February 2006 Newsletter

Mr. McGaughey’s Grade 4

February Newsletter

Please visit our new class website regularly at
http://par.scdsb.on.ca/classes/mcgaughey

New on the Website: 126 Ways to Show You Care, mp3 recordings of each
child’s speech, How to Play Doctor Dodgeball .

As the year progresses I will continue to post reminders, classroom
news, and examples of student work on our class web page.

Speech Presentations in Gym: Wednesday February 8, 12:30pm: 2 Students
from each junior class will be presenting their speeches. The
representatives from our class will be Tommy Tripp on snowboarding, and
Gillian Hutton on the Trent-Severn Waterway.

Units this Month:

Tuesday February 14: Scholastic Arrow book orders due.

Science: We are continuing our unit on Properties of Light and Sound.

Science Quiz—Light and Sound- February 20

Language Arts: We will be continuing our novel study of Chocolate Fever
Robert Kimmel Smith.

Health and Phys-Ed, Drama and Dance: We are learning dances such as The
Bunny Hop, and the Chicken Dance. Our focus in Phys-Ed is on aerobic
fitness and healthy lifestyles.

Math: Chapter 7: 2D Geometry: To be completed by Feb 14. Test Chapter 7:
Monday February 13

Chapter 6- Multiplication and Division Facts

For about three weeks, your child will be learning multiplication and
division facts to 9×9 =81. We will be using a variety of strategies to
remember these facts. The goal will be for your child to either recall
or be able to apply a strategy to find each fact. We will also be using
these facts to multiply by multiples of 10, such as 60, 80, and 200.

Throughout this time, you and your child can practise some activities
such as the following:

• Your child can look around for things that come in 5s, 6s, 7s, 8s, and
9s. Then they can ask and answer questions, such as “Our house has 5
front steps. How many front steps would 6 houses like ours have?” (30)

• Your child can use division to show sharing packaged or sets of
objects equally among family members. For example, this package has 24
cookies. Each person in our family can have 6 cookies because 24 ÷4 =6.

• Your child can locate items that come in arrays and identify the fact
family for each array. For example, a carton of eggs shows an array. The
fact family is 2×6=12, 6×2=12 , 12÷2 =6, and 12÷6=2.

• Your child can find items that have a measure which is a multiple of
10 or 100. Then they can ask and answer questions, such as “A new bar of
soap is 90 grams. How many grams are in 6 new bars of soap?” (540) and
explain how they know. (6×9 tens is 54 tens. 54 tens is 540.)

You may also want to visit the Nelson Web site at www.mathk8.nelson.com
for more suggestions to help your child with these units.

Sean McGaughey

Parkview School Phone #526-2091

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Speech Recordings

During the month of January, every junior student at Parkview School
prepared and presented a speech for their class. Each teacher chose two
students to represent their class for the school-wide competition.
Winners from the school competition will go on to the area competition
at Huron Park School. The representatives from our class are Tommy T. on
snowboarding, and Gillian on the Trent-Severn Waterway.

You can
listen to all the speeches by Mr. McGaughey’s students below.

Abbie
Baileigh
Ben
Bronte
Chloe
Danielle
Drew
Gillian
Jack
James
Joan
Joey
Josh
Kalton
Kate
Katie
Luke
A.

Luke
C.

Melissa
Quinn
Regan
Rowan
Symantha
Tanner
Thomas
Tommy
Troy

Dates to Remember

September 28: 9:30 volunteer orientation training

September 28: Scholastic Lucky Book Orders Due

September 29: Picture Day- Remember to bring back your order envelope.

October 5: Last Day for entries for the Fire Chief for the Day contest

October 6: Last day to return Fall Fair permission forms

October 8: Elmvale Fall Fair: Lunch at 11:15 (No Pizza). Parade starts at 12:00.

October 13: QSP Magazine Fundraising orders due

September Newsletter

I am Mr. McGaughey and I will be your child’s grade 2 teacher this year. Some of my interests include computers and music. I look forward to meeting you all. If you have any concerns and would like to phone or meet with me, I can be reached at the school at 322-1281, or you can email me at smcgaughey@huc.scdsb.on.ca . I can be available for meetings before or after school or at our mutual convenience.

1) Daily agenda and homework sheets.

• Your child will be bringing home a weekly timetable every day, which contains their homework, upcoming assignments, and important notices. Feel free to use the back of this sheet to communicate with me. I check the agendas every morning.

• Homework: Your child’s will have a reading log to record the books read at home. There will be a few math and spelling assignments for homework from time to time. I will send mathematics workbooks home weekly, so you can keep track of their progress.

2) We have 3 main Class rules posted in our room.

Rules for Grade 2

1. We respect teachers, other students and their property.

2. We keep our hands, feet and objects to ourselves.

3. We follow teacher directions the first time.

3) Poetry and Songs Booklet: Repeated reading of poems and songs is an excellent way to improve reading fluency. Every other week, I will add one or two new poems to practise in class. On Friday, your child will bring the poetry book home to read together with family members. Remember to return the poetry book home on Monday, so that we can begin our new poems.

