So Much to Do!

I can't believe how much we have crammed into this week! After being away Monday, our class went swimming on Tuesday afternoon, went to see Fred Penner's performance of Peter and the Wolf on Wednesday, enjoyed the start of primary intramurals on Thursday morning, and finally finished up all of this week's work on Friday.

Fred Penner introduces The Peter and the Wolf orchestra

Fred Penner narrating the story of Peter and the Wolf

In language, the grade 2s worked on the "an/en/an/am" sound in "Le printemps" and the "on/om" sound in "Le papillon". The worked on partners with flash cards on different sounds/sight words. The grade 3s worked on the "ai/ei/è/ê" sound in "Le rêve de Bananè". We had a good discussion today about inferencing when the grade 3s figured out what a French expression meant by using their prior knowledge about sharks! Yay! We read two new fall poems as shared readings. As there were some difficult words, we focused a lot on using the reading strategies of breaking words into syllables, sounding words out, and looking for words we know. The students were able to pick out all of the words in the poems that are on our Word Wall. Despite all of the interruptions over the past two weeks, I was finally able to read with all of the reading groups. In writing, the students completed fall poems. Next week we will be completing a reading assessment.

In math, we started working on graphing. The students completed several graphs orally about foods they eat for breakfast and transportation to school. We focused on tally charts and had a long discussion about titles for graphs, how they can't be questions and that they need to be detailed enough that someone knows what question was asked in the survey by the title of the graph. The grade 2s did some work on bar graphs while the grade threes worked on taking information and sorting it in order to answer questions. Next week we will continue with Venn diagrams, bar graphs and pictographs. I have put up a new Hundreds Chart. We will use this to continue to practise counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s, both forward and backward, from various starting points. This is a concept that many of the students require continued practice with. For those that understand the concept well, we will count by 3s and 25s from time to time, as counting by threes helps when the students get to multiplication with 3, and counting by 25 helps the students to count money. 

Even with all of this week's interruptions, we still got a bit of social studies done. Next week we'll be working on science again. I'm still working on getting centres set up for language and math. Next week will be another busy one. We have a primary assembly on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday is Halloween and although there are no activities in the classroom, it is Black and Orange and Crazy Hat Day. There will also be a dance for each division in the afternoon. 

My pile of games off centres that need to be made and laminated

Dice boxes and pointers for centres that still have to be made

I HOPE EVERYONE HAS A NICE WEEKEND!

Another Busy Week

This week seemed even busier than last week's short week. Maybe because it was the second short week in a row, maybe because I was off sick one day, I'm not sure. I felt like I was trying to cram so much into the 3 days that I was with the students. Hopefully everyone enjoyed the four-day weekend they had. Unfortunately there are still lots of bugs going around, and many students at school have been getting sick. Thank you to everyone who sent in a box of tissues this week, they'll definitely be used up quickly over the coming winter months. 

In language this week, we have finished going through the French alphabet with the sounds "w", "x", "y", and "z". We discussed that "w" was not originally part of the French alphabet so that words with "w" are borrowed from other languages or even sometimes pronounced as "v" like in "wagon". The grade threes read the short story "La famille de Rachel" and responded to comprehension questions. We read two new fall poems which are going home with next week's homework to be shared at home. We worked on making predictions this week, both as a class with a read aloud, and in the guided reading groups. We discussed what information we use to make predictions: title, subtitles, information on cover, images on the cover and throughout the text. We also discussed reviewing a prediction and assessing whether it was a good prediction or not. This helps with comprehension of a story. We will continue to work on this next week. The students brainstormed ideas for a writing piece about what they do with their families while I was away on Wednesday. They completed the task yesterday with me. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of writing I got from so many students. The students worked very hard to use the word wall and to sound words out instead of asking for most words as they have been doing up until now. They had several models of sentences with a variety of ideas up on the board to help them as well. Several students just did the minimum amount of sentences that I asked for while others attempted to complete the entire page or even pages! So great for this point of the year!

In math, we finished up our unit on representing numbers to 100, and 1000. The students did a written assessment on the unit today. Next week we will begin a unit on graphing, although we have already done several graphing activities in our daily math problems as Friday questions are from the Data Management strand. We will look at several types of graphs, Venn diagrams, pictographs, bar graphs. We will also look at tally charts and making surveys. The emphasis will be on comprehension of the information in the graphs and charts, amounts of each item, totalling, and making comparisons between items on a graph/chart. Students will need to be able to present information in a graph with appropriate labels, title, and numbers placed in their graphs. 

In Social Studies, the grade twos worked in groups to read an informational text about food and clothing in different countries throughout the world. The worked together to find the answers in the text to multiple choice questions about what they read. The grade threes continued to complete information about the communities in which they live. 

