will be singing together.

This week, we spent some time talking about kindness.

On Tuesday afternoon, Mme Misener volunteered in our class again and helped out in math. We are looking forward to a few more visits from her over the next little while.

Friday was Jersey Day. We have several more spirit days coming up: Red and Green Day next Friday and Pyjama Day the following Friday.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Colour House Fun and More

This week in language, we reviewed the "gn" sound and spelling in "Charlemagne". For our shared reading, we read the poem "Mon école". This week we continued to use Jot Thoughts to improve comprehension. We used the "Wonder" symbol (?) to jot down questions that came to mind as we read. The students practised this during reading to self and we did it as a class during our read aloud.

Monday and Tuesday we practised "Visualizing" some more.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, we practised "Wonder".

Wondering together as I read "Le loup qui voyageait dans le temps".

More wondering

Looking at soft and hard "c" in a guided reading group

Critical thinking in guided reading

In writing we continued to look at the verb "avoir" in the present tense. We spent some time discussing singular and plural pronouns and how pronouns are used instead of nouns. We tried a new strategy during working on writing this week, using an image as a writing prompt.

Our visual writing prompt

In math, we finished up the unit on measurement (and a bit of geometry with grids, location, and movement on maps). This bit of geometry is a good link to our next math unit on 2-D geometry and symmetry which we will be starting on Monday. We also continued to work on the mental math strategy of making tens in our number talks.

Making tens

Discussing the math strategy with elbow partners

Writing out her mental math strategies to show others her thinking

Trying something a bit more challenging, measuring in centimetres in grade 2 and millimetres in grade 3

Working on grids and coordinates

More mental math and explaining our thinking

Practising coordinates on the smart board

In social studies, the students looked at different symbols. They also practised some mapping skills.

In science, we started our new units. The grade twos are learning about simple machines. We had a great discussion of some simple machines we use in the class (scissors, stapler...) and some we use at home (knives...). We used Lego to look at an example of an axel. The grade threes are looking at structures and stability.

Evan tested out Popplet Lite to make a mind map on the iPad for his science assessment.

Wednesday was our Colour House Day. We had two activities outside, lining up from tallest to shortest in each House as fast as possible and then making a circle by linking arms and passing a hula hoop all the way around without breaking apart.

We have also been practising our Holiday Concert dance quite a bit. We have the moves mostly learned and are now just putting it all together with the music.

The class was very excited that Mme Misener came to volunteer in the classroom on Friday afternoon. She is going to try to come in when she has some time in between classes. Yay!

Monday is the Jingle Bell Walk. Please remember to send non-perishable food items for the food drive. Also, students should dress for the weather as we will be outside for this.