Special volunteers this week:
-Amanda joined us on Monday. She is one of Shauna's former students from the University of Ottawa! She taught us a Health lesson.
-Alex joined us on Monday and helped out with Social Studies.
-Jeremy joined us on Tuesday to help with a small Math group.
Language
-small Guided Reading groups are meeting and discussing non-fiction texts. This week, we are continuing to practice the Reading Comprehension Strategy of Inferring. Inferring means to "read between the lines" and think about what the author means by using our reasoning skills and previous knowledge.
-we are continuing Author's Share, where students have a chance to read things that they've written to their class to get feedback. Here is what is expected of the sharing author and the audience.
-students love having Free Write time and many are successfully using the Drive to collaborate on creative stories that they are writing
-one by one, students are reading to volunteers. They spend five minutes reading aloud to practice their fluency (smoothness of reading) and then use their Reading Comprehension bookmarks to answer three questions to demonstrate their understanding of what they've read. If you'd like to come in and work with some students, please feel free to!
Math
-if you're practicing IXL at home, make sure grade 3s are working on S (Fractions), M (Logical Reasoning), P (Data and Graphs) and O (Time). and grade 4s are working their way through Q (Fractions), I (Logical Reasoning), L (Graphs) and O (Time). Don't forget, if you're logging on at home, you need to add "@churchillps" to your username!
-we finished our "Great Canadian Day Books", check with your child and ask him or her to tell time on analog clocks.
Social Studies
-we are discussing how to come to a consensus about our "Me on the Map" plan. We will be sending a final, collaborative plan to Adrienne and Jan for them to add to their proposal that they will be sharing with the mayor of Vancouver
Science
-
Phys Ed
-we are taking turns going outside with Gillian's class and practicing using snowshoes to get ready for our Gatineau trip on February 17th
Health
-We are looking at staple foods in different parts of the world
-Students are analyzing healthy and less healthy ("sometimes") foods for meals and snacks
Art
-students are finishing their #onelittleword projects - adding their words and photos and displaying them in the hallway - come take a look!
Drama
-we watched a video adaptation of a short story made by a class in Ottawa. Mr. Gorf is really well done and super funny! We were so interested in it that we watched it twice and wrote a letter to the class that made it.
French
-we are working on our dramatic play in French
Music
-
Tree Families
-our theme this month is perseverance. Our big idea is: Stick with something even if it is difficult!
-we'll be seeing our Tree Families on Wednesday from 8:10-8:40 a.m. to read the book "Enemy Pie"
-remember, parents are welcome to join Tree Families! You can join your child in a multi-age group every Wednesday morning for read alouds, discussions and activities!
Other News
-because we won't be at school on Valentine's Day or the Friday or Monday surrounding it, so we came up with the idea to celebrate "Snailentine's Day" instead. It's like Valentine's Day, but just for the Gladiator Snails! Snailentine's Day will be happening on Friday, February 20th That is also our cozy PJ Day.
-Hitchbot Jr has gone home with Ava Cat's family
-We discussed the dangers in telling stories and starting rumours and talked about how important it is to talk to an adult if there is something worrying you.
NOTE: This post will be updated periodically throughout the week, check back often for more updates!
Showing posts with label what we're up to. Show all posts
Showing posts with label what we're up to. Show all posts
Tuesday, 10 February 2015
Monday, 2 February 2015
What We're Up To This Week - February 2nd-6th, 2015
Special volunteers this week:
-Amanda joined us on Monday. She is one of Shauna's former students from the University of Ottawa!
-Genevieve joined us on Wednesday. She taught us an awesome Math lesson.
Language
-small Guided Reading groups are meeting and discussing non-fiction texts. This week, we are practicing the Reading Comprehension Strategy of Inferring. Inferring means to "read between the lines" and think about what the author means by using our reasoning skills and previous knowledge.
-we Skyped with a Journalism student and reporter on Ottawa's "Museum Beat". Jane Hobson told us a lot about being a reporter and we were excited to be the first people to ever interview HER! She talked about how reporters are storytellers and give voice to the voiceless. We learned about the need for the news to be balanced and tell both sides of the story. She gave us tips to be great storytellers and reporters: be curious and keep organized!
-we have started doing Author's Share, where students have a chance to read things that they've written to their class to get feedback. Here is what is expected of the sharing author and the audience.
-students love having Free Write time and many are successfully using the Drive to collaborate on creative stories that they are writing
-one by one, students are reading to volunteers. They spend five minutes reading aloud to practice their fluency (smoothness of reading) and then use their Reading Comprehension bookmarks to answer three questions to demonstrate their understanding of what they've read.
Math
-if you're practicing IXL at home, make sure grade 3s are working on "O and P" and grade 4s are working their way through "O, K, and L". Don't forget, if you're logging on at home, you need to add "@churchillps" to your username!
-we are continuing our exploration of perimeter and area using maps, pattern blocks and real life measurements
-students are working on their Canadian Day Books - they are practicing telling time on analog clocks and describing what they do at nine different times of the day
-Genevieve helped us practice our time telling skills with models all over the classroom, a fun interactive website and videos. Check out Clocks
-we finished our "Great Canadian Day Books"
Social Studies
Science
-we were gathering feedback for Alena and Anthony's prototype workshop from last Friday where we learned about and made fireflies. Students took the initiative to ask if they could add their feedback to a collaborative Google Doc.
-after cooling down from our GoNoodle marathon session today, we did our mindful breathing exercise called "Airtime". Our "journey" has taken us to a Chinese space station. We started to talk about space stations, and looked at some photos from the "Heavenly Palace" and "International Space Station". Life with zero gravity is fascinating. Drinking water, going to the washroom, sleeping, exercising and making food are all interesting challenges.
-we brought in our fireflies and sat in the dark of the Gym stage. Students demonstrated four different lighting patterns of fireflies. You can practice them at home, too!
Phys Ed
-GoNoodle has an awesome new Champ Training program. We ran and boogied until we were all red in the face! The new game allows you to answer Health questions while you're exercising.
-we "flew" around the Gym, using the lighting patterns of fireflies to inspire us. Trying to guess which firefly our classmates were representing was challenging!
-students created their own gym activities - paying attention to their bodies in space, cardiovascular endurance, cooperation and innovation
Health
-Amanda introduced us to life for children around the world. We started to look at the different types of food people eat in different places.
Art
-we looked at Walt Disney's 1928 short, Steamboat Willie and talked about the funny limbs (rubber hoses!) of the characters and how it is an important movie because synchronized sound is used through the whole film. We, of course, had a little Steamboat Willie dance party, too!
-students are finishing their #onelittleword projects - adding their words and photos and displaying them in the hallway - come take a look!
Drama
-Adrienne and Jan came in with their participatory theatre performance, "Me on the Map". It was AWESOME! Check out what we thought on our Collaborative Feedback form.
French
-we are getting to know our new French teacher, Jennifer, through games and art activities. We even got to learn some new words by doing Yoga - in French!
Music
-we practiced writing treble clefs
-we are getting started with ukuleles - we are pretty excited about it!
Tree Families
-our theme this month is perseverance. Our big idea is: Stick with something even if it is difficult!
-we'll be seeing our Tree Families on Wednesday from 8:10-8:40 a.m. for a Family Meeting
-remember, parents are welcome to join Tree Families! You can join your child in a multi-age group every Wednesday morning for read alouds, discussions and activities!
Other News
-Ottawa broke the world record for number of snowmen built in an hour! James and Mariko helped make it happen on Sunday. One of James' snowmen (and James himself) were featured on the news.
-Wyerton Willie's smiling face cracked us up! We are happy that he forecast an early spring, but don't really believe in the superstition.
-Raphie came back from the Dominican Republic and brought photos of him covered in squirrel monkeys. That, of course, spurred a great conversation about monkeys and apes! We talked about a King Squirrel Monkey named "Goldie", a lonely orangutan and the danger their species is in, gorillas and their canine teeth and close encounters!
-because we won't be at school on Valentine's Day or the Friday or Monday surrounding it, so we came up with the idea to celebrate "Snailentine's Day" instead. It's like Valentine's Day, but just for the Gladiator Snails! That is also our cozy PJ Day.
-We looked at an interesting map of a city - and most of us immediately thought it was EPCOT. It's actually Paris!
-Hitchbot Jr has gone home with Toni's family. He is enjoying his visit and they'll be taking him on adventures with his GPS and we'll be able to track where he's been!
NOTE: This post will be updated periodically throughout the week, check back often for more updates!
-Amanda joined us on Monday. She is one of Shauna's former students from the University of Ottawa!
-Genevieve joined us on Wednesday. She taught us an awesome Math lesson.
Language
-small Guided Reading groups are meeting and discussing non-fiction texts. This week, we are practicing the Reading Comprehension Strategy of Inferring. Inferring means to "read between the lines" and think about what the author means by using our reasoning skills and previous knowledge.
-we Skyped with a Journalism student and reporter on Ottawa's "Museum Beat". Jane Hobson told us a lot about being a reporter and we were excited to be the first people to ever interview HER! She talked about how reporters are storytellers and give voice to the voiceless. We learned about the need for the news to be balanced and tell both sides of the story. She gave us tips to be great storytellers and reporters: be curious and keep organized!
-we have started doing Author's Share, where students have a chance to read things that they've written to their class to get feedback. Here is what is expected of the sharing author and the audience.
-students love having Free Write time and many are successfully using the Drive to collaborate on creative stories that they are writing
-one by one, students are reading to volunteers. They spend five minutes reading aloud to practice their fluency (smoothness of reading) and then use their Reading Comprehension bookmarks to answer three questions to demonstrate their understanding of what they've read.
Math
-if you're practicing IXL at home, make sure grade 3s are working on "O and P" and grade 4s are working their way through "O, K, and L". Don't forget, if you're logging on at home, you need to add "@churchillps" to your username!
-we are continuing our exploration of perimeter and area using maps, pattern blocks and real life measurements
-students are working on their Canadian Day Books - they are practicing telling time on analog clocks and describing what they do at nine different times of the day
-Genevieve helped us practice our time telling skills with models all over the classroom, a fun interactive website and videos. Check out Clocks
-we finished our "Great Canadian Day Books"
Social Studies
Science
-we were gathering feedback for Alena and Anthony's prototype workshop from last Friday where we learned about and made fireflies. Students took the initiative to ask if they could add their feedback to a collaborative Google Doc.
-after cooling down from our GoNoodle marathon session today, we did our mindful breathing exercise called "Airtime". Our "journey" has taken us to a Chinese space station. We started to talk about space stations, and looked at some photos from the "Heavenly Palace" and "International Space Station". Life with zero gravity is fascinating. Drinking water, going to the washroom, sleeping, exercising and making food are all interesting challenges.
