April 13-17

Good day everyone.  I hope you all had a great weekend. A couple of things to note this week.  We are swimming today, Wednesday and Thursday.  Thursday is our last day of swimming.  The students have done a great job listening, following directions, and getting changed quickly following to ensure we arrive back to school for dismissal at the end of the day.

A reminder that Wednesday is popcorn day.  Bring 50 cents and get a bag of popcorn for snack.
This Friday at East elementary we are hosting pool D of the Grade 5-6 floor hockey tournament.  The Eagles play their first game at 4pm in the gym.  There will be a concession put on by EEPA, with funds being returned back into East Elementary Programs.  If you have children or siblings playing come out and cheer them on.

One last important reminder, our class pictures will take place next Monday, April 20th.

Language Arts

Spelling:

This week our spelling words continued to work on adding endings.  This week all the words are "short" vowel words that you have to double the last consonant before you add the ending.  For example, map would become mapping.  The exception to this rule is a word ending in x.  You do not double the x.  The spelling words for this week are as follows;

jogging   running   trimming   skipping   shopped   sadder   gladdest   hopped   winning   mixed


Writing:

We continue to look at informative/expository writing versus narrative writing.  We have been comparing strong paragraphs of writing to weak paragraphs.  The students are really starting to grasp the kind of detail required to capture and captivate the reader.  Identifying why a paragraph is strong or weak is very important to being able to write yourself.


Math

The last few weeks we have had a strong focus on 2 digit addition.  Mastering basic math facts (1 digit addition like 8+6) is a great skill and the foundation for 2 digit addition.  The students have been learning many different strategies for doing 2 digit addition.  They have been using hundreds charts (counting by tens and counting by ones), using base 10 blocks, using snap cubes, and we have just started doing vertical addition.  In vertical addition we like to begin with adding the ones together, then add the 10's together. The ones are red, the tens are green.  In the end, this will probably be the easiest and quickest strategy, especially when they eventually get up to 3 digit addition and higher.

   32
+ 46
   78

We will continue with addition and later on subtraction of numbers to 100, into May.


I hope everyone has a great week and weekend ahead.

Mr. Aasen

April 7-10

Happy April.  I hope everyone had a great spring break.  Just some reminders about swimming.  This week we are swimming on Thursday, the 9th, in the afternoon.  Next week we are swimming Monday the 13th, Wednesday the 15th, and Thursday the 16th.  Thursday the 16th is our last day of swimming.  Please don't forget to send a swimsuit on those days.

Spelling

Our spelling words for this week are as follows;

worked   sending   wants   glasses   sees   burning   reached   boxes   wishes   opening

March 23-26

It is our last week of school in March and before spring break begins.  Just a reminder that there is no school beginning Friday, March 27 up until Monday, April 6th, which is Easter Monday.  School resumes Tuesday, April 7th.  Also if your child could have their swimming wear and towels dried every evening so they do not have to use wet clothes and towels, that would be excellent.

Spelling:

Our spelling words for this week are as follows;

world   girl   skirt   her   first   worth   word   sir   turn   were

March 9-13

Odds and Ends

A couple things to talk about this week.  If you have not returned your permission forms for swimming, or the money, both are due on Friday, March 13th.  We start our swimming on Monday, March, 23rd.  Also, this Friday is a theme day.  It is dress like your favorite celebrity day.  Come dressed as your favorite athlete, singer, actor, etc.

Language Arts

Spelling:

Our spelling words this week are all contractions.  A contraction is two words combined together with an apostrophe to make one word.  The 10 words are as follows;

you'll   they're   it's   we're   isn't   let's   aren't   I'm   can't   we're   

Math

This week we are finishing up out unit on Measurement.  We have covered how to read calendars, days of the week, months of the year, length, mass, size, and volume.  Our unit test will be on Thursday.

Science

We will continue with our unit on exploring liquids.  We have looked at different kinds of liquids, properties of them (freezing, melting, thickness, flow), states of matter (Water can be solid, liquid, and gas), as well as dissolving a solid in a liquid and evaporation.  Over the next couple of weeks we will be exploring different materials and how they absorb water and materials that are waterproof.

