...and that was February!

Where to begin...

Skating

The students had a blast on ice again this month! It is amazing watching their skills and confidence grow over the two weeks on ice! Thank you very much to all of the parents that came out to help tie skates, supervise on the ice and help out off ice! We honestly couldn't do this without you!

Valentine's Day

The students enjoyed creating their own unique valentines holders! Thank you to Amberley's family for donating the paper bags for us to use! Passing out their valentines is always an exciting class event! We enjoyed yummy homemade treats brought in by Kayden and Jacob, thank you! We finished off our day with Jump Rope for Heart during our gym period.

Pink Shirt Day

The students and I discussed the story behind the "Pink Shirt Day" and how it was all started by the kindness and brave actions of two people. I also shared a powerful video with the students. I introduced them to Lizzie Velasquez. Lizzie was born with an extremely rare condition where she is unable to gain weight. She has been subject to bullying her entire life. In high school, she saw a youtube video of herself called, The Ugliest Woman on Earth. It had over 4 million views. The comments that people made on the video were absolutely shattering. She discusses what she decided to do with all of the negative that was being said about her. She is a fantastic speaker.  You can watch Lizzie's Ted Talk by following this link: Lizzie Velasquez Ted Talk. The students and I discussed the power of "liking" a video on YouTube or leaving harsh words in the comments. Social media will be a part of their lives and they need to realize the impact and power of their words and actions when they use social media. As always, I was proud of their ability to empathize with Lizzie and their caring words when we were talking. 

PJ Day

As a conclusion to the focus on bullying during weekly assemblies, Mrs. Kloschinsky had all of the students dress up in pjs to watch The Ant Bully during Friday's assembly. 

Considering all of the fun that we packed into February, I am proud to say that we packed in way more learning!

Numeracy

In math, we have been working on multiplication. We've investigated multiplication in a variety of ways. We have looked at arrays, equal groups, repeated addition and skip counting and how they all relate to the concept of multiplication. This week we are going to apply these concepts to some problem solving situations.

Literacy

In writing, we have continued our focus on sentence writing using varied sentence starters and specific verbs. We finished up our varied sentence starter study with How-ing, Where and Who sentences. See the examples below:

How-ing

Splashing, the orca torpedoed after the sealion.

Breaching, the orcas were leaping for joy!

Where

Into the sparkling blue salt water the dolphin dove.

Beside the coral reef the Risso Dolphin searched for its next meal.

The students and I brainstormed a list of verbs that would be suitable for a bear. I asked the students to think of three things: how does a bear move, eat and make noise. We wrote all of our specific verbs on our Specific Verb Dictionary page (see below).

The next step in this process is to start switching up our sentence starters as we write. Using our new bear verbs, we are putting together a paragraph about bears. I guided the students through an example using the following picture for inspiration.

 

We came up with the following sentences for our paragraph.

Students were then asked to choose a picture of their own to write about. I reminded them that we aren't writing a story yet...just a paragraph that covers the events just before and after the photo. Once they chose their photo, I partnered them up and had them come up with the 5 things that will be happening in their paragraph. For example in our class paragraph:

• the grizzly was waiting for the salmon to spawn
• the salmon started jumping
• the grizzly caught a fish (* this is what the picture is showing)
• the bear went to the shore
• the bear ate the fish

Next, students have started putting their sentences together using the handout as a reminder to vary their sentence starters. We will be finishing this up this week. I will be printing out their pictures with lines to copy their paragraphs onto. We will share this class book with you ASAP.

Word study is an important component in literacy. Words Their Way and Word Wall Words are two methods of word study. During short weeks or weeks that we have several interruptions to our day, WTW and WWW are not as effective. There are many other activities that are very effective and more time efficient. Making Words has been our activity of choice up until this week. Students have greatly improved their skills in stretching out words into their sounds! This week we tried Using Words You Know. This activity gives students five different familiar words to use to help them figure out how to spell trickier words with similar spelling patterns. This is a fantastic strategy to practice for both reading and writing! The students enjoyed this activity. We will be doing it again this week.

Science

In science we have been working on our Hearing and Sound unit. The students and I are really enjoying it! We have investigated the following concepts:

• sound is the result of vibration
• the larger the vibration, the louder the sound
• sound travels in waves
• pitch is how low or high a sound is
• the faster the vibration, the higher the pitch
• decibels are used to measure the loudness or softness of sound
• you can see vibrations (using a tuning fork - moving water or salt)
• you can feel vibrations (using a tuning fork and speakers)
• how the human ear senses and interprets sound vibrations
• loud sounds pose a danger to the ear

This week we will continue our study of hearing and sound by investigating the following concepts:

• certain sounds have characteristics that cause them to be interpreted as pleasant or unpleasant
• the role that sound plays in communication
• pitch is the result of differences in vibration rates and predict how a change in the rate will affect the sound
• demonstrate a variety of ways of producing sound
• identifying examples that show that sound can travel through a variety of materials (solids, liquids and air) and that sound travels in all directions.
• comparing the range of hearing in humans to that in other animals

Last week students brought home their instrument assignments. Assignments are due on March 7th. The presentation of the instruments to the class will conclude this unit in science.

PHEW!!! If you made it all the way to the end with me, thank you! That was a long one! February has been a busy month that, unfortunately for my family, has been plagued by a brutal flu/cold bug. Thank you for your patience for the blog update. 

Here's hoping that March is filled with healthy days for all of us!

Take care!