No time for rest! After a quick breakfast we were watching a video response from Benoit on our "Letters to B" we jumped into the review of our spelling words again. Before we did any writing, we went through each of the words and the students gave examples of using the word in context. Then we reviewed finding words in the dictionary. We also discussed how we all have strengths so when we were struggling with non-spelling words our friends put it up on the board for all of us to use too! We have a very helpful bunch! Next we jumped back into our "Big George" novel study. Today we read chapter 2 and three and met a few more characters. Students were challenged to share a time that they were scared just like the character Simpkin in our story. There were some great examples of how we can feel scared too. Finally, we finished off our lesson in detail with the last of our mystery objects. Cole stumped everyone with is object, snakes, but most people figured it out once Mrs. Kelln jumped in and explained her fear of this one. After recess we had our daily math review. In today's we went through adding and subtracting 2 digit numbers (with carries and borrowing), estimating, basic background on fractions, and fact families. After the students did their own work, the kids completed it on the board and explained how they came to the answer they did. We were invited to listen to an oral story-teller today with some great messages for the kids. We heard about a boy who was teased without mercy and left his northern group. He was taken in by various animals who all had different difficulties to overcome and they encouraged him to return and face his bullies. When he did return he found his bullies were afraid that something had happened to him and asked for forgiveness. He learned that everyone has challenges and our job is to help each overcome those and work together. We also heard a story of a frog who was a little bit too full of herself and came to a poor demise because of it. Finally, we heard of a Cree legend of an ice worm that didn't look very nice and may have even been frightening, but if we looked out for her (nature) then she too would work with us to have all we need. Some very great and interactive stories that will lead to much discussion in LA I hope! After last recess we were pretty good settling into DEAR. One or two more times and I think we might earn our chance to hangout around the room again. And it is a much neater room I might add! The kids are working really hard to keep it neat and tidy after lunch times! Way to go! Makes it much more pleasant to read around the room when we're not sitting in squished grapes and apple sauce cups! Agendas done and signed and then off to the gym we went with Mrs. Kadylo and 3PK for some cross fire dodgeball action! So fun! Back to the room and the estimation jar came out. Thanks to Dax for sharing the 350 yummy cola balls with us (don't worry, we sent some home!). Jaydon guessed bang on at 350 so Dax passed the jar along to him. We'll see what he thinks up for us to estimate!
4 Comments
This morning started off reviewing our stories we wrote. We checked out how we were assessed and where we did awesome as well as where we could improve. We shared our stories with our table groups and then Kaydence shared her story with the class. We then began a lesson in detail. The students were each given a mystery object. They had to try to describe it to the class in a way that did not say it's actual name. Students had a great time listening to the descriptive clues and guessing the object. Great work! Next we worked on our spelling review program called "Letters to B". Students were challenged to write a friendly letter to my three year old son, Benoit, but they had to include multiple spelling words. When they were finished writing, they had to re-trace their current spelling words that were found in their letter in a color of their choice. This program is great as it reinforces many language arts objectives. It requires the students to work on penmanship to ensure that someone can read it. They must practice proper punctuation, capitals, and grammar. It encourages them to write using new vocabulary words as we have topics which we will write about- today was dinosaurs. It reinforces dictionary skills when we are stuck on unknown words. It teaches students about writing for an audience and with purpose, as well as using our spelling words in context. Oh, and it means we are having to write out our spelling words too (once on the board and twice in our letters)! They are excited to receive a response back from Benoit and to write to him again! After snack and first recess, Mrs. Goddard had us working on typing skills. Can you see all the home row users? We then had a discussion around Remembrance Day and why we remember. The students had many questions and really thought hard about the meaning of the day. They shared this song for you as it was also sung later at our Remembrance Day service. The Remembrance discussion led nicely into our Health focus on empathy. We watched the second video in the series titled "The Maze". Click on the image below to watch the video they watched in class today and then try to answer the questions at home with your child. Since we knew we would be in the Remembrance Day service over gym, we snuck outside before lunch to get some energy worn off. It was great to see such active play! After lunch we completed our math estimations of the marshmallows that Ava brought in. (Yum, Ava! The class thanks you for sharing!) We had lots of good estimates but Dax was closest with an estimate of 290. He has the jar now and the students are excited for him to bring it back in and work on this math skill again. Then we packed up and were lined up ready to go down to the gym for our service. I was very proud of how well our class sat and how respectful they were during the service. Great job! We returned with a little time to sneak in science so we watched a portion of "The Magic School Bus" as they reviewed rocks and soil for us. A quick game of silent ball and it was time to go! Please remember to bring in some items for the Christmas shoeboxes. We only have until next Friday and only have a couple items so far. Thank you to those who have already begun to put things in.
