Another Busy Week

This week seemed even busier than last week's short week. Maybe because it was the second short week in a row, maybe because I was off sick one day, I'm not sure. I felt like I was trying to cram so much into the 3 days that I was with the students. Hopefully everyone enjoyed the four-day weekend they had. Unfortunately there are still lots of bugs going around, and many students at school have been getting sick. Thank you to everyone who sent in a box of tissues this week, they'll definitely be used up quickly over the coming winter months. 

In language this week, we have finished going through the French alphabet with the sounds "w", "x", "y", and "z". We discussed that "w" was not originally part of the French alphabet so that words with "w" are borrowed from other languages or even sometimes pronounced as "v" like in "wagon". The grade threes read the short story "La famille de Rachel" and responded to comprehension questions. We read two new fall poems which are going home with next week's homework to be shared at home. We worked on making predictions this week, both as a class with a read aloud, and in the guided reading groups. We discussed what information we use to make predictions: title, subtitles, information on cover, images on the cover and throughout the text. We also discussed reviewing a prediction and assessing whether it was a good prediction or not. This helps with comprehension of a story. We will continue to work on this next week. The students brainstormed ideas for a writing piece about what they do with their families while I was away on Wednesday. They completed the task yesterday with me. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of writing I got from so many students. The students worked very hard to use the word wall and to sound words out instead of asking for most words as they have been doing up until now. They had several models of sentences with a variety of ideas up on the board to help them as well. Several students just did the minimum amount of sentences that I asked for while others attempted to complete the entire page or even pages! So great for this point of the year!

In math, we finished up our unit on representing numbers to 100, and 1000. The students did a written assessment on the unit today. Next week we will begin a unit on graphing, although we have already done several graphing activities in our daily math problems as Friday questions are from the Data Management strand. We will look at several types of graphs, Venn diagrams, pictographs, bar graphs. We will also look at tally charts and making surveys. The emphasis will be on comprehension of the information in the graphs and charts, amounts of each item, totalling, and making comparisons between items on a graph/chart. Students will need to be able to present information in a graph with appropriate labels, title, and numbers placed in their graphs. 

In Social Studies, the grade twos worked in groups to read an informational text about food and clothing in different countries throughout the world. The worked together to find the answers in the text to multiple choice questions about what they read. The grade threes continued to complete information about the communities in which they live. 

As the school year continues, I'm constantly trying to find new ways to improve my classroom organization and teaching. (Thank you Pinterest and professional teacher blogs! ) I've found some great sound blend strips that I have taped to the students' desks to help them with their writing. Also, I've put up a visual schedule, unfortunately, due to space and finding a magnetic surface to post it on, it's only visible when our door is closed, or nearly closed. I also added more magazine boxes to hold our duo tangs. We now need to have two bins for each subject as they add more and more work to them. 

Next week is a very busy week. I will be away on Monday to take my oldest to some medical appointments. I'll be back Tuesday, when we will be going swimming for the first time. Hopefully everyone remembers their bathing suits and towels. If they want to bring them on Monday, that's fine. It never hurts to be prepared in advance. :) We do not usually take parents when we go swimming as there are lifeguards on site. I'm looking forward to having all parents who volunteered for the swim/skate program to come with us when we go skating in November, if they are available. I will be in touch regarding this closer to the time. On Wednesday morning, we will be attending the Fred Penner: Peter and the Wolf show. I'm really looking forward to the show!

Super Busy Short Week

I don't know what it is but short weeks always seem so much busier than regular ones. Perhaps it's because we're so used to planning over five days, that it seems like we have to fit everything into four when it's a short week. This week we worked on finishing up our recounts. Most are done or almost done and I have begun putting them up on the bulletin board in the hall. We covered the letters/sounds "s", "t", "u", and "v" in our daily comptines. The grade threes worked on the sound "on" with its two spellings on/om in the story "Le trésor de Gédéon". We also began doing some other fall poems as shared readings that will be in their homework duo tangs next week to read at home with parents.

Recounts

It took me longer than it usually does to get my guided reading ready to go with reorganizing. I've finally got all GB+ assessments done, though with some delays due to all the absences this fall from illness etc. We will begin on Tuesday with predictions on the books and then I will be rotating through the five groups. The groups will be rotating through choral reading, partner reading and independent reading throughout the week when they are not reading with me. There is also a follow-up activity where they will be searching for words with some of the sounds we have covered this year in their books. 

All set for Guided Reading

In math, we have been focusing on using base ten blocks to make a number in several ways. We also spent considerable time discussing when to exchange ones for a ten, tens for a hundred, and hundreds for a thousand. The grade twos have been doing written activities where they have to group and count objects by 2, 5, and 10. The primary focus has been counting by 10. The grade threes have been looking at how many groups of 5, 10, and 25 are in a hundred as well as skip counting by 2, 5, and 10 both forward and backward from various starting points up to 1000.

