The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Today we watched a fantastic short animated film called The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. My friend Erin, who teaches a Grade 1/2 class (you can follow her class here: http://200awesomedays.blogspot.com/), forwarded the link to me today, and immediately, I knew I had to show it to the class. So much of our lives revolve around reading and writing, and The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a great fantasy story about people and books devoting themselves to each other. Apparently, we're not the only ones who think this film is remarkable, as The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is one of five animated short films that will be considered for outstanding film achievements at the 2011 Academy Awards®. After we watched the film, the students each wrote a response in their journal about how they felt about the movie, and what they thought it taught us about books. Here is one sentence from each of their written responses:

Books can make you smile. - Lexi
You can get an imagination from books. - Robyn
Books can make you smarter and know more words. - Cameron W.
It was cool seeing the lady fly and the books fly. - Cam H.
Books are fun to read. - Jacell
Books can inspire you because they have special things in them. - Logan
The short video was awesome because when the people read the books, they turned from black and white into colour. - Kaynen
Books can make you happy. - Mikayla
Books can do more than showing you how to do math. - Dylan
Books can make you smart. - Marie
The people were sad but when they opened the books they had a smile and they were not black and white, they were colourful. - Hailey M.
I really liked the video because there was lots of detail in it. - Joey
To me I like reading because it's interesting. - Gal
At the end of the movie, there was a girl. She was black and white, and then she turned colourful because the books make them brighter. - Markus
Books are good for your brain. - Jett
In the movie, the books were sad and happy. They were sad because close to the end, Mr. Morris Lessmore left them, and they were happy when he first met the books. - Braylin
The people in the video were black and white and then when they started reading the books, they had colour. - Ava
Books can tell stories. - Dasia
Books can have lots of feelings. - Sydney
There was this old book that fell apart, and then Mr. Morris fixed him. - Tyler
When Mr. Morris Lessmore went to look for the words from his book, he was searching for them and he found this library. He checked it out, and then he stayed there for awhile. - Jenna

You can watch the video below - enjoy!

Last day of the week!

We filled in all the stickers on our road for playing fair and following the recess expectations, so we got to watch a movie, and the movie was 'Rio'. We also got hot chocolate when we came in from recess. - Braylin

Today in the gym we played floor hockey, and we were having teams. We are supposed to have real floor hockey starting on February 1st - real floor hockey is with captains that pick teams. The captains picked teams today in room 5 at lunch. - Gal

When the captains picked their teams for floor hockey, they had to pick all the girls first and then the boys. The captains in our class got to eat in room 5 after they picked. - Robyn

The captains picked team names - the team names are the Montreal Canadiens, the Winnipeg Jets, and the Pittsburgh Penguins. - Jett

It was an exciting day at Radisson today - the school has been working on positive playground expectations (such as lining up quickly when the bell goes; dressing for the cold - wearing boots, snowpants, mitts, a toque, a jacket; taking boots off on the carpet, when coming in from outside; etc.) for over a month, now (when it hasn't been too cold to go outside!). Teachers were on the lookout for students who were following the expectations at recess, and when teachers spotted a student exhibiting these good behaviours, they handed out a sticker to the student. The student took that sticker back to their classroom, and stuck on their piece of a 'road'. When the class got 30 stickers, that piece of 'road' was to be mounted on a bulletin board in our foyer. When every class got 30 stickers, the 'road' would be complete, and the whole school would get a reward. Yesterday, the 'road' was completed, as all the classes got their 30 stickers, so the students got their reward today - they all went down to the gym to watch 'Rio' on the big screen, and got hot chocolate when they came in from morning recess! The students were really excited when they found out on the announcements this morning that today was the day they would get their reward, and the teachers are all proud of our Radisson students for doing such a great job - way to go!

