Weekly Times March 25, 2011

Headlines

Language Arts

Spelling: Circulatory System words, quiz on Monday

Reading: Literature Circles - Chapter 3, "Dark is Fun" of The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, the Agile Actor job

Math

Fractions:

• Adding fractions to make a whole (ex. 4/5 + 1/5 = 5/5 = 1)
• Equivalent Fractions using pictures
• "tenths" as fractions and decimals (4/10 = 0.4)
• Mathletics

Units of Inquiry

Who We Are- Bodyworks

The Circulatory System

Readings and film clips about how the heart works

Taking our pulse activity

Important Dates and Announcements

Wednesday, March 30 ,2011 - Field Trip to the Pigorini Museum

Friday, April 1, 2011 - Teacher work day - no school for students

Tuesday, April 14, 2011 - Student-led conferences - more information to follow

Monday, April 18- Monday April 25 - Spring Break

Tuesday, April 26, 2011 - school begins again

Weekly Times March 18 ,2011

HEADLINES

Language Arts

Spelling - Digestive system words, quiz on Monday

Reading - The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, Chapter 2, "Dark is Kind", Literature Circle Jobs of Word Wizard and Connector

Dictionary Skills, synonyms, editing

Math

Practicing Multiplication

"Trick" for multiplying 9's and 11's (multiply by 10 and subtract/add the number being multiplied)

Word problems with multiplication and division (with money)

Multiplying 2 digit times 1 digit numbers, using partitioning by setting up the problems vertically

Units of Inquiry

Who We Are - Bodyworks

The Digestive System in 4 phases

- the mouth and esophagus

- the stomach and duodenum

- the small intestine

- the large intestine and out

Buddies - We played our "Birth of the Earth" board games with our 8th grade buddies

Events and Announcements

Thursday, March 24 - Concert for the students at school

Wednesday, March 30 - Field Trip - letter to follow

Friday, April 1 - Teacher planning day - no school for students

Weekly Times March 11, 2011

HEADLINES

CARNIVALE!!!!


Language Arts:
Spelling - Skeletal-Muscular system words, quiz on Monday
Reading - Chapter 1 of The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson, first two literature circle jobs, "Discussion Director" and "Artful Artist"

Math:
- Doubling and Halving (including numbers like 90 where children may know that half of 90 is 45 or they can partition 90 into 80 and 10 then take half of each and add them together so 40 + 5 = 45)

- Finding "half way" between two numbers by finding the difference, taking half of the difference, then adding on that number. ex. halfway between 36 and 46 is 41 because the difference is 10, half of the difference is 5, so they count on or back 5 to arrive at 41

- multiplication tables, especially 6's and 8's

- word problems with simple multiplication and division

Units of Inquiry- Bodyworks
Skeletal Muscular System
-bones, names and uses
- what is bone marrow and why is it important
-making a skeleton model
-talking about joints in the body - what they are and how they work
-muscles

Important Dates and Announcements

Thursday, March 17, 2011 - Holiday - no school
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 - Field trip - more information to follow

Weekly Times March 5, 2011

Headlines

Language Arts

Spelling - started vocabulary words for our Bodyworks unit - the same words will carry over next week

Grammar - contractions

Reading - finishing our read alouds: Magic School Bus In the Time of the Dinosaurs and Dr. Seuss' Oh Say Can You Say These Dinosaur Names

Math

Counting by 25's including negative numbers

Powerlines

Solving problems with brackets/parentheses

Multiplication/Division fact families (ex. 3, 4, 12 3x4 = 12, 4x3=12, 12 divided by 3 = 4 and 12 divided by 4 = 3)

Units of Inquiry

Finishing up our Birth of the Earth unit final project - the board games

Reflecting on our Unit

Beginning the new unit "Bodyworks" by labelling what we know on a body outline

next week - skeletal/muscular system

Important Dates and Announcements

Tuesday, March 8, 2011 - Women's Day Breakfast in the theatre, Carnivale (children may dress up)

Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - Coffee morning with Mr. Mullane in the theatre at 8:30 a.m.

Thursday, March 17, 2011 - Holiday