Mlle Carmichael's Last Week

We were very sad today to say goodbye to Mlle Carmichael. It's been great having her in the class for the past six weeks. She has been home sick since yesterday morning so we were worried that she wouldn't be there for the small celebration we had this afternoon. Luckily she felt well enough to come in at the end of the day.

This week we read "Feuille rousse, feuille folle" for our shared reading. We practised the "r" sound in "Le robot" and the "s" sound in "Sissie". We finished up another cycle of reading centres and began a new cycle. One of our activities was to practise reading words quickly to improve fluency. One of our new activities is to read words using a mirror. We also began writing centres this week. They are rotating through a guided centre with me where we are doing mini lessons and then practising the skills being learned. This cycle is focusing on writing sentences. Another centre is using play doh to practise spelling word wall words. There is also a centre is to practise skills independently. Two of the centres are to practise the spelling patterns they need to master, one a booklet with sorting activities that they practise independently and the other a typing activity of words with that spelling pattern. The last centre is a group poem writing activity. 

In Math, we have been finishing up the unit on graphing. Next week we will be beginning a new unit on 2-D shapes and 3-D solids. We will begin a new cycle of centres. We have been completing activities for the interactive math journal we started. 

In Social Studies, we have been learning about Europe. This week the students learned about Sweden. 

Les champs flamands on display 

A Time to Remember

It has been a great week! As a former military member, I enjoy teaching the students about The importance of Remembrance Day and having them participate in the assembly we have at school. It was so great to see so many families come out for such an important occasion. The students did a wonderful job in their performance of "En souvenir" and were so respectful during the assembly. Their wonderful Remembrance Day art looks so great in the hall. 

In language this week, the students read "Des habits neufs" for their shared reading. They practised the sounds "p" and "qu" in "Petit Pierrot" and "Quatre écureuils". I have reorganized the guided reading groups and we began a new cycle of centres. Several of the students earned a reward for having worked well in 25 centres and are now working towards 50. We will be beginning writing centres next week and I'm looking forward to beginning guided writing groups with the class. We spent some time on subjects and verbs and will get into that more in our guided writing centre. 

We have finished up math centres for now as we need a bit of time to complete independent activities before moving onto our next unit. Mlle Carmichael has been doing measurement and grid movement activities with the class and will continue with this next week before finishing up her placement in our class next Friday. 

In Social Studies, we began to learn more about the continent of Europe. The students enjoyed the fact that Russia is located on two continents, both Europe and Asia. We have seen some general facts about a few European countries and contrasted their populations with that of Canada. We will be looking at a few of the countries in closer detail, as well as some major European cities. 

In Music, the class learned some French terms for quarter and eighth notes. They listened to recognize what rhythms were clapped and played on sticks. They also created and shared their own rhythms. We will continue to explore this over the next few weeks. In Visual Arts, the class is working on colour contrasts. I hope to get those up on display later next week. 

The students continued to enjoy body and brain breaks using "Go Noodle". This week they have been doing some sprint and hurdle training. There are so many activities on there that we still haven't tried all of them. Until a flash update was installed on the computer attached to the Smartboard, several of the activities haven't been available to us. Now that this has been installed, we are definitely enjoying access to these other activities. 

It has been great to have the opportunity to meet with so many parents this week and share all of the great progress your children have had. 

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Cold and Rainy November!

It's been a cold, wet week. The students practiced the long and short "o" sound in "Un oiseau" and "Nicole". Our shared reading was the poem "Mois d'automne". I finished doing GB+ reading assessments with all of the students. They will be bringing home harder books in their "Book-in-a-bag". When we restart our reading centres next week, their guided groups will be changed slightly to reflect their new levells and their needs for their guided reading groups. Most of the students who have been going with Mme McLaren for some extra reading will continue to do so. I also did a spelling assessment this week that gave me great data on which sounds they have mastered in their writing and which sounds they need more practice writing. Next week I will be starting writing centres so that I can do guided writing with small groups. Some of the games that they will be playing at the centres will be designed to help them practise those spelling patterns. 

In math, we continued to do our math centres. We also began an interactive math journal so that they have somewhere to review math concepts whenever they need to. Mlle Carmichael completed most of her assessments on the measurement unit she taught. Next week she will have the students doing centres that help them master some of the measurement concepts that they are still struggling with or to give them a measurement challenge if they understood all the concepts well. 

Mlle Carmichael did a Language/Social Studies lesson on Rembrance Day. She read the book "Un coquelicot pour se souvenir" as a read aloud. The students watched a slideshow on the poem "Les cimetières flamands", the French translation of John McRae's famous poem "In Flanders Fields". They did some worksheets on Remembrance Day for their Social Studies duo tangs. Later in the week, they did another shared reading with Mlle about Remembrance Day. 

Mlle Carmichael also did a 3-d art lesson with the class on the poppy fields of Flanders. They turned out very well. Look for a couple of the pieces on display in one of the art frames near the Office and the Resource Centre in the gallery of art. The rest will be on display on one of our hall bulletin boards. I will post pictures next week once all the students have completed their art. We also practised our Remembrance Day song quite a bit and are all ready for Tuesday's assembly. A note will be going home on Monday about the students wearing red, black, or white on Tuesday. If they have a uniform (Beavers, Brownies), they can wear that instead. I hope many of you will be able to make it to Tuesday's assembly. It will start at 10:45 am but come early as it is always busy. 

I'm looking forward to meeting with most of you next week to discuss all the progress your children have made so far. Have a great weekend!

Halloween and More

After Monday's P.A. Day, it was a short week. I decided that with everything that was going on in such a short time, and with Halloween, that there wouldn't be any homework. 

In Language, our shared reading was the poem "Trois escargots". They worked on the "m" and "n" sounds in "Les mitaines" and "Nina". We had another cycle of language centres and were able to do two rotations most days. The students are now rotating through six activities instead of five as I made 6 guided reading groups instead of five. I began doing GB+ assessments again to see the progress made to date in reading levels. I will continue to do more next week before beginning centres again, in case I need to change the guided reading groups as well as to update reading levels for the Book-in-a-bag program. 

In Math, we continued to do data management activities in guided groups as well as other math centres. Mlle Carmichael taught a short unit on measuring (length, width, and height) using both non-standard and standard units that I helped her to plan. She began a one-on-one hands-on assessment with some students and will complete this next week with rest of the class. 

In Social Studies, the students learned about Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, which took place last Sunday.  They also learned about where the celebration of Halloween originated and why we have certain Halloween traditions today. 

On Wednesday, the class participated in "Take Your Child Outside" Day. We did a short walk through the neighbourhood, looking door various colours in the environment. Students were in partner groups and each had three paint swatches of colour to look for and point out to their partners. 

Today for Halloween, the students completed activity pages on Halloween vocabulary that they will be adding go their personal dictionaries. They enjoyed dressing in Orange and black and attending the Halloween dance this afternoon. For this special day, every student was able to buy some sort of Halloween treat in our dollar auction. I have these special days several times a year to ensure that everyone gets the opportunity to buy. We finished the day practising our Remembrance Day song as well as some Halloween songs with Mme Judd and the other grade twos. 

Thank you very much to Mrs. Longfield for the fun and healthy treats today. The veggie platter looked great and the class enjoyed it and the cookies very much!

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween! Don't forget, our class will be swimming next Tuesday (November 4) and will need to have a bathing suit and towel in a plastic bag. 

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!

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. 

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