Zoo Preparation

Tomorrow, June 20, our class is heading to the zoo.  The weather forecast looks like it's going to be hot and sunny.  It should be a great day for us all but we do need to be prepared.  Please make sure that your child is dressed for warm weather, has a hat, walking shoes, sunscreen, a packed lunch, and a water bottle.  There are lots of places to refill water bottles on site so they don't have to be too large or heavy for kids to carry around.  Students should not be bringing money on this field trip.  The bus is scheduled to leave Earl Grey at 9 AM and then to be leaving the zoo at 2 PM.   If for any reason that a parent might need to contact their child while the field trip is occurring, please call the school office and they contact me.  It promises to be a very fun day for us all and we have the parent volunteers to thank for that once again.  Thanks so much!

Mr. Bridges

Math Fair, Star Wars Day, and New Important Info!

All the students in room four deserve a big pat on the back for all their hard work in preparing for the Math Fair.  Many different logic puzzles, number concept games and pattern work were explored and used as subjects for the kids to explore and then become teachers of.  It was a huge success and lots of learning took place.  Thank you to all the parents who were able to come and see the Math Fair in action.  If you missed it, hopefully you were still able to find out what your child worked on.  Here are some pictures from the big day:






















Terrific job everybody!

This past week the big event was our Star Wars Day on May the Fourth!  We had some fun talking about special events and tied it in with our understanding of persuasive writing.  Can anybody argue that school and class spirit aren't important?  Everyone has been working very hard in all areas of curriculum and we rewarded ourselves with a fun afternoon!  About half of the class dressed up in Star Wars attire and I got many compliments on my brand new Star Wars onesie.  Thanks!  Here are just a few pictures of us from that afternoon:








NEW INFORMATION

We have a fundraising effort that started last Thursday.  It got missed in the shuffle at the end of last week and materials are requested to be returned to the school this coming Thursday.  It's a short time window and it was shortened further by the fund raising pins not being sent home on time.  Sorry everyone!  Information about the fundraising is attached to the material that should be coming home on Monday.

Another important piece of new information is that we are going to be going to the Children's Festival on May 24.  It's going to be a different field trip in that we are going to walk from the school to the c-train on 7th Ave. and then ride the train to Olympic Plaza.  Please look for a volunteer sign up later this week.  I'm hoping that we will have about 6 volunteers to come with us to enjoy the day and to help keep kids organized in what might be a very busy festival environment!  It should be a really fun trip but volunteers will be key to it being a success.  We will be away from the school from 9 - 2:30 on the day of the trip.

Finally, we have a new word family for spelling this week.  It's the "ine" word family!  We will be working with these words this week:

line
vine
fine
nine
shine

If you are able to practice the words at home this week that would be great.  A little reminder to students; kids in grade one are now expected to have all of their letters turned the right way around on their spelling test and kids in grade two are expected to use capital letters appropriately based upon how the spelling word is used in the sentence given during the spelling test.  Work hard and good luck everyone!

The Week in Review! :)

We had a very productive but short week!  On Tuesday we started our week by talking about the difference between fact and opinion.  I think that seeing the difference between facts and opinions can be pretty hard for kids in grade one and two. (That's my opinion!)  We worked on the idea for a short period and really need to spend more time on it so that everyone in class can see the difference. (fact!)

That same day we did some work on designing boats made out of plasticine.  Last week we learned about why things float or sink and this week we tried to put that information to good use.  Ask your son or daughter how they did!

All week long we've been talking about how to make our writing more interesting.  We practiced writing sentences that use the word "and" in them.  We also learned about writing an appositive.  Appositives, a type of comma sentence, put extra information into sentences without using the word "and" to link ideas.  Another complex idea that we have just begun to work with!

Perhaps the biggest project that we took on this week was our preparation for the school-wide Math Fair.  Parents are invited next Friday from 9 - 10 AM to come see what everyone in class will have completed.  We have tried a whole bunch of different problems and now we are preparing to become the teacher of one problem to any and all who come to visit the Math Fair.  It's an opportunity for students to explore strategic thinking, express creativity, and investigate problem solving.  Next week we will be very busy getting prepared but if you want to review the project that your son or daughter is involved with, go to www.galileo.org and look for the button "Math Fair Problems" on the right hand side.

