Literacy Week

It's been such a busy short week with all of the literacy activities taking place around the school! In language, we read the poem "Neige" as our shared reading. We discussed the imagery in this poem and the word choices of the author. The students practised the "eu/eur" sounds in "Les oeufs" and "Les joueurs de soccer". I finished up doing GB+ assessments and I'm very pleased with the class's continued progress in reading levels. They have been progressing steadily since September. Reading levels for book-in-bag have also been adjusted. They also completed an independent reading test with comprehension questions. They did a short writing assessment to demonstrate their understanding/use of the conventions we've been working on (capitals, punctuation, and sentence structure). So many assessments this time of year when report cards are coming up. 

We didn't get a lot of math done with all the interruptions, but we did get the problems of the week done, some discussions on comparing 3-D solids and skeletons, and some time to work on finishing up incomplete math work. Next week we'll be back to doing our daily five language and math centres. 

There were lots of Literacy Week activities. On Monday afternoon, we had "Drop Everything and Read". I did a read aloud and then the class had some time to read independently. On Tuesday, we had Reading Buddies in the middle block with Mme Adamson's Grade One class and in the last block with Mme Anne's Kindergarten class. 

Wednesday was Pyjama Day for K-2 and in the afternoon our class joined Mrs. Burke's class to read by flashlight in the library. On Thursday morning, we went to the music room to participate in a sing-along with Mme Judd. One of the songs was a new song by Jack Grunski about reading!

I'm sure the students enjoyed Friday's PA Day with all the snow we got on Thursday! I was busy at school working away on reports but I would have much rather have been out enjoying the snow with my boys. Now we're back to the cold weather so I really don't want to head outside until it's tee-shirt weather again! 😄

Have a great weekend!!

Finally Warm!

I'm so glad it's finally warming up, even though it's supposed to get cold again. Luckily the students didn't have too many recesses inside.

This week in Language, we read the poem "La neige au village" for our shared reading. The students practised the "ou" and "oi" sounds in "Un ours" and "Le soir". I read "La vie secrète des bonhommes de neige" as a read aloud. The illustrations in this book are so fun as there tiny hidden pictures on each page. This class had fun getting into small groups to lead the class in practising this week's word wall words. Another activity that the class seemed to really enjoy was a writing activity based on a movie with no dialogue. They watched the movie "Ormie" and then we discussed what had happened in the film. We watched it again another day, reviewed what had already been discussed, and then added any ideas that were missed. Then the class wrote a retell about what happened in the film using the ideas they had come up with as a group. 

In Math, we did a mini lesson on fractions. Each week, the daily math problems have been getting a little more difficult and every once in awhile, we need to do a little mini-lesson in order to be able to complete the questions. The class did some sorting 2-d shape activities on the SMARTBOARD. We also did another word problem in small groups. It was similar to the last problem; however, this time it was on 3-d solids instead of 2-d shapes. 

This week, we finished up activities on Italy in Social Studies. We will begin looking at Asia next week. In Music, we did activities on slow and fast tempos. The class continued to work on their 2-d shape art in Visual Arts. Some are finished but a few others still have a bit to do. Look for them soon on the hall bulletin boards. Don't forget, next week is Literacy week and there will be several activities going on throughout the week, especially Wednesday which is pyjama, flashlight, stuffy, and blanket day!

Have a great weekend and enjoy the warm winter weather before it gets cold again! 

Only 4 Days with the Kiddies

It's been such a busy week, even though I've only been at school for four days. Right now I'm traveling on the train to Toronto for a technology conference. I'm hoping to bring back lots of great ideas to use in the class. The class was very excited about tomorrow's Crazy Hair Day. I'm sorry that I will miss it. 

This week in language, the students practised the "on" sound in "Le papillon" and the "in" sound in "Le lutin". Our shared reading was the poem "La nouvelle année" which was about the four seasons. We are now working on one of the two "o" sounds. (Short o) They really had fun boxing out the words yesterday. 

In our reading centres, the students practiced fluency by reading increasingly difficult sentences. They played a game where they had to identify characters based on descriptions that they read. Online, they started listening to tales and legends. 

In writing, we are just finishing up our mini-unit on punctuation and will be beginning something new in our next cycle of writing centres. The students are working on winter poems. They have been practising writing wod wall words without looking. Each group has been adding the spelling pattern words that they are working to their personal dictionaries. They also played a game where they had to choose the correct final punctuation of a sentence. 

In math, we finished up with 2-d shapes and spent some time on 3-d solids. We will be finishing up next week and out next few cycles of centres will focus on 2-digit addition and subtraction. We spent quite a bit of time on our math journals with 2-d shapes and 3-d solids activities. 

We did some fun activities on the SMARTBOARD and some group activities. We will do some more next week. 

In Social Studies, we learned about Italy and will do some more activities on this next week. Tomorrow the class will be doing an art activity using the 2-d shapes they learned in Math. I'm looking forward to seeing their work when I get back on Monday. 

Yesterday was exciting as we got an FM system for the classroom. It's all set up but unfortunately the mike isn't staying charged. Someone from the board will be back tomorrow to check it out. I'm hoping it will be working on Monday. It's a great tool to allow all the students to hear instructions more clearly and I'm really looks forward to using it. We also had an assembly yesterday to start our new character trait we are focusing on, kindness. 

I'm now relaxing in my hotel room in Toronto. Have a great and relaxing weekend!

Happy New Year!

I really enjoyed the holidays but it's great to get back in the class with the children when everyone is refreshed from the break! Unfortunately with the cold we had this week, they didn't get outside a whole lot. But with all the snow we got yesterday, they'll be able to enjoy winter outdoor recesses a whole lot more. 

We started the new year with a shared reading about the new year, "Le premier jour de l'an". We practiced the "z" sound in "Onze oiseaux" and looked at the various spellings of the "an" sound (an, en, am, em) in "Le printemps". We were back at our reading and writing centres this week with several new activities added to both sets of centres. We will continue with this cycle of centres next week as we didn't get far with me being away sick for two days. 

We also started a new cycle of math centres with some new geometry and number sense games. We are just finishing up 2-d shapes and will be focusing more on 3-d solids next week. I have several great SMARTBOARD lessons planned to help the class to really get into the concepts of faces, edges (arêtes), and vertices (sommets). For our computer games, the class will start using their Prodigy accounts in class to master the different skills that I have set games up for. Don't forget that I have sent their logins and passwords for them to access this resource from home. If it has been misplaced, let me know and I can write it in the agenda. 

We spent some time on group problem solving where the students were given a problem to solve in small groups. There were several possible answers so all the groups were successful at finding and sharing strategies that helped them find a correct answer or answers with their group. 

In Social Studies, the class learned about the celebration of New Year. They discussed ideas and came up with their own resolutions for 2015. Next week, we will be looking at Italy. 

With the cancellation of buses on Friday, we had a very small group. We put several classes together to take turns doing activities in various classes. It's nice for them to get to know students in other classes better and we often are short a teacher or two on these days when someone is unable to make it in or we are short occasional teachers because of the weather. (As was the case yesterday!) some of the students enjoyed helping me get the daily math problem duotangs updated with new problems for the next few weeks. 

I'm looking forward to a busy week with the class as I have a lot to pack into 4 days. I will be away on Friday at a Technology Conference in Toronto but will be back the following week, hopefully with lots of new ideas to share! 

Have a great weekend!