-we brought in our fireflies and sat in the dark of the Gym stage. Students demonstrated four different lighting patterns of fireflies. You can practice them at home, too!
Phys Ed
-GoNoodle has an awesome new Champ Training program. We ran and boogied until we were all red in the face! The new game allows you to answer Health questions while you're exercising.
-we "flew" around the Gym, using the lighting patterns of fireflies to inspire us. Trying to guess which firefly our classmates were representing was challenging!
-students created their own gym activities - paying attention to their bodies in space, cardiovascular endurance, cooperation and innovation
Health
-Amanda introduced us to life for children around the world. We started to look at the different types of food people eat in different places.
Art
-we looked at Walt Disney's 1928 short, Steamboat Willie and talked about the funny limbs (rubber hoses!) of the characters and how it is an important movie because synchronized sound is used through the whole film. We, of course, had a little Steamboat Willie dance party, too!
-students are finishing their #onelittleword projects - adding their words and photos and displaying them in the hallway - come take a look!
Drama
-Adrienne and Jan came in with their participatory theatre performance, "Me on the Map". It was AWESOME! Check out what we thought on our Collaborative Feedback form.
French
-we are getting to know our new French teacher, Jennifer, through games and art activities. We even got to learn some new words by doing Yoga - in French!
Music
-we practiced writing treble clefs
-we are getting started with ukuleles - we are pretty excited about it!
Tree Families
-our theme this month is perseverance. Our big idea is: Stick with something even if it is difficult!
-we'll be seeing our Tree Families on Wednesday from 8:10-8:40 a.m. for a Family Meeting
-remember, parents are welcome to join Tree Families! You can join your child in a multi-age group every Wednesday morning for read alouds, discussions and activities!
Other News
-Ottawa broke the world record for number of snowmen built in an hour! James and Mariko helped make it happen on Sunday. One of James' snowmen (and James himself) were featured on the news.
-Wyerton Willie's smiling face cracked us up! We are happy that he forecast an early spring, but don't really believe in the superstition.
-Raphie came back from the Dominican Republic and brought photos of him covered in squirrel monkeys. That, of course, spurred a great conversation about monkeys and apes! We talked about a King Squirrel Monkey named "Goldie", a lonely orangutan and the danger their species is in, gorillas and their canine teeth and close encounters!
-because we won't be at school on Valentine's Day or the Friday or Monday surrounding it, so we came up with the idea to celebrate "Snailentine's Day" instead. It's like Valentine's Day, but just for the Gladiator Snails! That is also our cozy PJ Day.
-We looked at an interesting map of a city - and most of us immediately thought it was EPCOT. It's actually Paris!
-Hitchbot Jr has gone home with Toni's family. He is enjoying his visit and they'll be taking him on adventures with his GPS and we'll be able to track where he's been!
NOTE: This post will be updated periodically throughout the week, check back often for more updates!
Friday, 30 January 2015
What We Did This Week - January 26th-30th, 2015
Special volunteers this week:
-We had Jeremy and Sue to help with work. My mom came to help with Tree Families. We have people joining us for skating - Mutsumi, Michael, Graeme, Patrick, Gerard and Silvia -Lilah
Language
-we went up to the library and got books. - Ike
-we are continuing to work on our #OneLittleWord projects.
-we did Free Writing where we could write about anything we wanted -Ike
-we made a book for Lise and we wrote about what she can do when she's retired and we'll miss her. I wrote that she can go to an island and meet sharks and drink from coconuts. It was just cute. We made a pretend page from the degus. They said, "Now you won't kick our ball anymore!". Lise thought it was really funny! -Sophie
-when we were on the carpet, Shauna gave us each one strand of spaghetti that wasn't cooked. She showed us that since we couldn't go to gym because there was another class in there. She showed us that she was proud that we didn't just snap like a raw spaghetti, but we were flexible like a cooked spaghetti -Rowan
Math
-if you're practicing IXL at home, make sure grade 3s are working on "O and P" and grade 4s are working their way through "O, K, and L". Don't forget, if you're logging on at home, you need to add "@churchillps" to your username!
-We are working on our little books about what daily life is like in Canada at nine different times of the day.
-So, we have a book and we either can pick a weekend or a week day and it's about time. Day book. We are going to share our books that we made with people from different places. - Ava Cat
-we are exploring area and perimeter - on Tuesday, we played with pattern blocks and discovered how to calculate area of one block and two blocks put together in a composite shape. Some people were surprised that they couldn't just add the perimeters of their two separate shapes to discover the perimeter of a composite shape.
-we're making these maps to create a really cool park with a bunch of activities that people can go it. The total area is 100 units squared. Each attraction can be 10 square units. You can use 10 attractions. You have to have 40 square units of green space. I know we are doing "Me on the Map", but only Ava Cat and I know what that is - Oyster
Social Studies
-we are continuing to explore "Project Explorer" and are going to be doing a lot with this website this month.
-we watched two Canada videos on Project Explorer and discussed what we learned with Gillian's class. We were interested to learn that curling was invented in Scotland! We voted on our favourite maple syrup treats and shared memories of visiting the Sugar Bush.
Science
-on Friday, Alena and Anthony will be coming in for our biology/3D printing firefly workshop
-we're doing the, they are humongous like robot fireflies - Ali
Phys Ed
-in Gym, we played a modified version of World Domination that was purposefully unfair. We talked about how there are some real situations in life that are unfair and even though someone or one group has an advantage or a disadvantage, it doesn't mean we can predict exactly what will happen
-we did a lot of Phys Ed in the past, we did World Domination with very not working teams. Unfair teams. I was the only one on my team. I never got off the team. We did it to be interesting -Tom
-I'm pretty sure our favourite game is World Domination -Shaner
Health
-we learned about Brain Gym and how some simple movements connect the two sides (hemispheres) of our brains and help us focus and think. We practiced Cross Crawl, Lazy 8s and doing tiny Lazy 8s on our friends' backs
-In Brain Gym, if our brains are wiggly waggly and we need to calm down, you can do Lazy 8s by putting your head on your shoulder and draw 8s like they're lying down. Or you can do Cross Crawls, or you can point at someone and do an 8 in the air, someone can do Lazy 8s on your back. For Cross Crawls, you can do them in the coatroom.-Liamchu
Art
-We are doing something called #OneLittleWord, you have to say 7 things you're good at, 5 things you're working on and one little word to keep you on track with those things. Then you plan 3 ways to achieve that. Then, you make a painting with water paint and put your picture on and cut out things for your word and put that on your painting. We put salt on the paint too and after a day, you brush it off and it looks cool -Katie
French
-Friday, it was Lise's last day. So we celebrated it. The things that we do in French are Pouce and Around the World. Sometimes, we do Violetter, Orange et Vert and Les Carrottes - Indi
Music
Tree Families
-our theme this month is integrity. Our big idea is: stand up for what you believe in
-we'll be seeing our Tree Families on Wednesday from 8:20-9:40 a.m. for our Workshops!
-remember, parents are welcome to join Tree Families! You can join your child in a multi-age group every Wednesday morning for read alouds, discussions and activities!
-In Tree Families, we did Workshops, we missed the last one, but this one, my Tree Family did board games with Heather, but everyone else does everything else with another teacher -Indi
Other News
NOTE: This post will be updated periodically throughout the week, check back often for more updates!
-We had Jeremy and Sue to help with work. My mom came to help with Tree Families. We have people joining us for skating - Mutsumi, Michael, Graeme, Patrick, Gerard and Silvia -Lilah
Language
-we went up to the library and got books. - Ike
-we are continuing to work on our #OneLittleWord projects.
-we did Free Writing where we could write about anything we wanted -Ike
-we made a book for Lise and we wrote about what she can do when she's retired and we'll miss her. I wrote that she can go to an island and meet sharks and drink from coconuts. It was just cute. We made a pretend page from the degus. They said, "Now you won't kick our ball anymore!". Lise thought it was really funny! -Sophie
-when we were on the carpet, Shauna gave us each one strand of spaghetti that wasn't cooked. She showed us that since we couldn't go to gym because there was another class in there. She showed us that she was proud that we didn't just snap like a raw spaghetti, but we were flexible like a cooked spaghetti -Rowan
Math
-if you're practicing IXL at home, make sure grade 3s are working on "O and P" and grade 4s are working their way through "O, K, and L". Don't forget, if you're logging on at home, you need to add "@churchillps" to your username!
-We are working on our little books about what daily life is like in Canada at nine different times of the day.
-So, we have a book and we either can pick a weekend or a week day and it's about time. Day book. We are going to share our books that we made with people from different places. - Ava Cat
-we are exploring area and perimeter - on Tuesday, we played with pattern blocks and discovered how to calculate area of one block and two blocks put together in a composite shape. Some people were surprised that they couldn't just add the perimeters of their two separate shapes to discover the perimeter of a composite shape.
-we're making these maps to create a really cool park with a bunch of activities that people can go it. The total area is 100 units squared. Each attraction can be 10 square units. You can use 10 attractions. You have to have 40 square units of green space. I know we are doing "Me on the Map", but only Ava Cat and I know what that is - Oyster
Social Studies
-we are continuing to explore "Project Explorer" and are going to be doing a lot with this website this month.
-we watched two Canada videos on Project Explorer and discussed what we learned with Gillian's class. We were interested to learn that curling was invented in Scotland! We voted on our favourite maple syrup treats and shared memories of visiting the Sugar Bush.
Science
-on Friday, Alena and Anthony will be coming in for our biology/3D printing firefly workshop
-we're doing the, they are humongous like robot fireflies - Ali
Phys Ed
-in Gym, we played a modified version of World Domination that was purposefully unfair. We talked about how there are some real situations in life that are unfair and even though someone or one group has an advantage or a disadvantage, it doesn't mean we can predict exactly what will happen
-we did a lot of Phys Ed in the past, we did World Domination with very not working teams. Unfair teams. I was the only one on my team. I never got off the team. We did it to be interesting -Tom
-I'm pretty sure our favourite game is World Domination -Shaner
Health
-we learned about Brain Gym and how some simple movements connect the two sides (hemispheres) of our brains and help us focus and think. We practiced Cross Crawl, Lazy 8s and doing tiny Lazy 8s on our friends' backs
-In Brain Gym, if our brains are wiggly waggly and we need to calm down, you can do Lazy 8s by putting your head on your shoulder and draw 8s like they're lying down. Or you can do Cross Crawls, or you can point at someone and do an 8 in the air, someone can do Lazy 8s on your back. For Cross Crawls, you can do them in the coatroom.-Liamchu
Art
-We are doing something called #OneLittleWord, you have to say 7 things you're good at, 5 things you're working on and one little word to keep you on track with those things. Then you plan 3 ways to achieve that. Then, you make a painting with water paint and put your picture on and cut out things for your word and put that on your painting. We put salt on the paint too and after a day, you brush it off and it looks cool -Katie
French
-Friday, it was Lise's last day. So we celebrated it. The things that we do in French are Pouce and Around the World. Sometimes, we do Violetter, Orange et Vert and Les Carrottes - Indi
Music
Tree Families
-our theme this month is integrity. Our big idea is: stand up for what you believe in
-we'll be seeing our Tree Families on Wednesday from 8:20-9:40 a.m. for our Workshops!
