Christmas holidays are finally here!

Happy Holidays! - Cam
Happy Hanukkah! - Gal
Happy Holidays! - Hailey M.
Happy New Year! - Logan
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! - Robyn
Have a happy Christmas! - Dasia
We wish you a Merry Christmas and be nice to family! - Dylan
Merry Christmas to all of you! - Cameron W.
Happy New Year, and to all a good night! - Joey
Happy Hanukkah! - Jett
Eat lots of fruitcake! - Tyler
Merry Christmas! - Sydney
Ho, ho, ho! - Jacell
God bless us all! - Kaynen
Eat lots of turkey! - Markus
Enjoy your holidays! - Lexi
I hope you get all the presents you want! - Braylin
Merry Christmas, Taylor - we miss you! - Taylor
Merry Christmas to you all! - Ava
Have a good Christmas! - Jenna
Best wishes! - Mrs. Garn
Have a great holiday - see you in January! - Mr. H.

We had a great day today, and everyone was excited for the holidays to begin. The students managed to finish their Andy Warhol-inspired pop art Christmas/Winter pieces, so I was able to take pictures of their work, and upload them to Artsonia. You can see them (and our Green Woods exhibit) on our Artsonia page at: http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=129580. Enjoy!

New post... finally!

It's been a few days, but we're back. 'Tis the season where one often needs to whisk away right after work to take care of seasonal tasks that need to be done before the 25th. As a result, I have been a little negligent with my blogging over the past few days - if it's any consolation, I feel guilty about it!

As it was the second-last day before the break, things are starting to 'wind down' as the kids begin to 'wind up' - this usually happens, as the students begin to get excited about the break, and the prospect of the whirlwind of family gatherings, presents, and other special activities that often happen during this time. I must say, though... the group of students that I have this year have been doing a superb job, and have been working hard at every task/assignment I have given them - I'm so proud of them!

Today, during Math, I didn't have the students work on their Number of the Day books. Instead, we played 'One False Move', a great online Math game that is helping to introduce the students to the idea of negative numbers, and how to order numbers from smallest to largest, or largest to smallest, that involve both positive and negative numbers. If you would like to play with your child at home, the link is: http://www.funbrain.com/ofm/index.html. After that, the children were working on finishing up their Andy Warhol-inspired Christmas/Winter pieces that they began the other day (I'm hoping for them to be finished tomorrow, so I can get them up on Artsonia for all of you to see and share over the holidays). Once students were finished this, they began to make cards for their parents or siblings - it really tugged at my heartstrings to read some of the messages of love and affection that students were putting into the card. I really do have a wonderful group of children in my class!

Speaking of tugging at heartstrings, while the children were working on their art and their cards, we were watching 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'. I watch this every Christmas season - it is my favourite made-for-TV Christmas special ever, and I have fond memories of watching this with my family, every year, growing up. I love being able to share it with my students every year, and every year, they marvel at how that spindly, little tree, with a little love from the Peanuts gang, transforms into a beautiful Christmas tree. I also love how much they laugh at Snoopy's antics ;)

More fun with the Scientific Method

We continued our work today with the Scientific Method, as the students learned about why it's important (when designing and performing an experiment) to repeat the experiment more than once, and why it's important to one change one thing (or variable) when performing an experiment. We repeated an experiment we had done before - one where students held up one, then two, and finally three books as long as they could, using one arm held straight out from their side. We have now done the experiment with 4 people, and while the amounts of time each of them could hold the books up varied, it was pretty much a given that no matter which student (or adult!) it was that was holding the books, the person performing the experiment could hold up one book longer than they could hold up two books, and that they could hold up two books for longer than they could hold up three books. Next, we looked at why it was important to only change one variable, as Mikayla from our class couldn't hold up one book nearly as long as I could hold up two books - not exactly a fair comparison, was it?! After that, the students got together in their groups, and discussed why these things mattered when conducting an experiment, and answered on chart paper - here is one group's answer:

Warhol

For Art today, I had the students try something I haven't attempted with my class before - I had the students begin creating "Andy Warhol-esque" pieces, with a winter or Christmas theme. The students divided their paper into quarters and traced a winter/Christmas sketch, that they had created, onto each quarter. We talked about colours, and how each quarter was to be a different colour scheme. In the top left quarter, the students would use only primary colours (red, yellow and blue). In the top left quarter, they would use only secondary colours (orange, green and purple). In the lower right quarter, they would use only warm colours (red, yellow and orange), and in the lower left quarter, they would only use cool colours (blue, green and purple). Once that is finished, I'll have them cut the quarters and mount them on black construction paper, in order to 'frame' them. They still have some work to do, but they're starting to look pretty neat. I had planned to upload a few 'teaser' shots, but after fighting with my PC at work (I'm a Mac guy!) to get the photos up, I give up (I'll try from home later, if I have time) - I'll post the finished products on our Artsonia page, sometime next week.

A good day in Room 18

After Daily 5, we had Gym and then Health. In Gym we played Elves vs. Reindeers, and we played Steal Santa's Presents. In Elves vs. Reindeers, the Elves and Reindeers throw dodgeballs at each other. In Steal Santa's Presents, three people go on the bench and we have to run and hide behind a mat. When the music stops, they have to catch us and then we have to go back to the starting line. - Joey
Today in Math, we shared number sentences and needed to use addition, subtraction, and multiplication. - Jenna
Hey Taylor, it's us! Today we had lots of fun! We really miss you and we hope you have some fun at your new school and your new home. We'll probably talk to you next time when we do the blog. We hope we see you again! - Dylan
Our blog has now been viewed over 1000 times - cool! - Mr. H.

