As a teacher, I strive to involve parents in the day-to-day life of their child at school. I know, as a parent, I'd love to know what my kids were up to throughout their day instead of the generic "I don't know" or "fine" responses we can get. This year I decided I would attempt a few different ways to use technology in my class to connect with, and engage students and parents in the learning process. I set a personal goal to fully try these options and planned to evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, and effectiveness at the end of year. After some feedback from a few parents during student led, I thought I might take a temperature reading now of how useful and effective you (as a parent group) are finding these tools at this point. Things that are valuable and working well, we'll keep. If we find things are cumbersome or difficult, we can look to improve or scrap them. But your input now, as in all things related to your children, is most valuable to me. I appreciate you taking the time to complete this short survey and will share with you the general consensus once it's complete and we can go from there. Thanks!
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This morning, the students had gym in our class again. They were moving and shaking to some interesting dance moves off of Go Noodle. I was laughing too hard to take any photos, sorry! We then had Mrs. Huntly read to us and then had a travelling library come to our room. We're doing our best! We weren't able to access any chapter books, so I've let students take books out from my classroom library if they like. If it does not have a clear Evergreen barcode, it came from our library here in the room so please make sure it comes back. Students love having something in house to read! Afterwards, we moved into our math lesson. We did daily math review on the splash math and then took a look at our Christmas tree. It is very bare! We are going to decorate it. We will make some cinnamon ornaments next TUESDAY but need some supplies if you're able to help out. I've sent a paper copy home of the letter, but in case it's missed, it is down below as well. Just click on the image to download the PDF file. Students broke the recipe down to its fractions and then figured out how much was needed to do 6 batches to ensure everyone gets to make an ornament. I was so proud of how they didn't bat an eye at the challenge of adding fractions, understanding improper fractions, and then returning it to its proper fraction form! Great work! Here is the note about our ornament fraction lesson and what we need to make it happen. There is also a note regarding our upcoming Fraction Snack on December 20th. As part of our Christmas celebration, we would like to review our fractions we learned over the month. We will have a party but ask that certain foods, appropriate for fractioning, come. Feel free to send any other items, these are just what would work easiest for our lesson. Click on the image to download and print that PDF as well. Next, we reviewed some science sound terms and completed a word search. Kids enjoyed challenging the other tables to find as many vocab words as possible. I think the winning table had 24/28 words (see, another fraction the kids found!). Later in the afternoon we worked on the SADD bags. This year there is an optional competition where students can win up to $500 for the overall best design. The kids had a great discussion around the safety risks of drinking and driving and why we don't want anyone to drive if they have had anything to drink. We then settled in with good reads around the room for DEAR. After agendas we snuck in some time to write more of our DOJO story. To be honest though, I don't think the afternoon is this class' most productive time. No big deal, we'll adjust in the future for best results! See everyone tomorrow for their spelling test (#5).
So we're getting a little creative in our space! Without the gym today we decided to bring the gym to us. We played several games involving hula hoops including "Musical Hoops", "Treasure Steal" and friendly competitions. It's so neat to give students objects and see what they do with them! We also needed to be creative for music and library as we don't have access to those areas at the moment. Mrs. Huntly joined us to read to us in our room and Miss Manicom had us practicing for the concert in our space too. It worked out really well but we do hope it is a temporary solution. If you'd like more information on the student relocation/bridge plan sent home yesterday, please join us for a meeting at the school TONIGHT at 7:00pm. Daily math had us working on three digit addition and subtraction. We discussed the "Bigger, Bottom, Borrow" rule where if the number we are subtracting on the bottom is bigger than on the top, we need to borrow. The kids did really well with this! Afterwards we worked on an in depth fraction lesson. The kids should now be able to identify what the top and bottom of the number means (although they will learn the official names of them in the coming days), identify the total number of peices or objects in the fraction, and write or draw the fraction given it's partnering number or picture. Following math, we were up and about in Science. We are starting our "Sound" unit and so went on a sound walk both inside and out. We stopped to listen in various spots in and around the school and noted what we heard. When we listen closely, there are lots of things we hear without even realizing it! This afternoon we had DEAR and worked on some social. We discussed the different regions of Peru incuding coastal, moutains, and rain forest. We also looked closely at the people who live in the mountains of Peru. We learned that farming is very tough in the moutains due to the steep cliffs and poor soil. There is also an entire group of peope, the Uros, that live ON A LAKE! They were driven there by the Incas a long time ago and continue to live on floating islands made of reeds. It's amazing what people can do!
