August 30th, 2016

Dear Parents,

Today was another busy Tuesday where students had many special classes and a handful of homeroom classes.

To begin our morning we did The Daily Five. Students are becoming very familiar with a variety of reading and writing skills that can help their comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and extend their vocabulary. Our stamina is at 10 minutes for reading, and 7 minutes for writing. If we can keep a steady rate of 10 minutes, then I would like to introduce word work. I am hoping that we can begin this next week. It is important to ensure that students can work independently and remain focused. Building stamina, is doing something for a long amount of time without getting tired or giving up.

During math we did some imaging activities. This is when students view a series of dots for a very short amount of time and then have to calculate how many dots there are in total. I was surprised at how well the students could visualise and calculate each total. This is a great exercise to get the brain warmed up. Our next activity was to solve a word problem in a group. We have been focusing on many different ways to solve just one problem. For example: tally marks, number line, algorithm, place value, pictures etc. This way of thinking gets students understanding how they calculated their answer. Many students know the answer, but often do not think about how they got their answer. They should slow down, explain how they got it, and prove that they are right.

To end the class we worked on our unit. We looked at some Aboriginal symbols and created a story. The students really enjoyed this activity and got quite creative. Tomorrow I would like them to create their own symbols for a story about their family (where were you born? What countries have you lived in? etc)

Aboriginal Art. Can you see any symbols?

Each picture symbolises something special.

Questions you can ask your child:
Tell me something about an Arctic fox?
When do you need to use a capital letter?
Did you read any interesting words in your book today?