Adventures With Mrs. Craig

 We started a new Science unit today: Wheels and Levers. We started with the definition of wheels. A wheel has a shaft (axel) going through it to keep it in place. Friction occurs and moves the object. We created a list together of examples in our world: bikes, cars, wagons, door knobs...and many more! This would be a great conversation to have at home, while looking for wheels and levers around the house.  Friday is funky hair day! 

 Although today may not have felt like it..Spring is here! During our circle share time, we all shared what we are excited about with the new changing season. Most of us said: bike riding, no winter gear! and rollerblading.  When we think of Spring we think of growth and change. For our writing assignment their question was: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" We talked about how this will likely change many times during their childhood, but it is fun to think about! We are going to be creating Spring pictures to go with our writing.  Today is "World Poetry Day." We watched a live stream from CBE that had people reading and speaking about poetry.  In Math we filled out and learned how to use multiplication tables. I saw so many light bulbs go on! Multiplying really is just skip counting! Spelling words this week:  Red: Spring, bring, sing, ring, king Blue: poem, flower, growing, harvest, farming Green: poetry, investigating, seasonal, gardening, sprouting  Th

 In Math today they worked in partners to solve different Math word problems around the room. They were taped to the wall etc. so it kept them moving while solving these problems. Some of them used a learning clock to help solve these. They also played 'Connect 4' to practice their multiplication skills.  Example of elapsed time questions that you could try with them at home:  Mrs. Craig went for a walk at 2:45pm. She walked for 1hr. and 15 minutes. What time did she get back at? We had a basic facts quiz and I will hand these back tomorrow! During mindfulness today they wrote about what makes them happy, angry, sad and excited. Some students shared their ideas with the class.  We read a story about how crayons (Crayola) were first invented and made! It was very interesting. Ask your child what the process was!  We also read a story about fire fighters and have a great classroom conversation about safety. 

 We started off our day with a Scavenger Hunt! We had a great time looking for clues and using our reading skills to solve them.  In Math we worked on word problems. We learned that we need to write complete sentences for our answers. Afterwards, some students created their own problems and we tried them as a class.  They had a busy day today with 2 tests! Please review their spelling test with them. I will mark the Science test soon.  At the end of the day we did a guided drawing for St. Patrick's Day! 

We had a blast today learned about clocks and telling time. We started off with a question that sparked our curiosity, "Why Does Time Exist?" We made a class poster together by each writing down our important ideas on a sticky note. Ask your child what their idea was.  Afterwards, they were each given a clock. They practiced showing me (with moving the large and small hand) different times on the board.  We then made our own clocks! They did a great job and are excited to show them to you after school.  In Science today, we read an article and answered the following questions: How do you and your family use light at home? How do you and your teachers use light at school? How is light used in the community? Tomorrow is St. Patricks Day! Wear green if you have it!  We will always be having our spelling test from last week.  We will also have our unit test on "Light and Shadow" tomorrow. To study you can ask your child about these key terms:  refraction, opaque, transp

 We were all a little tired today with the change in time! We talked about why day light savings happens and if they agree or disagree with changing the clocks.  Our spelling words are the same as last week. The test will be on Wednesday this week since they are the same words.  They completed their mini books on Peru today. We also watched a short video of a little boy who goes to school in Peru. Ask your child what they found interesting about the video.  In Language Arts we learned about 'theme' in books in movies. This turned into a great conversation about inspiration and who inspires us. I read them the book "Parker Looks Up" and they wrote about what they felt the theme was. Afterwards we each shared in a circle who inspires us. Many of them said their moms!  In the afternoon we went on Mathletics. They had fun challenging each other. 

 This afternoon we looked at different Canadian coins, labelled them, wrote them in decimals, wrote them in fractions and then had a pop quiz! We talked about why using money isn't as common now a days and why we took away the penny.  I gave them a photograph of a house and a shark going through the roof! They had 30 minutes to write a story or a newspaper article with the image. Many students shared their writing with the whole class. We all had a good laugh of the imaginative ideas everyone came up with.  I am extending the spelling test until next week! We have been busy with other writing activities and they would like the extra days to study.  We did a much needed desk clean out today! Have a great long weekend. Tomorrow is a PD day. 

 We have been working on word problems in Math this week. They have been drawing pictures to show their thinking process for solving equations. Some of them have shown an interest in making their own word problem up.  We finished our classroom novel and our librarian is ordering us the second book to the series! We are all anxiously waiting for it to arrive!  We had a surprise today after working hard this morning. We watched a documentary called "Spelling the Dream." Afterwards we answered 3 questions in our journal.  Our moon and sun paintings turned out beautifully and will be showcased on our bulletin board this month.  Tomorrow is our last day of school this week (for kids). We will have our spelling test. 

 This morning we started off with some exciting news - Mrs. Craig got a new puppy! Of course I have to show off some pictures! They all had so much to say and relate, that we did some writing in our journals with these guided questions:  Have you ever experienced getting a new pet? Tell me in detail.  or If you could get a pet what would you like to have? Tell me in detail.  Extension: How do you care for a pet? In Social Studies to learned about Peru. They started creating mini books from facts that they learned from a text book. We also watched a video on traveling to Peru. Ask your child about Machu Pichu! In Math today we had 2 different games going that were played individually at their desks. Some have started learning and practicing multiplying 2 digits by 1 digit.  We started a special art project after afternoon recess. This project is related to our Science unit "Light and Shadows." Spelling words this week. Please remember to study at home!  Red: food, drink, home,

 In Math today they learned about fact families. We used triangles to understand this concept. Fact families are 3 numbers that can be used to make addition and subtraction sentences or multiplication and division problems. Ask your child to show you an example.  They had a great time creating Fox pictures. We used soft pastels and they turned out really cute.  In writing today we wrote about patience. Patience is our Pillar of the Month. Ask your child if they said they were patient or if this is an area they may need to work on.  We ended our day with compliments. I hope you have a great weekend!  Please check your child's spelling test. 

Everyone has now performed their shadow puppet play! Some groups decided to just do it in front of me and have the goal to perform in front of the class for next time!  In Math we worked on division and multiplication by completing a colour by number. We worked on strategies such as: cookies and chocolate chips, arrays and skip counting.  In the afternoon we worked on story writing. Many of them read their stories (so far) to the whole class.  I put a world map up in the classroom. I would love to label this map with stickies of where everyones family originated from. Please have this conversation at home with your child. 

 We had a great morning watching 2 plays! The shadow puppet performances are very fun to watch.  In Math we reviewed decimals and learned a new strategy for division: skip counting.  In Science we worked with mixing colour to show transparent, translucent and opaque. We watched colours spread on coffee filters. We will turn these into flowers tomorrow! Spelling words this week:  Red: name, same, came, home, date Blue: teacher, family, brother, sibling, cousin Green: performances, audience, applaud, mannerism, characters