As the school year continues, I'm constantly trying to find new ways to improve my classroom organization and teaching. (Thank you Pinterest and professional teacher blogs! ) I've found some great sound blend strips that I have taped to the students' desks to help them with their writing. Also, I've put up a visual schedule, unfortunately, due to space and finding a magnetic surface to post it on, it's only visible when our door is closed, or nearly closed. I also added more magazine boxes to hold our duo tangs. We now need to have two bins for each subject as they add more and more work to them. 

Next week is a very busy week. I will be away on Monday to take my oldest to some medical appointments. I'll be back Tuesday, when we will be going swimming for the first time. Hopefully everyone remembers their bathing suits and towels. If they want to bring them on Monday, that's fine. It never hurts to be prepared in advance. :) We do not usually take parents when we go swimming as there are lifeguards on site. I'm looking forward to having all parents who volunteered for the swim/skate program to come with us when we go skating in November, if they are available. I will be in touch regarding this closer to the time. On Wednesday morning, we will be attending the Fred Penner: Peter and the Wolf show. I'm really looking forward to the show!

Super Busy Short Week

I don't know what it is but short weeks always seem so much busier than regular ones. Perhaps it's because we're so used to planning over five days, that it seems like we have to fit everything into four when it's a short week. This week we worked on finishing up our recounts. Most are done or almost done and I have begun putting them up on the bulletin board in the hall. We covered the letters/sounds "s", "t", "u", and "v" in our daily comptines. The grade threes worked on the sound "on" with its two spellings on/om in the story "Le trésor de Gédéon". We also began doing some other fall poems as shared readings that will be in their homework duo tangs next week to read at home with parents.

Recounts

It took me longer than it usually does to get my guided reading ready to go with reorganizing. I've finally got all GB+ assessments done, though with some delays due to all the absences this fall from illness etc. We will begin on Tuesday with predictions on the books and then I will be rotating through the five groups. The groups will be rotating through choral reading, partner reading and independent reading throughout the week when they are not reading with me. There is also a follow-up activity where they will be searching for words with some of the sounds we have covered this year in their books. 

All set for Guided Reading

In math, we have been focusing on using base ten blocks to make a number in several ways. We also spent considerable time discussing when to exchange ones for a ten, tens for a hundred, and hundreds for a thousand. The grade twos have been doing written activities where they have to group and count objects by 2, 5, and 10. The primary focus has been counting by 10. The grade threes have been looking at how many groups of 5, 10, and 25 are in a hundred as well as skip counting by 2, 5, and 10 both forward and backward from various starting points up to 1000.

In science, the students have been working in groups to discuss stable structures (don't move) vs structures that do move. We will begin looking at different types of levers/simple machines shortly. Next week we'll be going back to working on social studies with more community activities. Unfortunately, due to timing with the Peter and the Wolf and start-up of the Swim/Skate program, we had to put the Urban/Rural communities field trip on hold. We'll try to go again in the spring when the weather is again nice and hopefully the schedule will be a little more open and accommodating. 

Great visual for the differences between types of communities (grade 3)

Working Away

This week the students have been working hard to learn about different ways to represent numbers in math. Besides writing numbers in standard form and making/drawing them with base 10 blocks, they have also been writing them in in expanded form, place value, and in written form. Look for a "representing numbers" booklet to come home next week and your child can share what they have learned with you. 

New learning goals in math

This week the students have been completing their recounts after our shared readings last week. They made a plan and then used the plan to write a first draft of their recount. The students have been using file folders that have one side cut in three. This allows them to focus on one portion of their writing at a time and not be distracted by other sections. They will be editing tomorrow and then will begin their good copy. We did the long and short "o" sound, as well as "p" and "qu" in this week's comptines. Tomorrow we will do "r". When we do our daily comptines, we don't just work on reading, we also focus on spelling and grammar. There are many different features to the comptines that we take up. Today we discussed "les guillemets" which are quotation marks in French. They look a little different but the students were very quick to pick up on why they are used. We have also been focusing a lot on punctuation and how it changes how something is read, like pauses and expression. The grade threes have been working on the "oi" sound in "Le roi maladroit". I'm almost finished doing reading assessments with the class, just the grade threes and a grade two who has been absent are left to read with. I'm hoping to have guided reading groups going by later next week or beginning the following week. 

Plan and first draft of recount

Focus Folders for written work

In drama, the students have been working on dialogues that will help them to independently resolve conflicts that arise. They have been using puppets to act out scenarios in which a conflict arises. We have been creating dialogues together which will give them appropriate words to help them resolve a conflict without escalating a situation. They have been explaining clearly what they don't like about another's behaviour and why. They then ask the other to stop. Today we worked on what we can do if the other person doesn't stop. Hopefully as we continue to practise this, the students will become better at expressing themselves and standing up for themselves in a conflict situation. 

We have been developing soccer skills over the past month in physical education. This week, I have been assessing the students on passing, dribbling, and blocking/stopping the ball. Next week, I will be looking at how they use those skills in a game setting and how actively they participate.