Like sand through the hourglass...

I just lost the entire text of my post, so here goes again. We had a busy day, losing a fair amount of instructional time to some other activities. Gym was extended to an hour (outside) to accommodate a concert in the gym. We reviewed Math and Language Arts in the morning before gym, and shared responses to the questions that had been answered at home last night. To name a few, the students told each other about subjects such as Myra Bennett, pizza, Bey Blades, Billy Bishop, bat guano, cloud formations and Stella Burry. I will begin compiling these soon, to create a classroom book of resources.

We attended a concert in the gym, put off by a very experienced French-Canadian performer called Edouard. He involved the students in a variety of games, songs, lessons and dances that focused on a wide range of french themes, vocab, interest areas and concepts. The class loved it, and were very adept at recounting what they had saw and sharing their ideas on what had made it a good show. This, along with gym class, ate up our morning very quickly.

We watched a video in the afternoon, a mock weather report prepared by one of the students in class. During the event and aftermath of Igor, he took videos and put them together with the help of his parents. It was done in French and English, and was a huge hit with the rest of the class. It led into a great class discussion and we also had a short quiz on its content. I have kept a copy in class, and hope to use it as an example when we carry out similar projects throughout the year. I am planning on using video/computer/oral/drawn/written modes of communication interchangeably this year in an effort to appeal to the interests and talents of all in class. If your child is ever interested in doing something like this at home on their own time, by all means go ahead and let me know if you want/need any help getting it together.

We completed a 1st (in some cases 2nd) draft of our french stories, which are coming right along. I will use this writing to help plan our weekly homework, as it is giving me a great idea where individuals and the class as a whole are "at" in their language comprehension and exploration. On another topic, I also sent home a number of sheets for you to take a look at.

2 pertain to a field trip scheduled for next week; we would have let you know sooner, but there were issues securing transport in the wake of a certain large storm who shall remain nameless. Okay, it was Igor. Anyhow, if you have any questions or comments please let me know. I also sent home School Council nomination forms if anyone is interested.

Today's link is a great resource for information on Canadian plants, animals, culture, geography and history. As we begin to do more and more research and inquiry-based learning, it will be handy to maintain a list of useful sites such as these. This one is very user-friendly, as a fun site and as a resource.

http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/kids/

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