Amazing Two Weeks!

Happy Friday families!

We had so much on-the-go these past two weeks, it really was incredible!

In literacy we have been working on our own fictional stories.  We made outlines describing what our stories will include (characters, setting, problem, and solution) and have worked diligently to write a rough, first draft, edit them using our “Good Writer’s Checklist,” conference with me, and write up their final copies.  We will be working on other works of fiction over the last month of school!  Their creativity and imagination astounds me!  We have also “travelled” to the west coast of Canada with Ms. Perkins’ class and read “Raven: Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest” as well as to Russia and read, “Matreshka.”  We have really enjoyed hearing different fairytales and folktales from around the world and are really getting better at classifying each story as such.

In numeracy we are beginning to wrap up our last unit on adding and subtracting to 20.  The last few weeks of school will be a review of the units we have covered while engaging in hands-on, small group, and large group activities.  We have really become “mathematicians!”

In arts ed. we are learning more about the artist Norval Morrisseau and his “x-ray” painting technique.  The students were really interested to see many of his works and are creating their own masterpieces using his technique.  We will be painting our canvases early next week!

We have been exploring one of my favourite areas of study in social studies: geography!  We read several books, “Me On the Map” in particular, and have used maps, globes, atlases, and GoogleEarth to locate our place on the map!  We started by looking at our community surrounding Hawrylak school, then our city of Regina, province of Saskatchewan (students remarked how it is very easy to draw, but difficult to spell!) our continent of North America, and our planet Earth.  It has been really intriguing, especially using GoogleEarth to locate exotic and exciting places, such as the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Great Wall of China.

Finally….we have almost completed our class book on bats!!!! Students have working SO hard with partners to write about various sub-topics on bats and to type up their final products.  Next week we will work together as a class to decide how we want to format the book as well as create a table of contents and glossary to complete our non-fiction book.  There will be two copies made initially–one for our classroom library (where it will stay to inspire future grade ones!) and to sit in our school library to be accessed by other grades!  The students are so proud of all of their hard work, and I am too!

A few notes: Next week on Friday, June 2, it is PLAY DAY at our school.  I will inform students and their families about what colour group the children are a part of so that they can wear the appropriate colours on the day.  On Monday, June 12, we will be going on a field trip to the Science Centre!  I am in need of a few parents, and will send out an email next week with further details.  If you are interested please let me know.  Volunteers are required to have an up-to-date criminal record check prior to the outing!

Have a fantastic weekend 🙂

Ms. Holmes

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