Activities Galore!

This week has been a busy week.  We have been doing all sorts of fun activities in the classroom.

Earlier this week, Mrs. Sigfusson taught us how to use the learning carpet.  We had a lot of fun playing with numbers and practicing our counting.  We even tested ourselves to see how fast we can put all the numbers back in order on the carpet.  Next time we will challenge ourselves to be faster.

We ended our week working in Christmas Centres.  We got to make Gingerbread Men glyphs, write letters and make cards, decorate christmas trees and even play on the iPads.  While we worked in centres we got to listen to Christmas music.  It was a lot of fun, and it really got us in the Christmas spirit.

One more week before Christmas Holidays, and we are all excited!

Don't forget the Holiday Concert is on December 17th at 7:00 p.m., Make sure to be here at 6:30 so students can get into their outfits.  Please have students dressed in a white shirt and blue jeans.  They have been working extra hard and can hardly wait to share their songs with you!

Falling Snowflakes in Room 12

Making snowflakes is fun!  In room 12 this week, we made snowflakes.  First, we used pipe cleaners to create the skeleton of the snowflake.  Then, we made a mixture of 15 tablespoons of Borax, 4 cups of water and food colouring.  Once the Borax and food colouring appeared to dissolve in the boiling water, we suspended the snowflake into the mixture.  Then all we had to do was wait.  The next morning we had a  snowflake made out of crystals.  Check out the pictures!

The Borax and water created a suspension.  This happened because the hot water allowed the Borax to stay suspended in the water longer.  As the water cooled, and the Borax began to settle, it crystallized and created these lovely snowflakes.  This experiment helped us to practice Scientific Inquiry in our classroom.

Everyone in Room 12 is a Scientist!

**Don't forget December 4th 4:30-7:00 p.m. and December 5th 9:00-11:30 a.m. is the open house.  Come celebrate your child's achievments with us.  

While your here don't forget to check out our Book Fair in the library, for every two books sold Scholastic will donate one book to our school library.  

Math Centres

This week, we started Math centres in our classroom.  We had four centres running: a shape centre, a money centre, an addition centre, and a time centre.  In the shape centre we played a shape game, where we got to pick shapes out of a box, without looking, and match them to the shape on the board.  This helps us identify a variety of 2-D shapes.  In the money centre, we got to play the game "Pig Out".  In this game you role a dice for pennies that you eventually trade in for dimes or nickels.  This teaches us the value of coins.  Then, we practiced telling time in our time centre, where each of us had the chance to tell time to the hour or half past the hour.  In our addition centre we played a dice game, so we could practice using the doubles plus one strategy.  We enjoyed working in our Math centres.

Room 12's Car Factory

To close our "Position and Motion" unit in Science, we turned our classroom into a car factory. We learnt about how a wheel and axle works, and then tried to build our own.  We all had a lot of great ideas.  We used juice boxes for the body of the car.  For the wheel and axle we used wooden sticks, straws, and water bottle caps.
Our cars are creative.  We made a taxis, race cars, a helicopter car, dump trucks, tanks, delivery cars, a fireworks car, a bus and a cannon car.  Once we finished creating our cars we tested them on an inclined plane to make sure that the wheel and axle worked properly.

Now we are writing a book about our cars to share with parents at the open house in December.  We can hardly wait for the next design project.

Remembrance Day Poppies

This past week we have spent a lot of time discussing the importance of Remembrance Day and what the poppy represents.  We have learnt of the sacrifices that many people have made and still are making to keep our great country safe.  The poppy is a symbol that reminds us of the importance of peace.  At our Remembrance Day ceremony today we spent time remembering those who lost their lives for us.  

For Remembrance Day we used paint and pastels to illustrate what poppies would look like if you were to sit in a field and look out at them.  Our poppies are in perspective because the ones that are the closest are larger than the poppies that are further away.  They remind us that each of us can be peacekeepers.

Halloween!!

We are all soooo excited for Trick or Treating tonight, we have been vibrating with excitement all day.  First thing this morning we tried to burn off some of our energy in a double gym class with our friends from Room 11.  

Then we got to spend two periods in a Dance-a-thon.  We danced our feet off, and some of us even won prizes.  Congratulations to Joaquin for raising the most money in our class.  Thank you to everyone who helped us raise money for classroom and school resources.