In science, the students have been working in groups to discuss stable structures (don't move) vs structures that do move. We will begin looking at different types of levers/simple machines shortly. Next week we'll be going back to working on social studies with more community activities. Unfortunately, due to timing with the Peter and the Wolf and start-up of the Swim/Skate program, we had to put the Urban/Rural communities field trip on hold. We'll try to go again in the spring when the weather is again nice and hopefully the schedule will be a little more open and accommodating. 

Great visual for the differences between types of communities (grade 3)

Working Away

This week the students have been working hard to learn about different ways to represent numbers in math. Besides writing numbers in standard form and making/drawing them with base 10 blocks, they have also been writing them in in expanded form, place value, and in written form. Look for a "representing numbers" booklet to come home next week and your child can share what they have learned with you. 

New learning goals in math

This week the students have been completing their recounts after our shared readings last week. They made a plan and then used the plan to write a first draft of their recount. The students have been using file folders that have one side cut in three. This allows them to focus on one portion of their writing at a time and not be distracted by other sections. They will be editing tomorrow and then will begin their good copy. We did the long and short "o" sound, as well as "p" and "qu" in this week's comptines. Tomorrow we will do "r". When we do our daily comptines, we don't just work on reading, we also focus on spelling and grammar. There are many different features to the comptines that we take up. Today we discussed "les guillemets" which are quotation marks in French. They look a little different but the students were very quick to pick up on why they are used. We have also been focusing a lot on punctuation and how it changes how something is read, like pauses and expression. The grade threes have been working on the "oi" sound in "Le roi maladroit". I'm almost finished doing reading assessments with the class, just the grade threes and a grade two who has been absent are left to read with. I'm hoping to have guided reading groups going by later next week or beginning the following week. 

Plan and first draft of recount

Focus Folders for written work

In drama, the students have been working on dialogues that will help them to independently resolve conflicts that arise. They have been using puppets to act out scenarios in which a conflict arises. We have been creating dialogues together which will give them appropriate words to help them resolve a conflict without escalating a situation. They have been explaining clearly what they don't like about another's behaviour and why. They then ask the other to stop. Today we worked on what we can do if the other person doesn't stop. Hopefully as we continue to practise this, the students will become better at expressing themselves and standing up for themselves in a conflict situation. 

We have been developing soccer skills over the past month in physical education. This week, I have been assessing the students on passing, dribbling, and blocking/stopping the ball. Next week, I will be looking at how they use those skills in a game setting and how actively they participate. 

Open House

It's been a busy week. The students have been working hard to complete their draft and good copies of the posters we put up for Open House. They were very excited to have their work on display for parents! It was great meeting all of the parents tonight. I am sorry there were a few that were unable to attend. Hopefully I can meet everyone else soon. It was a long day for me but very enjoyable. Also, I volunteered at the Book Fair which was a great opportunity to reconnect with former students and their families. Some of the children seemed to enjoy their Open House tasks that I had for them, while others were a bit shy, especially when it came to introducing their parents to me. 

Open House

We are continuing to work through the sounds in our daily comptines. This week we have done the sounds "j", "k", "l", and "m". We will do "n" tomorrow. The grade threes have been working on the story "Peureux, peureux!" which covers the "eu" sound. This week we also have also been looking at a compte-rendu (recount) as a shared reading. Next week the students will begin to work on rough drafts of their own recounts of what they did over the summer. I began doing reading assessments with the children. I've gotten through about a third of the class so far and hope to read with the rest over the next couple of weeks. Once I've read with everyone, I will get our guided reading groups going and I'll be doing more small group instruction. 

Reading assessment 

In math, we began looking at ways to represent numbers. The students have been doing hands on activities, where they are using hundreds, tens, and ones to represent numbers. Written work has focused on estimating, grouping objects in order to count them, and making pictures of hundreds, tens, and ones to represent numbers. We've also talked about being careful as ten ones need to be converted to a ten and ten tens into a hundred. 

The students continued to work on their name pattern art. Most got to the point today where they began to add colour. We haven't done any social studies this week as this week's focus was science. We took some time to discuss scientific thinking and using all of senses to help us understand what we are learning about. The grade threes are doing stable structures and the grade twos are doing movement. Luckily these units have some overlap so we'll be able to do a lot of activities together. 

Getting to Know One Another Again

It's been a busy week so far. We haven't got as much work done as I had planned, but the dynamic of our class has changed with reorganizing and it's important to get to know one another again within our new class makeup. Also, class rules and expectations need to be gone over again, so for most of the class, it's been like starting over again from a new first day. For those who have been in the class for the past few weeks, it's been a great opportunity to show some leadership skills as they are the "experts" on the routines. They have all been spread out in each table group so that they get the chance to use those skills in a small group setting. Everyone seems to be adjusting well to the changes and it shouldn't take long for everyone to comfortably settle into our class. 

