Newsletter!

Hello Parents and Guardians of Grade One and Two

This letter is a quick update to let you know about the things we have been doing in April and what is still to come in our final two months!

I would like to start off my May newsletter with a reminder for parents and students that the year is starting to wind down but there is a lot of work still to do! Please stay focused in class and do your best to put your best effort into all that you do here.  

Literacy

Reading: We are finishing up our reader's theatre units, the presentations will be the afternoon of Friday May the 5th. Next we will be starting our reading different sources unit where we will be exploring newspapers, comic books, magazines, guides and all sorts of other reading materials.

Writing and Oral: As we finish our reader’s theatre units we will be moving onto our persuasive writing units where students will be learning how to form and write a persuasive argument such as why they should be allowed to stay up late.

Reading Responses: May will be our last month of reading responses. After May we will be starting to pack up and make sure we have all of our books in our class library. Please keep in mind that if the red folder is at home I can not send home a new book until the last one has been returned.

Math

We have finished looking at time and are now into addition and subtraction. We have started with a fun ten day double decker problem that gets students thinking and exploring numbers in a whole new way!

Health

We are now well into our unit on personal safety, and will soon be exploring all the things to do with fire safety and medicine safety.

Phys. Ed

We have been introducing and working on a number of new cooperative games as well as floor hockey. I hope the students are having as much fun playing as I am teaching!

Social Studies

We have finished maps and are now well into our local communities work. Please keep sending in those boxes as I hope that we can build our own community very soon!

Science

Structures have started! In class we are now on to structures in grade one and simple machines in grade two. Both grades are exploring what makes a structure work and what makes a simple machine. We will be kicking off this unit with some Scientists in the School explorations.

Some important dates and what I have been up to:

Over the last few weeks I have been busy booking events for all the grade one and two classes. You will see these events listed below. I believe that it is important that all the classes are included and that the students get a chance to work with everyone from all the classes. This is very important as many of them may be working with each other next year.

I have also been attending the fosnot math and 4c’s math conferences and will be bringing some new fun and hands on ways to do math into our classroom.

May 8th Grade Two Scientists in the School. Please pay at School Cash Online.

May 9th Grade One Scientists in the School.

May Date to be Announced: Visit from the fire department.

June 8th we will be visiting Round The Bend Farms. More information to come home soon.

June 16th Police visit.

Thank you again and as always my door is always open please do not hesitate to call or come in for a meeting if there are any questions I am able to be reached on Mrs. Allega’s class extension.

Thank you !

Mr. Hussey

How Humans Affect Animals

Today let's learn about how we humans affect other animals

Lets list examples of...

How we can destroy habitat.

Pets that maybe shouldn't be pets.

Fashion and Food examples from animals.

Who can tell me what endangered means?

Now lets brainstorm on chart paper how we can help animals!

Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis is the change of shape during an animal's life.

Insects!

Lets learn all about insects :)

Here are some insect facts

1. Insects are invertebrates, They have no back bone. 

2. They are cold blooded 

3. Their body is made up of three parts

4. They have six legs

5. They lay many eggs

6. Insects have antennae

Mapping- Continents and Oceans

Today we are going to be learning about the oceans that surround continents. There are four lets look at them now!




Who can name one of the five oceans?

Lets see if we can match some now!
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/World_Continents.htm

When you are done your worksheet you may go back to this site!

Fish

Fish Fish and more Fish!

1. Cold Blooded Animals!

2. Hatch From Eggs

3. Most have scales on their bodies 

4. Must live in water

5. Breath through gills

Mapping- Continents.

Today in class we are looking at Continents. They are the seven large landmasses on the earth. Lets learn about them!




Who can name some of the continents?

What continent do we live on?

What is the biggest continent? 

Let's match some on this website!
 http://www.softschools.com/social_studies/continents/map.jsp

Birds and Adaptations!

Today we are talking about Birds!

Some Key Features!

1. Warm Blooded

2. Hatch from eggs

3. Have Feathers covering their bodies

4. Have two legs and two wings

5. Their bones are hallow

A quick video !

Adaptations

An adaptation a behavior or physical characteristic that help the animal survive where they live.

Two types!

1. Physical: Parts or features of the animal that help it survive! Such as the fur on a bear or a beak on a bird. 

2. Behavioral: Things an animal does in order to survive such as migration in the winter time. 

Bird Beaks and Feet (Adaptations)

Experiment Time!

Birds and Beaks

You will have two attempts to collect as much food as possible from in front of you using, tongs, tweezers, slotted spoons, eyedroppers and more.

Each one is like a type of bird beak figure out what food it is best suited for!

There are snails- macaroni

Grubs or bugs- m and m’s and raisins.

Nectar- red water

Seeds

Flesh- staples in cardboard

Birds and Beaks- Observation Page

Draw a picture of the experiment

The two beaks I used were:

1. ___________________________________
2. ___________________________________

The first beak worked well with _______________ kind of food. This tells me it would be used in the wild to eat _____________ kind of food and would belong to a _______________ bird.  

The second beak worked well with _______________ kind of food. This tells me it would be used in the wild to eat _____________ kind of food and would belong to a _______________ bird.  

What I am looking for check list

• Detailed picture
• Works well independently
• Able to answer the questions with little teacher assistance
• Can identify foods and beaks types
• When asked I can talk about the different beak types and how they work
• Uses multiple beaks and can relate them to how birds feed

Amphibians

Today in class we are going to be learning about Amphibians!

Key Facts!
1. Cold Blooded Animals
2. Hatch From eggs laid in water
3. No Scales
4. Have smooth skin that must be kept wet
5. Have four limbs
6. Babies breath through Gills







Spend some time on Brain pop Jr. To learn more about Amphibians!

Our Globe The Earth!

You started today by colouring in a globe all the land was green and the water was blue. How did you know what was water and what was land?

Lets learn a little more about or planet and the fancy map we call a globe!




Let's review! 

Word Bank: The Earth, Copy, North Pole, South Pole, Equator, North, South. 

Looking at a globe is like looking at _____________ from space!

A globe is a small ______________ of the earth. 

At the top of the globe is the ___________________

At the bottom of the globe is ____________________

The Line around the middle of the earth is called the ________________________ this is where the earth is hottest!

Above the equator is called the ___________________ hemisphere. 

Below the equator is called the ______________________ hemisphere. 

BONUS! Hemisphere means_____________________ a sphere. 

Food Energy- Grade one Science!

Today we are looking at how we get energy from the sun and the food chain!

Lets look at this chain! where does the different energy come from for each thing? Are they all connected?

EGG

CHICKEN

GRAIN

SUN

Lets come up with some more animals and their sources of energy!

Reptiles

Today we are going to be learning about reptiles! Here are some quick facts. 

1. Reptiles are cold blooded animals
2. Hatch from eggs laid on land
3. Have scales or bony plates on its limbs
4. have four short limbs or no limbs at all.