SLC Monday

Today we went to Gym, and we got to dance with the Grade 2-ers, and we got to do a dance party! - Mikayla

We had an SLC this morning. It was about playground rules. We had to make up a skit about playground rules. Our was about some kids playing soccer. Brayden kicked the ball at Jason, and then Ricky said "Are you OK?". Then Jade went to tell Mrs. Steinhoff that Jason was hurt, and Mrs. Steinhoff came and asked Jason "Do you need to go to the office for some ice?". Jason said "Yes", and then Mrs. Steinhoff gave him a hallway pass to go to the office and get some ice. - Jett

They blinded me... with SCIENCE!!!

Today we did Science in the Library. We had to sort out seven different things for the scientific method. We also did number of the day and we shared number sentences. We talked about using addition to subtract. We also did Daily 5, and we had to mark what we did. - Jacell and Cam W.

In Science, we started working on the Scientific Method (with Ms. Bell, our Library Teacher). For those of you who don't know, the Scientific Method is a way in which we can ask scientific questions, and get answers by conducting an experiment and making observations. The end product of this will (hopefully!) be that each group (the students have been placed into groups of 4 or 5) will come up with something they want to investigate, which relates to the unit in Science we've been working on, and a way in which to do so. The Science unit we've been working on is forces that attract and repel - magnetism, static electricity, and gravity. However, before the students can design and conduct their own experiments, they need to learn about the scientific method, so that they can be sure the results they get are accurate and valid. The first step today was to learn about these different steps, and see if they could put them into the right order...

Working with Ms. Bell, our Library teacher

Starting to put them into order...

Not quite there...

A great job by this group - they got them in the right order on the first try!

(BTW... bonus points if you know the inspiration for the title of today's post!)

Christmas concert day is here!

It's finally arrived - the day of the Radisson School Christmas concert! It's a little earlier than usual this year, so it's kind of snuck up on us. However, the students have been hard at work since the end of October preparing for today. In the last week, there's been extra practices, in order to make sure that the students are 'firing on all cylinders' today. We had our morning concert at 9:30 am today, and the students sounded amazing! I'm so proud of the job they did - all of their hard work (and that of Mrs. Kroeker, our fantastic Music teacher!) paid off! If you didn't get a chance to come to the morning concert, you should definitely check out the evening show. It starts at 6:30 pm tonight, with the doors opening at 6:00 pm (don't forget to bring a non-perishable food item for our food drive, and some spare change for the silver collection for the school's Music program). We look forward to seeing you there!

Santa Claus is on his way!

Today we had Choir two times. The front stage was set up for the Christmas concert. Our Christmas concert is in two days, and tomorrow the whole school is watching us singing songs, using the Boomwhackers, and reading a story. We are playing the Boomwhackers for 'Santa Claus Is On His Way'. - Cam W. and Jacell

Student-led conferences... Part 2

I almost forgot to mention yesterday... a big thanks to Jett's mom and Ms. Beach for helping to get the bulletin board outside of our classroom ready to go with the students' snow globe artwork... just in the nick of time! You ladies rock!

I hope everyone has a good weekend, and to my students... see you back in class on Monday! Go Jets Go!

Student-led conferences

Our school is having student-led conferences tonight and tomorrow. When I was a kid (and even when I started off teaching), they were called Parent/Teacher conferences, because it was primarily the teachers and the parents who did the talking. They are now called student-led conferences because it's the students who get to do most of the talking. It's a great chance for students to show off some of their work to their parents, and explain to them (in their own words) the learning they are doing, and the goals they have set for themselves to improve their work in the different subject areas. I absolutely love to stand back and watch the interaction between students and their parents, as they explore the results of a child's hard work over the term. Seeing a parent's face light up as they see the progression in their son's or daughter's math or writing skills over the course of a term is an amazing experience. It's experiences like these (and there were many such moments tonight) that make staying late into the evening feel like it's time well spent!

Now if you'll excuse me, it's time to head home for the night - I've got a comfy couch, a big bowl of popcorn, and the Jets game calling my name! ;)

The last rockin' day of November!

Today, first thing, we had choir and we were on the risers. We were with the Grade 1's and 2's, and we practiced for the Christmas concert. After lunch, we had free Gym, and there was basketball and volleyball. There were ropes we could swing on and there was a spider net we could climb on. There were those rings and bars that hang from the wall, and you could do five swings on them. There was also bouncy balls and bowling set up. - Cam H.

For Writers' Workshop, we did a copy of our other paper about a party we went to. We had to do our writing goals to make it better. We also had Daily 5 after Phys. Ed., and in the morning. - Markus

Another awesome day in Room 18!

Today we saw the book fair for the first time, and there were robots set up. They had a contest, and they put people's names in the draw for $5 for the book fair. One of the winners was Tyler in our class. - Cam H.
In our Christmas concert, we get to tell a story and the Grade 1's play music at special parts of the story. We're playing Boomwhackers and we have a special order for two songs. The two tallest people go in the middle, and it goes to the smallest people. Me and Lexi are the ones who lead off on the Boomwhackers order. - Cam H.
At Phys. Ed., we played a game where we have to throw balls and run around and steal the tennis balls. We had to switch our partner every two rounds. - Markus
Our Christmas concert is in 5 more school days, and I can not wait! - Markus
It's almost Gal's birthday - it's on Friday. - Markus

Thanks to Markus and Cam H. for our blog entry and title today - they are this week's Classroom Bloggers (a new job that appeared on our job board last week!).