In our language block, the grade twos have been working on the two spellings for the "f" sound, "f" and "ph", hard and soft "g", and will continue with "i" tomorrow. The grade threes have been working on the story "Rintintin le lapin" which focuses on the "in" sound with the following three spellings, "in", "im" and "ain". The students are also working on posters about themselves, which is why they were asked to bring a photo of themselves to class. 

We have continued to look at non-numerical patterning, focusing mostly on explaining our patterns. We will have a small assessment on this on Friday, however, patterning is something that we will visit regularly throughout the year. We began doing "Les mathématiques pour tous les jours" this week. It it a set of daily math questions from each of the five math strands. On Monday, it's patterning and algebra. On Tuesday, it's number sense and numeration. On Wednesday, it's geometry. On Thursday, it's measurement. On Friday, it's data management. Also, we have started "Nombre du jour" which is representational activities for a daily number. We are at 13, as we are going with the number of school days that have been attended (the photo is of yesterday's number). Check it out at our Open House next week!

In visual arts, the students are using their names to create patterns. Our self-portraits are done along with the poems. They are up on the wall to be seen at Open House. We began social studies this week. The grade twos will be looking at their communities within Canada. They will be doing activities that will allow them to compare how they live in Canada with those who live in other countries. The grade threes will be completing activities about the communities in which they live. Given that we have students from both Kingston and Amherstview, we will be able to see the differences between an urban community and a rural community through our follow-up discussions to the activities. Also, learning goals for each subject are now posted on a bulletin board for students to review regularly. These will change as we change units/topics. The background colour matches the colour of the duo tang for that subject, red - le français, yellow - la phonétique, green - les études sociales, black - les maths, blue - les mathématiques pour tous les jours, and orange - les sciences. This will help students match the expectation to what they are working on. I'm really enjoying trying to implement new ideas such as this in the classroom this year. 

Les mathématiques pour tous les jours

Nombre du jour

Our self-portraits and poems

Learning goals

Matching duo tangs

Changes!

I am feeling very sad at the moment. Our school has had to reorganize due to the extremely high numbers in all of our French Immersion kindergarten classes. As a result, I am losing eight of the lovely grade threes that I have been enjoying getting to know. And while I know I will be getting nine more wonderful grade twos, and that those leaving will enjoy the rest of their school year in either Mlle Bennett's or M. Virtue's classes, I will still miss them. Tomorrow we will be finishing up any work, so that it can be taken with them to their new classes. 

This week, we have continued to look at patterning and have spent more time writing/explaining about patterns. While I had originally planned to move onto a new unit next week, we will have to spend a bit more time on this to ensure that the incoming grade two students get a chance to become proficient in this. Then we will be moving on to representing numbers. 

Some examples of our math work

In Language, the grade twos have been working on the following sounds in our daily comptines: hard c, d, e, é, and will finish the week with è/ê tomorrow. The grade threes worked on the sound "en" with its different spellings (en, an, em, am) in the story "Le champignon ensorcelé". The students completed their poems about themselves which will go with their now complete self-portraits. For those staying, look for the self-portraits as they will be posted in the classroom. I will send the self-portraits home with those leaving. 

I would like to extend a welcome to all of the students who will be moving into my class at the end of the day tomorrow. I look forward to getting to know everyone and hope the adjustment will be smooth and quick. 

Working on our self-portraits

Independent Reading

Enjoying the First Week Back!

It's been really fun getting to know the students this week. Today we started presenting our "All About Me" bags. We're learning lots of interesting information about each other in a fun way. The presentations are not done yet but we will continue tomorrow and Monday until everyone has taken a turn. It's also been a great way to get the students back into the habit of communicating in French in front of a group after being away from it over the summer. 

The students have also started drawing their self-portraits in visual arts. The drawing is pretty much complete and they will be completing the colour next week with pastels. They will begin completing poems about themselves tomorrow to go with their portrait. We plan to have them on display for the Open House. 

We've been working on patterning. The students have been making patterns with a variety of manipulatives and describing the changing attributes orally. Today they began drawing, labelling, and explaining their patterns in written format. The math homework for the next couple of weeks for both grade 2 and grade 3 will review this. 

Our shared reading and guided reading is focusing on phonics. The grade twos have had short poems with the "a" and "b" sounds and will do hard and soft "c" sounds and spellings over the next couple of days. I focus on building decoding skills, increasing vocabulary, and improving fluency with these poems. The grade threes have been working on the booklet "Lou et Trouloulou" which covers the"ou" sound. The booklets also contain short comprehension questions to go with the story. 

Each grade has been taking turns reading with me. The grade twos will do a new sound each day until we get to the harder blends. Then we will spend several days before moving onto a new sound. Since the grade three reading booklets also contain a comprehension componant, they will just have one sound a week. We have started with some words for our word wall and have been learning new ways to chant the, each day. This is a fun way to practice the words regularly. 

I have been unable to successfully post my newsletter with the variety of graphics and fonts in it. This is disappointing but I will continue to try to find a way. In the meantime, I will post important information from the newsletters, such as upcoming dates. 

Our All About Me Bags

Drawing self-portraits