Lion or Lamb?

We have had a busy week since coming back from our week long holiday!
Here are some of the things we have been learning about:

• Language Arts - Our Phonics lessons have centred around the "bossy r" sound (ar, or, er).  We have been learning how to read and spell words with these patterns.  We have also been learning how to retell stories to improve our comprehension skills.  Next week, students will be taking turns retelling books that they've read or have had read to them.  We learned that a good retelling includes the following:  story title, character names, setting (where, when), beginning, middle and end events in order, a problem (if applicable) and solution.  This retelling will take place during our regular Sharing Time each morning.  Writing lessons have focused on organization; making sure our stories have a good beginning, middle and end, as well as including interesting details.
• Math - Students have been practicing writing adding and subtracting stories.  The focus has been on students' understanding the difference between combining groups (addition) and separating (subtraction).  Next week we will have a test to see how well students understand these concepts. The children need to be able to write their own math story, draw a picture that represents the action taking place and write a number sentence.  Example:  There are 7 children at the park.  Then 4 go home.  How many are left? (7 - 4 = 3)
• Health - Our current unit is about the heart, lungs and brain and how we can take care of these organs and keep them healthy.
• Social Studies - Students are really enjoying learning about maps.  We started off by looking at the map of our town, then our province and now our country.  We have had fun using Google Earth to see a "bird's eye view" of the area where we live.
• Art - We made lions and lambs!