See you all Monday! A musical morning started our day where we were singing some songs themed around Remembrance Day. Please remember, tomorrow is our Remembrance Day Ceremony at 2:00pm and you are welcome to join us in the gym. We started our novel study. First we looked at the cover and described it. We thought about what kind of book this might be and what might happen. See below for some student predictions about this book. We'll see if they're right as we go along! Next we delved right into the book! Starting with learning what a "foreword" is and reading that and chapter 1. We talked about the setting and the character and how the author used good word choices keep us interested. We then completed a drawing of the main character and a prediction of what we heard in chapter 1. This is a really neat book! Our predictions!
Next we reviewed our math concepts. With a few reminders, our students showed off all they knew of adding and subtracting three digit numbers, writing numbers, skip counting, and patterns. See how smart they are? They made excellent "teachers" to poor me, who just wasn't getting it and had to have each stepped explained to us! ;-) We then moved into our math lesson learning all about estimating. Students used the smart board to practice their estimating skills using referents. They took a sample and circled it, then created similar sized circles and skip counted up by larger numbers to get their estimates. After some practice, we moved onto jars and talking about the 3 dimensional nature of them. We can't always see the middle or the sides or the bottoms all at once so how do we estimate using referents? We use known amounts and then try to figure out about how many of those would fit in the jar. A little more smart board practice as a group and we completed our estimating worksheet. Finally, we were onto social studies and we all became experts. We broke into three groups to read about life in India in three different places; a village, the city, and on farms. Each group took turns reading around their circle and answering questions. Next day, our experts will share their findings with the class and discuss about life in all three areas of India! A little DEAR after recess and we were trying really hard to read appropriately in our spots. A little more practice and hopefully we'll have it down pat! We tidied up our classroom and then went for gym with a guest, Miss Janeshewski, and it was time for home! Great day everyone!
We are so lucky at our school to have a healthy breakfast waiting for us each morning. Thank you to the parent volunteers who help to make this happen as well as to all our funding partners who make it possible. After fueling up, we headed to the gym and learned how to play "Krazy Kickball". Its a kickball game where when a student gets tagged out, the fielding team must try to run and touch the batting team's wall, while the batting team must race for the dodgeballs and try to tag the fielding team. If they do, they stay up to bat. If the fielding team gets to the batting wall first, the teams switch. Confusing at first but crazy and fun once we get the hang of it. We stayed a little longer in the gym since no one came to kick us out- why not? An extra 15 minutes of gym? We'll take it! Back to the room for our final LA assessment on reading comprehension and then away to library where Mrs. Thorson read us a story themed around Remembrance Day. Next, we had computers and worked on our actual keyboarding skills. It is hard to learn to keep our fingers on the home row keys, but we're trying really hard. In math we discussed estimating. It was supposed to be on our term 1 assessment but I don't feel it would be fair as the students have just been introduced to it. As a result, this is a skill we will work on in term 2, but after some lessons, we did that portion of the assessment together. Come social class we reveiwed things we knew about India; geography, flags, symbols, the poverty issues. Then we began to watch a short video on the culture of India. It was neat to see the similarities and differences between there and here. Mrs. Elliot joined us for our second step program and we discussed the similarities and differences between our partners. It was neat to learn about things we both like and then things that our parters could teach us if we wanted. Such yummy lunches! It was great to see the friendship happening over our lunch time. The warm weather has brought out some wiggles in us. DEAR has been challenging for this group. Our school, like many others, attempts to have a 30 minute block of time in which the students can independent read books of interest. This develops good reading habits and attitudes but can be challenging for some to focus. As we are getting into chapter books in grade three it is important that we can focus and "watch the movie" of the story unfold in our head - hard to do with commercials every 2 minutes! We still have students walking around, talking, sharing books, and generally disrupting the reading of everyone. Sadly, we had to lose our read around the room option. But once we show we can read at our spots appropriately, we will earn it back. I'm sure it won't take long! Once we settled into our reading, Rylan even found things about India and Peru in one of the books he was reading. Finally we were on to our agenda and then a Science/Art project. We are taking our science rocks and creating our own Dojo pet out of them. We hope to then write a story in LA about the adventures our Dojo pets get up to one day soon! After clean up and some GoNoodle dancing, we headed home! See you tomorrow!
