New carpet!

As I was out at a meeting for the last part of the day, I was unable to get the students to contribute to our blog today. However, we had some pretty big news in Room 18 today: we got a carpet for our meeting area. Now, I've never had a meeting area carpet before, but I thought we needed one - if the students are going to be sitting on the floor for extended periods of time while they take part in a lesson, it's going to be a lot more comfortable for them if they are sitting on a carpet vs. a hard tile floor. Since I've never had one before, I thought I should get a really good one. So here it is: pretty sweet, if you ask me... and the students, who were super-pumped to see it when they walked into the room this morning :)

Cross Country Run!

We had cross-country today. We had lots of fun! - Sydney
For most of the day, we didn't have to do any work. - Joey
We went to Bird's Hill Park for cross-country. Some of us made tonnes of new friends. - Dylan
On the way back, we saw a long train. There was a big line up. - Jenna
Some of us saw Mr. L's little brother. Mr. L is a lunch supervisor at Radisson school. - Robyn
My dad came to cross-country, and I rode with him on the bus. - Braylin

No Pens Day Wednesday!

Today we had our Terry Rox run. - Jenna
Today we had 'No Pens Day Wednesday'. - Cam H
Today we figured out tricky questions in Math. - Hailey M.
We we were working in groups of 4 at our table. We were talking about different math problems. - Joey
We used cubes, popsicle sticks, straws, and money to solve a question. - Taylor
We read for 23 minutes for Daily 5. - Marcus
For the second time, we didn't do Number of the Day. - Dylan

Sometimes, as a teacher, you can have the whole day planned out, only to change some/all of it up on a whim, upon getting a great idea - that happened today. This morning at breakfast, while I was catching up on all the Twitter posts I had missed while I was asleep, my eye caught a tweet that mentioned 'No Pens Wednesday'. It's a movement in the UK, where teachers make a concerted effort to have the students do all of their work without writing - they do a lot of talking (which most of them are used to) and a lot of listening (which is not quite as easy for many students!) in class. It was no problem to go without pens/pencils during The Daily 5 (we are up to 23 minutes of read-to-self - I'm so impressed with the class!). However, it was a lot more challenging in Math. Initially, the students were completely unsure of how to keep track of their ideas in their own heads, as well as trying to share their thinking with their classmates. However, once we had a discussion, The students worked in their table groups to try and solve some problems they were assigned. This photo shows the manipulatives they had to choose from:

There were a couple of groups working on a money problem:

The groups weren't able to solve the money problems on their own, but once we worked together as a whole class, the students were quickly able to figure out the answer.

Another problem was: Some Tripods and Bipods few from planet Zeno. There were at least two of each of them. Tripods have 3 legs. Bipods have 2 legs. There were 23 legs altogether. How many Bipods and Tripods were there? Here is one group's solution:The third problem was: The toy shop stocks tricycles and go-cars. The tricycles have 3 wheels, and the go-carts have 5 wheels. There were 37 wheels altogether. How many tricylces and go-carts were there? Here is one group's solution:

It was a great experience for the students and myself - as a result, I'm thinking of implimenting 'No Pens Day Wednesday' on a more frequent basis!

Another great Art class!

On Thursday is the cross-country run at Bird's Hill Park. - Logan
Everyone is going to bring a quarter tomorrow for Terry Fox. - Alexandra
We had Gym today. - Gal
Tomorrow we're having our Terry Fox run in the last two periods. - Cam H.
Today we had Art class. - Hailey M.

We did some more writing in Art class today, inspired by the image we started working with last week - B.J.O. Nordfeldt's Green Woods (1950). The students were asked to make a list of details (shapes, colours, things, etc.) that they noticed about the image. Then, they chose their two favourite details and wrote about them, as if they were those very details in the image. They wrote about what they were noticing, feeling, etc. in the painting. We didn't have time for everybody to share, but it was amazing to hear and see the different ideas the students were coming up with - I can hardly wait until the next class, when the students will be able to create their own piece of art, inspired by Green Woods!

Shelfari!

