A shot in the dark?

We had the immense pleasure of being visited by the School Nurse today, as well as an entourage of other Community Health workers. Students were given their needles, which generally went quite well. There were a few tears and a bit of anxiety, but in general it went just fine. There may be a few sore arms tonight, as I heard a bit of moaning today. I scheduled a lesson on Terry Fox immediately after the ordeal, which seemed to help put things in perspective.

I have sent home a letter outlining the expectations I have for an upcoming math test. Our test on Unit 1 (Chapter 2 in the book) will go ahead later on next week, so I wanted to be clear on the expectations. This letter is in their Yellow Math DuoTang, third from the back. It details everything they will need to know. We also reviewed how to write numbers in French, and practiced by writing cheques. There are 2 blank cheque templates in each child's DuoTang as well, which you can do with them if you would like to.

On today's date in the students' agendas, I stapled a list of questions to use as test review. These are not to be done immediately. I think that doing a few per night would be good, as a way of getting them used to answering questions independently. If they have issues translating questions, remembering techniques or finding an answer I would first encourage them to look at examples on the previous sheets in their DuoTang. Then, rather than making it a stressful situation, I would leave it be and write a note in their Agenda so I can review it with them in class.

In other news, we are moving ahead with our Class Pet research. Tomorrow we will use some reference books to do fill in some trouble areas, then begin putting the information together. The students are very engaged in this activity, and would likely be more than happy to tell you about it. Some have mentioned that they want to look up more things tonight, which I would always encourage.

On that topic, I've been really happy with the response to my "Personal Question" that I have been writing in students' Agendas. All students presented a part of their information to the class, something that I have really been trying to encourage. The more they are interested in exploring and finding out at this stage, the faster we will be able to move along and the more detail we will be able to go into. I have given each a question tonight as well; some are specific to their interests, and others are more general. Any document, pictures or lists they make in response to these questions will be great class resources and useful as an ongoing record in their portfolios.

We discussed toy etiquette today as well, since there have been a few arguments and general rudeness when playing with toys and games that get brought in. I restated that I don't mind games coming in, but people have to be respectful, careful and polite when playing with them. The class is generally all of these things, but it bears mentioning every now and then I think...

We began writing our stories today, using the template of 5 elements from yesterday (Character, Place, Time, Action, Theme). The students are going to write a story in French first, then a different story in English that uses the same parameters. I want to focus on the process and structure of good writing, something which will be served well by limiting the distractions that usually arise from trying to think up these 5 elements. The class will be starting group reading soon as well, in an effort to help promote critical literacy. For those unfamiliar, critical literacy refers to reading for content, understanding and posing questions rather than just focusing on the literal text.

In a final note, I gave about 40 minutes today to finish up any leftover work. This was quite fruitful, as most students are now up to speed. Some will have a bit of work to do at home or during lunchtime (their choice) over the next couple of days, but nothing overwhelming. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we are getting a lot of things accomplished and seem to be on schedule.

Today's link gives practice math tests. Not all questions will be 100% relevant, but I would impress on your child that getting them all right is not the crucial thing. They are more useful as a diagnostic tool, to give them ideas of what to work on. I would also suggest that you look through previous math-related posts for some of the other ideas, activities and games I posted (search "math")

http://www.thatquiz.org/tq/practice.html?placevalue

Who's been caffeinating the children?

Having an energetic class is a double-edged sword, as I am finding out more and more each day. Today the students were humming like the air exchange unit at Value Village, which made it necessary to rein them in fairly often. On the flip side, it also meant that we were able to get an awful lot of work done. We had Choir, an optional book exchange, our first look at the new Social Studies text and an extended discussion about the relative merits of newts, not to mention a great deal of actual coursework!

We began touching on verb formation today, specifically the passé composé. This is a form that allows them to describe things they did in the past, and is something we use frequently when recounting stories, writing journal entries and conducting our "Saviez-Vous que..?" exercise. I won't worry too much about rote learning for the time being, but I am starting to correct them more as they go along. I am getting them to write and talk a lot during the day, which is helping me determine their comfort levels so I can move them along at the right speed.

In math we covered numbers up to and including 10,000. The class discussed what exactly 10,000 is, in relation to such variables as population, money and other relatable concepts. We discovered that $10,000 can by a Chevrolet Aveo, 1000 miniature hockey sticks, 20 XBoxes, 2000 blocks of cheese or even 200 LEGO kits if you were so inclined. We have 2 lessons left in this chapter, which will put our first test early next week. Tomorrow I will be assigning a set of review questions to be completed over the next week at your convenience, as well as some optional review questions. As I mentioned at curriculum night, I will also send home a rubric that outlines what students will be expected to know instead of a specific study guide.

