News From Room 209Mrs. Ireland’s Terrific Twos

April 18, 2006

March Bridge Building In the reading, science, technology, mathematics and art areas of our curriculum we learned about bridge building. During our Read Alouds we listened to both fiction and non-fiction books about bridges. In our Shared Writing activities we created Venn diagrams to compare and contrast the books and made up questions and answers for a bridge trivia game. Our Shared Reading book Bridges Across Canada explained a great deal about different types of bridges and we learned how to compare the information in chart form.

We get started.

Working on a truss design.

Our cooperation skills were challenged when we had to work in groups to design and build our bridges made from just 100 popsicle sticks and white glue. The groups of four or five students had to share all of the jobs required to build a bridge.

Putting it together

DUNCAN J SCHOULAR PUBLIC SCHOOL41 McGill St. South, Smiths Falls Ontario K7A 3M9Telephone: (613) 283-1367 FAX: (613) 283-1955

Mr. P. Graveline, PrincipalMrs. S. Halladay Vice-Principal

The winning bridge in the school was built by the Cool Engineering Group; Savannah Bisaillon, Reese Scarrow, Daisy Maloney and Jesse Jordan. Their bridge supported 42.3kg. The next time you are in the atrium check out the plaque donated by the Professional Engineers of Ontario, Thousand Island Chapter.

Mrs. Ireland, Jesse, Daisy, Savannah,

Reese and Mr. Ireland, P.Eng.

Bruce Moose

Bruce is off again for more adventures. He is visiting Lake Worth, Florida, U.S.A. and Nauheim, Germany this spring. Emily Eagle, from Florida, and Bumblebee, from Germany, should be arriving any day now. We are all looking forward to having them visit our class and homes. The journals from Australia and Japan taught us how to write very informative journal entries and we are ready to write our own descriptive entries in Emily’s and Bumblebee’s journals.

Life Cycles

In our Read Alouds, Shared Reading, at listening centres and reading independently our class has been learning about the life cycles of many different animals. In Shared Writing and individual/partner research we have compared the life cycles using both Venn diagrams and T-charts. In our Guided Writing we created Cinquain poems and 5W poems about the butterfly life cycle. Our butterfly math perimeter sheets and art work are proudly displayed in the room. Joseph’s dry brush painting with 3-D plasticene Monarch butterfly, caterpillar and chrysalis was chosen as the primary art of the month.

A Dance with Butterflies

As part of an international internet project we created a video to explain the life cycle of the butterfly. Six groups of students worked together to create:• Butterfly Cycle . A puppet show

accompanied by song.• The Cocoon . A dramatization

accompanied by a choral reading and a sound collage.

• Birth of a Butterfly . Posters accompanied by choral reading.

• Butterfly, Butterfly . Playing a song on the precorder and singing.

This project will be posted on the net in May at… http://www.comsewogue.k12.ny.us/~ssilverman/butterflies/showcase.htm

Beatrix Potter

Our recent author study was on Beatrix Potter. During Shared Reading we read a biography on her life. We learned a great deal about her from the photographs, the pictures of her art work, the captions, paragraphs containing dated biographical data and the index in this non fiction book. We enjoyed listening to Beatrix Potter’s stories during Read Aloud and on cassette tape, watching a story on video, reading stories independently and to each other. Many students brought in their own Beatrix Potter books to share with the class.

Measurement

Using both standard and non-standard measuring tools we measured the length, width, height, perimeter and area of many things in the classroom, school and playground. Everyone enjoyed the hands-on activities using paperclips, cubes, rulers, meter sticks, measuring tapes, a trundle wheel and geometic shapes. Our favourite video series, Math Monsters, helped us to understand area. We had fun using calculators to help us multiply length times width to find area.

Music is in the Air

In just a short time we have learned to play quite a few songs by ear and from coloured dots using four different notes. Everyone’s listening skills have improved and cooperation is evident during our short daily precorder time. We both play and sing the songs and to date our repertoire includes:

• Hot Cross Buns• Butterfly, Butterfly• One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

We also have enjoyed learned to play questions and answers. Most recently we created a melody using coloured dots to sing and play that goes along with a poem from our Read Aloud, Salmon Creek.

Family Challenge

The family challenge for this month is to make words from the letters in Metamorphosis. Please return lists by Friday, April 21.