Halloween activities and the forest

Halloween

This past week we have added halloween stories and activities to our usual routine. In the morning we have started with centres to support reading and writing. We have searched the room for halloween vocabulary, sorted halloween objects by syllable and drawn and labelled halloween objects. We drew a haunted house and wrote about the drawing. 

We started a project to build a haunted maze. The first step was to practice making mazes with materials in the class. (pictures on Ed Inform) We then spent some time, individually designing a maze. The maze had to have at least 4 turns, 2 or more dead ends and one goal. The students will meet in teams on Thursday and decided on the maze they were going to make. Before they can build their maze on Friday, they all have to have the same drawing of the maze as a blueprint. Then they can begin to build.


Forest

Our trip to Goldstream was the beginning of our unit about our relationship with the forest and squirrels. Next week we will talk about our forest and go to the forest. We will repeat the activity that we did at Goldstream where we used a footprint made of paper to place off the path. We then look to see what we will squash when we leave the trail. We will also look for the mushrooms we saw a few weeks ago. We will talk about the animals that live in our forests on the island. This will lead to an inquiry about squirrels. 


Math

We have been continuing counting after lunch daily. Most students are counting accurately to 30+. We are also practicing making 10 as a strong foundation for adding and subtracting. In the next few weeks we will begin to represent the numbers 11-20 as 10's and 1's which is an introduction to both place value and a deeper understanding of how our number system works. 

We are practicing solving word problems such as Sean has 3 thick marker and 6 thin markers, how many markers does he have? To support the students' understanding of how to solve the problem we are NOT looking for an addition answer such as 3+6= 9 but rather a picture, number line or 10 frame that shows the math. Please see the image below and please note we are not adding the + = yet.

Another thing we are working on is our logical thinking and ability to explain our ideas. It is called Which One Doesn't Belong (WODB). We look at an image and the students pick as many items in the picture as they can to explain why the items do not belong with the rest. I have included an example that we did in class, ask your child how many things do not belong and why. How many can you explain? :) 

Ed Inform

This is the app that you can download from the App store for apple or from Google play store for other phones. You can also log in on a computer.

Your user name and password have been sent in a email from AWINFOSYS. 

For your child on Ed Inform right now are learning samples (evaluations) for math, social studies, science, careers and writing. 

In the next week I will also include more details about the haunted mazes. I will let you know when I update Ed Inform when I send class emails.

This is a valuable tool for you to follow your child's learning at school both what they are doing in class to learn and as a reflection of how they are doing. 


Things that you can do at home:

  1. Ask you child what they contributed when building their maze. Did the maze meet criteria with 4 turns and 2 dead ends?
  2. Talk about the forest animals around that you see and what they are doing. Some examples at this time of year are squirrels, raccoons, owls and birds.
  3. Keep counting. Encourage your child to practice counting in French at home as well as English.
  4. Watch for a word list and practice games coming home soon. 
  5. Check Ed Inform and read the "Next Steps" in the samples for ways that you can help your child move forward on their journey. 

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