Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Why? Again

We are taking 2 weeks to focus on this poem, so our words of the week (and homework books) will NOT be coming home this week!

Keep reading this week though!

(In math, please continue to work on time to the half hour)
  

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Why?

  This week we are focusing on questions and questioning!



Why?
By Robert Fisher

Why is grass always green?
What holds up the sky?
Why is hair upon my head?
Why, oh why, oh why?

Why does rain go down, not up?
Why is salt in every sea?
Why is there a sun and moon?
Why is there only one me?

Why do bees buzz and birds sing?
Why do nails grow on my toes?
How long is a piece of string?
Why is it no-one knows?

Why is night so full of dreams?
Why do we have one nose, two eyes?
Why do questions never end?
Why are there so many whys?

Words of the Week
Grade 1 and 2
(What is a question?)

who
what
when
where
why
bonus word: question



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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

My Home



My Home
by Barbara Reeves

My home is a house two stories high,
My home is a city – buildings scraping the sky.
My home is a province with blue lakes and tall trees.
My home is a country bordered by seas.
My home is a planet suspended in space.
What is my home?
It’s MY favorite place!

Words of the week:
Your name (first and last)
Your street
Toronto
Ontario
Canada



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Monday, April 21, 2014

When I Grow Up

We interviewed our parents, neighbours or adult friends and  learned about MANY different kinds of jobs in and around our community. We learned what consumers are and what producers are. We learned that people might have a job providing a service for other people (helping) or their job might be providing goods for other people (making or growing).  

Then we thought about what we might want to be when we grow up......

We will be very well entertained in the future :) 

We want to be actors, actresses, teachers, train drivers, monster truck drivers, dance instructors, vets, hockey players, video game makers, firefighters, astronauts, scientists, editors and basketball players.





















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Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Engine Engine



      Engine Engine

Engine, engine, number nine,
Waiting on the Danforth line,
Have a ticket, you’ll be fine,
Engine, engine, number nine.

Engine, engine, number nine,
Running on the Danforth line,
Hear the bell when it’s time,
Engine, engine, number nine.

Engine, engine, number nine,
Stopping on the Danforth line,
See it sparkle, see it shine,
Engine, engine, number nine.


Words of the Week (long i sound)
 
Grade 1+2
nine
line
fine
time
ride
bonus word: shine
 



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Monday, April 14, 2014

Elapsed Time

  One of the parents has asked me how we are learning elapsed time.

If Patrick goes to bed at 8:00 at night and wakes up at 7:00 the next morning, how many hours has he slept for? This question is straight forward. We have learned to count around the clock -- just like we do when we count on a number line.

The confusion sets in when we add a half to it. If Patrick goes to bed at 8:30 at night and wakes up at 7:00 the next morning, how many hours has he slept for? We have done a lot of work around counting hours and half hours. We have looked at half circles to represent a half an hour.
When we have talked about solving this kind of problem, we talked about first counting the half hour  and writing down the "half" so we remember it.  SO -- we have counted that half hour, which brings us up to 9:00. Then we count the rest of the hours . So we have 10.... plus the half. So we say "Ten and a half. 


A big part of seeing it visually relies on remembering to place the hour hand half way between the 8 and the 9. We have worked on this a lot!


We try to use real time situations in the classroom (How long is it until lunch time? Which is a question that I am asked every day. So I try to ask the class on the hour and half hour all morning (lunch time, 11:30,  is the only "benchmark" time that falls exactly on the hour or half hour during the school day).

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Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Who do YOU stand up for?

Today is International Day of Pink 

Day of Pink is the International Day against Bullying, Discrimination, Homophobia and Transphobia in schools and communities. Everyone is invited to celebrate diversity by wearing a pink shirt and by organizing activities in their workplaces, organizations, communities and schools.

To commemorate International Day of Pink, each child in Earl Beatty documented what (who) he or she stands up for (or against).

First Room 15 read the book Say Something. It's about a girl who watches other children get teased -- but she doesn't tease them -- she doesn't say anything. Eventually, she gets teased -- and realizes that no-one does anything to help her -- and she feels hurt -- so she befriends someone who needs her help. It's a wonderful book.


Then we read Todd Parr's It's Okay to Be Different and went through some It's Okay cards to brainstorm about the many ways we could celebrate being different. Then we talked about how we would feel if people teased us for being different. We talked about standing up for other people and how it is a good thing to do (unless we could be in danger)


These are the people who Room 15 said that we would stand up for!























 Photos of all of the students in the school will be mounted on the (inside) walls of the school!I hope that you have a chance to see them on the evening of the Spring Concert (May 14)

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Sunday, April 6, 2014

Learning to Tell Time

The Grade 1's are learning to tell time to the half hour on digital and analog clocks, and the Grade 2's are currently reviewing this (soon the Grade 2's will learn time to the quarter hour). I wish that our classroom clock had a "second" hand ! (Or an hour hand that worked)( Our minute hand is very accurate).


Take some time to see if your child can tell time to the hour and to the half hour!

Here are some online time games:

Time to the half hour (o'clock and half past):
What Time is it?

An interactive story about time and sequencing (it's a bit slow -- and involves reading parts of the story on the screen:
Get Up and Go!

Time to the quarter hour (chose the right time or the cat will catch the mouse!)
Hickory Dickory Dock

Time to the five minutes (a Third Grade activity for those who are ready!) (This one is quite hard -- you have to read the clock and then stop the clock at the time that the clock says -- you can set the speed of the hands -- I tried at the fasted speed and had to focus really intensely!)
Bang on time


There are also Telling Time Apps for the iPhone and the iPad if your child needs more practice.

 

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Saturday, April 5, 2014

Our Smiles!

We have great powers of observation in Room 15! This activity really showed everyone that you really have to look at details. It showed us how to look at something real and 3D (an actual face) and compare it to a picture and look at similarities and differences. We also learned that your smile isn't the same every time you smile :)

A.W. identified every single person's smile! AMAZING!
L.S and G.L. identified almost them all. Many other people identified 14 or 15 of the 20 faces. (we tried really hard not to "cheat" and tell our friends which smile was our own or others that we knew. Some of us were better than others with that. It's hard NOT to share what you know!)

Here is the picture again, and the list of who the smiles belong to :)

(you can click on the photo to make it larger)

1. M.C.
2. S.K.
3. C.B.
4. A.W.
5. E.C.
6. J.C.
7. J.I.
8. L.S.
9. H.D.
10. N.T.
11.T.R.
12. L.B.
13. C.F.
14. F.C.
15. L.D.
16. M.R.
17.G.L.
18.M.E.
19. D.G.
20. D.M.

Don't you love their toothy grins?


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