Mandala Writing

After drawing personal symbols to share who we are and what we like in our manadala art with Ms. Elder (not to mention learning about radial symmetry!), we then learned how to write a paragraph with Mrs. Jamroziak.

We did a rough draft on paper, typed them up, received feedback and worked to improve our topic sentence, supporting details and sentence structure!

Here are some of our stellar topic sentences!

When you think about a mandala, do you think about learning other people's ways of thinking? - Effie

My mandala is like a puzzle. Every piece you place you learn more about me. - Jackson

My mandala is like a tree and every leaf that falls teaches you about me! -Oliver

This mandala shows how unique I am. It's like everything hidden is revealed head to toe. A photo of me is made in your mind. - Cora

This mandala will be like a compass. It will guide you through my identity. - Oscar

This mandala is like a map leading you to a treasure but instead of money or gold it is the knowledge of who I am. - GH

1. What did you enjoy about writing your mandala paragraph?

• I liked sharing what I love. - Jackson
• I liked that it was a big project so we had a lot of drafts. - Wynn
• I enjoyed sharing my likes and it was the first time in a long time that I thought about what I liked. - GH
• I liked that we could write about the things we like and other stuff. - Oscar

2. Why do you feel proud of your mandala paragraph?

• I feel proud of my paragraph because I put a lot of hard work and it was challenging which was kind of fun! - Oliver
• i feel proud of it cuz i worked really really hard on it. im proud of everything I did in my paragraph. it was really hard. im proud of my hard work. - Fatima
• I think that i am proud of myself because i tried my hardest to feel good about what i did and i feel really proud of myself now. - Effie

3. What is a topic sentence? 

• A topic sentence is a sentence that tell you what the paragraph is about - Cora
• a topic sentence is the first sentence of a paragraph and it just describes what the entire paragraph in like 5 to 10 words one of its main purpose is to hook the reader. - EF

4. What are supporting details?

• Supporting details wipe the confusion from the reader's mind. - Kaira
• supporting details are details that follow the captains order and the captain is the topic sentence so supporting details are just following the topic sentences orders and supporting details are the crew. - Viaan

Place Value

In Math these past few weeks with Ms Elder, we have been learning about the concept of Number. We have been practicing place value and Number vocabulary by: building numbers with Base Ten blocks, playing Place Value games, and doing Number Riddles.

Here are a few games we can play at home to practice:

Number Riddles

Materials: whiteboard (optional)

Instructions: 

1) One person thinks of a number (we practiced 3-digit).

2) Player 2 asks questions to get clues. Use Place Value vocabulary like: greater than, less than, odd, even, the digit in the ones/tens/hundreds place...

3) Player 1 tells them when they guess it right!

Trading Places

Materials: one set of dominoes, mat (optional)

Instructions: 

1) Flip all the dominoes upside down and shuffle.

2) Player 1 picks a domino. Choose which Place Value column you want to put that number in. Once your domino is placed, it cannot be moved.

3) Player 2 picks a domino. Repeat.

4) Player 1 picks a domino. They choose which way to put it in the Place Value columns that are left.

5) Player 2 picks a domino. Repeat.

6) Whomever has the greater number wins! You must be able to read your number out loud.

Place Value Race

Materials: one deck of cards

Instructions: 

1) Play with 2 players. Remove the 10's, Jack's, Queen's, and Kings, and Jokers. Shuffle.

2) Each player flips 2 cards over at the same time.

3) The first person to say the number out loud correctly keeps the cards. When you're finished the stack, the person with the most cards wins!

Banker's Game

Materials: one set of Base Ten blocks (could be printed or use coins), 2 dice of different colours, 1 place value mat (optional)

Instructions: 

1) Decide which colour of dice are for which place value column.

2) Player 1 rolls 2 dice. They collect the Base Ten blocks of that number.

3) Player 2 repeats.

4) Regroup when you can!

5) The first person to get to 100, wins!

Here are some pictures of us playing the Banker's Game!

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Option: Play with 3 dice all the way to 1 000!

Classifying Animals

Right now in Science, with Ms Elder, we are learning about Animals. On the first day, we got a picture of a mashed-up animal. With our group, we had to give it a name, say where it lived, how it protects itself, and what it eats. Instead of just guessing, we had to use clues from the photo of the animal's features to distinguish those answers. This drew our attention to details about animals like their colours, claws, teeth, and other body parts. 

We learned that recently there has been a real-life animal mash-up: a hybrid bird species known as a "grue jay" which is part blue jay and part green jay. Scientists think it's the first hybrid vertebrate to travel outside its range because of climate change. 

We learned that animals are named after their habitat (ex: the mountain goat), structure (ex: swordfish), or appearance (ex: blue jay).

Today, Ms Elder gave us a sheet with lots of animals on it and asked us to classify them. We could choose how many categories we used and what they are. Here are some student examples:

I sorted my animals into two groups: predator or prey

I sorted my animals into two groups: 
things I find attractive and unattractive

I sorted mine into 6 groups: reptiles, underwater animals, amphibians,
insects, birds, and mammals

I sorted mine into: big, medium, small

After, we learned about the Animal Kingdom classification system that scientists use and learned the vocabulary words: mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, arthropods.