We had fun on the new play structure. - Taylor
We had our first time at the Library. - Marie
We have seven marbles. We earned four today. - Gal
We got bookmarks when we went to the Library. - Braylin
We wrote in our journals. - Hailey M.
We got new books at the Library. It was really cool because in Grade 2 we never got to read the big, humongous books. - Dylan
We learned about the power of nine on the SMARTBoard. - Jenna
We wrote for seven minutes in Daily 5. - Cam H.
We played the Power of Nine card game. - Lexi

Today, we added Shelfari to our classroom blog! If you scroll down to the bottom of our blog, you will find a virtual bookshelf, that contains the books we have read together as a class, so far - that is Shelfari. As we read more books, we will put them on our Shelfari, so that you can keep up with all of the awesome things were are reading in class! Who knows... you might even want to read some of those books yourself!

We had a fun day!

We had our Mystery Motivator today. I built my name in squares. - Joey
Today was a Terry Fox SLC. On Wednesday, September 28th we're having the Terry Fox run. - Jenna (Thank you to Jenna for also coming up with the title of today's post!)
We had choice time today, because we earned all of our 20 marbles! - Braylin
We are starting to earn 20 marbles again. Right now we already have three. - Gal
When we went to the SLC, we thought we were supposed to wear our family shirts, but Ms. Cross changed her mind, so we had to take them off and put them back. - Robyn
At the SLC, they said if we earned $3000 for Terry Fox, we get to watch a movie and wear pajamas! - Hailey M.
We talked about Terry Fox. - Taylor

The big news in our class today was that the the students had their first Mystery Motivator. To get the Mystery Motivator, the class has to earn 20 marbles - they can earn the marbles for things like being really quiet out in the hall for their bathroom/water break, working quietly in class, or when another teacher compliments the class on what a great job they're doing. The class has no idea what the Mystery Motivator is until the 20th marble is earned, at which time the envelope is opened, and the surprise is revealed. The first Mystery Motivator was that the class could have 'choice time' for the last two periods of the day - the photos are of some of the activities the students chose. What a great way to end the day - way to go, room 18! Only 17 more marbles to earn before the next Mystery Motivator is revealed :)

The Daily 5 - building stamina!

We read with a partner for Daily 5 for 9 minutes. - Sydney and Ava
I had fun reading with Gal because it was super-fun. He brought his 3D shark book to look at. - Dylan
We played Secret Agent dodgeball in Gym. - Jenna
We have Health for the third time this month with Ms. Beach. - Robyn
We put two reading strategies on the CAFE board today. - Tyler
Ms. Cross and Ms. Derkson went down the glider on the new play structure! - Braylin
When we had Daily 5, Logan read a really funny book to me. It was called 'Feed Me'. - Cam H.
We got to be in the gym two times today because we had Phys. Ed. and Health. - Logan
We had Social Studies today. - Lexi
We did Number of the Day. Today's number was 12. - Cameron W.
We did writing in Daily 5 today. - Hailey K.

It's been a year of trying new things in the classroom from me; one of these things is The Daily 5. 'The Daily 5' is a book written by two teachers (Joan Moser and Gail Boushey), and is all about helping students to develop the daily habits of reading and writing independently, as well as working with their classmates. The '5' in the Daily 5 are:

1. Read to self


2. Read to someone


3. Listen to reading


4. Work on writing


5. Word work

Eventually, when the students are done building stamina in all of these areas, I will be able to meet and conference with students on a one-on-one basis, or in small groups, while they are independently working on one of the '5'. So far, we've been practicing read to self (we're up to 19 minutes), read to someone/listen to reading (9 minutes), and work on writing (5 minutes). I am so impressed with how hard the students have been working at this - I know with what I have seen so far that it will be way easier for me to work with individuals and small groups in the classroom than it ever has before! Below are a few photos from this afternoon of the students while they were building their stamina in read to someone/listen to reading and work on writing.

Picture Day

"We got our 20th marble today for our Mystery Motivator."
"Next week is the cross country run."
"We read to ourselves for 19 minutes for Daily 5."
"It was picture day today."
"In Music, we played instruments for the first time!"

Thank you to Ms. Beach for coming into the classroom today and recording the students' thoughts on the day, as I was out of the room taking care of some "computer stuff" for the school.