-remember, parents are welcome to join Tree Families! You can join your child in a multi-age group every Wednesday morning for read alouds, discussions and activities!
-In Tree Families, we did Workshops, we missed the last one, but this one, my Tree Family did board games with Heather, but everyone else does everything else with another teacher -Indi
Other News
NOTE: This post will be updated periodically throughout the week, check back often for more updates!
Monday, 19 January 2015
What We're Up to This Week
Special volunteers this week:
Thank you to Sue and Donna who came in to help out in the classroom this week!
Thanks and welcome to our new friend from Ottawa U, Amanda, who will be joining us every Monday morning for the next several weeks!
Thank you so much to Liam and his parents for the amazing class set of headphones! Everyone was so excited to pick theirs out on Tuesday!
Thank you to Genevieve who joined us all day on Wednesday and taught us some awesome Math!
Jeremy came in to help with Math on Thursday. Thanks!
Nancy brought Merlin in to visit with us on Thursday afternoon - we love reading with Merlin!
Language
-on Monday, we exchanged our library books
-Guided Reading groups are continuing to meet. Students are discussing predictions, asking questions, making connections, skimming and scanning and summarizing. After we meet in our groups, students write an individual response.
-students are working one on one with Shauna to do 3 minute reading assessments.
-we are continuing to work on our #OneLittleWord projects. Students have come up with personal lists of things they are good at and things they are working on. Then, they looked at all those words and selecting one word that summarizes them and will work as a target for them all year. Then, students are writing three steps that will help them reach this one little word target. Finally, we are creating beautiful art works to represent our #OneLittleWord. Come by the classroom to see these in progress!
-Monday was Martin Luther King Jr Day. It is celebrated the Monday closest to his birthday (the same as Grace's birthday, January 15th, by the way!). We learned about non-violent protests, boycotts, Jim Crow laws, segregation and equality
Math
-we are going to finish filming our Norman Math videos. We promise! Seriously, we do! - stay tuned for those!
-if you're practicing IXL at home, make sure grade 3s are working on "O and P" and grade 4s are working their way through "O, K, and L". Don't forget, if you're logging on at home, you need to add "@churchillps" to your username!
-maps and globes communicate information about the world, but in different ways. We looked at how projections work, and why people put Europe in the middle of maps here in the western world. Students practiced working with words like: equator, Northern and Southern Hemispheres, North and South Poles, rotation, tilt and sphere.
-Genevieve gave us a Math Menu today. We all had to do a "Main Course", then pick some "Side Dishes". All of our questions were problem solving about time. We had to use our knowledge about analog clocks and our addition and subtraction skills to solve the problems.
-We are creating little books about what daily life is like in Canada. Each child is writing about nine times of day and what he/she is doing at those times. We are practicing writing the time on an analog and a digital clock and adding illustrations to show what we are up to. Coming up soon, we'll find out what people in other places in the world do in the course of a day.
Social Studies
-we are continuing to explore "Project Explorer" and are going to be doing a lot with this website this month.
-we located Singapore on a map and discovered how much smaller it was than Canada, but how densely populated it is. Compared to HUGE Canada filled with only 33 million people, it is tiny and filled with about 5 million. We talked about how different life must be in a densely populated country like Singapore.
-we looked at a really cool website that tracks the world's population live. Students were surprised that, out of about 7 billion people on earth, 1 billion of them live in China.
-we had a Mystery Skype with Mr. Windisch's class in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. We practiced asking good questions and using our geographic knowledge and skills to answer questions. They found where we were first! We liked hearing about their town, especially that they have a park called "Craters of the Moon Park" where astronauts train! Because of lava formations, the ground looks like it's covered in moon craters.
-we worked with Aynsley's class on Wednesday to learn about Inuit life. Together we created a slideshow sharing the facts we learned. Every student got an Inuit calendar to keep.
Science
-we learned about fireflies on Wonderopolis, Isaac suggested we listen to the song "Fireflies". After we listened to it, we looked the lyrics and made connections to other things we'd learned - like dance, the globe and how Mary Poppins and the kids cleaned their nursery!
-we were so excited to see where a search about "bioluminescence" led us - glowing pigs and snails with light backpacks!
-Baby Alice came in. She's 9.5 months old and we are so excited to see how much she's changed in the last four months that she's been visiting. She was so cute when she danced to Taylor Swift.
-we watched an episode of the show "North America" and learned about mountain goats and whales.
Phys Ed
-in Gym, we warmed up by practicing our directions and travelling across the space with hops, jumps, skips, running and bear crawls
-we talked about the purpose of physical education: cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, strength, endurance and teamwork
-students wanted to select their own activities in Gym, so we talked about expectations: we have to be safe and aware of our bodies, we have to include others, we have to use the space well, we have to use equipment appropriately. With that in our minds, we started five different activities in the Gym at the same time and everyone was active, safe and having fun
-we played "Tower Tumble" with Aynsley's class on Wednesday
-students got to join Shannon for another Volleyball lesson on Thursday, they had a great time learning and practicing skills.
-We've transmogrified another Go Noodle character. Because it was Shane's birthday, he got to pick our newest Champ - we'll be working with McPufferson now!
Health
-we ran out of soap in the classroom, so we all washed our hands in the bathrooms today. Things got a little chaotic, so we have a new system for how to wait our turn in the school bathroom and wash our hands respectfully.
Art
-Hudson got a beautiful piece of art that his cousins brought back from Singapore. We were very interested in the art, the Chinese characters and the way the artist signed his/her work with a chop. We have some special ink, paintbrushes and a practice mat to learn how to paint like this.
-certain colours and shapes have particular meanings and designers use those colours and shapes to communicate messages. For our #OneLittleWord projects, we talked about what meanings they have and how we can use them to create our own designs to match our words.
-we have new meditation balls in our classroom, and students are enjoying using them as quiet fiddly toys and to help them get calm and focused. One set has yin and yang symbols on them and we were interested to see what the yin-yang means. We learned that it means that there is a balance between different things - a little bit of light in dark and a little bit of dark in light.
Tree Families
-our theme this month is integrity. Our big idea is: stand up for what you believe in
-we'll be seeing our Tree Families on Wednesday at the school sharing
-remember, parents are welcome to join Tree Families! You can join your child in a multi-age group every Wednesday morning for read alouds, discussions and activities!
Other News
-students wrote a self evaluation of their Learning Skills: Responsibility, Organization, Initiative, Collaboration, Independent Work and Self Regulation. They took time to reflect on their progress and set goals for the coming months.
-our new Muppet has a name - Syd is happy to join their new friends, Norman and Hedwig. Syd is ungendered and prefers the pronoun "they", instead of "he" or "she". Syd looks a bit different and wears glasses. They were bullied in the past. Norman, Hedwig and Syd's new friends, the Gladiator Snails, will help teach Syd to use their WITS and deal with bullies in a positive way.
NOTE: This post will be updated periodically throughout the week, check back often for more updates!
Thank you to Sue and Donna who came in to help out in the classroom this week!
Thanks and welcome to our new friend from Ottawa U, Amanda, who will be joining us every Monday morning for the next several weeks!
Thank you so much to Liam and his parents for the amazing class set of headphones! Everyone was so excited to pick theirs out on Tuesday!
Thank you to Genevieve who joined us all day on Wednesday and taught us some awesome Math!
Jeremy came in to help with Math on Thursday. Thanks!
Nancy brought Merlin in to visit with us on Thursday afternoon - we love reading with Merlin!
Language
-on Monday, we exchanged our library books
-Guided Reading groups are continuing to meet. Students are discussing predictions, asking questions, making connections, skimming and scanning and summarizing. After we meet in our groups, students write an individual response.
-students are working one on one with Shauna to do 3 minute reading assessments.
-we are continuing to work on our #OneLittleWord projects. Students have come up with personal lists of things they are good at and things they are working on. Then, they looked at all those words and selecting one word that summarizes them and will work as a target for them all year. Then, students are writing three steps that will help them reach this one little word target. Finally, we are creating beautiful art works to represent our #OneLittleWord. Come by the classroom to see these in progress!
-Monday was Martin Luther King Jr Day. It is celebrated the Monday closest to his birthday (the same as Grace's birthday, January 15th, by the way!). We learned about non-violent protests, boycotts, Jim Crow laws, segregation and equality
Math
-we are going to finish filming our Norman Math videos. We promise! Seriously, we do! - stay tuned for those!
-if you're practicing IXL at home, make sure grade 3s are working on "O and P" and grade 4s are working their way through "O, K, and L". Don't forget, if you're logging on at home, you need to add "@churchillps" to your username!
-maps and globes communicate information about the world, but in different ways. We looked at how projections work, and why people put Europe in the middle of maps here in the western world. Students practiced working with words like: equator, Northern and Southern Hemispheres, North and South Poles, rotation, tilt and sphere.
-Genevieve gave us a Math Menu today. We all had to do a "Main Course", then pick some "Side Dishes". All of our questions were problem solving about time. We had to use our knowledge about analog clocks and our addition and subtraction skills to solve the problems.
-We are creating little books about what daily life is like in Canada. Each child is writing about nine times of day and what he/she is doing at those times. We are practicing writing the time on an analog and a digital clock and adding illustrations to show what we are up to. Coming up soon, we'll find out what people in other places in the world do in the course of a day.
Social Studies
-we are continuing to explore "Project Explorer" and are going to be doing a lot with this website this month.
-we located Singapore on a map and discovered how much smaller it was than Canada, but how densely populated it is. Compared to HUGE Canada filled with only 33 million people, it is tiny and filled with about 5 million. We talked about how different life must be in a densely populated country like Singapore.
-we looked at a really cool website that tracks the world's population live. Students were surprised that, out of about 7 billion people on earth, 1 billion of them live in China.
