Earth Hour

Our Environment

On Friday, March 27th, all TDSB schools will be joining in for our own Earth Hour to help the environment and save precious energy. This is our practice run for the REAL Earth Hour which is on Saturday, March 28th between 8:30 and 9:30 pm. when everyone at home (or at a business) should try to turn off as many energy consuming appliances, TVs, computers, and lights as possible.
The World Wildlife Federation explains Earth Hour like this - Earth Hour is a highly visible symbolic act. One that brings people of all ages and backgrounds around the world together to sound a clear call-to-action for our most pressing global challenge; climate change.

This is a great time for sitting with the family and storytelling or singing to candlelight! Please do not ignore this important movement. Becoming aware or our energy consumption, our environment, and climate change is something we must ALL do! Please go to the following sites to learn about Earth Hour.  Click here for information and the official Earth Hour 2015 video, here for another video about Earth Hour, or here for some activities.

Reading on Starfall

It is fun to read on Starfall.

Under the, 'It's Fun to Read' sign, click here, you will find some interesting reading under 8 different signs. You can choose to have the computer read the whole page to you first or just read the words you highlight.

The 8th sign, 'Next Level: I'm Reading!' click here, gives you 6 more categories to read from with many stories in each category.

You can also read from, 'Talking Library' click here, where some titles are available for you to enjoy.

Mastery Reading

When you practise reading, try to get to a mastery level with each story, book, poem, riddle, or whatever you are reading, before you move on to the next one. Mastery reading means you can read it   -  fluently (smoothly so your reading sounds like talking),
     -  with expression ( use different voices for each character, loud/soft, excited, etc.),
     -  with no mistakes,
     -  and observe all punctuation (voice goes up for a question, pause at a comma, stop at a         period, sound excited/upset/surprised, etc. at an exclamation mark).

Of course, you can retell, or explain the story or text you are reading in your own words! If you can not, you do not understand the story or text. Read the story or text again. If you still can not retell or explain it, it is too difficult for you and not a good fit. Try another text or story.

Enjoy improving your reading skills!

Stories You Can Read Along With on the Computer

Get  a copy of one of the books listed below so that you can listen to the story and then read along with the story reader. Listen to the story reader to get ideas about how to improve your expression when you read aloud. This activity will also help you to improve your reading fluency. (Read each page many times until you can read it fluently.)

There is a basket in our classroom library with a copy of each of the books listed below. You may sign out one book to take home overnight in your Book Bag for your nightly reading. Check my post under, Activities with the title, Summer 2014 to get more ideas about how to read along with the computer.

* One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss, click here.
* Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman, click here.
* The Best Nest by P.D. Eastman,click here.
* The Hat by Jan Brett, click here.
* The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, click here.
* The PaperBag Princess by Robert Munsch, click here.
* Sadie and the Snowman by Allen Morgan, click here.
* The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister, click here.
* The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, click here.
* Silverlicious by Victoria Kann, click here.
* The Chick and the Duckling by Mirra Ginsburg, click here.
* Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig, click here.
* Miss Nelson Is Missing by Harry Allard, click here.
* The Bike Lesson by Stan & Jan Berenstain, click here.
* The Wheels on the Bus by Maryann Kovalski, click here.
* Sideways Stories From Wayside School by Louis Sachar, click here.
* The Big Storm by Rhea Tregebov, click here.
* Franklin In The Dark by Paulette Bourgeois, click here.
* Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, click here.
* Abiyoyo by Pete Seeger, click here.
* Jesse Bear, What Will YouWear? by Nancy White Carlstrom, click here.
* The Cat In The Hat by Dr. Seuss, click here.  (Start at 1:53, there is a long introduction)
* Hop On Pop by Dr. Seuss, click here.  (This book is sung as a song.)
* Red Is Best by Kathy Stinson, click here.
* Six DinnerSid by Inga Moore, click here.  (Start at 1:00,

How To Use Spelling City To Improve Your Writing

Spelling City is a great site not only for improving your spelling skills, but also for practising writing. After you login, you will find yourself on  'My Teacher's Page'.

Here are some activities you should do.

1. Under the Spelling City logo you will see blue tabs with white words on them, 

click on the blue tab that says Videos -FAQs.

Find the Handwriting video.

Click on it to learn how to print out handwriting practice sheets of all of our lists. These help you to practise writing neatly, as well as providing a written list of the words you are learning for studying and reading them.

I know I can write better than that!

