Welcome Back!
Last Friday, my family went to Edwards Gardens to stroll around the beautiful trees. A large bird swooped overhead. Look up in the tree. Do you see it?
I took some pictures of this magnificent feathered creature. When we got home, we looked it up in a bird guide and determined that it's a Peregrine Falcon. If you love birds the way I do, you'll know how excited I was for the rest of the day. Take your kids to Edwards Gardens. It's free and full of learning opportunities. Talk about names of animals and plants and find out what your child knows already.
This week, we'll be working on the following:
In Reading, Writing, and Media Literacy we will continue with poetry. We're going to be learning about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and students will be writing poems about this tragic event. We're also going to be discussing the situation in Libya, especially now that the Canadian military is involved. Talk to your children about this and allow them to listen to or read about the news. You're never too young to learn about current events. Our class really enjoys discussing news.
We're also going to be reviewing punctuation. There are a few students who are still starting sentences with lower case letters and not punctuating sentences properly and sometimes not punctuating sentences at all. Grade 2s will also be working on consonant blends and vowel sounds for high frequency words that are being misspelled.
Math: Perimeter and Area. It will be hands-on Math all the way this week.
Social Studies: Grade 2s will be working on geographical landforms while the 3s learn about tools used by pioneers. We only have seven Grade 3s and three students were absent last week, so I had to put Pioneers on the back burner. We'll start cooking again.
Homework:
1. Grade 2s & 3s Home measurement activity. Each student is getting their own ruler to keep. Just call me Oprah: "You get one and you get one and you get one. You're all getting rulers!!!" Due this Friday.
2. Spelling words will be from the week before March Break. There will not be any new words this week, since so many students were away on Friday. Spelling quiz this Friday.
3. Grade 2s only will have a phonics-based language activity to target spelling. Due Friday.
4. Grade 2s will work on a reading response question for their take home book.
5. Grade 3s only will have another EQAO assignment for next Monday.
* I'm sending home a huge package of completed work with your child this week. Some pieces have been in their portfolios, other pieces have been on display recently. I'm going to be reviewing folders with each student and students will be reflecting on their strengths and areas that need a little or a lot of work for the remainder of the year.
That's all.
Have a swell week.
Erin Hawkins
Yesterday, math got messy as our class learned about capacity by estimating and measuring capacity using everything from milk cartons to eye droppers. Thanks to Mme. Paré for lending us her sand table and Ms. Sharman for lending us the English kindergarten's rice table. Thanks as well to our janitor Mrs. Hawks who came arrived at Room 108 with a mop in the nick of time. Our floor is nice and clean now.
Don't forget that Tuesday, March 29th is Toonie Tuesday to help raise money for the Japanese earthquake/tsunami relief effort. Many students at Clairlea, including EK (above) made paper cranes out of used paper last week so that every student can bring home a paper crane as a symbol of hope for Japan. Thanks to Cassie who brought in her entire jar of pennies she's been saving up. We're a class of big-hearted students and families:)
Last Friday, my family went to Edwards Gardens to stroll around the beautiful trees. A large bird swooped overhead. Look up in the tree. Do you see it?
I took some pictures of this magnificent feathered creature. When we got home, we looked it up in a bird guide and determined that it's a Peregrine Falcon. If you love birds the way I do, you'll know how excited I was for the rest of the day. Take your kids to Edwards Gardens. It's free and full of learning opportunities. Talk about names of animals and plants and find out what your child knows already. 
Now to the math... This past Tuesday, our class participated in a Demonstration Math Class for a guest teacher and our Math Instructional Leader, Susan Pitre. Mr. Steers and I co-taught a lesson on estimation and area. Mr. Steers got the brain juices flowing by asking the students to estimate how many little cups of water it would take to fill a tall glass. The children were completely engaged in this activity and the students who were selected to offer estimates learned a lot about reasonable and unreasonable estimates as the activity played out. 
After being presented with the problem, students examined the question closely and they decided what the know, what they want to know, and special conditions of the problem. This graphic organizer is called a KWC chart. We use it quite a bit during three-part problem solving.
Next, the children got to work in pairs. They had to agree on an estimation of how many sheets of paper would fit on the newspaper and then they had to test out their estimation and glue those sheets down.
There were many different methods of estimating, including benchmarks such as markers, hands, etc. One group grabbed rulers and started measuring.
It was fascinating watching these unlikely duos working together, strategizing, and discussing area.
At the end, three pairs were asked to come to the carpet for a math congress
Below are the highlights and summary of the learning that took place. These were actual comments from the students. Ms. Pitre was impressed by the way in which students connected different concepts they have already learned in math, to area. "It gave me goosebumps," she said. I'm so proud of the girls and boys in our class. I hear advanced concepts from all subject areas explained every day and it felt good having other adults in the room hearing what your children have to say. Big ideas!
Yesterday, we followed up with another area activity in which students had to estimate the area of their footprint using centimeter graph paper. After "locking in" their estimation, they traced a foot and counted the squares. Most people (myself included) underestimated the size of their feet.