The students also participated in an activity that had them brainstorm the elements of a story. They wrote ideas for characters, themes, settings, actions and time periods on slips of paper and picked them randomly to form a framework for a story. This caused some hilarity, and should be a good exercise for the rest of the week. Therefore, if your child comes home today talking about how Bob is visiting Pluto to play his DS in the year 2020 while eating chocolate cake, please do not worry about their sanity.

We discussed class pets again as well today, going into more detail about living requirements, logistics, specific habitat needs and limitations we face. The students were extremely engaged in this discussion, so much that I am altering my plans slightly to center this weeks activities around a research and presentation project. Students will evaluate the suitability of a wide array of animals in groups, then use what they find to help determine which (if any) would be the best fit for our class. Today, the discussion broadened to include stick insects, starfish, newts, plankton and spiders. Never a dull moment.

I have started incorporating technology more into the classroom, specifically giving research tasks and game/activity privileges to those who finish their work quickly. I will expand this in the next few weeks to get them more familiar with useful skills like editing documents and web pages, manipulating audio and video, and searching for/filtering information. Not only is this a major component of their required learning in our new curriculum documents, but it is a great way to engage the class and help them teach each other. This week's "Student of the week" will be using their spare time for the rest of the week to create their own entry for this blog! I hope to make this a recurring, more frequent feature.

A couple of housekeeping notes:

• Check out the links from Friday and Sunday; you will find a number of resources that may be useful.
• Vaccination time is coming up soon
• There will be a permission slip going home in the next couple of days with regards to a field trip next week.
• When time permits, I am going to write a question in each child's Agenda for them to try to answer. They can write or type the answer if they wish, or just remember it. I am targeting these questions at the individual student's area of interest, and would encourage you to help them out and push them to think about the answers.

Getting a hang of this whole "Friday" thing.

Today there was briefly a puppy outside the school, a student asked me what I would think if I had 14 puppies in class instead of 14 students (aged 8-9, I might add). I had to stop for a second and consider the options. In one case, I would have to deal with them making a mess on the floor, whining, attacking each other and refusing to do what they were told. In the other scenario.... I would have pupppies!  I kid, of course. Today was a great day, as we were finally able to carry out a larger-scale project by going outside to gather data for our Habitats project. This was thoroughly enjoyed, and carried us through until Recess.

We spent a lot more time on Math, something that has been causing minor issues. I'm focusing on the relation between place values to start with, before I move on to manipulating them. I think in doing so I will build a better understanding of the concepts, even if it takes a little while longer to do so. There are a number of games and extended activities for students to complete when they have finished, and 1 student decided to take his home to finish rather than doing it on Monday.

We gave out new jobs for next week and I also named my first "Etudiant de la Semaine", which means "Student of the Week". In keeping with the behaviour and socialization philosophies used by Beachy Cove Elementary, I will isolate one or more admirable character trait and name a Student of the Week who has shown it. This week it was Friendliness and Positivity. The student who was chosen will gain some special priveleges next week, and also have a chance to tell us more about themselves as the week goes on.

Prefecting duties have been further clarified as well; they have an orientation session on Monday at 11:45.

We also discussed the situation we will be in next week, when they will be allowed to start asking each other for money when they speak English during class. For Monday and Tuesday, we will not be including Recess and Lunch in this regime. We discussed how the intent wasn't to punish, but to reward those who were making an effort. We also talked about reasons why it was useful to speak French, and how using it in conversation was WAAAYYY more fun than listening to me speak French all day.

We also read a comic strip in our French books today. It was about Roberta Bondar, the first Canadian woman in space. The format really seemed to keep them engaged more than others have to this point, and I was able to get a lot of reading observation accomplished. After the fact, I showed them a video of her launch in 1992, which I think helped contextualize it a bit. It is funny to think that this event, which I remember as a 9 year-old, is now ancient history to them....

Sorry to drag on, but no shortage of excitement today. Thanks again to all who came the other night, and talk to you soon.

Tuesday... Aaaaafternoon....

Sorry for the Moody Blues reference in the Title, I couldn't resist. We had another successful day, with a few new wrinkles to deal with. The students had no Gym or Music, which really stretches the day out for them. We did a full morning routine in which I checked Reading Journals and Agendas, got them to get new library books, and outlined what would be happening during the day. I also tightened up on speaking English a bit more, something I am doing incrementally each day. Self-discipline is also becoming a bit more of an issue as the initial buzz of being back to school wears off, but I think we are managing it quite well.

