Sweater day Thursday. Science fun today!

Just a heads up that this upcoming Thursday (Feb 2nd) we will be honouring "National Sweater Day" by turning down the heat a bit in our school to help conserve energy! Please send your child to school with a warm sweater :)

   Today we had a very busy day together! We started our cereal box assignments in class and students were SO excited! They will be creating their own cereal and designing a cereal box to appeal to the intended consumer (i.e. adults or children). We will be working on these creations during the week and will be presenting our boxes in front of the class once they are finished.

  We also had a fantastic science opportunity today! First we looked at three different balloons: one filled with air, one with water, and one with ice. Students very quickly noticed that they were the three different states of matter. We talked about how the molecules are different in each state and students used stickers to represent the molecules in their work.

   Then we had a chance to discover how solids interact with liquids (i.e. do the float or sink?). We guessed which objects found around the classroom would sink and which ones would float, and discussed why they did. Then students were given a challenge to use plasticine to create one object that sank and one that floated. Some students were VERY close to creating floating objects! Check out some pictures below :)

Mrs. Miller

P.D. Day Monday

Don't forget that this upcoming Monday (January 30th) is a P.D.Day! We will see everybody back in class on Tuesday :)

This past week students had a guest teacher covering for myself on Wednesday afternoon, all day Thursday, and all day Friday. I was so thankful and happy to hear that the students were so well behaved and respectful for our guest teacher while I was gone. I am looking forward to being back in the classroom on Tuesday to see everybody! Expect regular blog updates to resume this week.

New word wall words for this week are posted and the weekly homework will be posted soon. Thank you to everybody who has been sending in the homework on Friday mornings, the students who hand them in are quite proud.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Mrs. Miller

I hope everybody had a fantastic weekend!

This week's homework is posted. Thank you very much to everybody who had their child complete it last week! Don't forget to DOWNLOAD and save the file to your computer before you print. If you try to print directly from the preview link that is provided some of the graphics are rearranged and mixed up (I am working on fixing this bug!). Downloaded files that are opened in Microsoft word or Open Office seem to be fine.

Thank you as well to everybody who sent in cereal boxes last week. The goal is to have one per students and we are still missing about 7 or 8. If you have any extras please send them in as soon as you can :)

  Mrs. Miller

Science Experiment

Today students were able to take part in a science experiment. We investigated the properties of liquids by pouring 2 liquids together to see if they mixed together or not. Students were able to choose from five different liquids: water, dish soap, paint, cooking oil, and maple syrup. They had two chances to mix two liquids together to see what happened. Students were very excited to see which liquids mixed and which ones did not!

Deciding what to mix together

 Students recording observations of their mixtures. 

Students wanted to see what would happen if we mixed all 5 liquids into the same container! Students made some really good predictions on what would happen based on how thick or thin the liquid was. 

Students suggested shaking liquids that did not mix together to see what would happen and found that shaking mixed the liquids together.

... Or so they thought! After sitting for just a little bit students noticed that the shaken liquids had started separating again and we discussed why that would happen.

Here are a few of the mixtures that students came up with. 

timeline of our day is up!

The beautiful timeline of our day is up and ready in our classroom :) Students did a fantastic job! Looks great!

   Mrs. Miller

Marvelous Monday

What a great start to the week today!

   In Math we practiced our time telling and drawing skills by having a friendly competition on the white board. I gave each pair a specific time to draw and they had to race to draw the correct time on the giant clocks made out of Hula Hoops! Students had lots of fun, and we will do another round tomorrow.

   In gym class we got to take advantage of the Badminton equipment that is set up for our school teams to practice with. We practiced serving the birdie with accuracy and many students improved in their skills so much since last gym class that they were able to have a decent rally (4 or 5 hits back and forth) with a partner! Great job to everyone!

   In Language Arts today we began talking about descriptive writing and started the topic off by describing popcorn. And of course we sampled some popcorn in order to help us out! Students came up with some amazing descriptive words.

   Most students were able to exchange books today during our Library time. Please don't forget to continue sending Library books back to school on Monday morning, and please make su.re it comes back in the ziplock bag. Thank you!

  Mrs. Miller 

First Weekly Homework Posted

   I have posted the first optional weekly homework assignment under the new "Weekly Homework" tab located above. Please let me know if you are unable to access the file for any reason. Please DOWNLOAD and save the file to your computer and open it using a program on your computer. If you try to print directly from the preview or it is opened in google docs it has, for some reason, mixed the questions around but it seems to be OK if it is downloaded (I will be doing my own homework to see how this can be fixed for future posts!).

   I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

 Mrs. Miller

What a fantastic first week back to school following the Christmas break! Don't forget to check your child's mailbag this weekend as there are a few important notes to look at :)

  We spent much of this week talking about "time" and completed many different activities to reinforce telling time concepts in fun ways:
          -  Students constructed their own personal clocks to use a reference for completing tasks.
          - We discussed what time we consistently do things at school every day (i.e. School starts at       9:15am, we eat lunch at 12:00pm). Each student was then assigned a specific daily activity and they drew a picture of that activity along with drawing the time on a clock to match when that activity takes place. Once all are completed we will arrange them in Chronological order and post them up on our classroom wall (pictures to come!).
          - We practiced our skills during our weekly Math centers on Friday!

 Here are a few pictures of the hard work we accomplished this week for you to enjoy:

 Working on our personal clocks.

 The finished product. 

 Math Centers!

 Telling time puzzles.

 OSMO Pizza Game

 SmartBoard ABCYa.com

 Roll and draw a time game.

 Reinforcing basic subtraction skills.

  Have a great weekend!

      Mrs. Miller

Welcome back!

     Welcome back to school! I hope that everyone had a healthy and happy break and are ready for the new year. As always I have posted a calendar of events for you to reference for January outlining the important dates. We will be getting right back into action and will be starting our work right away. Here is an outline of the major topics we will be covering in January:

The Arts: We will be focusing on “Music” this month. Students have already started the unit by working on their Christmas performance in December. This month we will learn more about different elements of music and start experimenting with simple musical instruments.

Language Arts: This month we will continue our work on the Daily 5 centers, as well as start working on visualization and descriptive writing.

Math: We will be continuing addition and subtraction facts and will start our unit on time, temperature and money.

Science: We will continue our unit on “Solids and Liquids” and complete many different science investigations.

Religion: We will complete the work in our blue religion books as students in our class prepare for their first communions.

Health: We will spend some time talking about healthy eating choices this month.

   New word wall words will begin next week for your child to practice.

** NEW: HOMEWORK **

Some parents have been requesting some extra homework practice for their students. I have decided to start an optional homework program that you may complete with your child if you wish for extra practice on material covered in class. The homework will be posted every Monday (starting next week) on the blog. I will be sending out a handout in your child's mailbag later this week explaining the optional program further.

Mrs. Miller