-we had a Mystery Skype with Mr. Windisch's class in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. We practiced asking good questions and using our geographic knowledge and skills to answer questions. They found where we were first! We liked hearing about their town, especially that they have a park called "Craters of the Moon Park" where astronauts train! Because of lava formations, the ground looks like it's covered in moon craters.
-we worked with Aynsley's class on Wednesday to learn about Inuit life. Together we created a slideshow sharing the facts we learned. Every student got an Inuit calendar to keep.
Science
-we learned about fireflies on Wonderopolis, Isaac suggested we listen to the song "Fireflies". After we listened to it, we looked the lyrics and made connections to other things we'd learned - like dance, the globe and how Mary Poppins and the kids cleaned their nursery!
-we were so excited to see where a search about "bioluminescence" led us - glowing pigs and snails with light backpacks!
-Baby Alice came in. She's 9.5 months old and we are so excited to see how much she's changed in the last four months that she's been visiting. She was so cute when she danced to Taylor Swift.
-we watched an episode of the show "North America" and learned about mountain goats and whales.
Phys Ed
-in Gym, we warmed up by practicing our directions and travelling across the space with hops, jumps, skips, running and bear crawls
-we talked about the purpose of physical education: cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, strength, endurance and teamwork
-students wanted to select their own activities in Gym, so we talked about expectations: we have to be safe and aware of our bodies, we have to include others, we have to use the space well, we have to use equipment appropriately. With that in our minds, we started five different activities in the Gym at the same time and everyone was active, safe and having fun
-we played "Tower Tumble" with Aynsley's class on Wednesday
-students got to join Shannon for another Volleyball lesson on Thursday, they had a great time learning and practicing skills.
-We've transmogrified another Go Noodle character. Because it was Shane's birthday, he got to pick our newest Champ - we'll be working with McPufferson now!
Health
-we ran out of soap in the classroom, so we all washed our hands in the bathrooms today. Things got a little chaotic, so we have a new system for how to wait our turn in the school bathroom and wash our hands respectfully.
Art
-Hudson got a beautiful piece of art that his cousins brought back from Singapore. We were very interested in the art, the Chinese characters and the way the artist signed his/her work with a chop. We have some special ink, paintbrushes and a practice mat to learn how to paint like this.
-certain colours and shapes have particular meanings and designers use those colours and shapes to communicate messages. For our #OneLittleWord projects, we talked about what meanings they have and how we can use them to create our own designs to match our words.
-we have new meditation balls in our classroom, and students are enjoying using them as quiet fiddly toys and to help them get calm and focused. One set has yin and yang symbols on them and we were interested to see what the yin-yang means. We learned that it means that there is a balance between different things - a little bit of light in dark and a little bit of dark in light.
Tree Families
-our theme this month is integrity. Our big idea is: stand up for what you believe in
-we'll be seeing our Tree Families on Wednesday at the school sharing
-remember, parents are welcome to join Tree Families! You can join your child in a multi-age group every Wednesday morning for read alouds, discussions and activities!
Other News
-students wrote a self evaluation of their Learning Skills: Responsibility, Organization, Initiative, Collaboration, Independent Work and Self Regulation. They took time to reflect on their progress and set goals for the coming months.
-our new Muppet has a name - Syd is happy to join their new friends, Norman and Hedwig. Syd is ungendered and prefers the pronoun "they", instead of "he" or "she". Syd looks a bit different and wears glasses. They were bullied in the past. Norman, Hedwig and Syd's new friends, the Gladiator Snails, will help teach Syd to use their WITS and deal with bullies in a positive way.
NOTE: This post will be updated periodically throughout the week, check back often for more updates!
Monday, 12 January 2015
What We're Up To This Week - January 12th-15th, 2015
This week, our spirit animal was a Snowshoe Hare. We tried to work as quietly as they look!
Special volunteers this week:
Thank you to Sue, Alex and Donna who came in to help out in the classroom this week!
Thanks to Alex, Carrie, Theresa and Michael for joining us on our field trip to the Art Gallery this week!
Thanks to our awesome Ottawa U friend, Genevieve for coming in and volunteering on Wednesday and teaching us a Math lesson! She did a great job teaching her first lesson to us and we were happy to give her feedback!
Language
-Guided Reading groups will continue this week with each of our five groups having their first meeting with me!
-we discussed how to make our "What Stuck With You Today?" surveys even more reflective and descriptive. Keep checking the blog to see how our reflections develop!
-students are working one on one with Shauna to do 3 minute reading assessments.
-we started to work on our #OneLittleWord projects. Students are coming up with personal lists of things they are good at and things they are working on. Then, they are looking at all those words and selecting one word that summarizes them and will work as a target for them all year. We made up #OneLittleWord for Norman - "Positive". Then, students are writing three steps that will help them reach this one little word target. Finally, we are creating beautiful art works to represent our #OneLittleWord. Come by the classroom to see these in progress!
Math
-we are going to finish filming our Norman Math videos. We promise! - stay tuned for those!
-students are working on their coordinate mapping and cardinal directions
-if you're practicing IXL at home, make sure grade 3s are working on "P" and grade 4s are working their way through "K" and "L". Don't forget, if you're logging on at home, you need to add "@churchillps" to your username!
-students are working individually and in small groups to practice their mapping skills. Today, we discovered that when someone says "Vancouver Island is ________ of Newfoundland", we have to carefully read the question to find out what it is asking. In this case, the "of" means we start in Newfoundland and talk about the relative direction to get to Vancouver Island.
-we realized that maps look different when they're up on the wall, on the floor and on a globe. It's important to figure out which way North is and then we can figure out the rest.
-Genevieve taught us strategies and tricks to help us tell time. We even became a huge clock and acted out different times.
Social Studies
-we are continuing to explore a website called "Project Explorer" and are going to be doing a lot with this website this month.
Science
-Baby Léo is now 8.5 months old. We've been studying him since he was only 5 months old and it's exciting to make predictions about how he will change and then to test and observe. On Monday, we did some research about what milestones we expect an 8 month old and a 9 month old baby to have reached. We tested to see which ones Léo had met and which ones he was still working towards. It was great to see how interactive he is getting and how much he seemed to enjoy his time with us this week!
-we are collaboratively working on a document to track Léo (and Alice)'s progress. Check it out.
-We watched "Shauna's News Show", which is Shauna reading news from the New York Times. We learned about a spacecraft that is getting close to Pluto - which is 3 billion miles away! It's taken nine years to get there - that's as long as many of us have been on this planet! We also learned about rising water levels due to global warming.
Phys Ed
-students were thrilled to have some time with Shannon to learn a new type of Volleyball.
Health
-Gillian's class continues to join us for Mindful Eating and we are becoming real pros at experiencing and enjoying our food using our five senses. In fact, our classroom has become a very exclusive restaurant called "209"! Ask your child how we manage to get reservations each day!
Art
-we are visiting the National Art Gallery this week to learn about sculpture and even create sculptures! We'll be in small groups with our Reading Buddies, who are so excited to get to spend a whole day with us!
-we had an amazing day at the National Gallery, touring around and looking at sculptures. We practiced noticing what we see, wonder and feel. We learned about the three main types of sculpture: statues, busts and relief. Finally, we got to make relief sculptures out of clay.
-our clay reliefs came home with us on Thursday - we tried to pack them up carefully, but students were reminded to be cautious when taking them home!
-Grace consolidated her learning by becoming our teacher about Inuit art, which grabbed her interest at the Gallery. She showed us "Walrus with a Broken Tusk" and some sculpting materials she had, as well as a
Tree Families
-our theme this month is integrity. Our big idea is: stand up for what you believe in
-we'll be meeting with our Tree Families on Wednesday to read "Mookie the Monkey"
-remember, parents are welcome to join Tree Families! You can join your child in a multi-age group every Wednesday morning for read alouds, discussions and activities!
Other News
-Don't forget that Friday is a PD Day - that means a day off for kids and a day of work (but with no fun kids) for teachers!
NOTE: This post will be updated periodically throughout the week, check back often for more updates!
Special volunteers this week:
Thank you to Sue, Alex and Donna who came in to help out in the classroom this week!
Thanks to Alex, Carrie, Theresa and Michael for joining us on our field trip to the Art Gallery this week!
Thanks to our awesome Ottawa U friend, Genevieve for coming in and volunteering on Wednesday and teaching us a Math lesson! She did a great job teaching her first lesson to us and we were happy to give her feedback!
Language
-Guided Reading groups will continue this week with each of our five groups having their first meeting with me!
-we discussed how to make our "What Stuck With You Today?" surveys even more reflective and descriptive. Keep checking the blog to see how our reflections develop!
-students are working one on one with Shauna to do 3 minute reading assessments.
-we started to work on our #OneLittleWord projects. Students are coming up with personal lists of things they are good at and things they are working on. Then, they are looking at all those words and selecting one word that summarizes them and will work as a target for them all year. We made up #OneLittleWord for Norman - "Positive". Then, students are writing three steps that will help them reach this one little word target. Finally, we are creating beautiful art works to represent our #OneLittleWord. Come by the classroom to see these in progress!
Math
-we are going to finish filming our Norman Math videos. We promise! - stay tuned for those!
-students are working on their coordinate mapping and cardinal directions
-if you're practicing IXL at home, make sure grade 3s are working on "P" and grade 4s are working their way through "K" and "L". Don't forget, if you're logging on at home, you need to add "@churchillps" to your username!
-students are working individually and in small groups to practice their mapping skills. Today, we discovered that when someone says "Vancouver Island is ________ of Newfoundland", we have to carefully read the question to find out what it is asking. In this case, the "of" means we start in Newfoundland and talk about the relative direction to get to Vancouver Island.
-we realized that maps look different when they're up on the wall, on the floor and on a globe. It's important to figure out which way North is and then we can figure out the rest.
-Genevieve taught us strategies and tricks to help us tell time. We even became a huge clock and acted out different times.
Social Studies
-we are continuing to explore a website called "Project Explorer" and are going to be doing a lot with this website this month.
Science
-Baby Léo is now 8.5 months old. We've been studying him since he was only 5 months old and it's exciting to make predictions about how he will change and then to test and observe. On Monday, we did some research about what milestones we expect an 8 month old and a 9 month old baby to have reached. We tested to see which ones Léo had met and which ones he was still working towards. It was great to see how interactive he is getting and how much he seemed to enjoy his time with us this week!
-we are collaboratively working on a document to track Léo (and Alice)'s progress. Check it out.