It's a Monday!

Between getting the report cards ready to send home today (which, hopefully, all of you should have found in your child's backpack!), extra choir practices for the Christmas concert, preparing for student-led conferences on Thursday/Friday this week (and, perhaps, recovering from the sting of yesterday's Blue Bomber Grey Cup loss!), I just realized, as I sit at my computer at work, that I forgot to get the kids to write on our blog today - oops! They'll have something to say tomorrow... I promise!

Friday

We had Music. In Music, we practiced reading a story for the Christmas concert. Today, we read for 2 hours and 15 minutes in Daily 5. After Math, we read to the Grade 1'ers. At Library today we saw the robots made by students in the school, and someone is painting the wall in the Library. - Hailey M. and Joey

We Day!

Today we missed Science and watched We Day. It was famous people from around the world who were at the MTS Centre. They were singing songs, talking about children in Africa and Haiti that needed clean water, beds, medicine, and schools. They were telling us how we could help the children, so that they don't have to work to live. - Joey and Hailey M.

This morning, we changed up our regular routine to watch part of We Day Winnipeg, which took place at the MTS Centre. What is We Day? Here is a great synopsis from their website:

At We Day, youth from across North America join together to celebrate the positive actions they are taking and to build the momentum of the movement of young people making a difference in their communities and around the world. Through We Day, youth learn that it is cool to care.

The students got to listen to speakers such as actress Mia Farrow, former Vice-President of the United States of America Al Gore, former Prime Minister of Canada Paul Martin, and musicians such as Shawn Desmond and Down With Webster. The class heard about all the ways that children around North America are making a difference in the lives of children all over the world! This afternoon, the students did some writing to describe their experiences of watching We Day. We are going to be talking more about We Day in the days to come, and to see if our class can be inspired to help children elsewhere in the world! You can learn more about the We Day movement at http://www.weday.com/, and you can learn more about today's event in Winnipeg at http://www.weday.com/event/winnipeg.

The force of gravity

Today we did an experiment where we looked at the force of gravity. We estimated and then measured how long a student in our class could hold his arm straight out to the side, while holding up a piece of paper, then 1, 2, 3, and 4 books. We talked about why his arm got so sore trying to hold those objects up... even when it was just a piece of paper - it's because gravity is acting against his arm, wanting to pull it AND the object toward the ground. Here's a shot of our test subject fighting against the force of gravity, to keep that ancient dictionary from being pulled to the earth!

Skyping with Mrs. Malkoske's class!

Today we Skyped with Mrs. Malkoske's class. They were telling us how to act when we are on Skype. After that, we asked questions about how to behave when Skyping, like not goofing around, not waving your hands around, and stuff like that. At the end when we were going to say goodbye, we asked them if we could read to them and they could read to us one-on-one on Skype some other time. - Hailey M. and Joey

Keeping batteries out of the landfill

Throwing batteries into the garbage is something that has always bothered me. As a result, I had been storing up all my used batteries for years, in a container in my basement storage room, keeping them for some future day when I could find somewhere to properly dispose of them. Well, that day has finally arrived! I have enrolled our school with Call2Recycle®. Who is Call2Recycle®, you ask? Well, here is their bio, from their website (http://www.call2recycle.ca/):

Call2Recycle® is the only free battery and cell phone collection program in North America. Since 1996, Call2Recycle has diverted over 60 million pounds of rechargeable batteries from the solid waste stream and established a network of 30,000 public collection sites. Advancing green business practices and environmental sustainability, Call2Recycle is the most active voice promoting eco-safe reclamation and recycling of rechargeable batteries and cell phones. Founded in 1994, Call2Recycle® is operated by RBRC, a non-profit organization. Call2Recycle® is funded by product manufacturers across the globe committed to environmentally-sound recycling of rechargeable batteries and cell phones. These manufacturers place the RBRC recycling seal on their rechargeable products and batteries, informing users that they are recyclable.

Call2Recycle® is becoming more and more popular, as this year alone, more than 6.5 million pounds of batteries have been collected! With our school now a collection site for Call2Recycle®, you can send your used up batteries with your children, and I'll put them in the collection box. Every time a collection box becomes full (50 lbs.), Purolator comes to pick it up, and Call2Recycle® sends another collection box. There is absolutely no cost to the school, and no cost to those dropping off batteries. It's an easy way to safely and responsibly dispose of your used batteries... finally! So, if you're a parent of a student at Radisson School, send those old batteries in a plastic bag to my room, and I'll send them away to Call2Recycle® - it's the environmentally responsible (and easy!) thing to do!

P.S. Don't forget... when buying batteries for your household use, purchase rechargeable ones - it means that there's that many less batteries that we have to worry about disposing of in the first place!

Adding details and description to our writing

Last month, the students did some small moment writing - that is, taking a small moment in your life, and using a lot of detail and description to show just how interesting these moments often are. We revisted this writing today, and talked about how much better we could make it, by adding more details and more description. Both times, the students wrote about what had happened that day at lunch. Here is one student's first attempt, from a few weeks ago:

At lunch I went to Big Brothers Big Sisters. After lunch we went to the gym to play games.

