Last week was so very exciting with the Halloween Howler and costume day on Halloween. The students all enjoyed dressing up for the day and pretending to be someone else.
Thank you for measuring out the Halloween candy and maintaining overall healthy snacks. It has made a positive impact on their learning. We are continuing to collect the small treat boxes that their candy came in, such as the little Smarties boxes, or anything similar in size. Please send them in as you have them.
Pumpkin Math/Science was enjoyed by all. We measured in many different ways and compared size, shape and appearance of the pumpkins. Many thanks to the parent volunteers who came in to support us. We identified the parts of a pumpkin and their uses as well as the lifecycle of this fantastic squash. We found answers to many questions we had about pumpkins, such as why they are orange and the shapes and sizes they come in. We learned some fantastic facts about pumpkins, including that some are large enough to be made into boats!
We worked on reading, writing and representing teen numbers in many different ways and most seem to have an understanding that “teen” means there is a ten. For the purposes of simplicity and understanding of place value, we are including 11 and 12 in the teen numbers as well as they are one ten and some more, even though we don’t say, “teen”.
We will begin adding teen numbers this week using a variety of hands on strategies to build understanding and flexibility. As we master this skill and understanding, we will move on to numbers up to 50. You can support your child at home by helping them practice counting fluently to 100 by ones, fives and tens.
In social studies we are focusing on being good citizens by helping out at home, school and in our communities. The Terry Fox Run, Jacket Racket and Remembrance Day poppy donations are tangible ways students can support the greater community. I encourage you to have these conversations with your child to help them understand the importance of working together as a community.
We are painting poppies for a school wide display during the Remembrance Day service on Wednesday. We have read A Poppy Is To Remember and learned about Lt. Colonel John McCrae and his poem, In Flanders Fields. My intention is to keep our discussions focused on being peaceful with one another and in finding peace within our own selves in support of our personal wellbeing. This includes sharing, inviting, giving, acceptance and having empathy for ourselves and others. This will be the focus of our writing in the coming days.
Magic/bossy “e” continues to be our focus in our phonics/reading/lessons. The language we are using is that the silent “e” causes the previous vowel to say it’s own name or the long vowel sound. You can support your child by doing dictation of word lists at home such as mat, mate, pan, pane, can, cane, mal, male, pal, pale, tam tame, lat, late, sham, shame, lit, lite, bit, bite, rid, ride, shin, shine, etc. We will move on to long u next.
