February 27, 2015

Kindness Award Winners
Congratulations to Khadija A. and Muhammad A. for receiving the Kindness Award at Tuesdays Achievers Assembly! These two students brighten our classroom and show kindness towards others every day. Way to go!

Wanted: Light Engineers

This week students are working hard on a new design project to wrap up our Science unit on Light. In this project, our students are not longer students! They are light engineers!  Our light engineers have been contracted to put the proper lighting in a multi-purpose building. However, contractors would like a proposal for the lighting before they begin their work! They want to know what type of light (artificial/natural) will go in each room and what reflective materials will be used to enhance light to create the specific atmosphere associated with the type of room they create. 

Students can choose from the list below (or create their own room to design). 

-Disco room

-Library

-Spa room

-Wrestling room (WWE)

-Garden room

Some things to think about:

Are you going to use reflective materials to enhance lights in any rooms? What are they?

Which rooms need lights that also conduct heat?

What type of windows would each room need (translucent, transparent, or opaque)?

The students are having so much fun designing their rooms and are so creative! We even have students combining aspects of water,  light, and reflective materials to create rainbows on the walls of their room and others who are adding reflective mirrors, and sky lights to enhance the natural light. Students are required to submit a written component explaining the why the designed their rooms the way they did (including the light science behind it). 

100 Book Challenge - Reading is Giving! 
On Thursday, we decided to take part in a special reading program called "Classrooms Care" that empowers students to read and make a difference. If our class reads 100 books by May 31, 2015, Scholastic Book Clubs will donate 100 books to kids in need across Canada. The donation will be made in honour of our class with the help of Scholastic's Literacy Partners. We put this poster on our classroom door as visual to see how many books we have to go!

Important Dates and Reminders:
Thursday, March 5: P.D Day - No School
Friday, March 6: Teacher's Convention - No School
Wednesday, March 18: Battle of the Books Final Tournament 3:45 at GMS
Friday, March 20: Report Card Day
Thursday, March 26: Achiever's Assembly at 10:45
Friday, March 27: Three Way Conferences

February 13, 2015

Battle of the Books
Our Battle of the Books teams have been getting together weekly to battle other teams by answering questions about the books they have read. Students earn points by answering questions with the appropriate book title and author - and it must be spelled correctly! The top 5 GMS teams will advance to the final tournament and have the chance to battle other schools within our community. The final battle will be held at Gladys McDonald on March 18th, after school. Stay tuned for more information closer to the tournament date.  I LOVE seeing students engage in conversations about reading!

Science Light Experiment
We continue to learn about the properties of light. Students discovered that white light is made up of all of the colors of a rainbow and experimented with creating their own rainbows using a white light, reflective mirror and water.

Did You Know... 
A banana appears the color yellow because all colors from white light are absorbed into the banana, except for the color yellow which is reflected back to our eyes! Just as the skin of a cherry absorbs all of the colors from white light into the cherry except for red, giving the cherry it's red color. The students were fascinated by the science behind this concept. Learning is so much fun!

A Visit with Elder Betty
On Wednesday afternoon we welcomed Elder Betty back into our classroom for some storytelling!

Writing About Our Reading
I have recently added a new piece to our balanced literacy instruction by introducing our class to "Reader's Notebooks". Our Reader's Notebooks are a place to write about our reading and put our thoughts down onto paper. Good readers think about their reading! Students have been introduced to a variety of "thinking stems" that can help them get started.

Some examples of thinking stems include:

• This reminds me of...
• I wonder...
• I felt...
• I predict...
• If I were (Character's name) I would...
• At first I thought _______, but now I think...
• Something I don't understand...
• Something new I learned...

 Here is our first Reading Response letter example. Throughout the week students looked for examples of thinking within the letter (green sticky notes) and identified key things that make up a friendly letter (pink sticky notes).

Reading Celebrations
Big shout out to those who met their January home reading goal. Here our readers are enjoying a surprise celebration treat - rootbeer floats! They have been dreaming of rootbeer floats in our classroom for awhile now!  I'm very proud of everyone who participated in the home reading program and encourage everyone to participate by writing down their reading minutes for the month of February!

Sneak Peek of the Week: A Special Visit with Mrs. Daelick!

Important Dates and Reminders:
Tuesday, February 24: GMS Achiever's Assembly 10:45-11:45
Monday, February 16 - 20: February Break - No School
Friday, February 27: Boston Pizza Special Lunch
Monday, March 2: February Reading Logs are Due

February 6, 2015

Stop Light Paragraphs
We have been sharpening our organization skills in writing while focusing on writing complete paragraphs with a topic sentence, supporting details and closing sentence. This week edited and revised a piece of writing to include all components of a proper paragraph. Our "Stop Light Paragraphs" are a visual representation to remind students of the steps to writing a proper paragraph. I'm very pleased with how much stronger our writing has become after focusing on proper paragraph structure!

Green = Topic Sentence

Yellow = Supporting Details

Red = Closing Sentence

Bullying Awareness
On Thursday afternoon our class enjoyed listening to the Grade 7/8 students share their Bullying Awareness projects. Students visited different stations and learned a wealth of information and facts about about different kinds of bullying and how to deal with it. The Grade 7/8's did a fantastic job researching and sharing their projects!

Read to Succeed: January Reading Results

Wow! I'm so proud of my home readers who have stayed committed to their goal of reading every day! Many students have made home reading part of their daily habit and are participating in the program for the 5th month in a row. How do you become a better reader? READ READ READ! The growth I am seeing in reading ability and student interest is truly amazing! 14 students from our class have reached their reading goal for the month of January and we are encouraging all other students to hop on board and read to succeed! We want to see that number of reading logs handed in next month grow! We want to see everyone participating Even if it's just 10-15 minutes each day! Students can read novels, comics, magazines, kid friendly news from online sources and even this classroom blog can be counted towards their home reading on their log. If you are feeling like reading materials are limited in your household, (or maybe they have already read every book in the house!) I strongly encourage you to visit the Regina Public Library with your child! Help them get excited about reading by making books available, setting a routine and reading with your child. In total, the class has read  just over 18,000 minutes in January, greatly surpassing our goal of 12, 400 minutes! This was the highest number of home reading minutes so far since we started the program! WOW! Great job team!

Important Dates and Reminders:
February 16 - 20:  February Break - No School
Tuesday February 24: GMS Achiever's Assembly 10:45 - 11:45


Have a wonderful weekend!
Ms. Cameron