Monday 2 February 2015

What We're Up To This Week - February 2nd-6th, 2015

Special volunteers this week:
-Amanda joined us on Monday. She is one of Shauna's former students from the University of Ottawa!
-Genevieve joined us on Wednesday. She taught us an awesome Math lesson.

Language 
-small Guided Reading groups are meeting and discussing non-fiction texts. This week, we are practicing the Reading Comprehension Strategy of Inferring. Inferring means to "read between the lines" and think about what the author means by using our reasoning skills and previous knowledge.
-we Skyped with a Journalism student and reporter on Ottawa's "Museum Beat". Jane Hobson told us a lot about being a reporter and we were excited to be the first people to ever interview HER! She talked about how reporters are storytellers and give voice to the voiceless. We learned about the need for the news to be balanced and tell both sides of the story. She gave us tips to be great storytellers and reporters: be curious and keep organized!
-we have started doing Author's Share, where students have a chance to read things that they've written to their class to get feedback. Here is what is expected of the sharing author and the audience.
-students love having Free Write time and many are successfully using the Drive to collaborate on creative stories that they are writing
-one by one, students are reading to volunteers. They spend five minutes reading aloud to practice their fluency (smoothness of reading) and then use their Reading Comprehension bookmarks to answer three questions to demonstrate their understanding of what they've read.

Math
-if you're practicing IXL at home, make sure grade 3s are working on "O and P" and grade 4s are working their way through "O, K, and L". Don't forget, if you're logging on at home, you need to add "@churchillps" to your username!
-we are continuing our exploration of perimeter and area using maps, pattern blocks and real life measurements
-students are working on their Canadian Day Books - they are practicing telling time on analog clocks and describing what they do at nine different times of the day
-Genevieve helped us practice our time telling skills with models all over the classroom, a fun interactive website and videos. Check out Clocks
-we finished our "Great Canadian Day Books"

Social Studies

Science
-we were gathering feedback for Alena and Anthony's prototype workshop from last Friday where we learned about and made fireflies. Students took the initiative to ask if they could add their feedback to a collaborative Google Doc.
-after cooling down from our GoNoodle marathon session today, we did our mindful breathing exercise called "Airtime". Our "journey" has taken us to a Chinese space station. We started to talk about space stations, and looked at some photos from the "Heavenly Palace" and "International Space Station". Life with zero gravity is fascinating. Drinking water, going to the washroom, sleeping, exercising and making food are all interesting challenges.
-we brought in our fireflies and sat in the dark of the Gym stage. Students demonstrated four different lighting patterns of fireflies. You can practice them at home, too!

Phys Ed
-GoNoodle has an awesome new Champ Training program. We ran and boogied until we were all red in the face! The new game allows you to answer Health questions while you're exercising.
-we "flew" around the Gym, using the lighting patterns of fireflies to inspire us. Trying to guess which firefly our classmates were representing was challenging!
-students created their own gym activities - paying attention to their bodies in space, cardiovascular endurance, cooperation and innovation

Health
-Amanda introduced us to life for children around the world. We started to look at the different types of food people eat in different places.

Art
-we looked at Walt Disney's 1928 short, Steamboat Willie and talked about the funny limbs (rubber hoses!) of the characters and how it is an important movie because synchronized sound is used through the whole film. We, of course, had a little Steamboat Willie dance party, too!
-students are finishing their #onelittleword projects - adding their words and photos and displaying them in the hallway - come take a look!

Drama
-Adrienne and Jan came in with their participatory theatre performance, "Me on the Map". It was AWESOME! Check out what we thought on our Collaborative Feedback form.

French
-we are getting to know our new French teacher, Jennifer, through games and art activities. We even got to learn some new words by doing Yoga - in French!

Music
-we practiced writing treble clefs
-we are getting started with ukuleles - we are pretty excited about it!

Tree Families
-our theme this month is perseverance. Our big idea is: Stick with something even if it is difficult!
-we'll be seeing our Tree Families on Wednesday from 8:10-8:40 a.m. for a Family Meeting
-remember, parents are welcome to join Tree Families! You can join your child in a multi-age group every Wednesday morning for read alouds, discussions and activities!

Other News
-Ottawa broke the world record for number of snowmen built in an hour! James and Mariko helped make it happen on Sunday. One of James' snowmen (and James himself) were featured on the news. 
-Wyerton Willie's smiling face cracked us up! We are happy that he forecast an early spring, but don't really believe in the superstition.
-Raphie came back from the Dominican Republic and brought photos of him covered in squirrel monkeys. That, of course, spurred a great conversation about monkeys and apes! We talked about a King Squirrel Monkey named "Goldie", a lonely orangutan and the danger their species is in, gorillas and their canine teeth and close encounters!
-because we won't be at school on Valentine's Day or the Friday or Monday surrounding it, so we came up with the idea to celebrate "Snailentine's Day" instead. It's like Valentine's Day, but just for the Gladiator Snails! That is also our cozy PJ Day.
-We looked at an interesting map of a city - and most of us immediately thought it was EPCOT. It's actually Paris!
-Hitchbot Jr has gone home with Toni's family. He is enjoying his visit and they'll be taking him on adventures with his GPS and we'll be able to track where he's been!

NOTE: This post will be updated periodically throughout the week, check back often for more updates!

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