December News

I can't believe December is upon us and the holidays are fast approaching! Here is what we are working on:

The Arts

December is a great month for music, drama, dance, and visual arts as the primary classes work hard to put together their holiday musical called "Melton the Warm-Hearted Snowman". The performance for parents will be the evening of Wednesday, December 21st. Our class will be the "reindeers" and are asked to wear brown and black clothing with reindeer antlers (Dollar store?).

Literacy

We are reading "Fantastic Mr. Fox" as a class with a focus on summarizing the main ideas. At the end of each chapter, students are asked to summarize or retell the main idea of the chapter in one or two sentences, and then to illustrate what they visualized during the reading. We are continuing our "Reading Workshop" (our guided reading rotation) with literacy centers / jobs such as creating an Ontario PicCollage on the ipads, designing an anti-bullying poster for media, or working on dictionary skills or word work.

Math

Our next math unit is Number Sense and Numeration (Chapter 4 in Nelson). The curriculum expectations are as follows:

• Count forward by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, 10’s and 100’s to 1000 from various starting points
• Count by 25’s to 1000, starting from multiples of 25
• Count backwards by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s from 100 using multiples of 2, 5, and 10 as starting points
• Count backwards by 100’s from 1000 and any number less than 1000
• Compose and decompose 3-digit numbers into hundreds, tens, and ones using concrete materials
• Solve problems involving the addition and subtraction of 2-digit numbers, using a variety of mental strategies (ie: to add 37 +26, add the tens, add the ones, then combine the tens and ones, like this: 30 + 20 = 50,     7 + 6 = 13,    50 + 13 = 63), and standard algorithms

Problem Solving - We have begun to use a colour coded 4-step problem solving model to help students ensure they are showing their work and explaining their thinking sufficiently. After reading the problem carefully, students are asked to think about the following:

• What I Know about the problem (orange)
• Show the math to solve the problem (blue)
• Tell about the math (green)
• Answer the question in a complete sentence (yellow)

Social Studies

We are continuing our study of Ontario with a focus on municipalities, and how land is used to meet the needs of people (residential, commercial, industry, agriculture, recreation, and conservation).

We will have a holiday party on Friday, December 23rd if you would like to send in a treat. I wish everyone a very safe and happy holiday, and a wonderful 2017!!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Hale