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!

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.