I know it's early, but if we're going to get these around the world in time we either need to borrow's Santa's sleigh or turn them in by the 18th. Last I heard, the big guy in red was needing his sleigh this Christmas!
If you'd like to send something, please let us know what by commenting on this post. Hopefully we can try to have a wide range of items to fill our boxes with! Thank you for making other people's children smile and helping to teach our children the gift of giving. We will also include a note from our class in each of the boxes along with a class photo so that a child somewhere in the world knows a bunch of cool Canadian's were thinking specifically of them this Christmas. Our crew took off bright and early to gym class first thing. We had a few laps to get our blood moving and then some student led stretches. Thanks to Zane, Kyle, Peyton, and Ryley for leading us through some today. We learned about holding stretches for 8 seconds to let our muscles get the benefit and then we were joined by 3PK for some fun and games. What a great way to start the day! Then it was off to library and music while Mrs. Kelln got some other things ready for us. Next block we got right down to writing our stories we brainstormed last week. After a brief review of ideas and what we're looking for in a story, the kids got hard to work. See their Class Dojo personal story for a photo of each of them working. Next up was a brain break after all that work! Who says math can't be fun? This one was about patterns! Then it was onto our math assessment. We reviewed each concept with some questions on the board and then worked on the real one individually. See how hard we're working to show you all we know! Can you believe how quiet it is? We took a break to check out our rocks in Science. We reviewed the terms "sedimentary", "igneous", and "metamorphic" and then chose one rock from our personal collections and sent them home via Class Dojo with our best guess. And before we knew it, it was time for agenda and home. Phew! A busy day indeed. It's a lot right now, however, with report cards coming we know we need to get things done and these kids really "rocked" it today!
See you tomorrow! Today we continued to review story writing and expectations. Students first brainstormed what was appropriate and inappropriate topics for grade 3 writing. We then went through, point by point, how our stories are assessed and looked at examples of each criteria ranging from "Not Yet" to "Exceling". Students gave some great examples of beginnings and then some really neat ideas for various problems our characters might encounter. Finally, we looked at our picture prompt for our story writing assessment and brainstormed as a class what words might come up, what problems could happen, and other details to add to our story. Students had an opportunity to discuss at tables and complete their own planning page identifying their settings, characters, problems, and solutions. We should have a great plan for our big story write next Monday! Math review had us showing off our skills in adding, subtracting, skip counting, greater/less than and patterns. We also started our estimation jar activity. I have filled the jar and students will try to estimate the correct number of items in it. The person with the closest estimate, then wins the jar to take home and fill with anything they'd like and bring in for us to estimate. An information sheet will be sent home with the jar each time. This is great for getting in some daily practice on estimating. A quick brain break had us up and moving like trees blowing in different strength winds. After our stretch activity we jumped into our health focus of the month: Empathy. Click the image below to watch the video we saw today about Mojo the director! We then discussed what the characters were feeling and what we felt was behind the door. Stay tuned for episode 2! A little bit of a loud DEAR period told me it was time to get outside and enjoy the sunshine with our friends in 3PK. It's so neat to watch all of the different games happening; grounders, tag, Pokémon, and then a very large group got into some skipping challenges! So neat. In to finish our agenda and clean our lockers before the four day long weekend and that wraps up our week! See you next Monday!