'The Sweetest Fig'

Today we had Music. We were playing our recorders, and we were playing little songs - they were called Nothing But B, Nothing But A, and Nothing But G. - Gal

Today we got our 30th sticker. Since we got our 30 stickers, we get a movie and hot chocolate. All of the classes have to get 30 stickers so the whole school can watch. If we follow outside recess expectations, we can get a sticker. - Dasia

We had a busy day... again (although, I suppose it's somewhat redundant to write that - EVERY day in an Early Years classroom is busy!). The students filmed their science experiments, they worked on Number of the Day, they had another session of Daily 5, and we studied another one of Chris Van Allsburg's awesome books in Writers' Workshop: The Sweetest Fig. Once again, after reading the book and discussing it, the students wrote a response to the book, and for the second time, we discussed and used the graphic organizer for them to organize their thoughts, and write their response. Even more students were initially successful today at constructing a good paragraph answer, after I once again modelled how to do so (more 'we do', that I wrote about yesterday). I think doing read-alouds with the class is one of the best parts of my job, so I've put a picture of them (sitting on our awesome Winnipeg Jets carpet!) listening to me read The Sweetest Fig on today's post (thanks to Ms. S. for taking the picture)...

'We do' so that 'you do'

Today we had Writers' Workshop. We learned about places that were in the book Ben's Dream. We wrote about the place that we want to go to. - Gal

We had Math in the tech lab. We did Number of the Day on computers. Our number was 85. - Braylin

We continued on with our Chris Van Allsburg author study today, as we read Ben's Dream. We read the book, in which Ben, while studying for a geography test, falls asleep and dreams that he visits many famous landmarks around the world (i.e. the Parthenon, the Statue of Liberty, Big Ben, the Great Sphinx, the Great Wall of China, etc.). Of course, these are the same landmarks he'd been studying up on. The students broke off into small groups, with each group assigned one of the landmarks from the story. When they were finished, each group presented their landmark to the class, telling the other students where it was located, and why it was famous. As usual, the students then had to write a response - today's question was for them to pick which of the landmarks they'd like to visit, and why. However, the past few times we'd done this, I'd been noticing that a good chunk of the class was having problems crafting their responses. So, we focused today on how to write a paragraph to answer a question. We used a graphic organizer on the SMARTBoard to break the paragraph into 5 chunks: an introductory sentence, in which they make their choice, 3 reasons to support their choice, and a summary sentence at the end that basically tells the reader what they've just told them. I modelled for the class how to do this (with their help, on suggestions for reasons to visit Big Ben), and then they attempted to do this on their own, with a copy of the same graphic organizer. The students who were having some difficulty with writing responses previously found it a lot easier to do so with the organizer - even though it took some of them a while, everybody finished! This is something I'm going to keep working on with them, so it get easier and easier for them to write a paragraph- as Ms. Cross (our principal) reminded me, Regie Routman (an expert on teaching writing in Early Years schools) preaches 'we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, you do' when it comes to modelling good writing habits for children, where 'we' refers to the class, and 'you' refers to the individual student. The more we model, the easier it becomes for them. Today was a good reminder for me that, while they are picking up on the idea, I need to continue (and continue!) to model it for them - 'one and done' is almost never enough!

Almost ready for final filming!

Today we had cool experiments with cameras. The cameras look like part of a phone and part of a camera. - Gal

This morning we started filming our science projects and as we were walking out of the library, our group couldn't decide who was going to film and who was going to be getting filmed by the camera next time. But then we ended up deciding who would film our project. - Braylin

Today, the students got their first exposure to the new Flip cameras that the school has purchased. These cameras are so great to use in an Early Years setting, as they have one button to turn the camera on and off, and one big, red button to press to start and stop recording - what could be easier?! The students conducted their Science experiments and gathered data, while they took turns practicing filming their experiments with the cameras (they found that it can sometimes be hard to hold the camera steady!). On Thursday, we're all set to go 'for real'! I'm really pumped, and can hardly wait for them to complete this important step of the process!

Zathura!