Here is what the same student wrote today (in the same amount of time that they had been given in the previous attempt), after we had our big discussion about adding more details and more description:

At lunch I went to Big Brothers Big Sisters. I had a tuna sandwich, a granola bar, a orange juice. It was awesome. After lunch I went to the gym to play for ten minutes. Now let me tell you about at lunch recess. Most of my classmates and my mentor Devin were playing tag and a race. What would you play?

This was from a student that I would consider to be a somewhat reluctant writer. The difference between the two is remarkable - the second attempt is so much better, in terms of drawing the reader in. I am so proud of this student (and all the others who were able to improve their writing after our discussion)! For me, it is moments like this that make teaching one of the best jobs in the world!

Family Group bins

Today, during our second period of the day, we had Family Group bins time. This is when students get to spend time with their family groups, playing games and having fun. It's a great way for students from all of the different grades at Radisson to interact with each other, and get to know one another better, which helps to make for a warmer, more caring school climate. Also during this time, teachers take turns meeting with their grade-level teaching partner, so that they can do some planning together. Today, it was the K-2 teachers who were meeting, while the remaining teachers supervised the students while they were having fun. I had the pleasure of hanging out with my group: the Blue Jays. Here are a couple of shots of the students enjoying their time together...

Learning about Nanuq

Today on a website, after lunch, we watched polar bear videos from Churchill. - Jenna

We did some cool magnet stuff. We used a compass to see what happens when we put it near a magnet. - Tyler

We had intramurals, Phys. Ed., and Health today - we've never had them all on the same day before. - Gall

At lunch, we had intramurals and we played Tchoukball. The score was 1-0. - Cam H.

In Science, one group's compass wasn't working right, so it gave them the wrong answers. - Hailey M.

After lunch, we did some research on how to save the polar bears. Tomorrow, over lunch recess, if we want to watch the video about the polar bears, we can stay in and watch with Mr. H. - Marie

Today, after lunch, we had the pleasure of watching the last portion of a live webcast from Churchill, all about polar bears. We tuned in to the webcast on http://www.chillingwithnanuq.com/. Andy McKiel, who is the K-12 Technology Coordinator in the St. James-Assiniboia School Division (and my fabulous 2nd-year B.Ed. cooperating teacher!) is currently in Churchill with Edmodo, Polar Bears International, and a team of scientists from around the world. They are there to share the fall polar bear migration with the rest of the world. It was neat to watch the webcast, and hear Andy and the scientists answer questions live, as they came in on Edmodo, e-mail, and Twitter from different classrooms from around North America. Tomorrow is the last day of live webcasting - the webcast starts at 12:00 CST. I'll be watching in the classroom, along with any of my students who want to stay in for lunch to watch the webcast, as well. We'll be tuned in - will you?!

(Andy McKiel fielding questions from different North American classrooms)

Remembrance Day

Today at the Remembrance Day ceremony, we sang O Canada and Mrs. Cross read a book called 'My Wish For Tomorrow'. - Jenna
In our Remembrance Day SLC, a guy played the trumpet and we had a moment of silence so we can honour the ones who fought in the wars for us - the ones that came back, and the ones that died for our country. - Robyn
After morning recess, we went to a Remembrance Day SLC and some of the classes were singing songs. Mrs. Cross read a book about children's wishes. - Dasia
At our Remembrance Day SLC, the Grade 1/2 and Grade 2 classes said a poem called 'Hug o' War', the Grade 5's shared their wishes for tomorrow, and the Grade 4/5's sung a song called 'A Child Of The World'. - Cam H.
At the SLC, the Grade 5's made a Photostory with posters with their wishes for tomorrow. - Lexi

(source: CTV.ca)

More fun with magnets

Today in Science, we did something with a compass where we looked at which way the white arrow was pointing when we put it by a magnet. - Jenna

We are almost done the third Aiden and Meg book, called 'Now You See Them, Now You Don't'. - Marie

We did Number of the Day in Math today. It was number 43. - Cameron W.

At Daily 5, we could read with a partner, write, read to self, or work on our spelling. Mr. Hoeppner was working with kids on their writing. - Logan

We used compasses and whatever way the white part of the needle pointed, we had to draw an arrow on our papers. - Lexi

We continued our investigation of magnets and magnetism in Science today. The students studied what happened when the different poles of magnets were put together, and what happened when a compass was placed at different locations around a bar magnet. We didn't have time to discuss the compass findings, but there were a lot of interesting theories as to why they saw what they saw...

Grade 1 Reading Buddies

Every Day 3, our class get to read with Ms. Derkson's Grade 1 class, right before lunch. It's always a highlight of the day, for both grades. Here are a couple of pictures from today's session...

"Science Rules!"

Today we had Science after lunch, and we worked with magnets. We did predictions if buttons, pennies, marbles, nails, screws, paper clips, pop can tabs, and staples would stick to a magnet. - Sydney

In the SLC we had this morning, we watched a little bit of Toy Story 3, where the kids were playing really crazy, messing up the toys, breaking them, putting them up their noses. We watched that because we were talking about how to care, share, and play fair outside on the playground. - Joey

Today, after recess, we had Phys. Ed. There was one station with football, two stations with soccer, one station where Ms. Beach timed us while we dropped three chickens in a hula hoop, and one station where we threw a ball against a rebounder and had to catch it. Grade 5 students were running the stations. - Cam H.

At all three recesses, most of the Radisson students played in the snow and made snowmen. - Jenna

As much as I love teaching Math, I love teaching Science. I love seeing students explore, investigate, and manipulate materials. Today, we began studying forces that attract and repel (magnetism, gravity, and static electricity), by watching a Bill Nye: The Science Guy video on magnetism, followed by a hands-on investigation of different everyday items, and whether or not they are attracted by magnets. The students had lots of fun 'playing' with the magnets and the objects, and then sharing their findings with the class. Bill Nye says it best on each of his videos: "Science rules!"

