Week 21 in Portable 2

Friday, February 8, 2019

We just finished week 21 in portable 2. Here is a glimpse of what we were up to:

Speeches  – Seven students mustered up the courage to say their speech in front of the class on Friday. I am very proud of them because I know how hard it is and they did it. WOOHOO!!! As we say in class, feel the fear and do it anyways!!! The class enjoyed learning about the many different topics. We heard Edith who spoke about The History of Women’s Rights, Cam who spoke about The HMCS Ojibwa (an Oberon-class submarine that served in the Royal Canadian Navy), Caleb who spoke about Sheep, Austin who spoke about Ohsweken Speedway and his cousin Dylan Westbrook (who races cars at Ohsweken Speedway), Paityn who spoke about Monopoly, Emma who spoke about Life as a Twin, and Ivy who spoke about her Cats. I look forward to hearing the rest of the speeches this week (seven done and seventeen left to go).

Listening Journal – While students are listening to the speeches, they record some of what they are learning in a listening journal. A listening journal is a great way for students to keep focused and record their learning. It’s also a good way for me to know if they are actually listening to the speeches instead of going on mind trips (LoL). There is a lot that can be learned from their classmates and speeches are a good opportunity to learn something new.

Dribblin’ and Shootin’ – We played this game during gym class to practice our dribbling and shooting skills for basketball. It was team odd vs team even and they had to face off against another person to dribble down the court and shoot the ball in the net. They kept taking shots until one of them got it in. The student that got the ball in first, got a point for their team. The score was very close and the competition was tough. Team Even ended up winning. We will see who wins next week when we play again.

Math – Students continued to explore the tenths place and the decimal place (and how it relates to the ones place, tens place, hundreds place, and thousands place). We practiced counting by tenths this week with a hands on activity. We pretended to be the owners of a brand new candy company called, Handy Candy. Whole packs of Handy Candy contain ten pieces of candy so, one piece of candy is one tenth of a whole pack (0.1 or 1/10) and two pieces of candy is two tenths of a whole pack (0.2 or 2/10) ….. and so on. We had a big bin full of candy (pretend candy) and we had to determine how many whole boxes we needed to buy so that we could put the Handy Candy out in stores to sell. After determining how many boxes we would need to buy to pack up our handy candy, students investigated fractions of a whole by exploring the answers to these questions: If Mrs. Pragnell ate five pieces of the whole pack, what fraction of the whole pack did she eat?   (five tenths of the whole pack   or  one half of the whole pack)       AND      If Mrs. Pragnell ate two and a half pieces of the whole pack, what fraction of the whole pack did she eat?    (one quarter of the whole pack)

Research (Reading and Writing) – Students continued researching information for a report they are writing about a Physical Region in Canada. Students are researching one of six physical regions: Cordillera, Arctic, Appalachian, Interior Plains, Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands, or Canadian Shield. Students are using reliable sources to read, research, and write their non-fiction report. Some of the sub-topics include: Climate, Physical Features, Natural Resources, and Industries.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to email me at julie.pragnell@granderie.ca OR call me at school: 519-443-8942.

-Mrs. Julie Pragnell