Thanksgiving and Nature Walk

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving Holiday! It's been a busy, short week, after Monday's holiday. This week in Language, we looked at the poem "L'automne" for our shared reading. We practised the "I" and "j" sounds in "Les wapitis" and "Une girafe". Our word wall words for the week were for the "é" sound and its various spellings (é, er, ez...). We continued with our second cycle of literacy centres which are going very well. 

In math, we started a new unit this week. We are doing graphing in data management. The class will be classifying, sorting and completing several types of graphs (pictographs, tally charts, t-charts, Venn diagrams, and bar graphs). They will also be conducting short surveys and organizing the information they collect. We also started our first cycle of math centres. There are centres for guided math with me, a group problem solving centre, a math facts practice centre, a math games centre related to the unit/strand we are covering, and math activities on the class computers. We continued to practise hundreds chart activities and other counting activities. I have added a hundreds chart to the front of the homework duotang for the students to refer to when doing their math homework. 

We have been looking at warm and cool colours in Visual Arts. Their leaf art contrasting the two types of colours are turning out well. Most students still have a bit of finishing up to do on this art piece.

I also started using a new classroom management system this week. The children start in the middle at "ready to learn" and move their clothes pins up or down based on how they are behaving/working. If they are on orange and haven't moved off, they will stay at recess to discuss/problem solve what they need to do to improve. If they are on red, it is for more serious or recurring behaviour and a note or phone call home will follow. The class has responded very well to this system. I have given them less reminders about behaviour or work since this visual system was implemented and they have been taking more responsibility for their actions. 

Today we went on a short nature walk, close to the school to do a scavenger hunt. This activity incorporated fall vocabulary, working/cooperating in groups, and using French outside the classroom setting. The class really enjoyed our time outside. Afterwards, we discussed how to improve group work when completing activities.