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My Trusted Online Will Creator

I highly recommend this online tool for writing your will ~ Mr. Brown

Food Day - What a great experience!

Today was "ethnic food day" in our class. We are studying communities from around the world in social studies. Have a look at the variety of foods that our students brought in to share with each other.

Later in the day, we watched a video about a girl who was training to take part in a special tea ceremony in Japan. It seems that there are so many foods, cultures and traditions that you could spend your whole life learning about them!

Thank you parents for the delicious food you shared with us. We really enjoyed it and we learned a lot!

Mr. Brown

Perogies - Poland

Fried Plantain (bananas) - Jamaica

Haggis - Scotland

Shortbread - Scotland

Flan - Latin America

Irish Stew - Ireland

Namak Para - India/Pakistan

Easter bun with cheese - Jamaica

Corn chips with salsa - Canada/Mexico

Brownies - Canada

Math Homework April 21 - Shape Concentration Game

Dear parents,

Did you get the note about our math homework for the Easter weekend? It's a fun game called Shape Concentration.

The purpose is to practice looking at shapes and comparing them closely for their angles, length of sides, numbers of sides and dimensions, and naming them correctly.

Your child made a set of game cards and has them in a bag in their agenda. The idea is to turn the cards face down in an orderly array (suggested: 4 rows of 6 cards). Then, taking turns, each player flips two cards, and names the shape. The player must leave the shapes face up on the table so the other player can see their location. If the shapes don't match perfectly (ie. not congruent), then the cards are turned back down and the player's turn ends.

When a player successfully turns two matching shape cards, they are removed and the player scores a point, and gets to take another turn and flip two more cards.

The game continues until all the pairs of shapes are gone. The one with the most points is the winner!

Extra pairs of cards can be added to make it more challenging.

Ethnic Food Tasting Day

We're expanding our taste buds!

As I alluded to in a note this past week, I'm planning to hold a special Ethnic Food Tasting Day in our class. The date has been set for Thursday, May 12.

All parents are invited to prepare or provide a few small servings of their favourite ethnic dish. It may be something that has been a family tradition, or a special food that you share on special occasions. Food may be prepared at home or store-bought. The students will be invited to try a small sample of each.

If you are providing a food dish, please send a list of the ingredients, and a note about what special occasion or event this dish might be served on.

Tips for Reading With Your Child

For parents of 1st graders, from Reading rockets web site.

For parents of 2nd graders, from Reading Rockets web site.

Common thread between both articles: Meaningful conversation between adult and child, away from the TV.

Good Learning Web Sites

Hello everyone,
If you look at the green side bar to the right of this posting, you'll see I have a collection of bookmarks on Delicious.com. Click on the "mrbrownroom9" link to see the web-based activities I have selected.


Tumblebooks are an on-line, interactive reader and is hosted by the Hamilton Public Library. It has a big selection of story books that are read out loud to practice reading. A trial account can be requested.

March Break Reading

I have sent home some books at your child's learning level. Please take some quality time each day to have your child share one of the books with you. I hope you'll take a minute to record the reading and to comment on how your reading time went.

Thank you for your partnership, as always!

GB

Animal Behaviour - Chipmunk

This video shows just how amazing a chipmunk really is.

http://www.phantomhd.pl/m/video/?video=24

Mental Math

Mental math is something we probably never heard about when we were in school. It was only as I became an adult that I became aware of how often I performed mathematics in my head. Even the simple tasks of remembering a running score in a ping-pong game, or adding up purchases in the variety store, were things I did all the time, without knowing that I was doing "mental math."

"Do it in your head," is the way we usually say it. But nowadays, the Ontario curriculum has named it "mental math."


So what exactly is mental math? And how can it be taught?

My goal is to help the kids learn and understand a variety of patterns, facts and relationships about numbers. These are very simple, basic facts, and they will provide a strong foundation for learning in later grades.

Some examples:

The +1 family:
Here's how it works. I say a number between 1 and 19. In your head, you perform [+1] and then say the resulting number to me. For example, I say, "Six." You say, "Seven." or I say, "Twelve." You say, "Thirteen."
It seems so easy! But this is a mental math skill that is priceless.

The +2 family:
It works the same way as the +1 family. For example, I say, "Eight." You say, "Ten."

The -1 family and the -2 family are next.

Stay tuned for more mental math ideas.
GB

Parent Engagement

This article was published in the recent newsletter of the Elementary Teacher's Federation of Ontario. GB.

Parent Engagement

by Debbie Pushor
University of Saskatchewan

A wealth of research concludes that students are more likely to be successful when their parents are engaged in their education. When parents are truly engaged, children:

• attend school more regularly;
• are better behaved;
• have better academic outcomes;
• have a greater sense of how to be successful in school; and
• are more likely to graduate and go on to postsecondary education.

In light of this evidence, parents may try to enhance the way they support their childrens' learning.

What can parents do that works?

It seems it is not particular parent actions, such as attending school functions, establishing household rules, or checking student homework, that make the difference. Instead, it is more subtle aspects of parent engagement that prove to be the most important - such as creating an atmosphere in the home in which education is valued, and in which high expectations and levels of support are established. When parent engagement is linked to teaching and learning it contributes to enhanced student results. The benefits are greater when the parent is not expected to act as another teacher.

What might this mean for me as your child's teacher?

1. I can encourage parents to be engaged in their children’s learning on their own terms and in ways that fit their place in their children’s lives - playing games, cooking together, enrolling their children in language, cultural, or extra-curricular activities, or family outings.
2. I can learn from parents and families about their lives out of school, in order to have realistic and practical expectations for home and school interaction.
   
3. Work with parents to analyze together student achievement results and jointly establish school priorities and growth plans.

Some interesting thoughts, which I support.
GB

Happy New Year

Well, here we are in 2011. Time marches on. At this time of year it seems to go even faster.
In room 9 we are continuing with our homework sentences: 5 words each week, each one to be used in a sentence, and due for assessment on Friday.

I've noticed a steady improvement in printing skills as the year progresses. What are some things that still need attention? In most cases it is spacing of words and letter size. Many students are making good progress at removing unnecessary capital letters, and I'm seeing fewer and fewer reversed letters. This is encouraging.

Counting

It is evident that some students are practicing counting by 2s, 5s and 10s. Here's a next step for counting practice: Count by 10s but start on any number - say 15. The student continues with "25, 35, 45..." Or, another example: start on 22. The student continues with "32, 42..." Another variation is to have them say all of the multiples of 10 between two numbers, for example: "What 10s are there between 30 and 70?" Answer: "40, 50, 60"

Math

We are finishing up our measurement unit. Finished with perimeter and beginning area. We will also introduce the students to using standard units of cm. and m. for measuring length.

Science

Completing our unit on air and water over the next couple of weeks. Grade 2s should have completed the cloud and wind observation activity which was sent home at end of December.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch through an agenda note if you need to talk.
GB

Remembrance Day Poster

We made this for our Remembrance Day Assembly.

Due Date for Homework

Since Friday is a PD day, homework books will be collected Thursday, November 18.

Reading Rangers

Our in-class reading time is called Reading Rangers. It's modeled after the TVO program which, in a fun way, teaches kids about reading.

Today's topic: The Five Finger Rule - How to tell if a book is a "Just Right" book to practise reading with.