Finally, please note that we do have a very important meeting at the school tonight at 7:00. As this will affect us next year as well (our students will be in grade 4 next year which is one of the displaced groups), it is important that you understand what is going on and how we are working in the best interest of everyone. We really do hope you can join us. Today we worked on an art lesson around perspective and shadowing. Students were challenged to use chalk to create a snowman as if they were laying down looking up at it. We incorporated chalk, tissue paper, crayon and paint. This was a really fun, if messy, project! And the final result is awesome! Such great detail and I love the personal touches they added to accessorize their snowmen. Great work, 3K! We also had a chance to do some DEAR in spurts while our friends finished up the painting portion of their project. Then we practiced some of the games for tonight student led conferences so that we could be experts to show you all of our knowledge. Since we were opening our room right after school, we snuck down to the grade 2 stairwell to listen to a chapter of Big George while our room was getting cleaned up ahead of time. Finally, a great big thank you to everyone who joined us tonight. Our room was packed! It's so fantastic to see so many out to support the kids. Thank you again! A great morning started off with a neat social presentation from Gomati on India. Gomati lived in India and shared her experiences with us. She brought in samples of the spices and food they eat there, some examples of their language, clothing they wear, and discussed how our cultures and the same and different! Such a great chance to learn authentically! Daily math today was on our computers! We're signed up with Splash Math (www.splashmath.com) where we can practice all of our skills. It is very similar to Raz-Kids in that I can assign lessons and see their accuracy and progress. YOU can also have them sign in at home where they can practice. The sign in is the same as their Wild Rose username and password (BUT if their password is only 3 letters they will need to add the number 1 at the end. Eg. ice becomes ice1). I've only put in the current units but will add units as we get into them. It is free right now and I hope to be able to use it for the year. Here are some of the sample questions we did today on place value, adding, subtracting, fact families, skip counting, comparing/ordering numbers, word problems, and fractions! A fun and interactive site that had the kids really engaged! Next we completed our letters to B for the review words this week. Benoit asked them to share letters about stuffed animals or pets they have at home and like to "snuggle". Students had a lot of fun sharing their favorite stuffed animal adventures while incorporating their words! Then onto our Dojo Rock stories. You've probably seen their photos they were taking today and posting to their personal dojo stories. They will use these images in the writing of their dojo adventure. Independently they went around the school and solicited helpers/actors to help create their images. Good work everyone! In from recess and onto our reading. It's great to lounge around and be comfy when curled up with a good book. Due to the structural issues at the moment, we don't have much of a gym (short term we believe!) so we bundled up for some outside fresh air. We will keep you posted as information becomes available on our school's plans to accommodate the moved classes and the (hopefully) minimal impact it will have on us! See you tomorrow! This morning the students received their next set of spelling words. Although the paper should have went directly to their agenda, just in case it is missed between here and home they typed it onto their personal dojo stories too. Be sure to study! The test is on December 2! In math we reviewed our larger numbers and their place value in both standard and written form as well as more fractions, adding, and word problems. It was great to see Dane thought to use a greater or less than problem rather than just the standard adding or subtracting! All of our "student teachers" did a great job! After all the fun and noise of earlier, it was a nice chance to settle into some quiet with a good book during DEAR. Then we were off to gym for some Crossfire Obstacle Dodgeball with 3PK.
So until I see you again, stay healthy, happy and have fun!
We had a great start to our day reviewing our spelling words and then completing our spelling test! The students, as always, were very focused- great work! We then did a lesson in descriptive detail. Using our five sense, we had to describe each detail of the candy we were given. Although the whole thing was fun, somehow I think students enjoyed the last descriptive detail (taste) best! Afterwards, we stuffed our portfolio with more work to share with you. After recess, we continued working on our word processing skills with a new assignment. I'm happy to say most students completed this assignment with time to spare! Awesome job, everyone! We then had math where we worked on our adding and subtracting two digit numbers as well as our daily review which highlighted our developing skills in fraction. Mrs. Kelln was needed elsewhere so we were lucky to have Mrs. Moberg join us! After second lunch we finished the day with some DEAR and then gym with our pals in 3PK. Another great day, thanks everyone! On a side note: No kid completed the dojo challenge today from yesterday's blog 😞. I was hoping to see that the kids were on here too! Oh well, maybe next time!