We had picture day today, and according to two of my students from last year (Joe and Meghyn), I wore the same shirt this year that I did for picture day last year! Oops! They asked me if it was my favourite work shirt - I guess it must be, if I wore it for two picture days in a row! I hope that next year, somebody reminds me to wear something different :-P

First rainy day!

We read to ourselves for 17 minutes in Daily 5 today! - Jenna and Dylan
We learned about CAFE today. - Logan
Today we had our first indoor recess, and some of us played pool. - Dasia
We extended Daily 5 after recess, instead of doing Social Studies. We are going to do Social Studies tomorrow. - Cam H.
We played a type of dodgeball in Phys. Ed. - Cameron W.
We learned a new song in choir. - Marie
The class is training for the cross country run. - Robyn
Cameron and I built a Lego house and a garage, and Dylan built a car for the garage at indoor recess. - Gal
We have a job board. Braylin and Hailey wash the tables at lunch. - Lexi
Mr. H. has lots of bobbleheads on his computer. - Tyler
Mr. H. has a Jets trophy by the window. - Braylin
Go, Jets, Go!!!! - Jett

See?! Just because it was raining outside, doesn't mean that we couldn't have fun inside! We got a lot of work done, too!

First day of Art

As someone who's more of a Math/Science guy, the idea of teaching Art used to be quite intimidating for me. However, this all changed after a conversation and a trip to a museum. My aunt and uncle live in Minneapolis, and I usually go down to visit them (and the Minnesota Twins/Wild!) a couple of times per year. A few years ago, my aunt took me to her place of work - she is in charge of Youth and Tour Programs at the Weisman Art Museum of the University of Minnesota. She gave me a tour of the museum, and told me about some of the wonderful writing activities they did with school groups that came to the museum. She also gave me their Artful Writing classroom resource package. She talked a lot about how to really view a work of art - to not just look at it, but to perceive it, and allow yourself to be 'drawn in' to it by using all of your senses to 'experience' the art. At first, I wasn't sure how the students would take to this (every year, there's an initial sense of disappointment when I tell them that sometimes in Art class, we'll be talking about and writing about art, as opposed to creating something). However, it doesn't take long for the students to jump right in, and use their amazing powers of observation to fully appreciate an artist's work. All of a sudden, the idea of teaching Art wasn't so intimidating! It became less about teaching the students how to create something, and more about helping them to 'experience' the work, and to use that knowledge to create their own works. Since that trip, I've really enjoyed teaching Art, and have found that the quality of the students' artwork has really improved.

Today we began studying B.J.O. Nordfeldt's Green Woods (1950), shown below. I always begin the year with this picture, and it was great to hear the students share with the class what they noticed with all of their senses, and how the image made them feel, or what kind of mood they thought the image gave off. It is amazing that, after four years of doing this, students constantly notice new things in the painting that I haven't noticed before. They (and I) are excited to continue working with this picture next week, and to begin to do some writing around it, before creating their own works based on the image. Art rocks (and that's something that I never thought I'd say!)!

RAD Day!

Today we had RAD Day! - Taylor
At RAD Day we played soccer, basketball, four-square, and tetherball. - Joey
We have 15 marbles for our Mystery Motivator. We got marbles because we were good listeners today. - Sydney
We need to get 20 marbles, and then we get a surprise! - Lexi
Our group wrote down a lot of number sentences in 10 minutes. - Ava
Mr. H. explained 4 to the power of 4 to us because one of the students had that in their number sentence. Almost no one understood what that meant, so that's why he explained it. - Robyn
We read to ourselves for 15 minutes. We were really quiet! - Braylin

We had a great end to our day today, as we were outside in the afternoon for RAD (Recess Activity Day). We do this at Radisson a few times a year, to refamiliarize students with the equipment/games available to them for recess games in fall, winter, and spring. Also, we work on the ideals of Fair Play, which include respecting the rules, respecting the officials and their decisions, respecting your opponents, making sure everyone gets a chance to play, being an active participant, and maintaining your self-control. It was wonderful to see the fun the students were having, while being able to spend a breezy, sunny September afternoon outside, and getting a good workout. The perfect end to a busy week...

