"Greece"d Lightning

GREECE!

A place of awesomeness.A place of adventure.A place of knowledge. A place of creation.

Greece was divided into many city-states.

The two most famous city-states were Athens and Sparta.

Athens was a democratic city state. A place that started  a good democratic goverment.

Sparta was a strike army camp place. Sparta conquered many lands.

Other city-states weren't as popular as those two.

We have learned a lot about Greece.

We did art for Greece.(Pottery)

We are doing a project on Greece right now with computers.

And we will make brochures on the laptops in the libary.

Written by student bloggers

Track and Field

 Dear Parents:
On Thursday May 3rd, 2012, Grade 4's and 5's had track and field.
What is Track and Field you ask? I will tell you. Track and Field is when you race some kids, or do jumping events, and whoever comes 1st, 2nd or 3rd will get to go to a "STADIUM" and race other kids that are the same age as us from different schools. Some kids in our class p.13 made it to the finals.  They will go to a stadium where they will race each other. It is really, really fun to race, but also hard because you get tired.  The distances run were Sprints, 200m, and 400m, and the jumping was standing long jump, running long jump, and triple jump.

Good luck to everyone who is moving on.

Student bloggers

Important Assignments

Hello families of P. 13:

I'd just like to keep everyone up-to-date about important assignments that are due.

For Media, students have been working on analysing songs that deal with "Change".  We are now creating CD covers/booklets that show images/words/messages from the songs.  The final product is due on Friday, May 4.  Students have had several hours in-class to work on this, and have one more in-class work session tomorrow (Tuesday, May 1).

Next week, students will sign up for a day to do a Book Talk (May 7 - 11).  Students should have read a chapter book/novel that is appropriate for their level of reading.  They are to present their book to the class in a creative way (power point presentation, poster that sells the book, radio or TV ad for the book, newspaper, puppet show, triorama or diorama that shows important characters/scenes from the book, letters to the author or characters, a talk show, a mobile, a comic strip, a story board, etc.).  Their book talk should include all the important aspects of a narrative (characters, setting, plot, problem/solution), and should show their understanding of point of view (whose side of the story is being told), and opinion (why did do characters do the things they did, why is the setting important, how they relate to the book and why).  Their Book Talk should not just be a re-tell of the story.  It should show a deeper understanding of the messages in the book, what the characters are like as people, how they connect to people or situations in the book, what inferences they can make (e.g., the author may have had a similar experience as a child.  I can tell this because in the book.....).  Students have had several hours in class to work on this in class, and will have one more work session tomorrow (Tuesday, May 1).

On Friday, May 4, there is also a Math assignment due.  Students were to create a petting zoo with several enclosures for various animals.  They had to show the appropriate dimensions for that size animal, and calculate the perimeter and area of each animal enclosure.  Once again, students had several hours in-class to work on this, and must now finish at home.

Thank you for your continued support of your child's work.

Ms. Bordonaro

EARTH HOUR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Earth hour is a time to save electricity, and make the world a better place. Everyone around the world is saving energy to show how much we love the world. During Earth Hour, you should turn off everything that is electrical to save ENERGY. During Earth Hour you could read, draw or do anything, but not anything electrical.  Earth Hour is actually tomorrow on March 31 from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.  But here at Thorncliffe Park P.S., we had Earth Hour today from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.  Since it was cloudy, it was a little dark in here, but we managed. So turn off all your electrical items tomorrow night, and do something together as a family! Have a wonderful EARTH HOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Share a wonderful weekend

YOURS TRULY,

 P 13

Greek Pottery!!!

In P.13, we did some pottery with Ms.Fountas, our student teacher.  It was soooooo much funnn!!
We chose our pots from greek books.Our pots had to explain things about ourselves, about what we like, and our lives.The main colours we used to paint our pots were red, brown and black! It took us about 2 days to finish them.  Every student had a different and uniqe pot.The pots were great, and Ms.Fountas and Ms. Bordonaro liked them too :D

Our pots turned out GREAT at the end.Thats what we did with the pottery! It is part of our study of Ancient Greek culture.  Pots were used in daily life, but are now considered works of art.  When archaeologists find them, we learn more about what life was like.

Student bloggers with input from Ms. Bordonaro

Language challenge - Making Big Words

Here is a fun activity you can do at home with your child.

Write and cut out the following letters.

A  P  I  T  S  M  O  E  O  A  M

Move the letters around and make as many words as you can.  The challenge is to make as many "big" words (4 or more letters), using only the letters you are given.  You cannot add letters.   You can only use double letters if there are actually two of them above (e.g., 2 O's).

The BIG challenge - the letters above are actually one word.  Scramble the letters to see if you can figure out what the 11-letter "big" word is!

Hint:  the students have seen and heard this word in the last couple of weeks in Social Studies!

Good luck!

Ms. Bordonaro

Term 2 Topics

Hello Portable 13 Families!!!!

We are a couple of weeks into Term 2, and it has been very active here in P. 13.

In the past few weeks, we have looked at Greek Myths (Language), CD covers (Media), Linear Measurement (Math), 3-D Geometry (Math), an Introduction to Ancient Civilizations (including the start of our Ancient Greece Unit), and sculpting (2-D and 3-D) and pottery-making in Art.  With Ms. Karavidas in Science, students are looking at Energy.  In Gym, students are learning yoga.  Students are learning a new song in Music.  For French, we created monsters, and described how many of different body parts they had.

In the next while here is what we will be working on:

Language - Persuasive Writing, Making Brochures, Making Newspapers, Giving opinions about our reading, and supporting that opinion with evidence from the text, Literature Circles, poetry and songs, making CD and DVD covers

Math - Mass (weight), Capacity (measurement of space in containers), Area, Perimeter, Volume (how much space 3-d shapes take up), Probability Games, Fractions and Decimals, Simple algebraic expressions

French - expressions with avoir, food, reading simple comics

Social Studies - comparing and contrasting two or more Ancient Civilizations, making a travel brochure showing the important aspects of Ancient Greece, making a newspaper showing the important aspects of a different ancient civilization, comparing Ancient Civlizations to life today

We have a lot to do before the end of the year, and students should continue to complete homework and assignments on time, and do their best work.  We want to be ready for middle school next year!

Try to ask your child specific questions about what they did in school.  Being a parent myself, I know that asking "What did you do today?" often leads to the answer "Nothing!".  If, however, you ask "What Writing assignment are you doing right now?" or "What was the Math lesson about today?", you might get a better description of what their day was like.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me through your child's agenda, and have your child tell me there is a note.  That is the best way to get in touch with me.

I look forward to working with all of your children throughout the rest of the year.

Ms. Bordonaro