As I've written a number of times in the past few weeks, our class has been doing an author study on Chris Van Allsburg. Today, we watched the movie version of his book Zathura. The students really enjoyed it! As we were watching it, the students were keeping track in their journals of similarities and differences between the book and the movie version - here are some of the things they noticed:

Similarities:

Danny and Walter were fighting with each other at the beginning, but then were nice to each other by the end. - Cam W.

Walter got ejected through a hole in the roof. - Dylan

There was a robot in the book and the movie. - Hailey M.

Meteor showers coming though the ceiling and wall happened in the movie and the book. - Alexandra

Differences:

In the book there was no pet hamster, but in the movie there was. - Joey

In the book, Danny and Walter didn't have a sister, but they did in the movie. - Kaynen

They didn't say in the movie that they tied Walter up to a couch when he was floating. - Jenna

There were goats with four eyes in the movie, but not in the book. - Lexi

Room 18 scientists in action

Today, the class continued working on their Science experiments. Up until this point, the students (after becoming experts in the scientific method) had come up with a question that they wanted to investigate, made their hypothesis (or guess) as to what would happen, and then designed their experiment and identified what materials they would need to carry out their experiment. Today, the students began to test their experiments, to see if they would work as designed. Some groups experiments worked well, while others found that theirs didn't work as well as planned, and then needed to modify their experiment so that it would work (this is OK - modifying an experiment if it doesn't work is part of the scientific process, and often happens to scientists). It's so exciting to hear the conversations and see the collaboration in the groups, as they work together - I can hardly wait for the students to try their experiments 'for real' next week, when they film them for their final product!

Lots of students away today

Today, instead of Writers' Workshop, we played some Funbrain games - one game was One False Move and the other was Operation Order. They were really fun... and good for your brain! - Tyler and Joey
At indoor recess, me and Logan and Gal and Cam W. played Twister, and Cam W. kept spinning the same colour and the same foot. It was a three-way tie, but people weren't twisted up - they were in their own section. It was really easy. - Cam H.

We were missing a lot of students today, which meant I needed to switch up my schedule. We were going to continue with our introduction to multiplication (which we started on yesterday), and then have another Writers' Workshop session on our Chris Van Allsburg author study. However, I didn't want a big chunk of the class to miss out on the multiplication work or the group activity I had planned for Writer's Workshop, so I decided to 'switch it up'. We've been working with negative numbers for the last little while, so we spent a lot of time working on that again today, and it seems like the class is really starting to grasp it. This is a difficult concept for a lot of Grade 3 students to comprehend, initially: the idea that you can have less than zero (a concept most adults are more than familiar with, as a result of mortgages or car loans!). I found a really fun activity on Funbrain.com (a site with a lot of good Math games) called Operation Order algebra game - the students are really enjoying it, and it's helping them to learn about negative numbers. It was a nice way to learn and have fun on a cold, cold day!

More cold weather... but Mystery Motivator!

Anytime the windchill is at -27C or colder, the students are not allowed to go outside. Needless to say, the students haven't gone outside at all this week - that's life in Manitoba! Often times, 'cabin fever' sets in, and the students (and teachers!) start to get a little 'squirrely'! However, I have to say, our class has been doing a really good job of not letting this set in nearly as much as I've seen in other years. Yes, there are the odd times were things get a little noisy during indoor recess, but I am so impressed with the students of Room 18 for how they have conducted themselves in class during this cold snap. They have done such a good job, that they earned their final marble towards their 'Mystery Motivator' (they earn marbles for doing a good job of meeting classroom expecations)! Their mystery motivator is going to be to watch the movie version of the Chris Van Allsburg book 'Zathura' - I can hardly wait for them to see it, and to compare and contrast it to the book. Way to go, room 18 - keep up the great work!

Tuesday

This morning we rehearsed our recorders - it was fun! I wish Taylor was here to learn recorders with us. - Marie
Today we had a fun intramurals at lunch. We played dodgeball - everyone had a great time!