Goodbye, Taylor!

Today was kind of a sad day, as we had to say goodbye to one of the members of Room 18. Taylor is moving with her family to Thompson, MB, and will be living there as of next week. We've been privileged to have Taylor with us at Radisson, and we are going to miss her dearly! We hope she continues to read our blog, so that she can keep up to date with everything that's going on in her old classroom. Thanks for being such an awesome part of Room 18 and Radisson School, Taylor - we are going to miss you a lot!

Mr. Pudsey rocks!

I was out of the classroom for a divisional Workplace Safety and Health meeting this afternoon (I'm the teacher representative for Radisson School), so that meant I needed to book a substitute teacher. I'm very lucky to have Mr. Pudsey be able to come into the classroom for me. Mr. Pudsey is a friend of mine, whom I met when we were both working towards our B.Ed. degrees at the University of Manitoba. When I'm out of the classroom, and he's in there for me, I know my students are in very capable hands. Mr. Pudsey does a great job with whatever I leave for him and the class, and if things have to change at the last minute, I know he can 'roll with it' without flinching. Not only is he very capable, but the students absolutely love him! In fact, when I told the class this morning that Mr. Pudsey was going to be in for me in the afternoon, they cheered, and told me that they liked me "100%", and that they liked Mr. Pudsey "100%". I'm glad he has such a high approval rating with them... because he's in our classroom again tomorrow!

Words Their Way

Today we did word work after morning recess. Some people went into room 17 with Mrs. Sigurdson, and some people stayed in room 18 with Mr. Hoeppner. - Sydney
We had Phys. Ed. first thing. In Phys. Ed. we did our fitness test, where we had to run for 8 minutes. - Logan
After afternoon recess, we did all the five things in Daily 5. It was our first time doing all of them. - Jenna
Today we had Library, and it was my last Library class. - Taylor
It was our first time having Library right before lunch. We usually have it in the morning right before recess. - Joey
After Phys. Ed., we had Music. We were practicing for the Christmas concert. We're using Boomwhackers for one of the songs. When they hit the ground, they make a sound. - Lexi

Today, we finally started working on the last of the Daily 5 literacy tasks - word work (or 'spelling', as it was called when I was in school). 'Words Their Way' is a system to learn spelling by completing different word sorts, based on the students' individual needs. A quiz of 25 words is given to the students, and based on what they get right and wrong, their individual strengths can be identified, as well as the areas that need to be targeted for improvement. In our class, we are starting off with three groups: one that is working primarily on short vowels, one group that is working on long vowels, and one group that is working on other vowels. As they come to the end of each spelling stage, an assessment is given. If they successfully complete it, they move on to the next stage. The students progress through the stages as they are ready to do so.

We all started working on our word sorts together today, but as part of being independent during the Daily 5, this will be one of the tasks (reading to self, reading with someone, listening to reading, writing, word work) the students can choose from (and they seemed pretty pumped when I told them that!). I am new to 'Words Their Way', so I am really excited to see how it helps the students improve as spellers!


(one of the students in the 'long vowel' group, starting her word sort)

Learning our Addition strategies

In Math, the students have been learning their Power of Ten addition strategies since the beginning of the school year. The Power of Ten is a way of thinking about Math that encourages students to make as many 10's as they can when adding (because it's so much easier to work with them). So far, we've worked with strategies to make 10's when adding 9, 8, and 5, as well as making sure they know their 'Friendly Number' facts (any two numbers added together that make 10: 1+9, 2+8, 3+7, etc.). The students were surprised to learn that they've already learned strategies that allow them to successfully solve more than half of their basic facts (addition facts from 0+1 to 9+9)! Today, we started working on the next strategies - doubles, doubles +1, and doubles -1. Here's a sample of their work from today:

I love teaching Math!

Happy Halloween!

We had a Halloween party. We watched Charlie Brown, people handed out Halloween treats, and we got some Halloween colouring sheets from Mr. H. - Jenna
We were going to the Library, but then it was cancelled because Mrs. Solar wasn't here today. - Marie and Joey
Today we had Grade 1 reading buddies, and the Grade 3 students got to pick their Grade 1 partner. - Taylor
The people that didn't get their book orders last week got them today, because Mr. Hoeppner was away sick when we handed them in, and didn't find all the orders until the other day. - Cam H.
This is Taylor's last week at school, and we're all going to miss her! - Mr. H.

I hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween - don't eat all of your candy tonight... whether you're a student who's been out trick-or-treating, or a parent who's handing out candy at the door!

Halloween is almost here!

We had Reading Buddies with the Grade 1's. Ms. Derkson partnered us up. Today was the first day that they got to read to us. - Gal & Robyn
Some people got a Fuel For Fun pass at lunchtime. You get one if you have a fruit or a vegetable. You get to go for extra time in the gym at lunchtime. - Jenna
Tonight is the Halloween Howl at the gym. We get to dress up in our Halloween costumes and we get to watch a movie. - Marie
At the Halloween Howl, we're watching Spooky Buddies. - Dylan
Today we had our last Halloween gym. There was rope jumping called Snake Pit, the Pumpkin maze, the Pumpkin Patch, and the spider web. - Taylor
Today we got to finish our pumpkin writing. The papers are fat and round, they have a little stem at the top, and we coloured them orange. - Hailey M.