Aren't they awesome? Getting into the holiday spirit with Mrs. Manicom in music this morning. Be sure to check out our Christmas concert on the evening of December 15! And don't forget the town light up parade tomorrow at 7:00! After getting into our groove, we worked on some Big George. If you check out the description of the baron below (shot of the book page) you can just imagine some of their reactions during their visualization. I think some might have felt the author gave us TOO MUCH detail! Later it was onto math. We did some mad minutes continuing to work on our basic facts of adding and subtracting using all numbers from 0-9. We also completed our daily math. Thanks to "student teachers" Rylan, Kaiden, Ava, Jaydon, and Alex for showing us how they do it. After we go over it as a group, Mrs. Kelln extends our thinking with more examples. Today's lesson was on fractions. We discussed what the top and bottom number mean and the proper way to say a fraction. We also gave some different examples of fractions and the kids even shared where they see fractions in day to day life! Some great examples included eating or sharing a chocolate bar or communicating the number of answers correct on a test. We took time out today to put more things into our portfolio to share with you next week! Be sure to go through the portfolio with your child when it comes home next Thursday, sign and comment to your child in the visitor log and return it back to school. We tried reading around the room again today for DEAR and it went really well! Great job, 3K! After agendas we headed to the gym for some parachute games. These are always kid favorites, no matter how old we, I mean, they get! Remember tomorrow is our spelling test number 4. Be sure to practice your words again tonight! See you bright and early!
Look at these hard workers! This morning we worked on our writing lesson. We listened and read a description of a clown and drew a picture trying to recreate. Once we heard a more detailed description, we realized how much easier it was to draw what the clown was really like. The more details the reader is given, the more clear the pictures of the story are in their head! Then we were off to library to exchange our home books! After a break to eat and run and play, we had computers. Today was supposed to be a short word processing lesson. However, the students had never tried to do many of the word processing skills that would be asked of them in grade 3 (changing text size, and font style and color, writing in paragraph breaks, aligning text, etc. Although we were supposed to move onto our other lessons, we felt our learning was best focused on getting a good grip on these skills. The students were trying so hard, I didn't have the heart to stop them until they were ready. What a dedicated group! This will really pay off when they are working on typing out their LA stories in the future! We didn't sit in front of computers ALL day! We had a 20 minute up and moving block since we missed out on gym. Some chose to do the class GO Noodle video, some choice challenges, and some chose fitness. It was really fun to see! We then did a fun review game where students answered true or false questions about rocks in science and India in social. If they were correct, they advanced one square. If they were incorrect, they retreated one square. Funny enough, when the last question was asked, all students advanced 10 squares ending in a tie for the win! LOL.
We finished off the day creating group stories around our chosen tables. Students were challenged to incorporate a shark, a goblin, and a fairy into their story. They then shared their group stories with the class. We have a very creative group here in 3K! Off to gym this morning, we played class vs class soccer. It's great to get up and moving right at the start of the day and when you have 50+ kids all excited for it, it's crazy but fun! We had library and music but Mrs. Kelln was dealing with some other things so didn't get a chance to sneak in- next time! After recess, our daily math was up and ready to go. Students worked on fact families, 2 digit adding and subtracting, skip counting, and patterns. Thanks to Taylor, Rylee, Austin, Dax, and Zac for showing us how they did it too!
We also noted that the moon is made of rock. We used this to lead into our science lesson about our DOJO rock pets. We discussed the physical characteristics of rocks. The hardness scale, luster, color, streak, etc. We then applied these physical characteristics of rocks to our own rock monster! After analyzing the physical characteristics of our DOJO rocks, we got creative and gave them some personalities. We will use these traits to help us build our stories around the adventures that they go on!
We were sitting for DEAR (and unfortunately looks like we might need a little more practice), so after agendas the students chose to have a standing social period! Funny! So they learned all about Indian fashion and style while standing up! Ask them what the Hindi word for "Loose legged garments or pants" is! And a final HUGE thank you for everyone who brought in stuff for the Christmas shoe boxes! You're going to make some children very happy this year!!!
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Keep Up!
This blog is updated often (even daily!) to keep you up to speed with what is happening in our classroom. You'll see exactly how our days go and stay in the loop with upcoming events and special announcements. Be sure to check back often! Find Past Posts!
February 2017
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