Make-up Mess!

This morning we had an assembly for Terry Fox. Terry Fox was a young man who had cancer. He wanted to find a cure for cancer so he decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. He didn't want anyone else to suffer with cancer. Sadly, he past away before he could finish his run across the country. Now we run for Terry Fox, to finish his Marathon of Hope for him. As a school we raised $1800+! One student brought in $500!! WOW! We reached our $1000 and so... teachers had to spend the day with their faces painted! HAHAHA! And Mr. Sarahs and Mrs. Marschall are octopus! Gross! Michael and Katrina painted Ms. Burland's face. It is very silly. She will have to wash it off before she goes to her Divisional Meeting after school!

~Love Team 24

Marvellous Math!

Team 24 has continued to dust the cobwebs off when it comes to our math knowledge. As a brain stretch, students played the Old Lady Roll and Cover game. Students could choose between 3 different board games/levels of difficulty: roll one die, roll 2 dice and add, or roll 3 dice and add. Many groups chose to play with 3 dice!

 

Next, students work on numbers centres with a group. Each student was given a different task. One student would shake the egg carton to bounce the bingo chips around to build a number with ones and tens (and hundreds for the grade 3s). Using their knowledge of place value, this student told the rest of the group which number they were all going to work to represent. The rest of the team built the number with base ten blocks and the place value tent, wrote the number as a word and stamped the number with base ten stamps. When finished, everyone rotated so that everyone had a chance to complete each task. It was a fun activity that we will definitely do again! Some groups struggled and needed instructions to be repeated again. It was nice to see groups helping each other when someone needed a hand :)

~Ms. Burland

Catching up- last week

Whew, it has been a busy start to the school year and it has been too long since I have posted on the blog! We have a great team of learners this year. Much of last week was spent learning and practicing classroom routines, such as our morning routine, coming to the carpet and how to get ready for home. We continue to need practice listening to instructions. 

Last week, we discussed HOW to choose a Just Right book, a book that is just right for you! Like a shoe, a just right book for one student might not be the right book for another. Luckily, we have a fabulous classroom library and everyone will be able to find just right books. When choosing a Just Right book, we remember to PICK: think about PURPOSE, why you are reading: to learn, to get better, for fun; think about INTEREST, choose a book that is interesting to you, if it's not, you won't read it; check for COMPREHENSION, do you understand what you are reading?; and check to see that you KNOW most of the words, for independent reading, students should know almost all of the words in the books they are reading. In order to PICK Just Right books, students must check out the title, cover and the summary on the back to see if the book seems interesting to them. They also need to read a few pages to check for comprehension and to make sure they can read most of the words.

Since our library is so large, we spread the bins all over the classroom and students had time to browse books to fill their reading folder. In the future, students can switch books after their math journal in the morning. Here are students picking their Just Right books:

Students LOVE to read, especially with a buddy!

In math, we are reviewing skip counting through daily routines and songs. We are also exploring place value through the building and representing of numbers. In this activity, students are representing numbers with base ten blocks and as numbers. They are getting really good at it!

~Ms. Burland

Team 24 Beliefs

Dear families,

I hope your child has handed you our September newsletter for details about our upcoming month. In addition, your child will be bringing home their home reading log for the month, along with a poem we would like to share with you. Until I have assessed students' reading levels and begun the Reading at Home Program (R.A.H.), please have your child reading books from home and/or library books. The RAH program will start by the end of the month.

On Monday, we watched Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes on DVD- a book we read on Friday. Although Chrysanthemum was excited to start school, she was teased by friends and school became a place she no longer looked forward to going. This launched a discussion the type of class we wish to have; if we could create the BEST classroom in the world how it would look, sound, be and feel. Take a look at our brainstorm below:

Throughout the rest of the week we have used these beliefs about the best classroom to create rules for our classroom. A copy will be sent home next week for families to review with their child. It is important that I have families on board with the expectations of students in the classroom so that both home and school are projecting the same message to students.

Please contact me if you have any questions!

~Ms. Burland

Our First Day of School

Dear families,

I hope the students enjoyed our first day as much as I did! WOW, we have a wonderful team of learners this year! Time was spent getting to know each other, exploring our classroom through a scavenger hunt and talking about how to be a friend. We ended a great day with choice time.

Please be sure your child has submitted their student fees and 2 boxes of kleenex. In addition, please remind your child that they must have you sign their agenda book. Much appreciated!

SCAVENGER HUNT

 CHOICE TIME/ BONDING WITH CLASSMATES

 FRIENDS!

~Ms. Burland