-We watched "Shauna's News Show", which is Shauna reading news from the New York Times. We learned about a spacecraft that is getting close to Pluto - which is 3 billion miles away! It's taken nine years to get there - that's as long as many of us have been on this planet! We also learned about rising water levels due to global warming.
Phys Ed
-students were thrilled to have some time with Shannon to learn a new type of Volleyball.
Health
-Gillian's class continues to join us for Mindful Eating and we are becoming real pros at experiencing and enjoying our food using our five senses. In fact, our classroom has become a very exclusive restaurant called "209"! Ask your child how we manage to get reservations each day!
Art
-we are visiting the National Art Gallery this week to learn about sculpture and even create sculptures! We'll be in small groups with our Reading Buddies, who are so excited to get to spend a whole day with us!
-we had an amazing day at the National Gallery, touring around and looking at sculptures. We practiced noticing what we see, wonder and feel. We learned about the three main types of sculpture: statues, busts and relief. Finally, we got to make relief sculptures out of clay.
-our clay reliefs came home with us on Thursday - we tried to pack them up carefully, but students were reminded to be cautious when taking them home!
-Grace consolidated her learning by becoming our teacher about Inuit art, which grabbed her interest at the Gallery. She showed us "Walrus with a Broken Tusk" and some sculpting materials she had, as well as a
Tree Families
-our theme this month is integrity. Our big idea is: stand up for what you believe in
-we'll be meeting with our Tree Families on Wednesday to read "Mookie the Monkey"
-remember, parents are welcome to join Tree Families! You can join your child in a multi-age group every Wednesday morning for read alouds, discussions and activities!
Other News
-Don't forget that Friday is a PD Day - that means a day off for kids and a day of work (but with no fun kids) for teachers!
NOTE: This post will be updated periodically throughout the week, check back often for more updates!
Monday, 5 January 2015
What We're Up to This Week January 5th-9th, 2015
We haven't seen each other since LAST YEAR! It was an exciting first day back for the Gladiator Snails on Monday!
Thank you to wonderful helpers who have come in this week:
-Genevieve from the University of Ottawa volunteered
-Katie's dad, Jeremy; James' mom, Sue and Raphie's mom Alex all came in to help us with Language and Math
-we met some great guest teachers: Sara C and Mary B
-Nancy brought in her therapy dog, Merlin, to meet us!
Language
-students are becoming more and more comfortable using their Chromebooks and getting right down to their morning routine before French. Everyday, students fill out their "How Do You Feel Today?" survey at the start of the day and their "What Stuck With You Today?" survey at the end of the day.
-we spoke a little about New Years resolutions on Monday, stay tuned to hear more about our #onelittleword resolutions later this week!
-we are beginning small group Guided Reading with non-fiction texts. Students used evidence from the outside of their books (front and back cover illustrations and text) to make predictions about what their books will be about. We talked about how good predictions not only make a guess, but they also explain what evidence was used to make that guess.
-most students exchanged Library books - don't forget to bring in your finished books every Monday!
-we had a "Snowball Fight" where students wrote down information about their holiday (the best thing, a special visit, a gift they gave and a gift they received), then, we crumpled up our papers like snowballs and had a one minute "Snowball Fight". Students picked up a snowball near them and read the clues, then tried to guess whose story they were telling. We learned about a lot of great experiences!
-we will be selecting #onelittleword, a single word to guide each of us in our learning this year. Each student will come up with three reasons why that word is so important to them.
-we will be signing up for coach.me (formerly lift.do) so students can track their #onelittleword progress, as well as their Annual Learning Plan goals set with parents and teacher earlier this year
-ask your child about the book he or she is reading in our Guided Reading groups
-Guided Reading groups kicked off with the "Picture It: Making a Book into a Screenplay" group. We talked about our predictions, studied text features, took a "walk" through the book to make further predictions and began reading together. Students practiced summarizing what they had read to pick out the important details. Our other Guided Reading groups will start this week!
Math
-we are going to finish filming our Norman Math videos - stay tuned for those!
-we will have Hour of Code on Tuesday. I wonder how many lines of code we will write as a class!?--students enjoyed coding so much, that we took some more time on Wednesday to practice our coding (computer programming) skills. We realized that we can learn A LOT from coding. Some of the things we talked about are: perseverance, learning a new language (like Java or HTML), directions, problem solving, independent work AND collaboration and how to make a computer work for you!
-students are reviewing fractions and cardinal directions to help them understand statistics, facts and maps that they are seeing and hearing about in their Project Explorer work
-our friend, Genevieve, from the University of Ottawa is back as a volunteer in our class every Wednesday until March! We were so happy to see her and look forward to learning Math with her!
-On IXL, students are practicing creating and reading coordinate graphs and using data and graphs to extrapolate information. If they want to continue practicing at home, grade 3s are working through the category labelled "P" and grade 4s are working though "K" and "L"
-Students tried out a new online game called Free Rice. We did Math, Geography and Language tasks and for every correct answer, helped the World Food Program donate 10 grains of rice (which we learned is a staple food for much of the world) to people in need. Students were excited to see their rice piles grow in 10s, 100s and 1000s! Ask your child how many grains of rice he or she earned.
-we are working on mapping skills individually and in small groups. Using globes and maps, we are learning about the continents and oceans. We are figuring out shapes that resemble different continents and countries in order to remember and identify them. We are describing directions on maps using a compass rose. We are leaning to use directions to follow a route and solve puzzles. We are learning to use map legends and read map grids.
Social Studies
-we are exploring a website called "Project Explorer" and are going to be doing a lot with this website this month. We started our quest for global knowledge by reading and watching a video about Malaysia. We found Malaysia on our world map and added a pin so we can find it easily.
-we have an exciting Mystery Skype on Tuesday
Science
Phys Ed
-we will be using our space and time in Gym to explore the cardinal directions and the global distribution of resources this week
-of course, we are continuing to enjoy Go Noodle and like levelling up our newest Champ, Flappy Tuckler!
-Tom and Oyster led the class in a Gym game called "Q-Tip Hockey". We discussed the importance of monitoring ourselves in Gym and remember to: be brave, participate, cooperate, be safe, have a good idea and problem solve.
-We are starting a unit on Volleyball. We played a game called "Clean the Room" to be aware of our space and then played another round, practicing simple serves. We talked about some strategies to make the ball go high and far - hit with a palm, not a fist, follow through, aim your arm and body where you want the ball to go
Health
-Gillian's class continues to join us for Mindful Eating and we are becoming real pros at experiencing and enjoying our food using our five senses
-we learned about frostbite and how to keep ourselves warm, cozy and safe in this cold, cold weather!
-our new friend, Merlin, a therapy dog, came to visit us on Thursday. He's really special because he's trained to work with children and that means he's really, really kind and patient. We got to practice how to meet a dog and then many students got to snuggle with Merlin and read to him. He and his human, Nancy, LOVE hearing us read our stories!
Art
-we reviewed Colour Theory and talked about primary and secondary colours. Ask your child what three items we have in our classroom that are the secondary colours! Because we have a few students who are colour blind, we have had lots of interesting discussions about tints and shades and how we experience colour differently.
Drama
-students are practicing great puppetry skills so that Norman can be more animated and accurate during his Math lessons!
Tree Families
-our theme this month is integrity. Our big idea is: stand up for what you believe in
-we'll be meeting with our Tree Families on Wednesday to read "Herb the Vegetarian Dragon"
-remember, parents are welcome to join Tree Families! You can join your child in a multi-age group every Wednesday morning for read alouds, discussions and activities!
Other News
-we have a new class Muppet! It is an awesome orange monster type Muppet and is so happy to be our new friend. We learned that this friend doesn't identify as male or female, and prefers to be referred to as "they". We will be selecting a name this week!
NOTE: This post will be updated periodically throughout the week, check back often for more updates!
Thank you to wonderful helpers who have come in this week:
-Genevieve from the University of Ottawa volunteered
-Katie's dad, Jeremy; James' mom, Sue and Raphie's mom Alex all came in to help us with Language and Math
-we met some great guest teachers: Sara C and Mary B
-Nancy brought in her therapy dog, Merlin, to meet us!
Language
-students are becoming more and more comfortable using their Chromebooks and getting right down to their morning routine before French. Everyday, students fill out their "How Do You Feel Today?" survey at the start of the day and their "What Stuck With You Today?" survey at the end of the day.
-we spoke a little about New Years resolutions on Monday, stay tuned to hear more about our #onelittleword resolutions later this week!
-we are beginning small group Guided Reading with non-fiction texts. Students used evidence from the outside of their books (front and back cover illustrations and text) to make predictions about what their books will be about. We talked about how good predictions not only make a guess, but they also explain what evidence was used to make that guess.
-most students exchanged Library books - don't forget to bring in your finished books every Monday!
-we had a "Snowball Fight" where students wrote down information about their holiday (the best thing, a special visit, a gift they gave and a gift they received), then, we crumpled up our papers like snowballs and had a one minute "Snowball Fight". Students picked up a snowball near them and read the clues, then tried to guess whose story they were telling. We learned about a lot of great experiences!
-we will be selecting #onelittleword, a single word to guide each of us in our learning this year. Each student will come up with three reasons why that word is so important to them.
-we will be signing up for coach.me (formerly lift.do) so students can track their #onelittleword progress, as well as their Annual Learning Plan goals set with parents and teacher earlier this year
-ask your child about the book he or she is reading in our Guided Reading groups
-Guided Reading groups kicked off with the "Picture It: Making a Book into a Screenplay" group. We talked about our predictions, studied text features, took a "walk" through the book to make further predictions and began reading together. Students practiced summarizing what they had read to pick out the important details. Our other Guided Reading groups will start this week!
Math
-we are going to finish filming our Norman Math videos - stay tuned for those!
-we will have Hour of Code on Tuesday. I wonder how many lines of code we will write as a class!?--students enjoyed coding so much, that we took some more time on Wednesday to practice our coding (computer programming) skills. We realized that we can learn A LOT from coding. Some of the things we talked about are: perseverance, learning a new language (like Java or HTML), directions, problem solving, independent work AND collaboration and how to make a computer work for you!
-students are reviewing fractions and cardinal directions to help them understand statistics, facts and maps that they are seeing and hearing about in their Project Explorer work
-our friend, Genevieve, from the University of Ottawa is back as a volunteer in our class every Wednesday until March! We were so happy to see her and look forward to learning Math with her!
-On IXL, students are practicing creating and reading coordinate graphs and using data and graphs to extrapolate information. If they want to continue practicing at home, grade 3s are working through the category labelled "P" and grade 4s are working though "K" and "L"
-Students tried out a new online game called Free Rice. We did Math, Geography and Language tasks and for every correct answer, helped the World Food Program donate 10 grains of rice (which we learned is a staple food for much of the world) to people in need. Students were excited to see their rice piles grow in 10s, 100s and 1000s! Ask your child how many grains of rice he or she earned.