First day away from the class

Today was a different type of work day for me, as I wasn't in the classroom. I spent the day at a PD session with other Grade 3 teachers from our school division. Getting out of the building and meeting with colleagues from other schools can be a fantastic experience, as the exchange of ideas can often lead to trying new things - this blog is evidence of that, after a conversation I had last spring with a colleague about how she was blogging in her Early Years classroom (thanks, Erin!). I only hope that I have been able to contribute as much to these discussions with my colleagues throughout the years as I have taken away from them...

While I'm out of the classroom on numerous occasions each year, it's a little strange when it's the first time. I always wonder how my class will have gotten on without me, but these thoughts tend to rattle around in my brain a little more than usual during the first PD session or meeting of the year. I look forward to getting back into the classroom tomorrow, and reading what I'm sure will be a glowing report left for me by the very capable substitute who spent the day teaching in room 18! I'm looking forward to seeing all of my students tomorrow morning!

Math rules!

We all put a math sentence on the board. - Joey
Our number of the day today was six. - Cam H.
We played the Power of Ten game with a partner. - Jenna
The math card game we played was almost like the game 'War'. - Robyn
Today is Braylin's birthday! - Tyler
We had Gym and Health for the first time with our new teacher Ms. Beach. - Cam H. and Taylor
We played 'Ultimate Chicken' in Gym. - Gal
This week, we started Magic Object Cleanup at the end of the day, after Agendas. Whoever finds the mystery piece of garbage gets to pick a prize from the prize bin. - Marcus

I love teaching Mathematics - it's probably my favourite subject to teach (just edging out Science)! One of the reasons I love teaching Math is that there are almost always multiple ways to get the correct answer, meaning that everyone, no matter their proficiency, can succeed. One of the ways I get to see this on a regular basis is when students share their number sentences (or 'equations') with the class. As part of the Number of the Day exercises that the students complete on a daily basis, they have to come up with a minimum of five number sentences that end in (or 'equal') our Number of the Day. When it is time to share, they each have to add one sentence to the board, and it has to be different from any of the number sentences already shared. As the year progresses, it is so exciting to see the growth in EVERY student's Math skills, as they share their increasingly complex number sentences, and learn from each other! Check out this photo - not too shabby for the first day of sharing number sentences in Grade 3:

Just another Tuesday...

Lots going on in and around room 18 today (just like every day!) - here are some highlights that the students wanted write about:

There is a big pile of wood chips on the basketball court. I think they are going to use them for the new playstructure. - Gal
We went to Music for the second time. - Kaynen
We had our first Social Studies class. We learned about rights and responsibilities. - Sydney
We got to use the SmartBoard in Math this morning. - Braylin
We read a new book for CAFE. - Jenna
We got two more marbles. - Joey

The new play structure is almost done!

Well, after one last blast of summer on the weekend (and a very disappointing loss by the Blue Bombers!), it was back to work today for our first five-day school week of the year. Here are a few things that the students thought we should mention on our blog today:

The new play structure is almost built! - Jenna
We are getting a new gym teacher. Her name is Ms. Beach. - Cam H.
We had our first Grade 3 Choir period today. - Kaynen

We got to meet our school's new Phys. Ed. teacher today - her name is Ms. Beach. She is going to be teaching at Radisson for the next few months, while Ms. Hanna is away. We are going to miss Ms. Hanna, but Ms. Beach seems really nice, so we are looking forward to having her as our teacher!

We are all very excited about the new play structure being built at our school. We have one of the best views of the construction in the whole school, because it's happening right in front of our classroom windows. It is going up quickly, and it should probably be ready by the end of the week - yay!

The Third Day Of School

We had a fire drill this morning. The bell was really loud, and it made us jump! - Jacell and Cam H.

