March 27-31

LEADER: Aaira
Mon. March 27- Ms. Caddel visits our class, reading buddies, physed
Tues. March 28- computers, music, cookie dough arrives
Wed. March 29- Ms. Furczon is away all day due to a root canal procedure (eeek!), physed
Thurs. March 30- Ms. Furczon is away all day (Chess Tournament), library
Fri. March 31- health, pizza lunch



News/Reminders:

- Please check and practise new spelling words:
https://www.spellingcity.com/furczona/
Students will continue to write their spelling words into their agendas every Monday/Tuesday. Spelling tests are on Friday and will be returned the following week.

- We pulled two volunteer names out of a hat for our upcoming trip to see the Hockey Sweater Orchestra. Li-Na's dad and Rory's mom will be joining us on our trip. Thank you to all those parents who offered to volunteer.

- Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers. I appreciate your dedication and ongoing support! A huge thank you goes out to Sam's mom and Matthew's mom for volunteering at our spring craft party. We only had two volunteers but we made it work! Thank you for all the extra materials. The kids were very engaged and loved their new crafts.

- We have some open volunteer spots for one-on-one reading and pizza lunch. If you are able to come in and read with the students for approximately 25 minutes on day 1 and day 2, please sign up online. Unfortunately we did not have anyone come in for reading last week :( We also desperately need another volunteer for this Friday's pizza lunch. Please sign up if your schedule allows it. Thank you SO much.

- Please continue to send outdoor shoes with your child. They may keep their indoor shoes at their cubby space. There has been a lot of mud around the school and Mr. John has been very busy mopping the hallways. Thank you for your understanding!

- We continue to collect recycled/dollar store materials for our upcoming science inquiry and our local community project. If you have been doing some spring cleaning and you find the following materials, please donate them to our class :) Many thanks !!!!
- lots and lots of masking tape, empty toothpaste/cereal boxes, plasticine,  tinfoil, tissue paper, popsicle sticks, cardboard pieces, string, newspaper, stir sticks, small pieces of wood, paper towel rolls, etc...

What did we do all week?

We continue to work on telling time. The students are able to read time to the hour and now we are learning to read the time to half an hour. Please ask your child to check their analogue and digital clock when they wake up, eat breakfast, take a bath, etc. The learning becomes more authentic and engaging when your child understands the importance behind their learning. Some students are ready to read the time to the nearest minute so please challenge your child.
MATHEMATICS

We played this game at school:
http://www.abcya.com/telling_time.htm

I also found this one online:
http://more2.starfall.com/m/math/measure-content/load.htm?f&d=demo&n=match-clocks&y=1&www=stpt

LANGUAGEElements of a story/Narrative writing



Our Community is growing...

SPRING CRAFT PARTY




The students have been LOVING plasticine during free choice. They have been making volcanoes, animals, treats, etc. This is a wonderful opportunity for the kids to share materials, cooperate and work on their fine motor skills. I was obsessed with plasticine as a child so I introduced my class to it and they absolutely love it. It is very open-ended and it keeps the kids focused as they use their own imagination.

Spring Party

Wed. March 22             10:10 to 11:30
4 crafts/activities
Approx. 15 minutes at every centre
Please let me know what you will be making with the children

I just realized that I made a mistake on the day of our spring party. Wednesday, March 22nd is day 5 of the cycle and the kids have physed from 9:20 to 10. The craft/activity party will begin after recess, 10:10 to 11:30. The kids can get started right after recess. 15 minutes for every craft should be fine. If you are volunteering, please arrive at 10 AM to set up. Sorry about the change!

March 20-24

Leader: Hudson
Mon. March 20- Welcome Back! reading buddies, physed
Tues. March 21- computers, music
Wed. March 22- Spring Party: check signupgenius, physed

Thurs. March 23- library, reading with a parent
Fri. March 24- health, reading with a parent

News- I hope everyone had a fanstastic March Break :)
- Our clay pots are ready to go home- please bring in an empty tissue box with your child's name on it
- We are still looking for two more volunteers for our Spring Party. If you are interested, please sign up on signupgenius. Thank you!
-  We have been building quite a lot in the classroom. We are kindly asking for donations for our upcoming science inquiry project. Please feel free to donate any recycled/unwanted materials. We are looking for:

* masking tape (we need a lot of it)
* cardboard
* foam trays
* popsicle sticks
* coffee stir sticks
* paper towel rolls
* boxes
* tinfoil
* anything else that we can build with :) THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!

Social Studies
We continue to build our community out of recycled materials. The students have been brainstorming important buildings and services that are needed in our community. They agreed that education is very important so they decided to build our school. We also have a movie theatre for entertainment, a grocery store for food and a candy store for tasty treats (haha). The children added grass and made several trees so that we can have clean air.

- Students describe some aspects of the interrelationship between people and the natural and built features of their community, with a focus on how the features of and services in the community meet people's needs (The Ontario Curriculum Document).

A couple of students decided to make downtown Toronto. So far we have a skyscraper, CN Tower and the Rogers Centre. Everyone has been so engaged and excited about our new project. They are working together, problem solving and learning so much about our local community.