4) Scholastic Book Orders: Ordering books for your child through Scholastic Book Clubs is a great way to encourage a love of learning, and it also helps to provide extra resources for the classroom. I will be sending out Scholastic order forms in the first week of each month, and they will be due back to school about a week later. Orders are usually delivered in one to two weeks.

5) Important days to remember in our class.

Monday: Poetry books back to school, Gym- Bring your Gym Clothes

Tuesday: Reading Buddies

Wednesday: Library—Bring your library book, Gym- Bring your Gym Clothes, Hot Dog Lunch $1.25

Friday: Poetry books go home, Pizza Lunch $1.25

I’m looking forward to a great year teaching your child in Grade 2.

Thank you,

Mr. S. McGaughey

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Paper Clip Chains and Graphs

by the whole class, Typed by Mr. McGaughey

Last week, we recorded how many paperclips we could link up in 2
minutes. We each made our own chain. We made a bar graph which shows
how many people made each length of chain. We used up half of the
school’s paperclip supplies (but we put them back). The longest
paperclip chain was 29 paperclips. The shortest chain was 5 paperclips.
The average chain was about 16 paperclips.

The purposes for this exercise were:

• Predict results, collect and organize data, and find the range.

• Construct a bar graph using appropriate intervals for the range of
data.

Here is a picture of our graph.

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Coming Up in Grade 4: December 1-9

Language Arts: We are reading and responding to Christmas and winter
stories.

Math: Chapter 3: Graphing: Over the next 2 weeks we will be learning
about various ways to collect and organize data, making pictographs and
bar graphs by hand and using a computer. Your child will also learn how
to interpret and extend different types of graphs and tables.

Science: Over the month of December, we will be doing a variety of
investigations and experiments to study the properties of sound.

Social Studies: We are continuing our study of Canada and its regions.

Phys-Ed.: We are doing a unit on pre-volleyball skills.

November 30- December 2: Student Involved Conferences

Our Word Wall Words for December 1-9 are:

Math

graph

survey

pictograph

Science

sound

wave

volume

ear

drum

December Words

angel

Santa Claus

snow

Christmas

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Meet The Teacher Night

Welcome to the HCES Open House.

Our class has been making self-portraits on the computer using KidPix. Some of the students have finished. Click here to see our self portraits.

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Coming up in Grade 4 November 7-11

Language Arts: Setting up reading response Journals, Remembrance
day poetry and songs

Math: More addition, subtraction and estimation with 4 digit
numbers

Art: We will make Remembrance Day Posters in Class.

Science (Rocks and Minerals) Quiz November 9 Please review the
notes in your Science folder.

Materials assessed will include: What is the difference between rocks
and minerals? How are rocks and formed? What are the 3 types of rocks?
What is the difference between rocks and minerals? How are fossils
formed? What is the hardest mineral? How do we measure the hardness of
minerals? How do people use rocks and minerals in their everyday lives?

Social Studies (Mapping- Canada and its Provinces) Quiz November
11

The quiz will cover material we studied about mapping and Canada. The
skills assessed will be:

– Name all 10 provinces and 3 territories and identify them on a map.

– Capital cities of Canada and Ontario (and at least 3 other provinces).

– Be able to locate Midland, Georgian Bay and the 5 great lakes on a map

– Use a map legend to estimate the distance between 2 places.

– Make a map of a familiar place (ie. classroom) including a legend

– Use a map grid to find places on a map.

November 11: Remembrance Day Assembly

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Skating Fun!

We went skating today. It was fun. Some of us skated very fast. We get to go to the Elmvale Arena three more times. Liam’s birthday is on our third skating day.

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Coming Up in Grade 4 October 28-November 4

Reading: Read 15 minutes nightly at home.

We will be doing a reading assessment during the week of October
31-November 4.


Writing: We are finishing up our Halloween stories. We will be
putting them in a class book and on our class website.

Art:

Halloween Artwork is due to Mrs. Downer Friday October 28.

Mrs. Tripp is coming to teach us a Halloween Craft on October 28.


Math: Chapter 2 tests are going home Thursday October 28. Please
review the test with your child, sign it and return it to school.

We are beginning Chapter 4- Addition and Subtraction:

Goals:

Estimate sums and differences

Add and subtract with 4-digit numbers

Add and subtract numbers mentally

Create and solve addition and subtraction problems.

More information about this Unit can be found on the Nelson Math website
at http://www.mathk8.nelson.com/math4/

We will return to Chapter 3 after we have completed chapter 4.

Science (Rocks and Minerals) Quiz November 9

Social Studies (Mapping- Canada and its Provinces) Quiz November
11

Halloween: October 31, 2005.

Children are not to wear costumes in the morning. They will change into
costumes for the afternoon.

We are going to have a class Halloween snack and party for part of the
afternoon. If you would like to bring snacks, please bring healthy
snacks.

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