Day 6

I hope that everyone has started to settle into routines both at home and school.  The students seem to be settling in well in the class and are getting along with one another quite well.  As always if you have any questions or concerns please contact me via email or by calling the school.  
Today was another great day.  Students learned and played a new math game called "Add to 15" in class.  We played two different versions and then had a discussion about how to win this game and the strategies that they used.  It turned out to be harder then they originally thought it would be.  Some great learning about number sense.

We will continue to play some math games this week to build our cooperative skills while learning about number sense.  We will be beginning our first unit on place value next week.  Students will be learning to read, write and represent numbers to 100000.  They will also be adding and subtracting 4 digit numbers with regrouping as well as columns of numbers. Feel free to encourage your child to practice these strategies at home using various websites such as these:

http://www.mathisfun.com/ 

http://cemc2.math.uwaterloo.ca/mathfrog/english/kidz/Games5.shtml

Students have homework this evening to go onto www.kidblog.org and sign into our class using the secret code they have written down in their agendas.  They should create a name and password and if they wish to change their avatar they may do that as well.  We will be using Kidblog in the near future to participate in the "100 word challenge" each week.  They are given a short prompt and must create a 100 word piece of writing that contains this prompt. We have teamed up with Mr.Wigmore's class and will be reading each other's writing pieces and providing constructive feedback for improvements to the writing.  100 words exactly! Whew! That is going to be a challenge! I think we can do it!  Here is the link to the website if you want to check it out. 

100 word challenge

The student prompt for this week is 

…but it is yellow….

Hmm I wonder what interesting writing pieces will come from this prompt! 

On days when students do not have gym, we will be having our DPA time (Daily Physical Activity)  Each week we have 4 new students who are in charge of running our D.P.A for the day.  This is just 15 to 20 mins of some sort of activity to get our heart rates up and burn some energy. Usually it will happen in class.  Today our helpers Fardeen, Hailey, Alex and Rodrik led us in some warm up exercises followed by some Just Dance! Kids had a great time getting their groove on! :) 

Students had a great day.  Ask your child if they are planning to sign up to be a bus monitor or a student announcer.  There are many opportunities coming our way as the oldest kids in the school.  A great time for them to show their leadership skills! 

Have a good night everyone.  I wonder if we will get that storm they're talking about?