I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving weekend and revelled the shortened workweek.
We had another busy week.
I want to pass on some important information prior to giving you the overview of our week:
We have booked our very first field trip for November 10 to the Winter Fair. There will be three classes going (Mrs. Kondakos, Ms. Ritsakis, Ms. Karamitsos' grade 2's and our class). There have already been some parents that have expressed an interest in volunteering for this trip. Once we get our official numbers and look at the allotted number for volunteers, I will send out a notice for any additional volunteers that we may need. In addition, I will confirm with the parents that have already brought forward their interest in partaking in the field trip. I really can't wait - it will be a blast!
Additionally, we are booking Scientists in the School for the month of November as well. Again, this will include the Grade 1 and 2 students. Dates have not been confirmed as of yet, as we are awaiting to hear back from them regarding how many numbers we can have. Grade 1 and 2's will be split up, as they are learning about different topics.
The countdown to Halloween has started. Less than two weeks away. Below you will see the amazing display in our office. Mr. Tensio laboured to create this beautiful masterpiece with the help of Ms. Scenna's amazing artistic ability in creating the two canvas paintings. You will notice that the display is full of butterflies - there are exactly 214 butterflies representing one for each special child in our school. That is beautiful!!!
Our grand opening for the library is scheduled for October 29th. The entire staff has worked diligently to paint the beautiful murals that have given new life to the library. I hope you can all make it out and I look forward to seeing you.
Please continue to use Raz Kids as much as you can. A couple of students have expressed that they are having difficulty logging on. If this is the case for your child, please let me know and I will look into it. I understand that many students are reading other books at home. If this is the case, please continue to log it in the reading log, as this is the only way I can track which students are reading.
DRA's have been completed (with the exception of 2 more that I will complete this week). Based on this assessment, I determined what reading level they are at. Starting next week, each student will be given a reading bag that contains 2-3 books at their reading level. These books will be repeatedly read throughout the week during independent reading. From here I can read and conference with each child, in order to determine when we can move them to the next reading level. Remember, we're looking for accuracy, fluency and comprehension.
Additionally, students will be grouped in similar reading levels for guided reading. There are about 3-5 students per group and I will have the chance to meet with each group a couple of times a week. In case you are not familiar with guided reading, we all read the same text and from there, questions are posed to get the students thinking and practicing reading strategies. It is a very effective way to propel students in their reading.
I've been very impressed with the stamina that room 3 has built up during independent reading (we are already at 15 minutes, which is very impressive at this point in time).
Since we are on the topic of language, I'll give you a synopsis of what we have covered in language this week. We are still using the morning message and poem of the week to look at our popcorn (words of the week) words, rhymes, and daily focus of different word families.
With read alouds, we learned about text-to-text, text-to-the-world and text-to-self connections. This is a pivotal part of reading, as we want students to make connections to the world and to themselves.
Each student also completed their very own book report in which they recorded all the parts of a story.
They also have been writing in their journals using the 5 W's (who, what, where, when, why).
Something that really impressed me was a writing prompt that they were given on Friday to write a story. I presented them with the title of their story and they worked away at trying to create their very own story. We will continue the rough draft of their stories next week (which will bring us into drafts, proofreading and good copies).
Math: In math we have been practicing different ways to represent numbers. I sent home a sheet that will hopefully provide some ideas about working with your children at home. This week we learned about the many different ways that we can represent numbers (pictures below will illustrate some of the different ways), such as finger counting, manipulatives, pictures, numbers, words, base ten blocks (for place value), dice, dominoes, number line, grouping, five frame, ten frame, expanded form (add/subtract) and tallies to name a few. A great idea is to choose a number and have your child represent it in as many ways that they can.
Math today is done very differently from the way math was done when we grew up. Kids are taught multiple ways to reach an answer and through practice, will choose which one is the most efficient and suitable for them. The idea is to move away from rote memorization, and rather focus on an understanding of math and numbers.
I hope all of this information is not too much, but I like to explain the reasons we do what we do and provide you with all the information that I would want to know if I was a parent (if it's too much I apologize).
Science:
Grade 1: On Friday Ms. Ritsakis sent home a project for the grade 1 students to complete on bodies.
Grade 2: Likewise, the Grade 2 students were given a project outline and a booklet for their project on animals. Each student drew the classification of an animal, and from there they have the choice to select any animal that they would like to do their project on. The project seems quite extensive, but I don't want it to be laborious. The booklet is organized in a way that each heading requires only a few facts. Students will have the chance to research in class and to work on their projects starting next week. The final week before the project is due, they will have time to work entirely on their projects in class.
In the project outline there is a rubric that will show you what it is that I am looking for and how students will be graded. I always have rubrics for all assignments and there are no discrepancies in the marks that students receive. Please have your child bring the rubric to school with them along with their project and project booklet on the day their project is due (I will use the rubrics I sent home to mark your child so that we can save paper).
The point of this project is to make it fun, to allow some creativity, and to practice key skills such as researching, collecting information, organizing, presenting, creating some art in the meantime, and learning about their animal in depth. Students are really excited about this project, so my only hope is that they remain excited and not get overwhelmed. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. If you need any materials from school, I am more than happy to supply some for you.
One last thing about the project, the diaroma does not need to be made by solely using a shoe box - you may use a cereal box, boxes from the grocery store, or anything that can contain their animal's habitat. Have fun!!!
I hope you enjoyed reading yet another essay of this week's overview (lol). If you have any questions/comments, please let me know.
Have a great weekend and get ready for the countdown to Halloween!!!
Ms. Nikoletopoulos
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| Representing numbers in pairs |
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| Different Ways to Represent Numbers |
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| Using base ten blocks to represent place value of a number |
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| Grade 2 science group work on Amphibians |
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| Grade 2 science group work on Amphibians |
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| Grade 2 science group work on Amphibians |
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| Grade 2 class working on the characteristics of Amphibians |
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| Grade 2 science group work on Amphibians |
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| Dimitri's proud moment: He was so happy to have created this beautiful piece of art and claimed it was his best. It's too bad it was on a whiteboard and he couldn't keep it. Good thing we have pictures!!! |
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| The beautiful creation in our front office - it's so much better in person. 214 special people make up this wonderful school |