Welcome back to Ms. Hanna, our Phys. Ed. teacher - she's back teaching in the afternoons, and our class is psyched to have her back. We also love that we still get to have Ms. Beach teach Phys. Ed. to us in the morning - how lucky are we to have two awesome Phys. Ed. teachers?!

Budding scientists!

The students continued to work on their Science inquiries today. After last class, where we reviewed the scientific method and began to look at books to come up with ideas of what they might want to investigate, today they set about to come up with a question (relating to magnetism, gravity, or static electricity) that they wanted to find the answer to. I gave them some question starters to help them along - they included:

What happens if...?
Is it possible to...?
Can you use... to...?
Why does...?

It came down to the last minute for a couple of groups, but everyone was able to come up with a question to begin their experiments, and some groups have actually come up with their hypothesis (or a guess, for you non-scientists!), and have begun to design their experiments and record what supplies they'll need to carry them out. I'm so proud of the students - I can hardly wait to see them continue to move through the scientific process!

First day of recorders!

We read The Widow's Broom by Chris Van Allsburg, and we wrote about it in Writers' Workshop. The Widow's Broom is a really good book - it is really interesting. Chris Van Allsburg lets you decide what happens at the end of his books.
Today we had our first day of playing recorder in Music. We were all excited because we've never played it before in school. We only know one note so far, and it's B. When we got to play our recorder, we played it really nice, and Mrs. Kroeker said "That's really great!" (Mrs. Kroeker is our Music teacher) - Alexandra and Robyn

More Van Allsburg!

We continued on with our Chris Van Allsburg author study today, as we read Jumanji. The students loved it, with a few saying that it was the best book we had read all year - I love it when the students get excited about a book! We discussed the story afterward, with some students pointing out differences between the book and the movie that was made based on the book (the movie, while quite good, is not nearly as good as the book, IMHO). After working to identify the characters, setting, problem, and solution in the story, the students wrote a response to the question "What do you think happened to Danny and Walter after the end of Jumanji?", and came up with some very interesting ideas. For those of you who know your Van Allsburg, you know that there's already an answer to this question ;)

Chris Van Allsburg rocks!

We began an author study yesterday, which will continue for much of the month, on Chris Van Allsburg. He is one of my favourite authors of all-time, so I'm very excited to share his work with the class. You (and many of the students) are already familiar with at least one of his works, as he wrote and illustrated The Polar Express, which was turned into a movie a few years ago. He also wrote Jumanji and Zathura, which were made into movies as well. However, he has written many more books that just those, and we began to explore his work as a class yesterday by reading, discussing, and writing about The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. Today, we did the same with The Stranger. It was so much fun to read the books to the class - you could hear a pin drop, as the class was completely riveted to both of the stories. He is a brilliant writer, with illustrations that absolutely grab you and pull you into the stories. As we read the books, we'll add them to our Shelfari at the bottom of our blog - I highly encourage you to check out Van Allsburg's work for yourself!

Back to school after Hanukkah, Christmas, & New Year's

It was a fast day today. It only felt like 10 or 20 minutes! - Gal
We had two Daily 5's today. When we get our listening station, we will enjoy it very much. - Alexandra
Today was our first day back at school - yay! - Braylin
I cna't believe it's 2012 already - 2011 went by really fast! - Robyn
We all had a good Christmas. - Tyler
Hi Taylor! How are you doing at your new school? Did you have a very good Christmas? - Jacell & Joey
We had Gym, and we played a dodgeball game. It was fun, and we had to throw the ball. If it hits them waist under, they go into the blue area. If you throw it and they catch it, you go back onto your side. - Cam H.

As is usually the case with the first day back after a break, today just flew by - after an hour or so, it was like we had never left... in a good way! I'm so proud of how hard the students worked today on the first day back after the holidays. Whether it was in the computer lab, where they were working on their Number of the Day, or in the classroom, working through a double dose of the Daily 5, the students were on task and working purposefully all day. When you get to teach students like the ones I have, it makes coming back at the beginning of January a pleasant experience!