Dictee and Updates postponed until Monday, November 8

My apologies to all for my lengthy absence as I'm sure it has caused a little confusion. I have the flu and a bout of a weak form of pneumonia that accompanies it. The dictee will be postponed to Monday and you can definitely hand in the Etude des Mots folder then. Stay tuned on Monday as well as our Halloween photos and regular classroom updates will return. Nothing a little rest and some medication can't fix :)

Thanks for your understanding.

Be well,
Mme Dungo

READING FOLDERS COMMENCE!

RED reading folders are coming home this week. In it you will find:

1) A Reading Log with the headings:
Date, Title, The book was read TO me, I read TO someone, I read all by myself (please check what applies) and a happy face or a sad face depending on whether or not the student liked that part of the book. Please have them read for 15 minutes every day.

2) A book at their level. The reading level is determined by a one-on-one interview process with the teacher and is evaluated using the Alpha Jeunes system. By the END of Grade 3, most children will be working towards reading at Level 24. Please be supportive with your child, please do not concentrate on the level but rather the way the reading strategies are employed while he/she is reading, i.e. stretching the sounds in the word, re-reading the sentence, looking for known words in the paragraph, visualizing a picture, making a connection to something the student remembers, etc.

This month we are reviewing basic story structure.

A basic story has:
a beginning where the setting and characters are introduced
a middle where a problem is presented and a sequence of events and
an end where the solution to the story problem is resolved.

Some relevant questions to ask your child (as we are reviewing basic story structure):

-In the beginning of the story:
Where is the story taking place?
When is the story taking place?
Who are the characters?
and always... How do you know?

-In the middle of the story:
What is the problem?
What are the events in the story?

-At the end of the story:
Is there a solution to the story?
How do you know?

Take a look at our shared reading story for this week. You are more than welcome to ask the children the above questions as they read it to you: Un amour du chiffon by Gilles Tibo

http://www.atelier.on.ca/edu/coreLite.cfm?p=main&modID=7&modColour=1&L=2&scene=mod7_tab4_sc02_alt0

I know it's a lot of information and I do understand that life happens and sometimes we're not able to get to homework because of a plethora of reasons. Please make sure to let me know via the agenda and we'll be able to find the time to finish the homework together.

Questions? Concerns? Comments? Please contact me at school: 416-396-6165 or by email: jesselyn.dungo@tdsb.on.ca Please allow 2 business days for a reply.

RED FOLDERS ARE DUE ON THESE DAYS:

Monday:
Alexandra
Justin
Nicholas
Mohamed

Tuesday:
Ayesha
Nigel
Nikita
Liam

Wednesday:
Mathusa
Aidan
Adam
Alyssa

Thursday:
Kira T.
Jadyn
Lily
Nishalinie

Friday:
Reim
Kiira P.
Hodan
Colin

So to wrap up, the homework program for this year has been fully introduced and is made up of:

1) A RED reading folder with reading log and a book at your son/daughter's reading level
2) A GREEN etude des mots (word study) folder
3) A GREEN song folder
4) A BLUE problems folder
5) A GREEN miscellaneous folder for unfinished work


Hope this helps!
Mme Dungo

C'est l'Halloween!

This week I am sending home a Halloween song that the children can read every day in addition to their Etude des mots folder. Reading the same text every day develops their fluency and recognition of high-frequency words... and it's also a lot of fun!

I have attached a link to youtube that you can play that has visuals in addition to the accompanying music to the song by Matt Maxwell.

Hope this helps!
Mme Dungo

Our Math Test last week....

After some thought, I thought it would be beneficial for this week's update to be about our Math test last week.

After discussing with the students the results of the math test, we came to the conclusion that it would benefit the class to continue on with a review of patterning and pattern problems. After working very diligently this week and next week on problems, we have decided to wrap-up the unit with a short unit task in-class next Friday, October 15.

The children are working on different strategies in order to solve problems. We are focusing on:

1. Making a t-chart
2. Using number lines
3. Drawing pictures of the problem

Sample problem:

Room 112 went to the zoo for a field trip. Unfortunately on the way back to school, the bus broke down and we had to walk back! We can walk 4 km every hour. The school is 12 km away. How long will it take for us to get back to school? (For the Grade 3s, it is expected that in addition to the above they also answer: What time will we get back to school if the bus broke down at 12pm?)


Sample solutions:

1. Making a t-chart

number of hours I number of km
-----------------------------------
1 I 4
2 I 8
3 I 12

We see that it takes 3 hours to walk back to school.


2. Using a number line

0----1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----10----11----12----16
start----------------X-------------------X-----------------------X

By skip counting by four every hour, we see that 3 hours have passed.


3. Drawing pictures of the problem

Here, some children can use various groupings.

Our goal is for the children to use the t-chart or the number line where they can see a "regularite" or a pattern rule, whereby as each hour passes you add 4 km.

For students to achieve a Level 4 answer, the student must understand the question, be able to choose a strategy independently and consistently upon various practice examples and apply this process to achieve the correct answer. When he/she shows how she came up with the answer, the drawings/tables/number lines must be clear in order to effectively communicate his/her thinking process.

Hope this helps!
Mme Dungo

A change regarding Math Homework

The weekly Math Problem of the Week is now due on Wednesdays. A new problem will be given each Wednesday. This is in coordination with the other Grade 2/3 classes.

I apologize for any confusion!

Have a great Thanksgiving week-end!

Mme Dungo

Chalking it up to Social Studies!

Last week, our class took advantage of some fine weather and used the pavement and chalk to make maps of the first floor of our school.

Grade 2 Mapping Expectation:

-construct and read a variety of graphs, charts, diagrams, maps, and models to clarify
and display information

Grade 3 Mapping Expectation:

-make and use maps of urban and rural communities containing the necessary map elements of title, scale, symbols and legend, and cardinal directions

-consult map legends when looking for selected features (e.g., H – hospital)

Terry Fox Run September 30th

Thank you to all those who have made a contribution to the Terry Fox Foundation. On September 30, our class along with the whole Clairlea Public School Community took part in running and walking for cancer awareness, prevention and cure.

Some memorable moments on our run!