What hard workers we have in our room! After a quick breakfast we took care of a few housekeeping things like seating arrangements and general expectations. A neat seating plan in place, we reviewed story writing. Students were asked for suggestions on character, setting, and problems and then Mrs. Kelln used that information to tell a story modeling all of the things a good story should have. Our story culminated in our principal being flushed down the toilet in a crazy bathroom accident and Steve getting out of having to do his homework ever again! Students then set to work on their stories and then polished them up and self-reflected on their writing. The work ethic of these kids is amazing. You could have heard a pin drop- wow! After some practice posting to our personal dojo stories to share our work with you, we worked on our math assessment. Students have had practice with this already and were keen to shine. Again, I was amazed how quiet and focused it was- seriously! Mrs. Elliot joined us for Second Step and we discussed emotions and empathy towards others. Various student volunteers expressed emotions in different scenarios and then the class had to determine how and why they felt how they did. After last recess we had our DEAR time, reading around the room and did our agenda message. We had some difficulty cleaning up our room for the end of the day and students needed some very clear directions on the expectations of how to pick up properly, but they're working on it. It put us a little late for Sportball but we managed to get there and had a blast! With a few warm ups, we were ready to go and Coach Aaron showed us some great games to work on our volleyball skills. Today was down right awesome! The kids were excited, I was excited; could there be a better recipe for success? First block was a busy one as we hit the ground running (flying?). There were all manner of costumes to enjoy and the food was scrumptious! A huge thank you to everyone who brought in yummy treats for our Halloween breakfast- there were some really creative and nutritious items. It was a great way to start our day and we ended up snacking on it throughout the day, keeping us well fed and fueled up for the fun! We then had our annual costume parade and dance where we got to show off a little to the rest of the school. The students voted a couple of weeks ago that I should be Captain Underpants, so who am I to disappoint? LOL. Nothing like showing up for your first day of class, literally, in your underwear! Thanks guys! In the middle block we changed out of our wild and and wacky costumes and got to know the real us in our room. The students shared some things about themselves with me that they wanted me to know and I also shared a few things about me too. See if they can remember what my "other job" is. Once we had acquainted ourselves a bit we took care of some housekeeping items like sorting out our bins and such. Then we set off on a class dojo challenge. While switching over passwords and such in the various programs, we accidently lost our saved dojo points. As a result, I awarded all students with top points and they received one of the top prizes- a fun Halloween themed class movie: Transylvania 2. The students are really excited about their new rewards that they can earn now too! Since we would be starting fresh, we decided to give ourselves a boost right off the bat by completing a dojo challenge. These will pop up from time to time for various skill building tasks. Today, students could earn 5 dojo points for using our chrome books to independently post to their personal dojo story thread. It's a great way for students to take ownership of their activities and work in the classroom and to share it with you at home. Students will be encouraged to snap a photo of work they are doing, best pieces of art, or fun activities in our room. Hopefully, they'll get the hang of it and be sharing many of our class moments with you soon. Today was fun and exciting and I look forward to many more great days with the kids. Of course, there will be times when we have our bumps as we get to know each other in this transition process; everyday can't be a holiday like today. Although Miss Shykora and I attempted to do things very similarly, there will be things that we each do differently and that's ok. Your child may love the new way I do something or long for the way it was done before. He or she might connect really well with me or they may feel they responded better to Miss Shykora. All of this is normal and expected. Open communication is key as we work with each other and adapt to different expectations, routines, or pace. Either way I look forward to working with you all. In the meantime, head on out enjoy some Halloween fun!
Be safe out there and see you tomorrow! ~Mrs. Kelln It has been my pleasure to spend my days getting to know this amazing crew of young people. I have enjoyed each and every day. Thank you to the parents for being so supportive and working with us. Tusind Tak (A Thousand Thank-You's in Danish) Miss Shykora From Mrs. Kelln:
|
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
|