-we are working on mapping skills individually and in small groups. Using globes and maps, we are learning about the continents and oceans. We are figuring out shapes that resemble different continents and countries in order to remember and identify them. We are describing directions on maps using a compass rose. We are leaning to use directions to follow a route and solve puzzles. We are learning to use map legends and read map grids.
Social Studies
-we are exploring a website called "Project Explorer" and are going to be doing a lot with this website this month. We started our quest for global knowledge by reading and watching a video about Malaysia. We found Malaysia on our world map and added a pin so we can find it easily.
-we have an exciting Mystery Skype on Tuesday
Science
Phys Ed
-we will be using our space and time in Gym to explore the cardinal directions and the global distribution of resources this week
-of course, we are continuing to enjoy Go Noodle and like levelling up our newest Champ, Flappy Tuckler!
-Tom and Oyster led the class in a Gym game called "Q-Tip Hockey". We discussed the importance of monitoring ourselves in Gym and remember to: be brave, participate, cooperate, be safe, have a good idea and problem solve.
-We are starting a unit on Volleyball. We played a game called "Clean the Room" to be aware of our space and then played another round, practicing simple serves. We talked about some strategies to make the ball go high and far - hit with a palm, not a fist, follow through, aim your arm and body where you want the ball to go
Health
-Gillian's class continues to join us for Mindful Eating and we are becoming real pros at experiencing and enjoying our food using our five senses
-we learned about frostbite and how to keep ourselves warm, cozy and safe in this cold, cold weather!
-our new friend, Merlin, a therapy dog, came to visit us on Thursday. He's really special because he's trained to work with children and that means he's really, really kind and patient. We got to practice how to meet a dog and then many students got to snuggle with Merlin and read to him. He and his human, Nancy, LOVE hearing us read our stories!
Art
-we reviewed Colour Theory and talked about primary and secondary colours. Ask your child what three items we have in our classroom that are the secondary colours! Because we have a few students who are colour blind, we have had lots of interesting discussions about tints and shades and how we experience colour differently.
Drama
-students are practicing great puppetry skills so that Norman can be more animated and accurate during his Math lessons!
Tree Families
-our theme this month is integrity. Our big idea is: stand up for what you believe in
-we'll be meeting with our Tree Families on Wednesday to read "Herb the Vegetarian Dragon"
-remember, parents are welcome to join Tree Families! You can join your child in a multi-age group every Wednesday morning for read alouds, discussions and activities!
Other News
-we have a new class Muppet! It is an awesome orange monster type Muppet and is so happy to be our new friend. We learned that this friend doesn't identify as male or female, and prefers to be referred to as "they". We will be selecting a name this week!
NOTE: This post will be updated periodically throughout the week, check back often for more updates!
Thursday, 18 December 2014
What We're Up to This Week - December 15th-19th
Language
-we filled in our "How Do You Feel Today?" surveys
-we finished writing our "12 Days of Giving" poems
-we wrote final letters to our university Book Buddies, wishing them a happy holiday and reflecting on what we learned from them
-we selected picture books for each of our individual Book Buddies, thinking about why they might enjoy a particular book and what they can use it for
-we wrote a book to thank Catherine for all her work with us
-we exchanged books at the Library and made sure that we have Good Fit books in our ECLIPSE bins
-we learned that reading on We Give Books right now earns double the books. For every book we read online, 2 books are donated to a school in need!
-we are totally addicted to "The Book With No Pictures" and make sure that every adult who enters our room reads it!
Math
-we are enjoying our advent calendar treats and noticing that the snowman-elf pattern keeps repeating
-we are working on developing our understanding of length and distance
-we came up with ideas of things that are 1 mm, 10 mm, 1 cm, 10 cm, 1 m, 10m, 1 km and 10 km long
Social Studies
-Dion Metcalfe from the Ottawa Inuit Children's Centre came and in and we learned about life in the Arctic for the Inuit and reflected on our learning. To learn more, visit their website.
Phys Ed
-Dion Metcalfe from The Ottawa Inuit Children's Centre came into our class to teach us about Inuit culture. He taught us Inuit games that have three purposes: fun, build strength and endurance and showing off
Art
-we had a huge chunk of time to do some seasonal crafting with Tiiu's class - students made snowmen, ninjas, Borax snowflakes and other crafts!
Drama
-with Tiiu's grade 4/5 class, we read "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and took on the roles of the characters, thinking about how they would feel and react to different situations
-we watched Ray's grade 6 class' play
Music
-students work with Andrew on Tuesday afternoons in Music
-we enjoyed songs from our holiday playlist, students have become very familiar with the songs and like to "conduct" one another or link arms and sway together
Tree Families
-our theme this month is acceptance. Our big idea is to respect and celebrate others' preferences and ideas.
-on Wednesday, we joined our Tree Families to practice holiday songs and then headed to the Gym for a whole school sing-along
-we filled in our "How Do You Feel Today?" surveys
-we finished writing our "12 Days of Giving" poems
-we wrote final letters to our university Book Buddies, wishing them a happy holiday and reflecting on what we learned from them
-we selected picture books for each of our individual Book Buddies, thinking about why they might enjoy a particular book and what they can use it for
-we wrote a book to thank Catherine for all her work with us
-we exchanged books at the Library and made sure that we have Good Fit books in our ECLIPSE bins
-we learned that reading on We Give Books right now earns double the books. For every book we read online, 2 books are donated to a school in need!
-we are totally addicted to "The Book With No Pictures" and make sure that every adult who enters our room reads it!
Math
-we are enjoying our advent calendar treats and noticing that the snowman-elf pattern keeps repeating
-we are working on developing our understanding of length and distance
-we came up with ideas of things that are 1 mm, 10 mm, 1 cm, 10 cm, 1 m, 10m, 1 km and 10 km long
Social Studies
-Dion Metcalfe from the Ottawa Inuit Children's Centre came and in and we learned about life in the Arctic for the Inuit and reflected on our learning. To learn more, visit their website.
Phys Ed
-Dion Metcalfe from The Ottawa Inuit Children's Centre came into our class to teach us about Inuit culture. He taught us Inuit games that have three purposes: fun, build strength and endurance and showing off
Art
-we had a huge chunk of time to do some seasonal crafting with Tiiu's class - students made snowmen, ninjas, Borax snowflakes and other crafts!
Drama
-with Tiiu's grade 4/5 class, we read "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and took on the roles of the characters, thinking about how they would feel and react to different situations
-we watched Ray's grade 6 class' play
Music
-students work with Andrew on Tuesday afternoons in Music
-we enjoyed songs from our holiday playlist, students have become very familiar with the songs and like to "conduct" one another or link arms and sway together
Tree Families
-our theme this month is acceptance. Our big idea is to respect and celebrate others' preferences and ideas.
-on Wednesday, we joined our Tree Families to practice holiday songs and then headed to the Gym for a whole school sing-along
Tuesday, 9 December 2014
What We're Up To This Week - December 8th-12th
Language
-we filled in our "How Do You Feel Today?" surveys at the beginning of the day and looked at our results in a Wordle and drew conclusions based on the size of words (the bigger the word, the more times we repeated it)
-we will be writing "12 Days of Giving" lists, using descriptive words, based on the song, "12 Days of Christmas" and the book "A Porcupine in a Pine Tree"
-we read letters from our Book Buddies about what they have learned from us and in their practicum classrooms
-we wrote letters to our Book Buddies about what we do to celebrate winter holidays and gave them tips on how to be great teachers
Math
-we finished our independent Math review of measurement, fractions and reading time tables
-students are working in small groups to go over any questions or problems they had and to help each other to solve them
-we learned about computer programming and got excited for our Hour of Code this week! We practiced by writing four lines of code together on code.org
-we are going to wait and do our Hour of Code next week!
-we are practicing accurately using rulers and metre sticks and measuring length and perimeter in centimetres
-students will work in pairs to estimate the perimeter and then check their estimates by measuring at least four rectangular or square objects in our classroom
Science
-we discussed how to make the conditions in our classroom Science Lab optimal for the babies we study and experiment on
-Baby Leo is now seven months old, he came in for his third visit and we used our new planning and organization system to take detailed, organized notes
-Baby Alice is coming in on Thursday and we will be to see what is new for her at 8 months!
-Alison from Maker Junior brought Hitchbot Jr back to our class. He was a hit at the Toronto Mini Maker Faire! Parades of kids followed him everywhere he went on Alison's son's back! We were excited to see that he came back with a badge and an LED name tag! She had some advice about how we could change his arms to make him fit better in crowds and how we can use his GPS. We have to work on our next iteration (version) of Hitchbot Jr by taking her ideas into account. We hope he'll start travelling soon. If you'd like to take him home for the holidays, or better yet, take him ON holidays somewhere you're going, let us know!
-we reflected on the design process and how it has felt to take Hitchbot Jr from an idea to a real robot
Phys Ed
-we are playing one of our favourite games, World Domination
-we are dancing and singing with wacky videos on Go Noodle
Art
-we will be making drawings to show what our 12 Days of Giving look like
Music
-students work with Andrew on Tuesday afternoons in Music
Learning Skills
-we had 15 minutes of Free Time left from last week. Students built with blocks, played school and played with the Kinetic Sand
Tree Families
-our theme this month is acceptance. Our big idea is to respect and celebrate others' preferences and ideas.
-on Wednesday, we will be joining our Tree Families to practice holiday songs that we'll be singing as a school next week
-we filled in our "How Do You Feel Today?" surveys at the beginning of the day and looked at our results in a Wordle and drew conclusions based on the size of words (the bigger the word, the more times we repeated it)
-we will be writing "12 Days of Giving" lists, using descriptive words, based on the song, "12 Days of Christmas" and the book "A Porcupine in a Pine Tree"
-we read letters from our Book Buddies about what they have learned from us and in their practicum classrooms
-we wrote letters to our Book Buddies about what we do to celebrate winter holidays and gave them tips on how to be great teachers
Math
-we finished our independent Math review of measurement, fractions and reading time tables
-students are working in small groups to go over any questions or problems they had and to help each other to solve them
-we learned about computer programming and got excited for our Hour of Code this week! We practiced by writing four lines of code together on code.org
-we are going to wait and do our Hour of Code next week!
