I have been looking into the research into flexible seating for awhile now and have been wanting to make my classroom more open to make it work better for students. I have often let the children work wherever they were comfortable as long as they were on task. This week I decided to get rid of the desks which took up a lot of space, and replace them with tables. I love the amount of open space this created in the classroom. It enabled me to create a designated reading area, a small independent work area with two desks and the netbooks, and lots of space for the carpet area in front of the Smartboard. I purchased quite a few clipboards which the students can use to do their work if not at a table. I also finished getting our Visual Arts bulletin board ready in the hall for this year's art work.
In Language this week, we read "Le lutin" and "Les crayons" for our shared readings. We looked at the different spellings for the "in" sound. We looked at how "ent" is silent at the end of plural verbs. We also looked at the images that we had in our heads when reading "Les crayons".
While the students were doing Daily 5 centres, I was able to get through most of the GB+ assessments that I began last week. I have three more students to read with next week to finish up this initial assessment. I have begun creating guided reading groups based on which skills/strategies students need to work on, be it decoding, fluency, learning or reviewing sounds, comprehension, or retelling.
We finished up practising the 5 steps of problem solving in Math. We will continue to practise this in guided groups when we begin the Math Daily 3 centres over the next few weeks.
We spent some more time creating geometric patterns. This week, they could create any pattern they wanted with the manipulatives, as long as they had two changing attributes each time. It was great to put different attributes at each table and just have the students move from table to table every few minutes to experiment with the manipulatives on that table.
We also pulled out the iPads this week for the first time. The students tried out Prodigy Math on the app or on the netbooks. For most, it was the first time playing Prodigy. Prodigy is a math game that is set up as an adventure. When the characters battle, they must answer math questions. Although it is not yet available in French (I have contacted the company about expanding it to French eventually), the company is based out of Hamilton, employs Ontario teachers, and is based on the Ontario Math curriculum. I am able to log in and input the math unit I'm teaching and pick the types of questions I want included in the game for that unit. It's the third year I've used this game and the students love it.
In Science, the grade twos worked on an activity where they had to place animals in the correct category. They will continue to work on this next week. The threes learned more about the parts of plants and the role they play in plant growth. They also learned about the parts of flowers.
We continued to work on our Minion Self-Portraits and will be finishing them next week. I'm hoping they will all be done and on display in the hall for the Open House.
In Drama, we returned to the story we used last week. This week we did a follow up activity where students had to glue sentences from the story in order and then draw pictures to go with the sentences. The goal of the activity is to get them collaborating and working in groups, essential in drama activities.
Thursday was Picture Day. For those who were away, I will send information about Picture Retakes when it becomes available.
If you haven't already signed up for Bloomz, please consider doing so. It is one of the methods I use to send out important information to parents or message parents if there is not time for me to call for whatever reason. It also enables me to share pictures of students with their parents from time to time.
If your child has not brought in headphones, these are important for when we do "Listen to Reading" during the Daily 5 Language Centres. All of the stories they listen to are available on various websites and accessible on the iPads and netbooks. The headphones then allow them to listen without disrupting others around them when groups of 4 or 5 are all listening to stories at the same time. They also use the headphones when playing Prodigy Math. Headphones are available at a reasonable price at Dollarama or Dollar Tree. All headphones will be returned at the end of the school year. They are stored in drawers in the two desks so they are in a secure location when not in use.
I'm looking forward to seeing many of you next Thursday at the Open House!
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