Do spiders have ears?

We spent the week learning about spider body parts:

Then each child had a chance to create their own anatomically correct spider out of plasticine:

First they molded the shapes for the parts. Next they joined the parts together.

Finally they placed the finished spiders on a flat surface and labelled all the parts.

Please ask your child to draw and label a spider at home this weekend. We think you will be very impressed at your young scientist(s)!

In Jen and Karen's math group this week we have been combining two parts to make a new whole. The children are also beginning to play with sets that make 10. Notice each "slice of bread" holds 10 counters. The children are playing with two colours of counters to create different sets to make 10.

4 + 6= 10

3 + ? + 10

In Wendy' math group, we are learning all about patterns in number and how to skip count by 10's, 5's and 2's to 100. We are also continuing to explore place value with our base 10 blocks. You can challenge you child at home by showing them a number between 11 and 99 and ask them to show/tell you how many "ones" and "tens" that number has. We think you will be impressed with what they can do!

Rainbows and rainy days

The journal writing this week has been extraordinary. We are so amazed by how prolific your children have become. They are adding amazing detail to their stories, both in the pictures and in the language. They are taking risks in sounding out new words, and/or using the various tools in the classroom, including word walls, picture dictionaries and their journal word lists to write unfamiliar words. We cannot wait to see more! Please feel free to come in to the classroom to read your child's journal. They are very proud of their work.

Happy friends

Letter to grandma

Working together

On Friday afternoons we have Buddy Reading with Tami's grade 6/7 class. It is a very special time in our week where your child gets to read with an older school friend. These relationships are so lovely to watch! Here are some pictures from our Buddy Reading today. Please ask your child all about their Big Buddy. I am sure you will see a BIG smile emerge as they talk about him or her.

Reminders:

1. All poinsettia orders must be in to Jen/Karen's room by Thursday.

2. Please return your Student Led conference request form by Wednesday so we can try to accomodate your conference request time. Conferences will be on Wednesday December 5 and Thursday December 6.

3. Please bring $3 to class by Wednesday for "Mike the Critter Guy". He will be visiting our class with some spiders and other critters on Monday December 3 in the afternoon. 

Thank you for your continued support of our Home Reading Program! Your time spent reading at home with your child has a significant impact on their reading development at school. If you have any questions about the program, or need any strategies to read with your child at home, please come and chat with us!

We wish you a playful, cosy weekend! See you next week for some more fun with spiders......

Spiders, spiders everywhere!

Our week started with a mystery for your children to solve: WHAT ARE WE GOING TO LEARN ABOUT NEXT? The children were given 4 clues: 1. the item is found all around the world, including Africa, 2. it can jump, 3. it comes in many colours, and 4. it can live in many different habitats. The children brainstormed and tried to come up with ideas. Then a mystery box was passed around with the new topic of study inside......

..........SPIDERS!!!

Here is a list of the things the class already knows about spiders:

And here is a list of the things we wonder about spiders:

The children each made folders with spider webs and spider illustrations. These will hold all their work about spiders over the next few weeks. 

The children had fun illustrating this week's poem, sung to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell":

We had an exciting week in math. Karen and Jen's group is exploring numbers and the process of combining quantities to make a new whole (addition). 

Wendy's math group is working with Base Ten blocks to understand place value:

We ended our week with an entertaining performance by Flying Bob. He is an acrobat and circus performer from Saskatchewan, and he had us all in stitches!! His act included juggling, riding a unicycle, a tight rope walk and a pretty funny finale involving some Hello Kitty underpants! Ask your children about it. Here are highlights of the show:

Ribbon Tricks

Balancing Plastic Lawn Chairs

Flipping Hats on and off

Tight Rope Walk

Reminders: 

1. If you are planning to order poinsettias, please have your forms to Jen/Karen by November 30th. 

2. Student-led Conferences will be held on Wednesday December 5th. We will send home conference time request letters the week after next. 

3. Our Dickens Holiday Concert will take place on Wednesday December 19th in the evening. Please mark the date!

4. If you have any special holiday traditions that you would like to share with our class (crafts, baking, stories, etc.), please talk to one of us and we can book a time for you to come in. 

We hope you all have a restful weekend. Warning: you now have spider scientists living in your homes. You may never be allowed to squish an eight-legged foe again. 

(We cannot figure out how to turn the photos on our blog. If any of you know how, please let us know! Thank you!!)

A Week of Remembrance

Welcome back to our weekly blog!

This week, our UBC Teacher Candidates explored more books by one of our favourite authors, Mo Willems. Some of his books are heart-warming, some teach life lessons, and some are just hilarious!

The children responded to these books by participating in a variety of activities including sharing activities, thinking about how and where they would fly if they could, and eating hot dogs.

Our week was also focussed on Remembrance Day and preparing for the assembly that would honour those who contributed during the wars.  We talked a lot about peace and how fortunate we are to be living in a peaceful country.

Divisions 1 through 6 practiced singing "What a Wonderful World" in preparation for the Remembrance Day assembly.  Decorations were made to compliment the lyrics in the song such as trees of green, red roses, skies of blue and clouds of white.  Here are some beautiful roses in the making!

Here are our trees!

 

Once complete, all of the decorations were taken to the gym.  It was amazing to see all of the incredible art work!

The assembly was emotional and respectful.  We are so proud of the children.  It wasn't easy to sit quietly for so long but everyone understood the importance of the moment.

We would like to conclude this week's blog by sharing a video of the Remembrance Day artwork while the primary students sing What a Wonderful World.  The video has two parts so please be sure to watch both!

Thanks for visiting and we will see you next week.

Happy Halloween!

We had a busy week with many fun and engaging activities centered around, of course, Halloween!

There are many entertaining books to read at this time of year.  On Monday, the students enjoyed The House That Drac Built.  It's a story full of humour and colourful illustrations about Dracula's house and all of the spooky characters who decided to dwell there with him.

In groups, the children discussed the creatures that come out on Halloween.



Then they created booklets with descriptive words and bold and bright illustrations.

 

 

 

 

Division 2 celebrated Haji with Ahmed's family.  They feasted on tasty snacks!

 

 

On Wednesday morning, the children rotated through Halloween stations created and organized by our Teacher Candidates, Olivia and Sarah.  The stations involved baking and decorating Spookies (cookies with a spooky twist),

carving out some dance moves to Thriller,

and making decorations for the classroom and home.

 

On Friday, Dickens students and staff headed outside for our Dickens Triangle Clean Up.  Taking advantage of the "dry" weather and armed with buckets and tongs, we picked up whatever garbage we could find.  The encouraging news is that our neighbourhood is pretty clean!

A great week was had by all.  Thanks goes out to all of you who support this great bunch of learners! 

See you next week!