Show Me The Money!!!

Well, Day 1 of the grand money experiment has come to a close. Students were allowed to request (politely) Monopoly Money from their friends if they spoke English in conversation with them. While it proved to be somewhat distracting for a few students, they net effect was remarkable. With the allowable exception of Recess and Lunch, students spoke almost exclusively French. It was like I had flicked a switch! I am very proud of what they were able to do, and reassured that we will make huge leaps and bounds this year.

After our Grade-level meeting today, I can confirm that starting next month students will be expected to produce one Book Report per month. These will alternate between English and French, or can be French every time if the student wants to. There will be a wide array of media and formats that the reports can follow, something I will outline later.

We are coming along well in math; I focused more on the practical, tactile side of things today as we worked on terminology, spelling and the use of Base 10 Blocks. I will be sending home a vocab sheet and some practice work before long, because our first test will take place in a few weeks. As I mentioned at Curriculum Night, I will provide exhaustive rubrics and specific expectations for all graded work.

Our first "Etudiante de la Semaine" presented today, and besides being a very engaging, complete presentation it gave ample opportunity to discuss the elements I mentioned in my last post. We talked about strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes and more in an effort to begin examining more involved vocabulary and conjugation related to emotions and dispositions.

The class was quite preoccupied with Hurricane Igor today, so we took the opportunity to look at live satellite weather maps and discuss the path, origins, naming practices and severity of hurricanes. I will reiterate here that I am incredibly happy and lucky to have such an engaged class! We found out that Hurricanes were originally named after Presidents (circa 1896), then Presidents' wives, then Women, then Men, then Women, then Men and Women.

We will be starting our first real analysis work in French and English Language Arts this week, in an effort to help students look more critically at what they are reading. The focus will be on pushing their boundaries, asking questions and developing a greater curiosity about the world around them and the printed word.

In Science, we have elected to do one or several of the following to represent the data we gathered about the habitat on the lawn of BCE. The first idea is to create a simple board game, the other would be to create a video, and the third to create and bind a simple book. The first thing to do is combine and analyze the data (graphing), but everyone seems fairly interested in the process.

Since we haven't had a chance to analyze Art much in the last couple of days, I am attaching a site that helps explain a lot of the things we are talking about in class. They are arranged as Powerpoint Presentations, and there are also some games and reviews.

http://art.pppst.com/elements.html

If you are looking for review or additional activities for French vocabulary, I would suggest exploring QUIA. This is a Quiz/Review/Game website that is linked to the right of my blog.

Talk to you tomorrow!

Midweek Mayhem!

Despite having gym and music today, the class was pretty energetic all day. We had to have a few discussions about classroom behaviour and the repercussions of our actions on others (although nothing too serious), which was a good way to tie into the personal identity and self-esteem issues we have been addressing in Health. Lots more money was doled out for speaking French, and the class was informed that, starting next week, they will be allowed to get money from their friends if they hear them speaking English.

Our guidance councillor came in and outlined the duties and joys of being a prefect; something that a lot of students are looking forward to. She has requested that students nominate each other tomorrow, and we will vote to appoint 7 prefects. Their duties will be to supervise younger grades 2 times per 7 day cycle. There was some anxiety about being nominated and having to vote, but I think it will be a great way to explore some ideas of civil society and active democracy.

We had much more success with Place Value in Math today, and started doing some sheets in a new Math duotang. 2 students who had played the Place Value game I posted online the other day showed the class how it was done, so hopefully it will be a resource the students will enjoy.

We also "dissected" another painting in class, focusing on the use of colour. I was impressed once again to see how interested they were and how they were able to put the art in context and draw some meaning. Then, they had an opportunity to create a picture using line and colour in their Scrapbooks. This was quite a hit, resulting in some very interesting work.

I have started using a sticker system to monitor how/if work is done in class. A small red dot on the corner of your page means that it is not done, and must be completed ASAP. A yellow dot means that there are things that need to be fixed or completed, but not at the expense of other work. A green dot means.... you guessed it... you can go ahead to the next thing you need to do.

Today's link is reflective of a science experiment we will be doing on Friday. We will be going outside to sample a habitat; more specifically, the grass and organisms encircled by a hula hoop we will put on the school lawn. The idea is to gather, organize and present data, something we have already addressed a few other times.

http://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/lesson_plans/science/scientificmethod.html

This site contains a number of fun science project lesson plans, and outlines the general "Questioning - Hypothesis - Testing - Observing - Concluding - Communicating" framework that we will be using.

Have a great Wednesday!

Monday #1!

We had a great day today, a real whirlwind of activity as we get into the meat of this year's curriculum. We had our first formal art exercise, discussing the basics of form and using dry-erase markers to dissect the line and shape elements of Paul-Emile Borduas' L'Etoile Noire. I was very impressed by their interest and engagement in the activity, and their willingness to deal with what is (admittedly) very abstract, context-driven art.

We expanded this discussion into our Health topic, which is self-esteem and self-image. This was a fascinating discussion as well, and one that we will be returning to often.
Thank you to those who helped the students copy their recipes; this is an activity we will do later in the week. By the looks of it, I might have to start dipping into their lunches (kidding, of course).

In today's Language Arts class, I read aloud from a great book called Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. It is written as a narrative poem, and focuses on a boy who doesn't want to write poetry and who also harbours some sadness about an old dog he had. Throughout the novel he begins to engage in writing and we find out more and more about why he is so reluctant. Again, the subsequent class discussion was very interesting and they were more than eager to Journal about their thoughts.

We have begun to implement the Monopoly Money reward system, to much excitement. Periodically, they will be able to buy things with their accumulated cash. Starting next week, they will begin to monitor each other and will be able to accumulate more money as they "catch" their friends speaking English during class.
I would also remind everyone about Curriculum Night, which takes place this Thursday at 7pm. I will provide a lot of information about what we are doing and will be doing, and it will be a great chance to see what the class has been up to.

On another note, we did a fun Science Experiment today after we brainstormed about Habitats, our first theme unit. The experiment involved a Hair Dryer, and I would encourage you to ask your child about what happened. We also began our Math unit on Numeracy, which focuses on place value, number relationships and other basic ongoing concerns.

Today's link relates to the Self-Esteem element of our Health unit. It gives a number of ideas about activities you can do at home to build Self-Esteem and enhance their self-image.

http://www.howtodothings.com/family-and-relationships/a2533-how-to-use-self-esteem-games-for-kids.html

Talk to you tomorrow!