Health

With the start of our Tutti Fruitti Tuesdays, where we are having a contest to see which class has the most students that bring in a fresh fruit or vegetable for snack, we will be exploring Canada's Food Guide and healthy eating habits.


I hope everyone has a great week ahead (Minus the 1 hour of lost sleep).

Mr. Aasen

Feb 23-27

There are a few important things for this week.  Wednesday is "wear pink day" to combat bullying in our schools. Also sent home in the students agendas are the permission forms for swimming.  These forms need to be returned by March 13th, along with payment (cash, cheque, or online) if you haven't done so already. 

Language Arts

Spelling:

Our spelling words for this week are as follows;

race   stick   color   kick   quick   back   became   neck   cent   city

Writing:

In writing, we are continuing to work on adding detail to our work.  We are using narrative and informative examples to emphasize how to write details. We are using strategies to make our writing more entertaining for the reader.  Our introductions can include a sound, a dialogue, an action, or a thought.  We are working on getting away from beginnings such as "Once upon a time" or "One day there was a...".  We have also been working on including opinions in our writing.  We talked about what "pro's and con's" are and how we can argue our own opinions. 

Math  

In math we are continuing in our measurement unit.  We are looking at measuring different items around the classroom and the hallway, using different "non-standard" units of measurement.  An example of a "standard" unit of measurement would be a centimeter. A "non-standard" unit could be anything they find to measure with, such as an eraser.  "My desk is 14 "erasers" long.  We are then comparing length and finding things that are shorter and longer.  The students love being hands on going around and measuring things that they can find.

Science

We have started our exploring liquids unit.  Some of the things the students will be learning in this unit are as follows; 

• Recognize and describe the following characteristics of a liquid: flow, shape of drop, surface of calm water
• Compare water to other liquids based on colour, flow, shape of drop, reaction with solids
• Show understanding that liquid can change to a solid or gas, and back again.

We started our unit by exploring some different liquids and how they were affected by being put in a freezer as well as left out on a counter for the weekend.  We had some pretty interesting results that I'm sure your children would be happy to tell you about.

I hope everyone has had a great February.  Hard to believe it is almost over and we'll be into March next week.  Have a great rest of the week.

Mr. Aasen

Feb 9-13

The spelling words for this week are as follows;

shout   shut  crash  then   thin   math   think   together   nothing   anything

Week of Jan 19-23

A few odds and ends.  The students can now start bringing their LEGO creations for the LEGO building contest.  They have until Jan 29 to submit an entry.  Also for those students who have not returned their permission forms for Telus World of Science, those need to be back by Jan 27th.  We have enough volunteers so thank you to those of you who filled out the purple form.


Language Arts

Spelling:

The spelling words for this week are "le" ending words and are as follows;

apple   handle   able   bottle   table   uncle   candle   purple   turtle   people

Writing:

This unit our focus in writing has been on creating suspense.  We are using a strategy called the "Magic of 3".  This consists of including a "red flag phrase, followed by a "hint" and a "reaction" by the character.  A red flag phrase is a word or phrase that immediately leads to a hint.  Examples are phrases such as "All of a sudden" and "Just then".  The hint is what the character hears or sees.  "All of a sudden I heard a loud crack."  The reaction is what the character does in response to the hint.  "All of a sudden I heard a loud crack.  I rushed to see what made the sound."  We can use the magic of 3 a number of times in a passage before we reveal what created the suspense.  It is not revealed until the end of the passage.


Math

In math we will be introducing our next unit this week, Measurement.  the specific outcomes we will be measure are;

Specific Outcomes
1. Relate the number of days to a week and the number of months to a year in a problem-solving context.

2. Relate the size of a unit of measure to the number of units (limited to nonstandard units) used to measure length and mass (weight).

3. Compare and order objects by length, height, distance around and mass (weight), using nonstandard units, and make statements of comparison.

4. Measure length to the nearest nonstandard unit by:
• using multiple copies of a unit
• using a single copy of a unit (iteration process).

5. Demonstrate that changing the orientation of an object does not alter the measurements of its attributes.

Science

We have been talking about insulators in our Hot and Cold unit.  We will be finishing up this unit as soon as possible, followed by starting the next unit, Exploring Liquids.

Social Studies

In social, we have just finished up our unit called Looking at Places and we will begin Looking at People.