Saturday 27 May 2017

A Short Week and EQAO

It was a busy week with the Victoria Day holiday on Monday and then EQAO for the grade threes on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. 

In language, we read "Barbouillette!" For our read aloud. It's about a little girl that spreads colour like a virus by saying "Barbouillette!"


We reviewed the "gl" sound in our shared reading of "Gloria". We also read "Le jardin magique". 



Working on spelling on the smartboard 

In math, we practised describing 3-d solids and comparing solids.





The grade twos practised multiplication and division using manipulatives.



In drama, the students practised and made dramatic reading presentations in front of the class. We discussed what good presentation skills looked like and what good audience skills were, including how to clap at the end of a performance. 







In physical education, we did centres with the kindergarten students and the grade fours who were with us during EQAO. 





Have a great weekend!

Friday 19 May 2017

Track and Field, Annie, and a P.A. Day

Although it was a short week, it was a busy one. On Monday, the grade threes were outside all day participating in the school Track and Field Day. There have also been tryouts during nutrition breaks for the track team for the regional Track and Field Day. The grade twos were joined by the grade twos from Ms. Ambury's class while she went out with the threes. We went to the park across the street for physical education since the gym was being used for a track event.

In language, we read "Le chine-robot" for our read aloud. We reviewed the "fl" sound in "Les fléchettes" in our shared reading. Our other shared reading was "Dans ce jardin" where there was lots of new vocabulary to learn.




The students are writing their narratives following the plan that they made. (un court récit) They have been working on writing three paragraphs: introduction, middle, and conclusion with proper indenting.




Working on writing

Working on writing

Working on writing on Seesaw

In math, we have continued to learn about 3-dimensional solids. We have been looking at how to compare two solids by looking at their properties. The students have also continued to play multiplication and division games during centres to continue to practise their multiplication and division facts.


On Wednesday, we went to see a student performance of "Annie" at Odessa Public School.


On Thursday, we had our kickoff assembly for Jump Rope for Heart, which will take place on June 9. Envelopes went home with students at the end of the day.


Monday is Victoria Day so next week will be another short week. Tuesday will be a preparation for EQAO for the grade threes and they will be writing during the morning and middle instructional blocks on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The grade twos will be following our usually schedule in the classroom but will need to be much quieter coming and going in the hallways during the days that the grade threes and grade sixes will be completing the assessment.

I've noticed lately that quite a lot students have been getting food from Food Share much more regularly. The program is meant for the occasions when they are hungry but should not be a daily occurrence. Now that the weather is getting better and kids are running around quite a bit more, consider adding an extra snack or two to their lunches. It's always better to have a bit extra than not enough.

Happy Victoria Day and have a great long weekend!

Saturday 13 May 2017

More Rain, Lots of Mud, and Celebration of Dance

It's finally starting to warm up. There's still lots of rain and mud, but spring is here and the students are happy to be getting outside. We welcomed back a former class member, Grayson, on Monday. Everyone is working hard to help him settle in a get used to being back in French Immersion.

This week in language, I read "La reine de la récré" for our read aloud. Many students had already read it so I thought it would be good to read a familiar book that had been done in grade one, for Grayson's benefit. It also went well with the book we had read previously "Le pire des millers amis" since in focuses on how to be a good friend and why someone might act like a bully.


We reviewed the "cl" sound in "Les cloches". We also learned about where to pause when reading poetry when there is no punctuation, like in our poem "Le printemps".



This week's reading strategies focused on vocabulary acquisition by using the images to figure out new words. We also discussed how we could figure out the meaning of new words by using many of the strategies we have already learned, such as reading the entire sentence or paragraph to try to figure out the unknown word.


In math, we have been working on our new unit on 3-dimensional figures. The grade threes are focusing on the differences between prisms and pyramids in addition to reviewing the characteristics of 3-d solids that they learned about in grade 2.  The grade twos are learning about the different characteristics of 3-d solids, faces, arêtes (edges), and sommets (vertices). They are also learning the names of a variety of 3-d figures.


The grade 3s are learning about bases of prisms and pyramids and how the name comes from the base.



The grade twos are learning about bases and characteristics such as rolling and putting upright.


In social studies, the grade twos did activities on Mother's Day. They learned about how this holiday started and did an activity about their own mother.



The grade threes are learning about how the Indigenous people of Canada helped pioneers settle into Upper Canada. They taught them about what could be farmed, about edible plants, plants that were medicinal, how to tap maple sap, canoes, snowshoes, etc.



In science, the grade twos are learning about the importance of water and how we need to conserve it since only 2% of Earth's water is drinkable.




The grade threes did an experiment about the different parts of soil by looking at mystery soil samples and trying to describe them.




After completing the experiment, they got to feel the different soil components, sand, clay, loam, and organic matter.



While many of our body/brain breaks this week were practising our Celebration of Dance songs, we also did some meditation to calm down afterward.



On Wednesday, we went to Celebration of Dance 2017 at Fairfield P.S. It was a great day to walk over and back and the students had a great time dance to all the songs we had practised over the past two weeks.


Their visual arts projects went home on Thursday but there are no photos so that moms will be surprised for Mother's Day. They put a lot of work into these projects that we started at the beginning of April.

I'm still missing a couple of permission forms/money for the Toronto Zoo trip. While I realize that the zoo is closed indefinitely due to the zoo employees being on strike, I'm optimistic that the situation will be resolved quickly. For the sake of the animals and the striking employees and their families, I hope that they can come to a compromise in the next few weeks. At the moment, we are still hoping to go. If we do need to cancel, we will return all payments.

Monday will be Track and Field for all of the grade threes. The grade twos will be with me in the class, as per usual, along with the grade twos from Ms. Ambury's Grade 2/3 class.

Wednesday is our trip to "Annie" and Friday is a P.A. Day, followed by Victoria Day on May 22.

The grade threes will be doing EQAO from the 24th-26th. They will not be in our class for this but the grade twos will still need to be quiet at all times in the halls as there are several classes around us that will be writing.

Have a wonderful weekend and Mother's Day!