2. Go to Play A Game. (We have a Premium account, which means you can play any of the games.)

Make sure you try both of the writing activities (Sentence Writing & Paragraph Writing) for each spelling list you work on. This is a great way for you to improve your writing as I mark each sentence and/or paragraph you write and give you specific comments, questions, and ways to improve your writing right on the page where you wrote your sentences. You are expected to rewrite your sentences using the advice I give you to help you make new connections and improve your writing skills. (You can find my comments to you by clicking on My Records and scrolling down and clicking on the writing activity you completed.)

3. Go to Play A Game. Try to complete all of the Vocabulary activities under the Pink Premium Activities title. There are 5 activities there, plus Vocabulary Test Me and Flash Cards. Play these to increase the number of words you know the meanings of, so that you can confidently use them in your writing.

4. Take the Spelling and Vocabulary Tests online for each of the Assignments. Challenge yourself and see how much you really know.

Prodigy Game

This is an engaging math game for students to play that gives them practice with various math skills, and is linked to the Ontario Math Curriculum. From time to time I will add various questions to the game, specifically geared towards the particular math skills we are learning about, or working on in class.

This is a free game to all students and only costs money if you choose an upgrade for your child. The game works perfectly well without the upgrades.

Each student has his/her login information. They can see me if they need this information again.

Click here to play Prodigy.

Merry Christmas and All The Best for 2015!

Dear Students,

I am sure you have had a relaxing and fun holiday so far during this last December of 2014. I am hoping you have been playing outside, spending lots of time with your family and friends, and of course practising your reading to: increase your stamina; improve your use of reading strategies to understand what you are reading; and reading out loud to improve your fluency and use of expression. (Here is a fun activity for you. Use the book I gave you on the last day of school to practise improving your fluency. You could record yourself reading and then listen back to hear how you read the book, and make improvements as needed.)

A is for Apples

Spelling City

I hope you have time to work on Spelling City during the holidays. You should be working on learning all of the words listed under, 'Words You Should Know' - 7 lists. Take the spelling tests online, and have someone give you the same spelling tests at home. 

When you get back to school you can take the same spelling tests with a partner, and then mark the Master List which tells me which words you can actually spell consistently. What do I mean by consistently? It means you can spell the word correctly every time you write it, not just on the test day!!! It means every time you write, a sentence, journal entry, note, etc. you do not have trouble spelling the word. It should be locked in your brain. 

Remember to work out little reminders or strategies to help you sound out and spell tricky words. For example, clap and say each syllable in a word and stretch out each syllable as you say it and write it, or emphasize silent letters/ irregular parts of a word by saying them out loud as you write. Think of your own strategies, whatever helps you to spell the word correctly is acceptable. 

Also, remember that reading helps you to spell words correctly because it increases your visual memory of what a word is supposed to look like, and helps you understand what words mean. 

Writing - Here is an activity to help you improve your writing.

I am pleased to say that all of you have improved your ability to write sentences that make sense, are more descriptive, and are becoming increasingly grammatically correct. Of course, we must strive to keep improving our writing ability, and this process takes time and is a step by step journey. 

If you have time, go to Spelling City and click on 'My Records' in the top right menu. You will then see a list of all of the activities you have completed. You can also see my corrections to your sentences and my comments to you by clicking on a writing activity in the column under the heading, 'Activities' i.e., Assignment - Sentence Writing Practice. (You should have 5 writing assignments completed, one being a paragraph writing assignment.) You can greatly improve your ability to write better sentences by reading my corrections to your work and rewriting the sentences on paper according to the advice I give you. Because the sentences are written in your own words, the advice will be helpful to you. If you do not have time to do this over the holidays, you will be completing this work at school in your spare time, or during Language periods.

Enjoy the rest of your holidays, and I look forward to seeing all of you in the New Year!

Fall, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving to my new, and old, students! I hope you are all having a wonderful long weekend with your families - enjoying good food, walking and playing outside in this glorious

weather, and thinking about how lucky you are and giving thanks for all that you have.

I also want to remind my students to keep collecting leaves for a school art project. They should gather colourful leaves of various sizes. We will be using them to make animals, so each student will need leaves to make a body, head, legs, arms, etc along with smaller leaves to make parts like eyes, ears, and so on. The leaves should be dry when they are collected, and then placed between two layers of paper (e.g. newspaper or old paper to be recycled). Heavy items such as books can be placed on the papers with the leaves in between. The leaves should be pressed for at least a week or two. They will then be pressed flat and ready for use at school. I will show the students various examples of animals they might like to make so that they can collect enough, and the right, leaves for their animal.