Tayanna burning up the dance floor

In the afternoon we had the opportunity to see everyone else's costumes in our Halloween Parade.  To finish off the day we got to spend some time together watching videos and having some treats.  Thank you to everyone that brought treats for our Halloween Party.

Have a happy and safe Halloween everyone!

      

Artist In The School

This week we had an artist come to teach at our school.  She worked with us for three double periods to help us create beautiful works of art.  She taught us about The Group of Seven painter Tom Thomson and his paintings.

We learnt how to hold a paintbrush and mix colours.  We also learnt how to paint a background, mid-ground, and fore-ground using a technique called "patchworking" to create texture.  We used Tom Thomson's art work as inspiration when painting our own canvases.

When we finished our paintings we took time to celebrate our work together.

Our paintings turned out beautifully!

Our paintings were inspired by Tom Thomson's "Round Lake" and "The Jack Pine" paintings.

We also had the opportunity to do a work of art as a class.  This masterpiece was inspired by Tom Thomson's "Autumn Foliage".

Making Patterns With Shapes in Math

This week in Math class we were using shapes to make patterns.  We each made a pattern with three elements in its core and then challenged our neighbour to repeat our pattern.  We used hexagons, triangles, squares, rhombuses, and circles to make our patterns.  When we completed the pattern we had to name the shapes we used.

Patterns are fun and easy, especially when you get to play with shapes.

Our Thursday Outside

On Thursday we spent a lot of time outside.  In the morning we celebrated International Walk to School Month by walking to school together.

It was a chilly morning but the walk kept us warm.



The police even came along to make sure that we were safe.









Thank you Constable Sue and all your friends for keeping us safe!









Later that day we went outside again for our Science class.  We were learning about movement and what it means to be in motion.  We practiced different kinds of movement like: bouncing, sliding, spinning, zigzagging, rolling, swinging, and turning.

It was fun to spend time outside learning different forms of movement.

Room 12 Is Thankful

This week at school we made Thanksgiving Turkeys.  On our turkey's tail feathers we wrote the things we are thankful for.

Room 12 is thankful for many things!

Reading Time!

This week we had a guest reader in our class.  Mr. Miller read the book "Hogwash" by Karma Wilson to our class.  It was hilarious!  It was about a farmer who tried to wash his pigs, but the pigs tricked him and he ended up all muddy.  We hope to have Mr. Miller read to our class again soon.

Thank you for reading to us Mr. Miller, you are welcome to come back anytime!

 This week we also got to read with our reading buddies from Mr. T's class.  We each had the opportunity to make friends, while reading, with our new buddies.

 Thank you room 9 for reading with us!

          

Our First Art Project

For our first art project this year we made a flower out of our handprints.  Each of us traced our hands and decorated them.  Then we arranged them in the shape of a flower.  Our flower represents that we are all unique and beautiful, but together we are a masterpiece.

Morning Meeting - Tableaux

Every morning in our classroom we take part in a morning meeting.  This gives us the chance to say good morning to each other and share a little about ourselves.  At the end of each morning meeting, we participate in an activity.  This week we learned about tableaux.  A tableau is a moment captured in time.  Students are given a scene and asked to use their bodies to represent the characters or objects that may be found in that scene.  We had a lot of fun representing the park.  We were trees, grass, a slide, and if you look closely enough you may even see the woodpecker in the back.

We also represented the circus with a live bear, a popcorn man, a juggler, and a ferris wheel.

Tableaux are fun!  We can hardly wait to create more.

Our First Library Class

We had a blast at our first library class last week.  Mr. W read us the book "Mo's Mustache" by Ben Clanton.  "Mo's Mustache" is about a monster who wants to stand out, so he wears all sorts of crazy things, which his monster friends copy.  Every time Mo put on something new in the story Ms. Moniz also got to wear something new.

Our First Week of School

Our first week of school was awesome.  We learned all the ways that we are similiar by participating in our Tangled Web activity.  Each time one of us had something in common, we would connect ourselves using string to create a tangled web.  Our class has many things in common.

We also spent lots of time practicing classroom routines and learning our new classroom roles.  We have been practicing Read to Self everyday so that we can build our stamina.  We can already read to self for 20 minutes.

 
We have also been learning to be Mathematicians.  Each day we have two leaders who guide our daily math routines.  They are responsible for the calendar and our classroom survey.

We have been having lots of fun being good role models for each other and the other students in the school.