New Teaching Styles

This week in language, we read the poem "Le bel automne est revenu" for our shared reading. By the end of the week, when the students knew the poem well, we were able to focus on the use of punctuation and reading with expression using punctuation as a guide. The students practised the "k" and "l" sounds in "Le kangourou" and "Le lapin". I read a new book "Pluie de souhaits" as a read aloud and we focused on making predictions based on the title, cover page, and illustrations. On Monday, we finished up the latest cycle of literacy centres. I will be switching from five to six centres next week to make the groups smaller. This will allow the students to rotate through 6 centres, proving a greater variety of activities over six days. The new centre will be a centre focused on writing. 

On Tuesday, Mlle Carmichael moved from working with small groups to doing whole class lessons. She prepared read alouds and activity centres over four days that the class rotated through. The books that she chose linked nicely with what we are doing in Social Studies as they were stories/legends from different countries and/or cultures. Mlle Carmichael did guided groups while the other students rotated through independent activities that required limited direct supervision, very similar to what I have them do in my literacy centres. Next week, she will teach a short math unit on measurement to the students. 

In math, we continued to work on activities related to graphing. We looked at doing surveys, as well as completing Venn diagrams and bar graphs. We will continue to look at these, and in particular labelling graphs appropriately. We will also continue to practise addition and subtraction facts, numbers to 100, and representing numbers in our math centres. 

In Social Studies, the students completed an activity on the continent of Africa. Today they began completing activities about the country of Madagascar. Also, linking Social Studies to Music, we began to learn a Remembrance Day song. The class will be singing it along with Mme Lavoie's class during the school Remembrance Day Assembly. Hopefully some parents will be able to make it on that morning. 

Have a great weekend!