Again, welcome back room 102. It was a lovely week - catching up on all the fun winter holiday happenings, but also falling back into routines and getting back to work. If you read my First Day Back post, you'll see all the amazing sharing, writing and reading we did - a rich language activity based on our winter holiday happenings. Later in the week we talked about setting goals - we picked 4 different areas in school where we think we could improve, two based on learning skills (helping others; listening; following instructions; working independently etc.) and two based on curriculum content areas (reading; writing; math; dance; music etc.). We then came up with a plan, details and steps about how we plan to improve. For example, I will get better at listening by moving away from my friends on the carpet (so we won't get distracted) and turning to face the speaker. Or, I will get better at Dance by following the instructions and trying to do the steps that are taught (e.g., I'll only 'freestyle' when it's appropriate!). Ask you son or daughter about their New Year's Goals AND their plans. This week I also did running records with (almost!) all the students during our morning literacy block, Daily Five. I use the Reading A to Z library that we have in class, allowing the students to choose between 2 or 3 books at their level and then assess as they read. So much progress! Keep practising at home and look for to a new homework program starting term 2. *Thanks again to our parent volunteers - first week back and we had a parent in each morning to run our Word Work Games Centre - such a treat! We've added three new games: Out of this World Sight Word Bingo (Scholastic), Sight Word Dominoes (Scholastic) and a puzzle game, where students use the pictures and letters to spell simple, small words. Integrating our HPAS theme of water, we used an EQAO Reading question called 'Ryan's Well' to spark some conversation. Together, we read the text on the SmartBoard and discussed it as we went. You can find this reading selection, along with some sample answers on the EQAO website under theparent resources. The students were told right away that this was a grade 3 level text, so not to fell nervous if they found it tricky ... but they were really excited to tackle it! How is a well helpful to communities? How is Ryan making a difference in the world? @We365 is something that I heard about on Twitter - and I think it's great. We took on the #WordsFromTheWindowSeat challenge with our book buddies and displayed tons of #goodvibes and positive new year's messages on our class window. Check them out at pick up and drop off. Check out your snowflakes in the main hallway! They are BEAUTIFUL and they are the talk of the school :) Congratulations on all your hard work - you are all developing into great writers. To launch our 2D Shapes Math unit this week, students had a blast playing with and using our Tangrams. Check out this PBS Kids site for some fun interactive games. Why play with Tangrams? We also had a visit from Ilse, Roots of Empathy, and discussed 'Why do babies cry?' - then, 'How can we soothe them?'. We'll use what we learned when baby Sasha comes next week!
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November 2017
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