-we are practicing accurately using rulers and metre sticks and measuring length and perimeter in centimetres
-students will work in pairs to estimate the perimeter and then check their estimates by measuring at least four rectangular or square objects in our classroom
Science
-we discussed how to make the conditions in our classroom Science Lab optimal for the babies we study and experiment on
-Baby Leo is now seven months old, he came in for his third visit and we used our new planning and organization system to take detailed, organized notes
-Baby Alice is coming in on Thursday and we will be to see what is new for her at 8 months!
-Alison from Maker Junior brought Hitchbot Jr back to our class. He was a hit at the Toronto Mini Maker Faire! Parades of kids followed him everywhere he went on Alison's son's back! We were excited to see that he came back with a badge and an LED name tag! She had some advice about how we could change his arms to make him fit better in crowds and how we can use his GPS. We have to work on our next iteration (version) of Hitchbot Jr by taking her ideas into account. We hope he'll start travelling soon. If you'd like to take him home for the holidays, or better yet, take him ON holidays somewhere you're going, let us know!
-we reflected on the design process and how it has felt to take Hitchbot Jr from an idea to a real robot
Phys Ed
-we are playing one of our favourite games, World Domination
-we are dancing and singing with wacky videos on Go Noodle
Art
-we will be making drawings to show what our 12 Days of Giving look like
Music
-students work with Andrew on Tuesday afternoons in Music
Learning Skills
-we had 15 minutes of Free Time left from last week. Students built with blocks, played school and played with the Kinetic Sand
Tree Families
-our theme this month is acceptance. Our big idea is to respect and celebrate others' preferences and ideas.
-on Wednesday, we will be joining our Tree Families to practice holiday songs that we'll be singing as a school next week
Monday, 1 December 2014
What We're Up to This Week - Dec 2nd-5th, 2014
Language
-we filled in our "How Do You Feel Today?" surveys at the beginning of the day
-we filled in our "What Stuck With You Today?" surveys at the end of the day
-we talked about what a great "What Stuck With You Today?" response would look like
-we read the book "Katie's Pairty", written in Scots to help get us ready for our Ceilidh with the Mighty Minions
-we read and discussed emotions in the books "Hamish the Hairy Haggis"
-we wrote letters to our Book Buddies at Ottawa U. We focused on writing in a clear and organized way, formatting our letters properly (date, greeting, sign-off) and reflecting on our learning. We told them about the way we like to learn, the way we like to share our learning, the trickiest thing about being a student and reflected on whether or not we think boys and girls learn differently. We will talk about these topics more in class.
-we wrote Thank You notes to Gillian's class on a collaborative Google Doc. We wrote and edited our own work and our classmates' work, focusing on end punctuation, using capital letters properly and the difference between "alot" and "a lot"
-we had Reading Buddies with our grade 1 friends in Shelley E's class. Students chose whether to read from books or on the website "We Give Books"
-we practiced finding "Good Fit" books by using the "Five Finger Test" and refilled our ECLIPSE bins with 3-5 Good Fit books (and one book that would be appropriate for our Reading Buddies)
-we are continuing to track books that we read individually in our 40 Book Challenge lists
-we got some awesome Hallowe'en reading stickers from Scholastic (yes, we realize it's WAY past Hallowe'en!) and Tim noticed that each one has some word play (including our favourites, puns!)
Math
-Because Tuesday was Giving Tuesday, we visited Kiva for the first time and made a microloan to Anahit from Armenia. We learned about how microlending works and counted by 25s to figure out how many loans we can give. We loaned 25/100 dollars or 1/4 of the money we have in our account to lend!
-Alex (Raphie's mom) came in on Tuesday. She's a teacher and Math tutor and wanted to talk with us about fractions. We practiced equivalent fractions in small groups
-we have been practicing our Math skills on IXL - working through the Number Sense tasks, starting with Place Value
-we got an Advent Calendar from Gillian and students get to find the window that corresponds with their class order number, we are starting to recognize that the shapes of the chocolate are in an A-B repeating pattern
-we brainstormed possible names for our new Lammily doll and created a survey on the Google Drive for students to vote on her title, first name, middle name and a.ka. We were excited to see the results come in and analyzed pie charts to determine her new name (Imagineer Samantha Tommy Tomkins Marshmallows aka Mr Yellow Rat Foxy Squirrel Fairy Diddle)
-students continued independent practice of place value, fractions, telling time and solving problems related to Number Sense and Measurement
Science
-Liam's dad shared with us live footage of a new type of space shuttle, Orion, and it's trial flight. We watched the view from Orion and did some research on this new shuttle.
Social Studies
Phys Ed
-we transmogrified Weevil laBeevil on GoNoodle for the final time and printed out our completion certificate, we have a new Champ and did a LOT of dancing! We love Koo Koo Kangaroo and tweeted a picture of us doing their "Secret Handshakes". They tweeted right back at us! They challenged us to make a bigger "ice cream cone". We made one with 29 "scoops"!
Health
-this week, a crowdfunded doll, Lammily, arrived to our classroom. We compared her to a Tinker Bell doll and talked about why young children will benefit from having different kids of toys to play with
Drama
Art
-students made Dream Catchers
Music
-students work with Andrew on Tuesday afternoons in Music
Learning Skills
-our Class Rules continue to be developed through a collaborative Class Meeting process. On Monday, we discussed a new system to help us "Check Ourselves" and focus, make good choices and do our best work.
-we talked about the importance of feeling safe in the classroom and being able to take risks and make mistakes
-we reviewed responsibilities for each of our Class Jobs and selected new ones
Tree Families
-our theme this month is acceptance. Our big idea is to respect and celebrate others' preferences and ideas.
-on Wednesday, we will be having our second "Tree Families Workshops"
-we filled in our "How Do You Feel Today?" surveys at the beginning of the day
-we filled in our "What Stuck With You Today?" surveys at the end of the day
-we talked about what a great "What Stuck With You Today?" response would look like
-we read the book "Katie's Pairty", written in Scots to help get us ready for our Ceilidh with the Mighty Minions
-we read and discussed emotions in the books "Hamish the Hairy Haggis"
-we wrote letters to our Book Buddies at Ottawa U. We focused on writing in a clear and organized way, formatting our letters properly (date, greeting, sign-off) and reflecting on our learning. We told them about the way we like to learn, the way we like to share our learning, the trickiest thing about being a student and reflected on whether or not we think boys and girls learn differently. We will talk about these topics more in class.
-we wrote Thank You notes to Gillian's class on a collaborative Google Doc. We wrote and edited our own work and our classmates' work, focusing on end punctuation, using capital letters properly and the difference between "alot" and "a lot"
-we had Reading Buddies with our grade 1 friends in Shelley E's class. Students chose whether to read from books or on the website "We Give Books"
-we practiced finding "Good Fit" books by using the "Five Finger Test" and refilled our ECLIPSE bins with 3-5 Good Fit books (and one book that would be appropriate for our Reading Buddies)
-we are continuing to track books that we read individually in our 40 Book Challenge lists
-we got some awesome Hallowe'en reading stickers from Scholastic (yes, we realize it's WAY past Hallowe'en!) and Tim noticed that each one has some word play (including our favourites, puns!)
Math
-Because Tuesday was Giving Tuesday, we visited Kiva for the first time and made a microloan to Anahit from Armenia. We learned about how microlending works and counted by 25s to figure out how many loans we can give. We loaned 25/100 dollars or 1/4 of the money we have in our account to lend!
-Alex (Raphie's mom) came in on Tuesday. She's a teacher and Math tutor and wanted to talk with us about fractions. We practiced equivalent fractions in small groups
-we have been practicing our Math skills on IXL - working through the Number Sense tasks, starting with Place Value
-we got an Advent Calendar from Gillian and students get to find the window that corresponds with their class order number, we are starting to recognize that the shapes of the chocolate are in an A-B repeating pattern
-we brainstormed possible names for our new Lammily doll and created a survey on the Google Drive for students to vote on her title, first name, middle name and a.ka. We were excited to see the results come in and analyzed pie charts to determine her new name (Imagineer Samantha Tommy Tomkins Marshmallows aka Mr Yellow Rat Foxy Squirrel Fairy Diddle)
-students continued independent practice of place value, fractions, telling time and solving problems related to Number Sense and Measurement
Science
-Liam's dad shared with us live footage of a new type of space shuttle, Orion, and it's trial flight. We watched the view from Orion and did some research on this new shuttle.
Social Studies
Phys Ed
-we transmogrified Weevil laBeevil on GoNoodle for the final time and printed out our completion certificate, we have a new Champ and did a LOT of dancing! We love Koo Koo Kangaroo and tweeted a picture of us doing their "Secret Handshakes". They tweeted right back at us! They challenged us to make a bigger "ice cream cone". We made one with 29 "scoops"!
Health
-this week, a crowdfunded doll, Lammily, arrived to our classroom. We compared her to a Tinker Bell doll and talked about why young children will benefit from having different kids of toys to play with
Drama
Art
-students made Dream Catchers
Music
-students work with Andrew on Tuesday afternoons in Music
Learning Skills
-our Class Rules continue to be developed through a collaborative Class Meeting process. On Monday, we discussed a new system to help us "Check Ourselves" and focus, make good choices and do our best work.
-we talked about the importance of feeling safe in the classroom and being able to take risks and make mistakes
-we reviewed responsibilities for each of our Class Jobs and selected new ones
Tree Families
-our theme this month is acceptance. Our big idea is to respect and celebrate others' preferences and ideas.
-on Wednesday, we will be having our second "Tree Families Workshops"
Wednesday, 26 November 2014
What We're Up To This Week - November 24th-28th, 2014
Language
-we filled in our How Do You Feel Today? surveys at the beginning of the day
-we filled in our What Stuck With You Today? surveys at the end of the day
-we discussed Stars (I liked it when...) and Planets (Next time...) from our Skype call
-we set up more bookmarks on our Chromebooks so that we can easily access documents and sites we'll need every day
-we are practicing keyboarding skills on TypingWeb
-we are independently reading books from our ECLIPSE bins or on the website "We Give Books" which donates a book to schools in need for every book you read online!
-we read to our Reading Buddies from Shelley E's grade 1 class. Many of us chose to read to them on "We Give Books". So far, our class has read more than 550 books, and therefore, donated the same amount to other schools! (this includes the reading that was done from April-June last year as well!)
Drama
-we surprised the Mighty Minions with Minion masks and acted like Minions!
-we watched the play "101 Dalmatians" performed by students at Nepean High School
Math
-we practiced our knowledge about fractions using a new online game called Kahoot!
-we are reviewing several Math concepts in small groups and individually in our blue duotangs. Students are working at different levels based on their self-assessments and progress thus far.