We Skyped!

We did Skyping today with another teacher in a different school. Mrs. Malkoske read 'The Incredible Book Eating Boy' by Oliver Jeffers to us. - Cameron W.

Today after Daily 5 in the afternoon, we went to Phys. Ed. and had Operation: Halloween. Our Gym teacher, Ms. Beach, set up a bunch of fun Halloween stations. - Cam H.

At Operation: Halloween, there were two TV's that had pumpkin, witch, alien, and cyclops faces popping up. We ran away from the witch because she said she would cook us! - Robyn

At the last recess, we stayed in because another teacher was reading us a book on Skype. We had our own recess after that. - Hailey M.

After lunch, we had a new helper in our classroom. Her name is Ms. Evens. - Jenna

We did Number of the Day. We shared with our classmates a lot of crazy number sentences. Most of us don't use times or 'groups of' yet. - Gal

It was a big day in Room 18 today, as the students got to use Skype in the classroom for the first time! For those of you who aren't familiar with Skype, it's a program that allows you to have real-time video calling to any other computer in the world that also has Skype installed, as well as a video camera. I got a webcam a couple of weeks ago, and tried out Skype for myself earlier this week with my friend Erin Malksoke, who teaches a Grade 1/2 class at Dr. F.W.L. Hamilton School (http://200awesomedays.blogspot.com/). Today was a big test though, as first, I used Skype to read a book to Mrs. Malkoske's class (I read 'Pumpkin Circle: The story of a garden' by George Levenson to them), while my students were at Phys. Ed. Afterward, when the students came back to the class, Mrs. Malkoske read 'The Incredible Book Eating Boy' by Oliver Jeffers to us. We're looking forward to Skyping with Mrs. Malkoske's class next week, and talking to them about setting criteria for making good Skype calls (Mrs. Malkoske's class has been using Skype for a while, so they're pros at this!). Isn't technology cool?!

Busy, Busy, Busy

What a busy time of year it's been (so busy, I didn't even get a chance to post on our blog yesterday)! I can't believe that the school year is nearly 20% done already! We are well into the swing of Daily 5, during which I've been able to spend more time meeting with students one-on-one, to assess their strengths/needs in reading. We're also starting to work on our writing a little more (I'm looking forward to sharing some Halloween pumpkin writing they're doing with you soon!), and yesterday, we started working on how to leave good comments on someone else's blog. We were looking at the blog for Mrs. Malkoske's classroom (http://200awesomedays.blogspot.com/) at Dr. Hamilton school, and beginning to comment on some of the neat things they've been doing. With the exception of the pumpkin writing, all of these student activities I've mentioned are things I've never tried in the classroom before - it makes it really busy, but we are all learning so much (me included) that it's totally worth it! We're going to keep on trying these new things, and telling you all about them, so stay tuned...

Just another manic Monday

Today we wrote stuff about 'Green Woods' and 'Landscape No. 36'. We wrote what adventures happened in them. - Joey
We wrote about Landscape No. 36 and Green Woods. We were picturing what it would be like if you were in that picture, and what it would feel like. - Jenna
We had two periods of Phys. Ed. We played pin dodgeball, where you had to knock down pins. We also played Benchball, where people had to catch the balls. When they caught they balls, they had to stand on the bench. When one team was all on the bench, they won. - Robyn
Today we had two fire drills. We had two fire drills because Mr. H. forgot it was a cold weather fire drill, and we didn't grab our jackets for the first one. We had a second practice one just for our class, and we practiced to bring our jackets outside for when it's cold. - Taylor

SAGE 2011

While all of my students had the day off from school today, I was busy learning with other teachers! SAGE (Special Area Groups for Educators) happens every year in Manitoba, in October. On this day, teachers from all over the province sign up to go to sessions of their choosing, dealing with a wide variety of educational topics. In years past, I have gone to sessions on Math and (mostly) Science. This year, however, I decided to do something different. I signed up for two sessions through MAME (Manitoba Association of Multi-age Educators). The morning session was all about blogging - seeing as how this is my first year of blogging with my students, I wanted to go to this session to see what new tips, tricks, and ideas I could pick up. It was a great morning, and if you look closely at our blog, you'll find a few new gadgets on the right-hand side of the page that I discovered and added! The session in the afternoon was all about free webtools that can be used with students in the classroom, or on my own to broaden my professional resources and contacts for learning more about 'Ed Tech' (educational technology). I'm not going to tell you what great tools I learned about this afternoon, because I don't want to 'ruin the surprise' when I decide to start using some of these in the classroom!

As a final note, the two presenters for both sessions were fantastic! They are both teachers in our school division - Erin Malkoske and Leslie Dent Scarcello. I highly recommend you check out their classroom blogs (hopefully, our classroom blog will one day be almost as good as these two!): http://200awesomedays.blogspot.com/ and http://missdentsclass.blogspot.com/ Thanks to Erin and Leslie for a great day!

