Friday, 31 May 2013

We Did It!!!!

We completed EQAO today! Yippee. <Insert Dora's "We Did It" theme song here>
I am so proud of my boys and girls. What a tremendous accomplishment the last three days have been! They deserve a very relaxing weekend filled with ice cream sundaes and extra snuggles! I love these kiddos I tell ya... my heart is bursting with pride!

Monday, 27 May 2013

It's Almost Time!

After almost 36 weeks of prep, EQAO is just about here! We start writing on Wednesday and will finish on Friday afternoon.
I am SO proud of my chickadees and their hard work and motivation to always learn and be the best that they can be.
Wednesday will be a big day! It will be a day filled with nerves, pride and a true sense of accomplishment come the end of the day!
All the boys and girls in my class are very ready for "the test." In fact, our motto now is "bring it on!"
I request that the boys and girls get a very good nights sleep this week (maybe in bed a half hour early). Also, they should eat bigger than usual breakfasts and pack a few extra healthy snacks to munch on throughout the day.
Mrs. M has also suggested that her boys and girls bring in some sort of momento that will be helpful when completing their test booklets. A little something to make them feel warm and fuzzy and sorta take the pressure off so to say. I think this is a great idea! Therefore, my kiddies can also bring in such an item. These may be stuffies, family pictures, a note from mom or dad etc. Anything that provides some encouragement over the next few days. They can start bringing in these items as of tomorrow. We will write a reminder in our agenda tomorrow too.

Wednesday, 22 May 2013

Narrative Writing

Today we began narrative (or story) writing. This is one of my very favourite writing units. The kids practically jumped out of their seats with glee when they learned that this is what we would be doing for the next few days. 

Mrs. Mihalides has developed a formula to teach kids how to write dialogue in their stories correctly. It is called the "Said/Replied/Said" method and it works very well! 

Attached is a youtube video of the slideshow Mrs. M has put together to teach the kids this great method.

Video

Finding Area

Yesterday we learned how to find the area of a shape. In grade three it is quite simple... just count up the squares!





Here are 6 shapes that you can find the area of. Remember to record your answer in square units.

Tuesday, 21 May 2013

Have We Convinced Ya?

In room 209 we have been working very hard on our persuasion skills. I am most impressed by how convincing many of us are! All of the chickadees can take something that sounds as silly as having a longer recess and make it sound very reasonable with  just a few convincing points. I think I may have a roomful of future lawyers, negotiators or sales people!

Hopefully they have not yet caught on to using these skills at home to convince moms and dads as to why they need to stay up later, eat less vegetables or not brush their teeth ;)

Today the writing task was to choose an animal and then write a letter to convince me as to why we need this for a class pet. I can't wait to send home the Writer's Notebooks so you can read them too!

Thursday, 16 May 2013

Club Announcements

Over the last couple of days we have been learning how to write announcements.  The other day the light bulb went off for me...pair up this writing format with our latest text form of persuasive writing! The task I gave the kids was to write an announcement for a club that you are starting. I told them that they want kids to join so they have to make convincing points to encourage other kids to sign up. 
I don't think I have ever seen kids so engaged in a writing task and boy oh boy are the announcements good! We have some interesting ideas for clubs with very persuasive ideas for joining them. I love when the creative juices get flowing in Room 209!
We will share our announcements as a class tomorrow. I can't wait!

Wednesday, 15 May 2013

New Math Unit

We have started one of our last (hooray) math units for the year. This is another unit in measurement. We will learn about measuring using centimetres, metres and kilometres. In addition  we will learn how to calculate area and perimeter.


- the short form for centimetre is cm
- the short for for metre is m
- 1m = 100 cm
- we use kilometres to measure longer distances
- 1000 m = 1 km
- it takes about 15 minutes to walk 1 km

Here is a problem to try:

If Mrs. Linse walks around a track that is 500 metres. Have I walked a km if I walk around the track two times?
Explain your thinking.

Monday, 13 May 2013

Go Leafs Go

I know I'll be cheering on the blue tonight. Hope you will be too!

GO LEAFS GO!!!



Fraction Test

Tomorrow is math test day!

We did about a half hour of review this afternoon and most of us look to be in great shape.

Here are two practice problems to practice at home tonight.

1. Champ has five cheese bones and 4 meat bones. 
    What fraction of the bones are cheese?


2. Ashleigh has 16 gumballs. 
    Two fourths of the are green.
    How many are green?

Saturday, 11 May 2013

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day weekend! I hope all the mamas out there get spoiled with all kinds of love on their special day!
I just had to share this adorable pic of my two babies!


Wednesday, 8 May 2013

Fraction Practice

This afternoon we practiced some more fraction problems.

Here are a couple samples that are similar to the ones we solved in class:

1. Charles has 10 gumballs. He eats one-fifth of them. How many gumballs has he ate?

2. Jerry has 16 gumballs. He eats half of them. How many gumballs does he have left?

Monday, 6 May 2013

Fractions Test

On Tuesday May 14 we will have a unit test for fractions. I do not have a practice test for this unit but I will send home math duotangs each night for review. In addition, I will post sample problems throughout the week.

Today we learned how to find fractions of a set. Below is a screen shot of some of the work we did.

Sunday, 5 May 2013

Join us For Morning Message

This week is Catholic Education Week. On Tuesday morning I have invited moms and dads to come by our classroom to participate in Morning Message. This is one of our favourite times of the day where we use the Smartboard to learn new things, review old skills and play games. Morning Message allows us to connect each morning, it sets the tone for our day and is an overall great way to build community in the classroom. Usually it is first thing in the morning but on Tuesday we will have an extended version starting at 10:40 until about 11:40. We hope you can make it!

Dance Party!

On Friday we had a mini dance party in our room. I can't stop smiling when I watch back the video. They are so into it... it's adorable!

Dance Party

Thursday, 2 May 2013

Urban and Rural Communities

Today we began our final social studies unit for the year. We will be learning all about urban and rural communities. We had lots of great discussion this afternoon about the different types of communities that make up Canada. We pulled up some pictures from the internet of different communities and made inferences as to whether we think they were rural or urban (based on what we have learned so far). I predict this will be a great unit with lots of engaging conversation!

Wednesday, 1 May 2013

Fractions

Today we began Unit 8: Fractions.
Fractions are very similar to division. It is taking a whole of something and splitting it into equal parts.
Right now we are just getting comfortable with naming fractions and splitting a whole into parts. Attached is a link to an online fraction activity. It is from a "Grade 2" site but is American. This activity aligns with what we did today in class.

Fractions Activity