-In Number Sense and Numeration, we are colouring in diagrams of fractions, creating diagrams of fractions, recognizing equivalent fractions.
-In Measurement, we are selecting the best unit to measure specific objects; converting millimetres to centimetres, metres and kilometres; comparing areas of objects and calculating the perimeter of squares and rectangles
-We are reading time tables and extrapolating information from them, as well as solving problems using time
-we are practicing double digit subtraction with regrouping (borrowing)
Science
-we had a Skype call with Sofika from Copernicus Education and learned about how Imagineers use the Design Process (Research; Idea; Market Research; Planning; Prototype; Iterations; Test with Users; Make Adjustments; Finalize Design; Production)
-we read a story from Teach Kids News about an animatronic penguin being used by researchers to learn about penguins. We guessed what the robot would look like and then compared our prediction drawings to an actual photograph.
Social Studies
-we had a Class Meeting and discussed roles and responsibilities and came up with a new list of class jobs through brainstorming orally and on our Chromebooks (making comments on a Google Doc)
Phys Ed
-we are practicing our traditional Scottish folk dances to prepare for the Ceilidh with Gillian's Mighty Minions next Monday!
-we are continuing to level up "Weevil Labeevil" on GoNoodle - our body break website by dancing to hilarious songs
-we went ice skating with Tiiu's class at Dulude arena. We talked about the importance of wearing hand coverings and a helmet when skating
Health
-we are practicing Mindful Eating with our buddies in Gillian's class who eat with us twice a week
-we are continuing to discuss kindness and how to avoid bullying, we talked about calling people names and including people in games that they would like to play
Learning Skills
-our Class Rules continue to be developed through a collaborative Class Meeting process.
-we spent some time independently organizing our Work Apartments - putting papers in the proper notebooks and duo-tangs
-we are setting goals as a class in terms of time management, so that we use self-regulate and use our time better
-we talked a lot about how to make sure we are being respectful and responsible when working with classroom volunteers and created a new system for volunteers in our classroom. The students will be happy to share with you when you come in next!
Tree Families
-our theme this month is acceptance. Our big idea is to respect and celebrate others' preferences and ideas.
-we talked about what all families need (love!) and different kinds of families while we read the book "And Tango Makes Three"
-we filled in our How Do You Feel Today? surveys at the beginning of the day
-we filled in our What Stuck With You Today? surveys at the end of the day
-we discussed Stars (I liked it when...) and Planets (Next time...) from our Skype call
-we set up more bookmarks on our Chromebooks so that we can easily access documents and sites we'll need every day
-we are practicing keyboarding skills on TypingWeb
-we are independently reading books from our ECLIPSE bins or on the website "We Give Books" which donates a book to schools in need for every book you read online!
-we read to our Reading Buddies from Shelley E's grade 1 class. Many of us chose to read to them on "We Give Books". So far, our class has read more than 550 books, and therefore, donated the same amount to other schools! (this includes the reading that was done from April-June last year as well!)
Drama
-we surprised the Mighty Minions with Minion masks and acted like Minions!
-we watched the play "101 Dalmatians" performed by students at Nepean High School
Math
-we practiced our knowledge about fractions using a new online game called Kahoot!
-we are reviewing several Math concepts in small groups and individually in our blue duotangs. Students are working at different levels based on their self-assessments and progress thus far.
-In Number Sense and Numeration, we are colouring in diagrams of fractions, creating diagrams of fractions, recognizing equivalent fractions.
-In Measurement, we are selecting the best unit to measure specific objects; converting millimetres to centimetres, metres and kilometres; comparing areas of objects and calculating the perimeter of squares and rectangles
-We are reading time tables and extrapolating information from them, as well as solving problems using time
-we are practicing double digit subtraction with regrouping (borrowing)
Science
-we had a Skype call with Sofika from Copernicus Education and learned about how Imagineers use the Design Process (Research; Idea; Market Research; Planning; Prototype; Iterations; Test with Users; Make Adjustments; Finalize Design; Production)
-we read a story from Teach Kids News about an animatronic penguin being used by researchers to learn about penguins. We guessed what the robot would look like and then compared our prediction drawings to an actual photograph.
Social Studies
-we had a Class Meeting and discussed roles and responsibilities and came up with a new list of class jobs through brainstorming orally and on our Chromebooks (making comments on a Google Doc)
Phys Ed
-we are practicing our traditional Scottish folk dances to prepare for the Ceilidh with Gillian's Mighty Minions next Monday!
-we are continuing to level up "Weevil Labeevil" on GoNoodle - our body break website by dancing to hilarious songs
-we went ice skating with Tiiu's class at Dulude arena. We talked about the importance of wearing hand coverings and a helmet when skating
Health
-we are practicing Mindful Eating with our buddies in Gillian's class who eat with us twice a week
-we are continuing to discuss kindness and how to avoid bullying, we talked about calling people names and including people in games that they would like to play
Learning Skills
-our Class Rules continue to be developed through a collaborative Class Meeting process.
-we spent some time independently organizing our Work Apartments - putting papers in the proper notebooks and duo-tangs
-we are setting goals as a class in terms of time management, so that we use self-regulate and use our time better
-we talked a lot about how to make sure we are being respectful and responsible when working with classroom volunteers and created a new system for volunteers in our classroom. The students will be happy to share with you when you come in next!
Tree Families
-our theme this month is acceptance. Our big idea is to respect and celebrate others' preferences and ideas.
-we talked about what all families need (love!) and different kinds of families while we read the book "And Tango Makes Three"
Wednesday, 19 November 2014
What We're Up To in Room 209 - Monday, November 17th-Thursday, November 20th
Language
-students are continuing to work on their 40 book challenge and are encouraged to select books from different genres
-we received emails from our friends Genevieve and Alison and wrote collaborative replies to them
-we wrote about a time when we were brave and how it felt to be worried or nervous and how it felt to do something that we knew was right
-students are practicing creating and working on collaborative documents on the Google Drive
-we are learning about the details that are important to include in a news story: the 5Ws and 1 H and thinking about our audience
-we can't tell you much about it, but "The Book with No Pictures" may make its way to your home soon!
-students are looking through their work to find words that they have used "temporary spelling" for and are creating their own, individual spelling lists to practice
-we are learning about end punctuation: periods, question marks and exclamation marks
-we are building up our stamina in the Read to Self portion of our ECLIPSE language program
-we are learning about how to use homonyms to understand and create puns and punny jokes
Art
-we are practicing drawing "Brave Bots"
Math
-we are talking about measurement, and focusing on length
-we are practicing using both standard and non-standard units of measurement
-students are relying on estimation skills and using tools to check their thinking
-we are learning about how mm cm and m are related
-we are continuing to practice telling time
-we are collecting non-perishable food items to measure their mass
-we did the Francis Fractions slideshow and talked about how fractions are meaningless if you don't know the size of the whole and that a fraction is about comparing the numerator and denominator
Science
-Hitchbot Jr is heading to Toronto for a Mini Maker Faire with our friend Alison from Maker Junior! We have built and dressed him and created prototypes for his instructions and notebook. He will meet Hitchbot and be tested in Toronto so we can make new iterations.
-we learned about a boy who has no eyes but can "see" with echolocation, like a bat!
-Scientists in the Schools came in and worked with the grade 4s on sound and the grade 3s on forces acting on structures and mechanisms
-Skype wasn't working, but we were planning to have a call with our friend Sofika from Copernicus Education about being an Imagineer. We'll do that next week.
Social Studies
-we are continuing to discuss the Learning Skills (Responsibility, Organization, Independent Work, Collaboration, Initiative and Self Regulation) and how we can demonstrate them in school
Phys Ed
-along with Gillian's grade 2s, we are learning traditional Scottish folk dances
Health
-we are modelling for our friends in the Mighty Minions how to eat mindfully (silent, still, hats off, stay in seat, enjoy your food using your senses)
-we are discussing
Tree Families
-our theme this month is empathy and our big idea is to walk a mile in someone else's shoes.
-we shared the book "The English Roses" and discussed the message and big idea, and how we can connect to the story in our own lives, in the world around us and in other texts
-students are continuing to work on their 40 book challenge and are encouraged to select books from different genres
-we received emails from our friends Genevieve and Alison and wrote collaborative replies to them
-we wrote about a time when we were brave and how it felt to be worried or nervous and how it felt to do something that we knew was right
-students are practicing creating and working on collaborative documents on the Google Drive
-we are learning about the details that are important to include in a news story: the 5Ws and 1 H and thinking about our audience
-we can't tell you much about it, but "The Book with No Pictures" may make its way to your home soon!
-students are looking through their work to find words that they have used "temporary spelling" for and are creating their own, individual spelling lists to practice
-we are learning about end punctuation: periods, question marks and exclamation marks
-we are building up our stamina in the Read to Self portion of our ECLIPSE language program
-we are learning about how to use homonyms to understand and create puns and punny jokes
Art
-we are practicing drawing "Brave Bots"
Math
-we are talking about measurement, and focusing on length
-we are practicing using both standard and non-standard units of measurement
-students are relying on estimation skills and using tools to check their thinking
-we are learning about how mm cm and m are related
-we are continuing to practice telling time
-we are collecting non-perishable food items to measure their mass
-we did the Francis Fractions slideshow and talked about how fractions are meaningless if you don't know the size of the whole and that a fraction is about comparing the numerator and denominator
Science
-Hitchbot Jr is heading to Toronto for a Mini Maker Faire with our friend Alison from Maker Junior! We have built and dressed him and created prototypes for his instructions and notebook. He will meet Hitchbot and be tested in Toronto so we can make new iterations.
-we learned about a boy who has no eyes but can "see" with echolocation, like a bat!
-Scientists in the Schools came in and worked with the grade 4s on sound and the grade 3s on forces acting on structures and mechanisms
-Skype wasn't working, but we were planning to have a call with our friend Sofika from Copernicus Education about being an Imagineer. We'll do that next week.
Social Studies
-we are continuing to discuss the Learning Skills (Responsibility, Organization, Independent Work, Collaboration, Initiative and Self Regulation) and how we can demonstrate them in school
Phys Ed
-along with Gillian's grade 2s, we are learning traditional Scottish folk dances
Health
-we are modelling for our friends in the Mighty Minions how to eat mindfully (silent, still, hats off, stay in seat, enjoy your food using your senses)
-we are discussing
Tree Families
-our theme this month is empathy and our big idea is to walk a mile in someone else's shoes.
-we shared the book "The English Roses" and discussed the message and big idea, and how we can connect to the story in our own lives, in the world around us and in other texts
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