Tuesday, February 8

 Hi parents,

We had a good day today. In the morning, the students worked on math problems, practiced spelling, and finished up work from yesterday. 

We finished reading the first "Secrets of Droon" book and the class answered comprehension questions about the final chapter. Then, they gave it a rating out of 5 stars, and wrote a book review. The objective of this review was to justify their rating using specific things from the book. This task proved to be a lot more difficult than anticipated - we had to talk extensively about why "I liked it because it was good because I liked it" is not really a valid reason to like a book.  

There has also been quite a lot of pushback against 'editing' for some reason, so we're going to have to keep focusing on it for a while. If you have time to practice at home, that could actually be super helpful.

Even just doing a 5 minute activity each day could make a huge difference. Here are a couple of ideas if you're interested!

1. Write a simple sentence with incorrect punctuation and capitalization, and possibly some sight words spelled incorrectly. Ask your child to identify the errors and rewrite the sentence correctly.

2. Ask your child to write 1-2 simple sentences about their school day (e.g "Today I learned about Iqaluit."), with a focus on finger spacing, neatness, and appropriate capitalization. 

I think we'll also start adding a quick 'editing' activity to our morning work period.

We learned the multiplication strategy of 'repeated addition'. For example, rewriting the equation 5 x 4 = 20 as 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 20. The class did a few problems in their math books. Easy peasy. 

In the afternoon, we read about the Inuit people of Iqaluit, and their unique history living in Canada's north. 

Tomorrow is our Soapstone Carving art project! I hope our recent lessons help make this activity extra enjoyable and meaningful.

We ended our day with Music.

Have a nice night,

Zac