Oct. 22 - Oct. 26

We continued to investigate what exactly is "A Whole" this week working to convert fractions from mixed to improper fractions.  The idea that there could be more then one whole worked to help us challenge some misconceptions.

Please note that the only beverage allowed in Room 20 is now water!  We have talked a lot about the amazing benefits of drinking water and are working towards our goal of drinking 8 cups a day.  We have established a 'hydration station' in our classroom to house our water bottles safely away from electronics and our own work as well as a great reason to get up and get a much needed body break.

We also completed our mixed media water art project.  It was a huge mess and we loved it!


We were able to finish our class read aloud Spaced Out by Stuart Gibbs and worked to create our own book covers for the novel.  Students had to think about what the main events were and what would in fact make us want to pick up a book and read it.

October 15 - October 19

This week we began to learn about the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and what it means for us as Canadians.  We researched the different rights and came up with definitions for what they represent.  Using our new understanding students worked to develop our own charter for Room 20.

In Numeracy we have been looking at the concept of a whole and worked with math manipulatives such as fraction circles and fraction strips to test our understanding.  We worked to find equivalent fractions as well as starting to compare fractions with same and different numerators and denominators.   We have begun to capture our new math vocabulary on our Math Word Wall.  In the upcoming week we will be working to develop our own set of rules when comparing fractions. 

Oct. 1 - Oct. 12

Orange Shirt Day on October 1st was a very emotional and impactful day in Room 20.  We read the book When I was Eight by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton which describes some of the harrowing stories experienced by some of Canada's Aboriginal peoples.  Students then reflected on this story asking what we can learn about residential schools from Olemaun's story and how it made us feel.

Our Writer's Checklist was re-introduced this week and we have been challenged to make sure that every piece of writing we complete meets these criteria before we show it to Mrs. Storrier or a peer.  We have also started to make lists of 'Juicy Words' that we know so that our writing can be more interesting to read and write!  So many amazing words in english language!

In numeracy we have continued to use our Talk Moves to share our thinking.  Students worked to represent decimals in many ways and we can now show them as a fraction, base ten blocks, words, money and expanded form.

September

It was a very busy start to the school year in Room 20!

Students have continued their work on Growth Mindset from last year reading The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires and sharing their learning with their Grade 1/2 buddies.  We discussed how we will sometimes feel stuck and frustrated (Fixed Mindset) but can use our personal strategies or seek help from others to get back on track to a Growth Mindset.  Students then worked to brainstorm goals with their "I can't ________ yet" statements and complemented them with their strategies or how they would work towards these goals.  We brainstormed ideas on how to keep our brains strong and healthy and things that we can do to grow them.  Such ideas included drinking lots of water, asking lots of questions, persistence, physical activity and
lots of rest.

We launched our inquiry into Space Science and were tasked by NASA to investigate other planets for humans to settle on.  Our first step was to investigate what other planets are in fact in our galaxy and then we worked to persuade our co-astronauts why we thought ours was the best choice.  Our Read-aloud Space Case by Stuart Gibbs has taught us that living on the moon is not always as exciting or wonderful as it sounds.












Lastly we continued to develop our photography skills from last year borrowing our schools incredible new cameras and looking to capture the world around us from Room 20s point of view.  We were blessed with an absolutely gorgeous day and captured some incredible images.