Live from Beachy Cove, It's Curriculum Night Live!

It was great to see so many of you here tonight, and nice to have a chance to fill you in on what we're up to. For those of you who couldn't make it, most of the material is covered in a handout that your child will bring home. For those of you who attended, I hope I didn't talk too fast or say anything too foolish.

Today was a lot of fun, as we worked on the 1st draft of letters in Language Arts and finished up some Math work from yesterday. Good to see that so many students are writing in their Reading Journals, as well! I requested that students also take out an English-language novel, which they are also welcome to write about in part or in full.

We had an attack of the plague, as several students were out due to illness. All's well that ends well it seems, since most will be back tomorrow. I always appreciate being contacted whenever your child will be out of class; it really helps me plan and make sure your child doesn't miss much work.

Just a reminder as well, we will be conducting a science experiment tomorrow that involves going outside. Please make sure that your child is dressed appropriately!

On the previous note, I did want to reiterate my stance on homework. I want work that is done at home or in class to be a positive experience, done to facilitate future fun and learning rather than as punishement. For example, rather than addressing it as "Do it or M. Paterson will be mad", I think using language like "If you don't get it done, the class won't be able to move along" or "You need to finish this, or you might miss things tomorrow" will work better in the scheme of things. Most of the students seem to have a fairly healthy attitude about work, so I'm not that worried.

No link for tonight, because I think I can hear my dog barking from here. Please contact me if you have any questions, as always.

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!

Bonjour vendredi!

And just like that, we're 1 week down. We had another great day today, and took more time to explore our classroom and this year's curriculum in further detail. We looked through the texts we will be using in Science, completed an Interview Your Friend activity (which is posted outside the classroom door) and the students brought me up to speed on what they had done in Grade 3 with a very exhaustive journal entry.

We did our first silent reading activity today, after which I had them come to me and do a brief retelling of story as I thumbed through the book to cue them. I was impressed by their reading levels, which really opens up a lot of opportunities in terms of resources they will be able to take advantage of.
I have asked the students to read over the weekend as usual, and also to bring in a family recipe on Monday (just the paper instructions, not the food!). In accordance with the increasing focus the Department of Education is putting on diverse forms of literacy, we will be using it to look at different parts of communication and speech. We will also look at them as being representative of oral and written cultural tradition, and I would like them to write it out themselves.

We will be starting truly Immersive French on Monday, of which all the students have been informed. I believe this is truly essential for complete language learning, and I have no doubt that they will get into the swing of things quite quickly. Also, for those who did not already have one, I gave each student a large Ziploc bag to transport their Agenda, books, duotangs, etc. back and forth to school in.

Have a great weekend, and see you all at Curriculum Night this coming Thursday (7pm, room 110)

Thoughts after the first day

I'm happy to say we had a lot of fun on our first day! A few tears, lots of questions, too much paperwork and the usual array of first-day jitters and mixups. You will find a letter in your child's bookbag clarifying the new traffic laws at Beachy Cove Elementary, which should help clarify any issues we had today. As I mentioned in my previous post, there are also number of other forms and one piece of writing that I would like you to sign/complete and send back tomorrow.

For the rest of the week we will focus on introducing the major elements of this year's curriculum and doing some fun activities to get everyone in the mood for learning. I hope to do a few simple science experiments, math games and read-alouds to this end.

I have embedded a link to the Canadian Parents for French website. It has a huge amount of great resources and is something I use constantly as a reference.

http://www.cpf.ca/eng/home.html

Hope everyone sleeps well tonight, and talk to you soon. Feel free to leave comments if you have any questions or ideas, and I can always be reached at sampaterson@esdnl.ca

Thanks,

Sam "Monsieur" Paterson