February 26

February This & That

It’s hard to believe that the month of February is coming to a close. This year is a leap year. Do you know why we have a leap year? Check out Mystery Doug’s video explaining leap years.

Click here to watch the video.

Check out some snapshots of Valentine’s Day, cursive writing practice, our math project involving perimeter and area, and reading practice using Lexia (we aim for 60 minutes per week).

 

November 2

Our First Book Tasting

Last week, our classroom was transformed into a sort of literary cafe as students were invited to their very first BOOK TASTING event of the school year. A book tasting gives students the opportunity to sample some juicy reads in a short period of time and come away with a wish list of titles. It’s a great way to let young readers sample different authors, genres, and series. After all, books are a lot like food—you won’t know if you like something until you try it! Speaking of food, Chef Sully prepared some snacks and juice for all to enjoy.

Chef Sully made an appearance, flying in from France. Students noted she looked a lot like her friend, Mrs. Sullivan. They even shop at the same clothing stores!

We ‘sampled’ several different genres of books including:

  • Biography
  • Fairytales
  • Mystery
  • Informational

When will Chef Sully visit again?

September 29

Flashlight Friday

Our class loves to read! Nearly every day, we read in class from books we bring from home or from our class library. We made our own bookmarks and love to get lost in the different worlds and lives of the characters we read about.

Today, we had our first Flashlight Friday! We turned off the lights, closed our blinds, and turned on our flashlights to begin reading in the dark. We chose our reading spots and snuggled in with a good book or two. 

Have you ever read under the sheets at bedtime with a flashlight? What about in a fort you made?

What’s your favourite way to read a good book?

 

September 27

Our First Mystery Reader Was…

Last Friday we had a special guest visit our classroom to read us a story. All week, clues about who our Mystery Reader was had been shared with us and we had some guesses as to who we thought it was. It was Mrs. Bryant, our V.P!

She read a wonderful book called The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson. We love listening to stories. Who will our next Mystery Reader be? Hmm…

November 27

Punc.tua,tion!? Matter:s

Why do teachers always talk about where to put periods commas quotation marks Mrs Sullivan read us a funny book called Punctuation Takes a Vacation Our class really liked the story and thought it was an interesting idea that punctuation could go on a trip and not be available anymore What a problem that would be for everyone Everyone appreciates how punctuation helps with understanding
Leave a comment down below but do not use any punctuation Lets see if we can
figure out what you are trying to say
Which punctuation mark is your favourite and why is it a mark that is easy to use
November 11

Lest We Forget

 This week, we’ve been spending quality time using literature to help guide us through what Remembrance Day truly means. We began by reading a gorgeous book called A Bear in War by Harry Endrulat and Stephanie Innes. I truly LOVE this book and read it every year (and it always chokes me up!). It is told from the perspective of a teddy bear that belongs to a little girl named Aileen. Her dad goes off to War and she ends up mailing him the teddy bear to keep him company and remind him of home.

There are wonderful illustrations mixed with photographs of real life items as this is a true Canadian story! Students are always amazed that you can actually visit the real teddy bear at the National War Museum in Ottawa!

 

On Wednesday, we read a wonderfully colourful book called The Peace Book by Todd Parr. In simple ways, it shares different ways that we can think about what peace is. We then brainstormed some of our own thoughts about what peace means and created our own page in our Religion notebook. Students were encouraged to be inspired by Todd Parr’s illustration style, too!

We had some good discussion around whether Remembrance Day should be a national holiday.

What do you think and why?

Finally, check out our Remembrance Day artwork and our thoughts on what we think peace means.

 

October 24

Building Our Reading Lives

How do we become better readers? READ, of course! Students were asked to reflect on what they love the most about reading, where they like to read, and what types of books they like best. We made a bulletin board of our responses and here’s a few of those responses…

Where’s YOUR favourite place to read?

October 20

Flashlight Friday…why not?

We LOVE reading in our class. We are always eager to squeeze in any extra time to read. Last Friday, we held our first Flashlight Friday where students brought in a flashlight and found a quiet spot to read in the class. The lights went out and the blinds were closed. You couldn’t hear a pin drop. They were amazing readers.

Check out our quick video of what it looked like 🙂

Our first Flashlight Friday was such a success, we’ll definitely do more!