Just another Wednesday

The gym has gotten spookier today because the next gym class is 'Operation: Halloween'. - Jenna
Ms. Beach and some Leadership students helped put Halloween decorations up in the gym. - Dasia
After afternoon recess, we finished our Art from the 'Green Woods' picture. Some people are working on it right now. - Cam H.
We're learning about football in Gym. - Lexi
For Number of the Day today in Math, we had the number '29'. We do a whole bunch of math activities that all have to equal 29. - Robyn

When things don't go as planned

We had a sub for the morning, and his name was Mr. Pudsey. We called him Mr. P. - Cam H.
When the substitute teacher was here, it was pretty fun. - Dylan
At lunch, so of us went to soccer intramurals, but there was only three girls there. - Robyn
It was our turn on the new play structure. - Jacell
After lunch, we did Tumblebooks in the lab. - Joey
When Mikayla and I were doing Tumblebooks, we had to log off as soon as we got on because lots of people were trying to get on the website. - Marie
I was so excited to do Tumblebooks because we hadn't done it for a long time. But as soon as I logged on, it wasn't working. - Braylin
After recess, in Music we got to watch a movie called 'Pink Panther'. - Jenna

After being sick at home yesterday, and at a meeting this morning, it felt really good to get back into the classroom this afternoon - I really missed my students! I had planned to have the students go on the Tumblebooks website, and listen to reading (one of the parts of the 'Daily 5'), while I worked with students one-on-one. However, when we got into the computer lab and tried logging on to the Tumblebooks website, we encountered a whole host of problems. We kept getting messages telling us that there was too much traffic on the website (which I've never seen before), but then one student figured out that if you clicked the back button on the browser, and then the forward button, that you were often able to get on to the website. When only about half of the computers were able to get on to the website, another student suggested that they partner up, and unplug the headphones so they could both hear the stories being read. When the speaker on one computer wasn't working, the students working on it suggested they simply read the words together on the screen. It was great to see all the problem solving going on! It was a good lesson for the students that even when things don't go exactly as planned, they can still work out... just differently!

Patterns!

In Art today, we wrote about and talked about a new picture. - Jenna
The gym looks spooky because it's almost Halloween. - Alexandra
Today we did Writers' Workshop. We were reading our lunch small moments stories. - Taylor
In Math, we were making patterns. - Sydney

In Math today, we were learning about repeating patterns. The students got to do some activities on the SmartBoard, and then used manipulatives at their table groups to make their own repeating patterns. Check out these pictures, and see if you can figure out what the core (the section that repeats itself over and over) of each pattern is!

Small Moments writing

We had Music and Library today. - Dasia
Mr. H. read a story to us called 'Owl Moon'. - Jenna
Today, we had Grade 1 Reading Buddies. - Taylor
We made small moments stories about lunch. - Cam H.

Today, we started talking about small moments writing. If you don't know what small moments are about, it is taking a small moment in your life, and using a lot of detail and description to show just how interesting these moments often are. We began by reading Jane Yolen's wonderful book Owl Moon (check it out on our Shelfari!), a story of a young girl who goes 'owling' at night with her father. It's a wonderful example about how describing a moment in great detail (what's going on around you, what you're feeling, etc.) can make these moments into extraordinary stories. After we read the book, we talked about all the amazing detail and description that made the book so interesting. Then, I took something that most students wouldn't think twice of writing about: a fire drill. I started off by writing the following:

"We were working in the classroom when the fire bell rang. We had to hurry quickly outside. When we heard the bell ring three times, we went back inside."

I challenged the class to come up with more details about the fire drill, to make it a lot more interesting. After some discussion at their tables, this is what they came up with:

"We were working in the classroom on the Daily 5 when the fire bell rang – some students were reading, and some were writing. Some of the students jumped out of their chairs and knocked them over because the bell was really loud, and startled them. The students dropped what they were doing, and had to hurry quickly outside through the nearest exit to our classroom. They didn’t even wait for Mr. H. to tell them – they knew their job was to get out quickly. The first person through the door held it open, so that everyone else can walk out. The students usually line up in a number line, but when the fire bell goes, you just go. It was a warm day, and it was partly cloudy. We rushed outside, and lined up in our classes. It’s our job to line up single-file, and to not talk. Sometimes, just standing there can be pretty boring. Mr. Hoeppner writes a note that says whether all the students are in the line. When we heard the bell ring three times, we went back inside. When we came back inside, we got a chance to use the washroom."

The students were amazed at how they had taken something they thought would make a boring story, and turned it into a really interesting piece of writing. After this, I challenged the students to write about their lunch hours today. They weren't all finished yet, but while I was walking around the classrooms, I saw some really good examples of using detail and description to make a story much more interesting - I can hardly wait to see them all!

Math - equality

Mr. H. came around during Daily 5 and was asking students questions about reading. - Gal and Jacell
Daily 5 was fun, and we had it twice! Once after Phys. Ed. and once after afternoon recess. - Cam H.
Today we had gym. - Taylor
We have 4 marbles for our next Mystery Motivator. - Hailey M. and Braylin
We did Math on the SmartBoard doing questions about if number sentences were balanced or not. - Jenna and Joey

The last couple of days, we've been working on equality in Math; that is, that the amount on one side of the equal sign needs to be the same as the amount on the other side. We used a balance scale to show how when you have more weight on one side than on the other, the two sides will not evenly balance out; an equation is exactly like that. It was interesting that the students all knew that an equation like 4+2=6 is true, but were thrown for a loop when asked if 5+3=4+4 was true. However, after seeing it demonstrated with a scale, and some really cool activities that the students got to participate in on the SmartBoard, the students really 'got it' (I love seeing students when the 'light goes on' - one of the best parts of teaching!). Here's a screenshot of one of the activities the students took part in:

Tuesday

We made a list for who's allowed to go on the camping chairs in our class for the week. - Taylor
We had a bus evacuation today. They tell you the safety rules, where the exits are, and then you get to jump out of the back end of the bus. - Robyn
At recess, we had a guy named Jason from Grade 5 help to make teams, and he was the ref. - Cam H.
Every Tuesday we have intramurals for soccer at lunch recess. - Joey
We had Health for the third time today. - Gal

Happy Thanksgiving

While my students were happily enjoying a day off today, the teachers were hard at work, spending the day involved in professional development. It was a really good day, and we learned a lot! However, it's nice to have a long weekend now. I'm looking forward to turkey dinner, pumpkin pie... and the Winnipeg Jets home opener on Sunday — Go, Jets, Go! I hope you all enjoy your weekend - Happy Thanksgiving.