Have a great weekend and I hope to see you at the Math Fair!

Happy Easter!

Just a quick posting to say we had a terrific week.  We started our science unit on Boats and Buoyancy, we wrote cinquain poems, practiced stacked addition and subtraction, and worked really hard on preparing for Thursday's dance showcase.  I hope you were able to join us but if not, please enjoy the video from the performance posted here.  Finally, we also got to do a lot of sorting, pattern work, estimation, and observation, as we worked as a class on a really fun egg hunt Thursday morning.  Be sure to ask your child what they thought of it all!

Finally, a reminder that there is no school for students on Friday or Monday.  See you next Tuesday!

Welcome Back Week!

I hope everyone had a terrific break from school and all are ready for a fun and interesting April!  We have started a short unit on hip hop dance this week.  We are very lucky to have Miss Claudia come back again this year and students are now working on new dance moves!  We are planning to showcase all the new dance moves that all the different classes are working on this week and next.  Parents are invited to enjoy their hand work on Thursday, April 13 from 2:15 - 3:15.  Hope to see you there!

We are back working with word families in our spelling.  This week we are using the "ook" Word Family: look, brook, cook, shook, and book.  There is a spelling test Friday.  :)

We are wrapping up our Science unit on Hot and Cold Temperature and will be beginning a new unit on Boats and Buoyancy next week.  If you have a chance, please talk at home a little bit about how humans and animals both use insulation for comfort, survival, and safety!

Here are a few pictures and a short video that show the kids working on their new dance moves.  If you have a chance, please write a very brief comment either here or in the agenda to let me know that you were able to see the pictures.  (eg. saw the dance pics!)

March 13 -17

Happy St. Patrick's Week!  We will end our school week with a little bit of fun as Friday is St. Patrick's Day.  We will look at some of the traditions that go with the day, do a little art work, and hopefully everyone will remember to wear a little bit of green!

On Thursday morning we had a visit from Quest Theater.  They had a very artistic presentation called, "The Umbrella".  It featured music, live action, and even some puppetry.  Check out your son or daughter's Visual Journal to get their impression of the show.

Finally, we all need to say a huge thank you to all the parents and grandparents who volunteered last week to support our field trips to the YMCA for swimming instruction.  We couldn't have done it without you!  Here are some pictures from our trip:
























A great time was had by all!

February Fun!

The new month has begun and it promises to be a quick one.  Teacher's Convention will be taking place on Feb. 16 and 17 and that is followed by the Family Day long weekend.  Our time in class is going to fly by!

We started February by displaying new skills in building different shapes that we've been talking about as part of Math.  We have been learning about three dimensional shapes like cubes, spheres, cylinders, rectangular prisms, and cones (grade two level work).  We've also been learning about two dimensional shapes like circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles (grade one level work).  Everyone got to design and make a castle using plasticine and then identify what shapes they used.  They turned out really well!  Here are three examples:




Another thing that we've done so far this month has been to take part in the school's mannequin challenge.  We talked about the habit of "Beginning with the end in mind."  We used that to practice videoing what we prepared for our challenge.  Have a look and see how great our class did!

As the month goes on, we will continue to do spelling, have a Valentine's Day party, and we are investigating Hot and Cold Temperatures as part of Science.  Our spelling words this week are from the "ike" word family.  They are:  spike, like, hike, bike, and strike.  

Details about the Valentine's Day party are still being worked out, but if kids would like to bring cards they are encouraged to include everyone.  The first names of all our classmates are:

Vanessa, Ava C., Pascale, Rowan, Stasia, Ava N., Breanna, Jun, Makenna, Luca, Tato, Achilis, Penelope, Sophia, Anjali, Greyson, Oliver, Trenton, Knox, Elizabeth, and Annabelle. (21 in total)

Finally, everyone in class is being reminded to check the Fine Arts blog.  There is information on that blog that goes with the paper that was sent home today to help kids prepare for their music test next week.  It could be important to do some studying for this test!