A few parents had questions about the "Journal de lecture", which is their Reading Journal. All I am asking for (for now) is that students read at least 15 minutes of French a night in whatever form they enjoy. This could be a website, magazine, etc. or more likely it will be a book from class. They are to write the date an the name of what they read on one line, then a sentence or two reflecting on what they read. This can be a personal reflection, literary observation, or just an opinion. The important thing right now is to challenge them to think a bit and not to alienate them from the process.

We are currently lacking Social Studies texts (which are printed and on the way) so I began to explore some ideas with them via their French class. The main idea of this year's new Social Studies curriculum is Exploration, which covers a wide range of themes, places, people, things and ideas.

In the context of Social Studies/French, we talked about the idea of being "From Somewhere" and what this implies. I appreciate the fact that children at this age are so eager to discuss the things they use to identify themselves, and how accepting others are. We discussed the presence of French language and culture around the world, and reflected on the roots, current state and future of French in Newfoundland and Labrador.

We had our first formal Math lesson today, which seemed to either cause great joy or anxiety. We took a look at place value and what the relationship is between 1's, 10's, 100's and 1000's. The activity was quite challenging, for example asking for an alternate representation of "70 groups of 100". The answer they were looking for was "7 groups of 1000" or 700 groups of 10". This is an a very specific concept, and I had to come at it from a few different angles.

Today's link has a digitally manipulative form of the well-known Base 10 blocks we use in class. If a student is having any issues with Math questions they may bring home, please use this site to help practice. I will warn you that it has a persistent, annoying bongo soundtrack.

http://www.learningbox.com/Base10/BaseTen.html

Not all students finished the work but I elected not to send it home, because those who had incomplete work were generally those who could use some more in-class support. If your child has any concern about the lesson or not getting the page done, please assure them that we will work on it further. I also have some enrichment activities on the subject for those who finished up on time.

Goooodbyyyee, Ruby Tuesday!!!!

Some ideas for supporting Math learning at home

I wanted to post this, just a a precursor to the work we are going to be doing with numeracy in the first unit this year. It is a number of ideas that someone forwarded me about helping kids with number awareness at home; often doing these type of activities in your daily routine can be more useful than piles of homework!Hope some of it is useful.

Everyday situations:

• Weighing, measuring capacity and timing when cooking. Converting a recipe for 4 people to one for 6 people.

• Being involved with measuring and calculating how much curtain fabric is needed, how much wood for shelves, how many wall or floor tiles are needed, how much carpet etc.

• Talking about time, e.g. How long is it until lunch time? The journey takes 2½ hours, when will we arrive? We need to be there at 2.00 pm, when do we need to leave home? Many children will still need practice with reading clock times, particularly minutes past and minutes to the hour.

• Handling amounts of money when shopping, working out total costs, working out change, checking receipts. Working out prices of sale items, e.g. 20% off. Managing pocket money and saving for things.

• Working out distances and directions from maps.

• Discussing and comparing house prices from newspaper house sales pages.

• Working out how much gas will be used on a journey, working out average speed for a trip, costing holidays, etc.

Play activities/games:

• Card games such as cribbage, etc.

• Any games involving calculating scores, e.g. scrabble, darts, bowling.

• Beat the calculator. In pairs, one with a calculator, one without, each works out the answer to a calculation aiming for the one without the calculator to say the answer first.

• Games involving strategic thinking/logic, e.g. checkers, chess, mastermind.

Mental activities:

• Practising and developing knowledge of addition and subtraction facts within 20 (7+8, 13-5 etc.) and multiplication and division facts to 10 x 10 (6x7, 35/5 etc.) Make it into a game if possible, e.g. have a set of cards numbered 1-10, pick a number such as 4, say 4 times the number on the card as each is turned over, keep all the cards you get right. Beat the calculator as above. On a journey, adult passenger times response, try to beat your own time.

• Ask ‘progressive’ calculations, e.g. 7 + 6, 17 + 6, 27 + 6, 47 + 6, 147 + 6; 5 x 2, 50 x 2, 500 x 2, 500 x 20.

• Working out 2-digit additions and subtractions, multiplying and dividing 2-digit numbers by 1 digit numbers mentally. Talk about how to make it easier, e.g. for 28 + 15, call it 30 add 13 and that’s easy; for 16 x 4, double 16, then double 32.

• Open- ended activities, e.g. The answer’s 25, what’s the question? How can you use combinations of 3 and 6 to make different numbers? (Use each number as many times as you like with addition, subtraction, multiplication or division.)