We had Math this morning, and worked on our Number of the Day books. Today we worked on them by ourselves. - Markus

We started reading on our own for the Daily 5 today. It was really quiet and calm in the class, and it was a lot of fun. - Dasia

We got to do Art today! We got to draw something really fun we did in the summer, and we wrote about it, too. - Robyn

Phys. Ed. was awesome! - Joey

We had another great day at school - it's hard to believe that the first (albeit short) week is over already. We had an action packed day, complete with Math, Reading, Art, Phys. Ed., and a fire drill! Over the last couple of days, we've talked about the three ways to read a book (read the words, read and talk about the pictures, retell a previously-read book) - we practiced these skills with the book 'Peg and the Whale'. We also talked about how to read to yourself independently, and why all of these things are important for becoming a better reader. After a fire drill caused us to pause our learning for a few minutes, the students started practicing their read-to-self skills. I was so impressed with the great job everybody did - you could have heard a pin drop in the room! It's going to make it so much easier for everybody in the class to improve their reading (and enjoy it more!), and for me to work with students one-on-one or in small groups, if the students can keep creating a calm and quiet environment like they did this morning. We're going to be working at building our stamina in reading independently over the next few weeks, in order to achieve this. I'm so proud of the students in Room 18 - keep it up!

Excitement on the playground

It was the second day of school today, and we had a lot of excitement revolving around happenings out on the playground. Here's a recap, in the students' words:

We finally got our recess equipment bag from Ms. Hanna today. It has a soccer ball, a four-squre ball, a basketball, frisbees, and skipping ropes inside. Recess is a lot more fun now that we have stuff to play with. - Gal

Today was a great day. We had a lot of fun outside. We got to use the slide on the wooden play structure one last time. - Alexandra

We are getting a new play structure. The old play strucure was made of wood and was really old. Today they took the old one down. There were a lot of wasps in it, and one of them stung Joey. We are excited to get the new one! - Tyler

Here are some pictures of the workers tearing down the old structure:

The First Day of Class!

Well, it finally came - the first day of class! It was exciting to hear the students say that they liked being in our classroom, and that it was a lot of fun. I asked them to describe our first day of school, and this is what they said:

- We have 24 students in our class, and two of them are new to our school - their names are Mikayla and Dasia
- When you get to Grade 3, you get to play on different play structures than you did in Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2.
- We had an assembly this morning, to welcome everyone back to school (but the Kindergarten students weren't there, because they only start school on Friday).
- The students got their new school supplies (which they loved!).
- The students got to know each other again by doing an activity where they asked each other a lot of interesting questions, such as trying to find out which of their classmates like to eat liver, have milked a cow, have seen a rainbow, or are left-handed.
- We started reading a chapter book - it was the first book of Gordon Korman's "On The Run" series.
- We got to use the SMARTBoard - we saw how it worked, and then we used it to start making our classroom rules.
- We started learning about blogs.

After we made our list, the students were surprised at how much we did today. Just like most first days, it went by way too quickly, and we didn't quite get everything done that I had hoped to. That's ok... we've got almost 200 more to go, so we should catch up :)

The Last Sleep

It's the last night before the first day of classes. I know that a lot of my students are probably pretty excited right now, but are probably feeling a little nervous, too. They're probably wondering things like which of their friends will be in their class, and what will it be like to have Mr. H. as a teacher. Well... guess what?! Mr. H. is also pretty excited tonight... but a little nervous, too! It's always exciting to get ready for a new school year when you're a teacher - you get to buy new school supplies for the class, set up the room, plan lessons, and so on. However, as a teacher, there are things I get nervous about at this time of year - I wonder if my students will like being in my class, I wonder how long it'll take me to remember everybody's name (I have 24 names to remember this year - that's a lot!), and I wonder if I'll be able to help everyone to become the best Grade 3 student they can possibly be. When I start to think about all of those things at once, it can be a little stressful!

However, what I have to remember, when I start worrying about these things, is how much I love to teach! I think I have one of the greatest jobs in the world - I get to be an Elementary school teacher! Every day, I come to work, and help boys and girls to learn, to have fun, and to get along with each other - what could be better?! It's a lot of hard work, but it's totally worth it! But, do you know what else happens in my classroom? Every year, my students help me to learn, to have fun, and to get along with others. When I remember that, all of a sudden, a lot of those worries go away!

I hope you all get a great night's sleep tonight - tomorrow is the start of another new year... and it will go quickly, like it always does! See you outside the doors, tomorrow morning!