Snow Days and PA Days Make For a Very Short Week

Monday's snow day was the start of an extra short week. With the buses being cancelled, there were only two students in the class. Thank you Kayleigh for all of your help organizing and tidying the binders and boxes. They look great!

In language, we reviewed the "un" sound and spellings in "Le chocolat brun". Our shared poem was a funny one about punctuation fighting. We had a few long words that were challenging but we spent quite a bit of time discussing how to break them into syllables to make them manageable. We also discussed how periods, commas, and semi-colons are used in sentences.

Looking at the three types of punctuation

We began a new reading strategy where we write down "jot" notes to help with comprehension. This week we focused on visualizing. Using an eye symbol on a sticky note, the students jot some ideas of what they picture in their mind about what they are reading. We began a new read aloud "Le loup qui voyageait dans le temps" where I am modelling this strategy. Then the students practised it during their independent reading. We will continue to practise this next week.

Using jot notes for visualizing

In our guided writing groups, we are working on the verb "avoir" in the present tense. We read a short book to learn how to properly conjugate it and then did some follow up activities.

Word work with stencils

Word work on the spelling patterns they need to practise

Reading with a partner

Reading with a partner

Working on typing skills

We continued to work on measurement this week with more hands on activities in our guided math groups. The grade threes are working on measuring objects with standard units. The grade twos are working on ordering objects by size. We also spent time looking at how we can use body parts to estimate, fingertips are about a cm wide, arms stretched out are about a meter.

In social studies, the grade threes learned some new terminology related to living and working in Ontario. They also looked at the map of Ontario and did a comparison of it and the map of Manitoba, which is very similar.

The grade twos began to look more closely at Europe. We began in France as we are following le loup's journey from "Le loup qui voulait faire le tour du monde". We learned more about Paris and then the students did some follow up activities.

In science, the students made mind maps to show what they know about animals and plants.

It was great to see all the pink yesterday for Pink Shirt Day.

Remember: Next Wednesday is Colour House Day

Have a great long weekend!

Skating, Crazy Hair, Fred Penner, and Goodbyes

It's been a very busy week with a lot going on at school.

This week in language, we read "La pluie" to review the "ui" sound and spelling pattern. We also read the poem "Mon cartable" for vocabulary acquisition.

The students worked on two reading strategies this week. This first was to pick books that were appropriate for their reading level. We use the 5 finger rule: if there are 5 words they can't read or don't understand on a page, the book is too hard. It's fine to pick a book that a bit easier than their reading level, though, as this helps improve fluency. (As long as it's not too easy!) The second strategy is to read a variety of genres. Mme Misener did short lessons on narrative texts, informative texts, descriptive texts, and reviewed "comptines" and poems.

Identifying the type of text

Writing about emotions in guided writing

Lots of writing going on around the room

Mme Misener finished reading "Le loup qui s'aimait beaucoup trop" for this week's read aloud.

I finished up the Words Their Way assessment in French. The guided writing groups have been redone and are now based on the spelling patterns they are working on. Most of the class is working on final consonants which is typical for grades 2 and 3. The groups will be doing individualized activities during "Working on Words" centres.

This week we began a new math unit on measurement. The grade twos will be measuring length, height, and width using non-standard units of measurement. (blocks, hands, feet, paper clips...) The grade threes will learn about centimetres, metres, and kilometres.

A number talk to start our math

Measurement games

Measurement games

Measurement games

Measurement games

Measurement games

Measurement on Prodigy

In social studies, the grade threes began to learn about the province of Ontario. This week we looked at the physical borders around the province and discussed Ontario's population compared to the rest of Canada.

The grade twos finished up their maps of the continents and oceans.

Mme Misener finished up the unit on volleyball. The class had fun playing a tag game using physical depictions of "Rock, Paper, Scissors".

In visual arts, the students worked on their leaf art that Mme Misener did with them. Some are finished but some will need to finish them up over the next couple of weeks.

On Monday, we spent some time practising Fred Penner songs with Mme Judd in the Music Room.

On Tuesday, the class went skating and had a great time on the ice.

Learning to skate!

On Thursday, there were lots of wacky hairdos around the school and in our class for "Crazy Hair Day".

Today we went to see Fred Penner at the Kingston Gospel Temple. The students (and teachers/parents) had a great time single along with all of the songs.

Today was Mme Misener's last day. The class was very sad to see her go. We will see her again in February when she returns to the school to do her next placement with another teacher. It has been great having her with us and we will miss her!

I still have some conference times available on Monday and Tuesday of this week and Monday of the following week if you haven yet to pick a time. If you feel everything is fine and that a conference is not necessary at this time, just put a quick note in the agenda or message me on Bloomz to let me know.

We have begun preparing for the Amherstview Holiday concert which will take place on Wednesday, December 21st. Our class will be performing a dance with Mme Carlone's grade 4/5 class. It's "Can't Stop the Feeling" by Justin Timberlake and was in the Trolls movie. If the students want to practise at home, I have included the links to the dance tutorial and the dance to the song.

Dance tutorial:

https://youtu.be/8tvFjlLbJR0

Dance practise:

https://youtu.be/I85HssE0OZw