Our hearts go out to Haiti.
Hello,
This will be a busy, but meaningful week. Wednesday afternoon is our trip to the AGO to view King Tut's treasures. I was in Grade 4 when the treasures were last in Toronto and I didn't get to go. Needless to say, I'm as excited as the children are. We do require one volunteer. In the hustle and bustle last Friday, I forgot to have a volunteer's name picked from a hat. We will do this tomorrow and the parent will be notified. Thanks.
Tomorrow morning, the Junior and Intermediate grades will assemble in the gym to listen to the Martin Luther King Jr speech, "I Have a Dream." It is Martin Luther King Jr day in the US and Ms. Brathwaite's class has teamed up with ours to lead the assembly. Thanks to Ms. Brathwaite, her student speakers, and our speakers - Grace and Justin. A big thank you to Megan and Grace for volunteering to write poems for the occasion. I am so impressed by the leadership and initiative I've seen in our class over the past two months.
Above and below: GJ reading a book about Martin Luther King Jr. to the class last week.
We will meet at lunch tomorrow to begin making worry dolls for the Haitian Relief effort. I was able to get out to Michaels in Mississauga yesterday to buy the clothes pegs needed. Here's hoping that this initiative will really take off and that we can have additional dolls made in classrooms from kindergarten to Grade 8. My goal is to raise $1,000 for Haiti. Can we do it? Let's be optimistic and believe that we can.
We will be discussing the ongoing situation in Haiti throughout the week and the more you can do to keep your child informed at home, the richer our discussions will be in class.
This week we will be working on the following:
Language: Reading - We will continue our work in inferencing with shared readings, think alouds, and music video interpretations. Of course, The Mole game begins tomorrow. Students will be put into groups and given challenges related to Math, Science, etc. Nobody knows who The Mole is (except for The Mole), but he/she will be working against his/her group. Who is The Mole and who will figure out who The Mole is? Every day, students will have to complete a questionnaire regarding who The Mole might be. They must use clues they have collected in order to infer who The Mole is. The three students with the least amount of questions answered correctly will be taken out of the game. "The tribe has spoken." Oh, that's Survivor.
Writing: Second drafts of movie reviews will be due by Friday.
Math: Measurement cont. We will review perimeter and begin area.
Science: Greenhouses should be completed by Friday. Those which are not will have to be completed after school the following week, or during lunch for the students who take the bus.
Social Studies: Clothing and food in Ancient Egypt.
Homework:
1. Home Reading Journal Meet the Architects (pg. 74-83) Do After You Read on pg. 83. Students will reflect upon the interview questions asked in the reading and see if they can come up with better questions for themselves. We will review "open-ended" questions that will not result in yes/no answers. Note that Canadian-born architect Frank Gehry is features. It's fitting that we'll be in his redesigned AGO this week.
2. Math: Measurement sheet
3. Understanding Haiti question. Each student will be given one question to research regarding Haiti. We will bring the answers together to create a Haiti wall outside our classroom.
