Going Once, Going Twice...

Gone! We had our first auction today with our "French Money", which was a fairly resounding success. Everyone who wanted to get something did, and others bankrolled their money for the next auction 2 weeks from now. It was a great lesson in problem solving, basic math and French as we worked our way through prizes. Some overpaid, others waited it out and got a great deal, and everyone had a good laugh.

After the auction, we had a very constructive discussion about the value (real and figurative) of speaking a second language. We talked about the immediate returns we were seeing in class, such as the money they were making, the time we are saving, the activities we are able to do, and the priveleges I am giving. We also spoke about the larger ramifications, including wider employment opportunities, travel and making friends.

Today we also gave out new jobs for next week, named a new "Etudiant de la Semaine" and created a drawing that summed up what students had learned and enjoyed during the week. Safe to say, there were a lot of hurricanes involved. I also showed the class the games I posted on this blog yesterday, and left them going for students who finished early. This was a big hit, especially the manatee featured in the "Create a Habitat" game.

We also discussed homework at length, trying to figure out what issues we were having and how best to correct them. I sent home a letter outlining what we discussed, and would welcome your feedback. The general idea was that students are responsible for knowing what they have to do, and to ask for clarification if they do not.

I also provided abundant details on what to do if you aren't sure about something at home, and talked about the idea of setting priorities. For example, if the exercise is to answer a question about a passage we read in class, it is more important to get your ideas down than to spend half an hour looking up words on Google Translator. As you can see below, the results are not always ideal.

On that note, I would prefer that students guess at a word or look it up in an online or paper dictionary than use a translator. The results are often wrong or out of context when using the latter method, and it tends to undermine the intent of immersive language learning. I would suggest using a translator if you are trying to understand something your child has brought home, but only to get a general idea. In the end of things, your child is the expert.

We discussed class pets today, much as we have every day so far. I floated the idea of getting a class fish (sorry for the terrible pun), which was met with a great response. However, we spent the next 10 minutes discussing it in Science class, in the context of habitat requirements, personal responsibility and other less exciting elements of pet ownership. Before long we had a list of more than a dozen issues we would have to reconcile, something we will begin to talk about next week using what we have learned about Scientific Discourse.

Today's link is just for fun! In all the talk about class pets I remembered a very funny Minute Maid commercial.



Hope everyone has a great weekend, and don't hesitate to be in touch if you or your child have any questions about homework, fish, juggling, hurricanes, base 10 blocks, jump ropes, fake money or any other issues.

Why did this week have 2 Mondays?

After an eventful couple of days off, we went straight back to work today. The first order of business was to let the class vent about Igor, the infamous "Tropical Depression". More than a few classmates seemed to be going through their own tropical depressions, but an equal number were bouncing off the ceiling with excitement about what they had seen, heard and done during the storm.

It was a great chance to explore ideas we are currently looking at in a variety of subjects, namely Habitats (Science), Community (Social Studies), Numbers (rainfall, wind, etc. in Math) and Emotions (Health). A couple of students even spontaneously wrote a paragraph or two about what they thought of the whole ordeal. These paragraphs are now adorning the area behind my desk, and will be sent home by the end of next week after I get a chance to photocopy them.

Later in Science, we used a tree seedling that a student had brought in to talk in more details about the components of a Habitat. we made a big drawing on the board, then each student made their own. Again, I was blown away by the terminology, relationships, information and vocabulary they were able to contribute. I don't remember understanding photosynthesis that well as an 8-year-old. We will continue this exercise later, in more detail.

In math we are clipping right along. We got through another worksheet (not my preference, but a good way to evaluate), and they had a chance to use the Base 10 blocks and play a dice game. I'm happy to say this lesson went quite smoothly, to the point that I had some of them explaining ideas and concepts to the class and to their friends.

We have started a DuoTang for Science and Health as well, each of which now contains a variety of sheets that will act as reflective activities. The students will have ample time to learn, discuss and complete these sheets, so if they have to finish a sheet at home it means they perhaps weren't working their hardest when they needed to do so.

We started Religion in earnest today. I had been integrating the initial Curriculum Outcomes into Health and Language Arts thus far, with the intention of giving them some context before we jump right in. The book this year is called En Route, and focuses on the experiences of a boy named Daniel from St. Anthony. We had a great discussion to start with, where the students reflected on what Religion was, and what parts of it were important to them. I was happy about how much they were willing to share about their own beliefs and morals, as well as what they knew about others.
The focus of the Grade 4 Religion curriculum is on exploring the nature of belief in a personal context, as well as studying a number of world religions. My focus in instructing Religion, never a straightforward topic, is to spend time talking about what values people share and how we can be different as well. Individual religions will be studied in context, as will belief systems that do not center around a Judeo-Christian ideal. As with all other topics we are dealing with, I will be stressing the importance of inclusion, equality and compassion above all else. I will use relevant current events to draw attention to these, and frequently ask students to reflect on their personal history and have discussions with their parents, grand-parents and members of their community.

Beside a little bit of bickering, the $$$ incentive program seems to be doing well. The class is speaking at least 90% French during class time, and even starting to speak it during Recess and Lunch. They (as a class) have almost filled a container with Language-Reward tokens, which means a class surprise before long.

A few housekeeping notes:

• I have extended the deadline for the Scholastic book orders until Monday. Thanks to all those who have gotten them in so far on such short notice.
• I will also be sending home an outline of the first chapters in Math, Science, Language Arts, French and Health for evaluation purposes, if not tomorrow then on Monday.
• Buddy Reading starts in a week. We will be reading to the Kindergarten children in Ms. Barela's class.
• I have been told by students that they are required to bring in a bag to hold their recorders and recorder books.
• When students leave class with a family member at the end of the day, please make sure they have told me they are doing so! Last week, I was beginning to suspect we were falling victim to alien abductions.

Hope everyone weathered the storm well. I will post a couple of new links tomorrow. As always, please to not hesitate to contact me at sampaterson@esdnl.ca if you have any questions.

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!