Math in the computer lab!

Today we had our Mystery Motivator. Mr. H. gave us chips and a movie. - Jenna
The movie we watched was 'Gnomeo and Juliet'. - Braylin
We had extra recess today because we got close to our Terry Fox goal. - Tyler
We had Phys. Ed. after O Canada. - Alexandra
After morning recess, we had our Math in the Tech Lab. We did Number of the Day in the Tech Lab and it was really fun. - Cam H.
Today was Phys. Ed. and then Choir right in a row. - Taylor

Last year, I attended a PD on using technology to enhance student learning. We were challenged at the PD session to create a tool that would would foster the independence of students. At the same time, I was finding that sometimes, when the students were working on their Number of the Day books and they were unsure of what an answer should be, they would be put in an answer without checking it; that it was better to have any answer (right or wrong) than no answer at all. So, after bouncing ideas off of a few of my colleagues, I got the idea of creating a tool in Excel that would let the students know whether their answer was right or wrong, but force them to reason out for themselves how to correct their answer if there was a mistake. If the the students get the right answer in activities such as patterning and making the number with money, they are given a 'thumbs-up'. If not, they are given a 'thumbs-down', and have to go back and figure out for themselves where they need to make changes. With their number sentences, Excel gives them a 'true' if the number sentences are correct, and a 'false' if they are not. As this was the students' first time this year trying out the tool, there were a lot of questions, and we didn't quite finish. However, the students really enjoyed doing their Number of the Day in a different way, and were asking me when we could do this again!

Hard at work on the Number of the Day:




Working on skip counting - lots of thumbs up!



Making the Number of the Day using money:

Long day

Students love early dismissal, as they get to 'cut out of work early'. This is definitely not the case for the teachers. While the kids are going home early, the staff attends a staff meeting. The meetings are usually fairly long, as there is always professional development (or PD, as we call it) that we take part in, in addition to many things that need to be discussed, debated, and decided, with regards to making the school a better place to work, learn, and play. After finishing the meeting, running a couple of errands, eating dinner, catching up on some reading, and watching a little news (RIP Steve Jobs), I realized "AAAAAHHHHH! We didn't post on our blog today!". Unfortunately, as a result, I was unable to get the students' input for our blog today. However, the highlight of the day was that the students started creating their own beautiful oil pastel masterpieces, based on the painting we've been talking/writing about in out last few Art classes - B.J.O. Nordfeldt's Green Woods (which was mentioned in a previous post a few weeks ago). The plan is to get the finished works up on Artsonia, but more about that at a later date... :)

Grade 1 Reading Buddies

Today we did Reading Buddies for the second time with the Grade 1's. - Jenna

We had a good time reading with the Grade 1's! - Kaynen
In Social Studies, we were working with different characters. - Gal
We were saying who the characters are - if they're nice, if they share, care. Things like that. - Hailey M.
After lunch, we had Social Studies, and we worked in groups. My group worked on Phineas and Ferb. - Cam H.

Today we had Music and Library right in a row! - Taylor
Today we picked new books from the Library. - Dasia

Election 2011!

Before morning recess, we had Family Bins. - Braylin
Logan is the only Grade 3 student in the Frisky Foxes family group. - Robyn
We had 2 free times in the Gym. -Tyler
We earned 5 marbles today. - Joey
We wrote for 11 minutes in our journals for the Daily 5. - Marie
Today in Social Studies, we voted for the election. - Jenna

During our election, when Mr. Hoeppner was counting the ballots, the NDP beat the PC's by 11-5. - Dylan
The Green Party had 3 votes and the Liberals had 3 votes. - Lexi
This afternoon, we had our own mini-election. The NDP had 11 votes, and whenever the NDP got another vote, people went "WOO!" - Sydney
Today in our mini-election, it was really fun. The NDP won the whole thing. - Cam H.

With the Manitoba provincial election taking place tomorrow, I thought it was the perfect time for our class to learn about what all the hubbub was about. We've been talking about rights and responsibilities in Social Studies, and voting in elections just happens to be a major responsibility of being a citizen of Canada. We talked about how the province was divided up into different ridings (and found out the Joey's aunt is running for the Liberal party in Transcona - cool!), and how voting actually works. Then we talked about the different political parties, and what each of them stood for. Next, we watched some of the TV ads that the different parties have been running over the last few weeks, and noted how some of them were really negative towards other parties, while other ads were really positive about their own party. Finally, we had our own election, where the students voted for the party of their choice. As you saw from some of the students comments at the beginning of the post, the NDP won in the riding of Radisson Room 18 - we'll have to wait until tomorrow night to see who wins the 2011 provincial election!

This is what our ballots looked like:

There was a long line-up at the poll in Room 18 today:

A student carefully considers who he will cast his ballot for (don't worry.... he waited until the photographer left the polling booth before casting his vote!):

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!)!