Responsibility:
October's Character Education Trait is Responsibility and unfortunately I had to have quite the serious talk with students on Tuesday, after I returned from being away at the XCountry meet on Monday. Many of our students behaved irresponsibly while I was away, and irresponsibility can take many forms. It can be as serious as running around the classroom playing tag or wrestling with other students and being unsafe, to something less serious but just as irresponsible, as laughing or encouraging those being silly and rude. On Tuesday morning we had a community meeting and students wrote examples in their Writing Journal with the prompt "I am not responsible when ...". Please talk with your son or daughter about the classroom expectations, especially when a supply teacher is in. I explained to the students that I love to volunteer and take part in many aspects of our school community (Cross Country, Eco Committee, Basketball, Track & Field etc.) but I can't go to these events and be absent from school if when I come back, we have to spend a large part of our day problem solving. Thanks for your support. *Please see our announcements page for more info re: responsibility and how you can encourage your son or daughter at home - Thanks Safe and Caring School Committee! Language We read aloud Water Dance and talked about all the 'Willy Words' used to describe water. What do you think water is? A new poem we added this week is called 'Autumn Leaves' - ask your son or daughter about some of the 'Willy Words' in it too! * Willy Word Choice is one of the six trait mates that we'll meet this year in Writer's Workshop, he's one of the Six Writing Traits. Students are working on their stamina at our Daily Five Centres, so far we worked for 11 minutes on the first day and then 14 the next! Students will have the chance to practice and rotate through each of the five centres before we start 'for real' :) Check your mailboxes soon for an all call for volunteers! One of our stations is 'Word Work Games' where students go to play bingo, memory etc., but every game has a literacy component to it. If you're available mornings from 9:00 - 10:10, please keep it in mind! Once a week, once a month, as much or as little as you can do, we'd appreciate it. We watched a film "The Four Seasons: Daily and Seasonal Changes" and learned about cycles (like day to night, spring though to winter) and how these cycles can affect living things (plants, animals and humans). Afterwards, students wrote in their journals "A Cycle is ..." and gave an example - so many ideas were shared on the carpet! Ask your son or daughter if they can think of an example of a cycle. Math As the grade 1 students continued to conduct their own surveys and collect data, this week the grade 2s began analyzing data that had already been collected. Grade 2s also started their culminating task as we near the end of our unit, "Planning a Halloween Celebration". I gave the grade 2s the task of helping me plan a party - what food should we eat, games should we play, or costumes should we wear? Students thought of their own question and were asked to gather data in an organized way; the following day they took that data and displayed it in graph form (picto or bar). Next week, we'll anazlye the data to answer some questions and to see what they found out! We also depicted data this week in a really fun and creative way - read below about our Jack O Lantern Glyphs! To answer questions about data play with Math Data Game for Kids THIS IS MY FAVOURITE! To create your own, play around with the Data Grapher and create some of your own graphs! Tip: Use Bar and Picto graphs :) Other Bike Rodeo Congratulations to our grade 2 participants! What an amazing morning we had Wednesday :) The grade 1s came out for a bit to cheer on our classmates and to see what the bike rodeo was all about. Grade 2s had to go through THIRTEEN different stations; stopping safety, steering around obstacles, going in a straight line - even sign recognition. As the 2s kept biking, the 1s came inside to watch Franklin Rides a Bike. Then, we did a Retelling in our Writing Journals - start from the beginning (problem), tell us about the middle (details) and don't forget the ending (solution)! As students retell stories, it's important that they include character names, the setting and lots of details - they have to imagine they're telling the story over again, to someone who has never heard it before! When the grade 2s came back, it was their turn to write in Journals, but they did a 'How To", explaining all the steps of "How to Ride a Bike". Much like retelling, it's all about giving details, from start to finish. (*differentiated activities because of different curriculum expectations). Carving Pumpkins Friday afternoon we had some parent volunteers come in to carve pumpkins with us for the HPAS Halloween Party's pumpkin walk! We got really gooey - it was a lot of fun:) As we took turns carving, we also worked through a Jack o Lantern Glyph activity. At first, I read the instructions aloud and students had to use their listening skills to follow along with the activity. For example, "If you have 0 siblings colour your eyes black, if you have 1 sibling colour your eyes green ..." or "Draw one rib line for each year that you are old". After we went through the whole activity, I put the instructions up on the Smart Board for students to check and edit their work - did they listen well and follow along with the instructions? Check out our Jack O Lantern Glyphs in the hallway and see if you can find your son's or daughter's pumpkin :)
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In our Room 108 Classroom Community, we foster an engaging, respectful and caring environment. I aim to balance a consistent program with flexible responsiveness to students' individual needs. Archives
November 2017
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