Dec. 7

To further our knowledge and understanding of numbers, we have started to learn about even and odd numbers.  Today we read a funny books called "My Odd Day" in which a student had all sorts of things go wrong, such as his clock only included the numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 and he only had 1 sock and 1 shoe.  It got us talking about what even and odd meant and how we could test a number to find out.  They quickly discovered that their fingers were a really good tool when they were stuck!

By the end we decided that an even number has a partner or can be split evenly into two groups.  Some students described even numbers as ones that "have a buddy".  We discovered that any number 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 in the ones place are even numbers.  An odd number wouldn't have a buddy and would be "the odd one out".  These numbers would include a 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9 in the ones place.

To practice this skill we played a fun game called "Slap!". We used a deck of cards without the face cards and placed them upside down.  Here is how we played:

Partners would take turns flipping a card. 

 If the card was even, no one would do anything and it would stay in the pile. 

If it was odd, the first player to slap the odd card would keep it and any cards underneath. 

If they slapped it and it wasn't odd, their partner would get the card and any cards underneath it.

You keep going until all the cards are done. The partner with the most cards wins. 

This game helps students with their math fluency and quick recognition of even and odd numbers. They loved playing it and would love to teach you at home. I will warn you, this game can get loud and very exciting! If you get too into it, you could have a sore hand so maybe play on a softer surface ;)

Dec. 6

It is hard to believe that we are less than two weeks away from the winter break!  I am having a hard time understanding where September, October, and November have gone!!

This week we started a short two week study on different Gingerbread stories. We have a collection of different versions - everything from the traditional Gingerbread Man story to Catch that Cookie, Gingerbread Pirates, and the Gingerbread Girl.  Over the next couple of weeks we will vote on which story we would like to see and then take some time to compare our stories with the others.

We are currently reading the original story so that we have a basis for the characters, repeated words, and storyline.  We have been focussing on not only the problem and solution of the story, but also the critical characters, settings, and objects of the story.  We will use this giant gingerbread house that is on our classroom wall as a template to help us compare these components.

As a way to incorporate math, science and even more writing, we plan to bake cookies next week using a lower sugar, healthier recipe.  There will be no nuts in the cookies.  Please advise if your child has any restrictions with the ingredients below:

 unsalted butter, softened

brown sugar

 unsweetened applesauce

egg

dark molasses

whole wheat flour 

 baking soda

 ground ginger

ground cinnamon

 allspice

 ground cloves

Calories: 56.4 • Fat: 0.8 g • Carb: 12.4 g • Fiber: 5 g • Protein: 0.9 g • Sugar: 6 g
Sodium: 30.3 g  

This recipe does meet the CBE requirements for "choose more often grain" snacks as outlined here: 

With these cookies we will definitely be eating them, but first we will do some sensory writing, looking at the changes before and after baking, and completing some graphing.  We are so excited to use cookies as a learning tool!

Please don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions!

Dec. 5

As promised, here are the results of our experiment!

If you remember, we made a hypothesis about how many drops we could fit on the surface of a penny. Most of us guessed anywhere 3 - 10.  But... we actually got between 16 and 34!  The students were amazed that so many drops could fit on such a small surface. Below shows a bit of the process of our experiment today:

We started by dropping water drop by drop:

  

As we did this, we took a tally of how many drops we added:

 We kept going until the tension became too much for the water.  We learned that depending how forceful we were could change our end result:

 

When we finished we made some observations and recorded what we learned:

 We have really been focusing on understanding the scientific vocabulary. We will continue to review these words through out the unit to ensure that students have a sold understanding of them.  This is a fun activity to try at home.  You could try with different coins to practice estimating as well :)

Coming up:

• book exchange tomorrow

Dec. 1

We had an great day filled with a variety of different activities. We did everything from email to creative movement.  The best part for many of the kids was making an hypothesis and learning this new word.  The students felt so proud to be able to say this scientific word.   We will be regularly using this vocabulary with our science throughout the year.

We also started to learn about another scientific word: surface tension. We started to guess what this word means and through our experiment on Monday we will have a better understanding it.

We began an experiment to see how many drops of water would fit on a penny.  We made a hypothesis as to the number of drops that could fit and why we thought that many could fit.  On Monday we will  test our hypothesis, draw our observations, and record our results.  We will update you on our results.

How many drops do you think will fit?

Coming Up:
Ken Taylor Market tomorrow from 10-3

Nov. 30

Another successful popcorn day today!  The students were so excited to have such a fun snack for their lunch today.

Today we did some work on ordering numbers from least to greatest.  We spent some time discussing the math terms least and greatest and how we determined if one number was larger than another.  After just a short time, they were able to verbalize that when ordering numbers you need to first look at the tens place.  If the digits are the same in the tens place, then you move to the ones place and look at that digit. We worked cooperatively in partners to order from least to greatest and tomorrow we will continue but will work from greatest to least.

Some questions you could ask your child:

• Which number is greater ____ or  ____? 
• How do you know?
• Order these numbers from greatest to least  (give them 3 or 4).  
• How did  you decide ____ was the greatest? Smallest?

Coming Up:

• No school Friday
• Scholastic Book Orders due Monday (if you need secret books, please email me)

Nov. 28

Good afternoon!  I hope you all had a great Monday!
Just a couple quick notes about important school/community events coming up this week:

Tomorrow AND Wednesday are Toonie Treat Days! Bring $2 for a bag of popcorn that you can purchase at lunch.

This weekend our school with have it's first Christmas Market! How exciting! You are welcome to come with your family between 10-3 to find a few of these special gifts for Christmas (maybe even a little something for you).  It is a great way to connect with other families in the neighbourhood.

Lastly, don't forget it is book exchange tomorrow.  Have a great night!

Coming Up:

• No school Friday! PD day for teachers

Nov. 23

How exciting and interesting to see all the different colours for School Spirit Day today. We loved hearing the different reasons that our school colour should be a certain colour. There was no real consensus today, but I did see a lot of purple, orange, and blue...

Today we had the chance to take out the laptops and practice logging in. We did such a great job of listening and following instructions!  Because our log in went so smoothly, we had time to learn about and use our very own CBE Gmail accounts.  We spoke about being safe, respectful, and showing good digital citizenship when using these accounts.  It was fun to log in and have the chance to use such a grown-up tool!  We started to compose our first email and as we did this, we realized that it was a really similar idea to writing our pen pal letters. What a great connection!  Our first email is to Mrs. Jordan, but as we get good, we hope to send our parents an email.  Did you ever think your 7 year old would be sending you emails ;)

For some information about Gmail accounts with the CBE, you can click here:
CBE Gmail

Coming up:
No School Friday
No School - Dec. 2