Mathematics
- We have started our mini unit on "time".  For the next couple of weeks, we will be learning how to tell time to the hour and half hour. Before the March Break, students wrote and drew what they know about a clock. We discussed parts of a clock such as the face, minute hand and hour hand.
- We continue to work on addition and subtraction during our morning arrival.

Science
- We continue to learn about everyday materials, objects and structures through hands on challenges and activities. Our STEM challenges have been a great hit! The students are getting so much better at sharing their ideas, problem solving and working together as a group. I cannot wait to share your child's learning during our Inquiry Symposium in April !!!



Writing
- We will be focusing on Narrative Writing for the next couple of weeks. The students will review the elements of a story, use graphic organizers and anchor charts to write their own stories. They will continue to write about small moments in their life and learn how to edit their own work more effectively. While I was away, Mrs. Champagne had all the students write a short story (she is such an amazing teacher!) They had a mini lesson, wrote independently for 20 minutes and were reminded to include a problem and a solution. I will photocopy and send your child's story so that you are able to note their strengths and needs. Several students had the opportunity to read their stories out loud to the class. They were so excited to share their writing! We have been finding the problem and the solution in everyone's story. We will read many excellent books to help us with narrative writing. It will an exciting journey!

Spelling
- Your child will continue to write down our spelling words in their agenda every Monday. We will continue to have our spelling tests on Friday (these are not graded). No spelling words on a 4 day week. Please keep your child's spelling journal at home and do not send it back to school. I will be posting our weekly words on SpellingCity.com where your child can practise their spelling words through interactive games. There are only a couple of free ones available but they seem pretty fun. Please continue to practise writing with paper and pencil.
Step 1) https://www.spellingcity.com/furczona/
Step 2) Click the appropriate spelling list date: March 20-24th
Step 3) Your child may click the words for spelling, write the words down on paper, play some of the free games/activities or complete the online spelling test

Reading

- Please continue to read for 20 minutes a day (Raz-Kids or books)
- We are building our reading stamina by reading silently several times a week
- We have been reading in small groups and using various reading strategies to help us with unfamiliar words
- We love reading with our reading buddies :)
- Thank you to our parent volunteers and Mr. Chochrane (volunteer) for reading with us weekly!


We painted our clay pots and they are ready to go home! Please bring in an empty tissue box.





Scroll down and read our letter!

I am so proud of my students.

March 6- 10

LEADER: Dean
Mon. March 6- reading buddies, physed
Tues. March 7- computers, music
Wed. March 8- physed, Ms. Furczon is away (Mrs. Champagne will be teaching)
Thurs. March 9- library, parent volunteer for reading

Fri. March 10- health, parent volunteer for reading online trip payment closes
Happy March Break!
Spring Party- March 22nd (please sign up if you would like to volunteer)

Reminders/News:
- Thank you for all your support in the classroom!
- Please return your child's permission form for the Hockey Sweater Orchestra
- Deadline for payment: March 10th (your child will be unable to attend if the payment is not received by this date)
- Please send your child to school with proper outdoor shoes, an appropriate jacket and a hat (we have had some very warm days and extremely cold ones)
- Please encourage your child to place their worksheets into their green workbook. I have been receiving a lot of loose sheets which often get misplaced.
- Please donate unwanted or extra materials for our upcoming science inquiry. The students will work in small groups to create a structure (please do not start building at home). I have already gathered some materials but I would appreciate it if you could look around your house for some additional items. Thank you in advance!
Example:
- paper towel rolls
- tape
- tinfoil
- popsicle sticks
- toothpaste containers and any other boxes/empty containers (make sure that the food inside used to be peanut/nut free)
- pipe cleaners
- string
- straws
etc....anything else is welcome!

STEM (science, technology, engineering, math)
Question of the week: What makes a stable structure?
We discussed the foundation of structures and the triangle shape as being the strongest shape. We also talked about fasteners such as tape which helps us keep the skeleton of a structure stable and strong. This week's STEM activity was quite challenging! It required a lot of patience and perseverance.It was incredible to observe students as they designed their towers, problem solved and helped each other throughout the process. Some students found it challenging to collaborate with their peers and others had arguments throughout the task. There was so much learning happening! Only 3 out of 6 towers stood up and after recess, all of them collapsed. We discussed our challenges and accomplishments. We also talked about the process and not just the final product. There were no "winners", there were only hard working students who persevered and tried their best. We will attempt this challenge again next week to see what we have learned and what we can improve on.












Language
- We learned about verbs and nouns
- We read stories about fairness and honesty
- We shared stories and wrote about special moments in our lives

Mathematics:
- We practised skip counting and played addition/subtraction games
Here are some videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvTcpfSnOMQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EemjeA2Djjw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWg5yCu4V8A

Social Studies:
- We continue to talk about our local community (natural/built features, occupations)
- On Friday, the students made their own homes with paper bags. We will be creating a paper bag community.

Structures and materials in our classroom

Robots, buildings and more....




The CN Tower