Life in the Library!

We started the morning on the Smart Board! One great advantage of teaching the class in the Library is we have lots of fabulous resources around us. Today's Language Arts lesson was on rhyming poetry. The students read some poems on the smart board and filled out a chart.They were so excited to share words because everyone wanted a turn on the board. The activity after the lesson was to write a poem. They are due next Wednesday.After working on our Poetry skills, we worked on our performing skills with "The Friends For Life Program". Todays lesson focused on ways of geting along with each other and being aware of our emotions. The students were given a sheet with emotions on it and then had to write a scenario and then act it out in groups of three. I believe we have some future actors in the group!
Mrs. Wilson taught the class how to search for library books on the computers and we had some silent reading time after taking out Library books. They are due next Thursday!
We continued our Social Studies lesson from yesteday on the Smart Board. They chose four explorers and made a power point about them. After they were finished, they created a trading card for each Explorer. Each card should have a picture and a list of facts.

Watch out Pokemon, Explorer cards will be the next popular thing! Great work today everyone, I will see you next week.

Music class video learning Winter Concert song with Sign Language

Monday November 28: Spelling, Sudoku and Music

Monday morning saw the dismantling of our classroom in real time with the removal of our windows and the flooring. The good news is we will be in the computer lab for at least two weeks. The other good news is there may be hardwood floors under our cheap linoleum.


We began the week with our weekly spelling words. The words are listed at the right as well the pretest was marked and sent home along with the list of spelling words on a slip of paper. As well each week there is a single double sided worksheet to go along with the spelling words. There is a little time to work on this sheet in class but the main idea is that the students will take it home to work on.
One of the big bonus's of being in the library/computer lab is we get lots of time using the smart board and the computer for our lessons. We began our new mini-book on the computer using Microsoft Word. Our topic is a week with a mythical or magical creature.

After recess the students went to music where they are preparing songs for our Winter concert. In the picture the students are signing along with one of the songs. Very cool thing to learn as we have a deaf student in the school.


For Math I introduced the students to simple 4x4 sudoku. Sudoku involves mathematical thinking and organization of information in a fun but complex game. Sudoku is a game that the students, if the learn the patterns, can play and use to keep their minds sharp their whole life.
Mrs. M has gone and has been replaced by Tracy who will be with us until the position is posted and filled through the hiring process used by the district. Welcome Tracy and we look forward to working with you.
Be sure to check out the pictures at the right side for yesterday... I will be away Tuesday and Mrs. O will be in for me.

Friday November 25th: Moving class, Reports, Triangular Kites and Buddies

Notice:
Craft Fair in the Gym this Weekend check it out.


Lots of new pictures of our kite project and buddies are posted in our photo library.

Our temporary Class

We began the day setting ourselves up in the library/computer lab/ smart board area. Our class is having our windows and floors replaced as they are as old as the building itself. It appears we will be out of our room for about a week. It will be a great time for us to do projects with a greater technology focus. After we were settled in out temp classroom we began with our regular spelling test which was marked, recorded and sent home.

After recess we talked about endangered vs extinct animals and in keeping with the Science unit started by Mrs. O, the first tech project will have them working on a traditional project using the computer which they will then branch into a super electronic version. We talked about plagiarism and how to make information their own. The students began by researching an endangered or recently extinct animal and moving bits of information off the Internet in one sentence or less packets into Microsoft Word.




We had an early lunch as our class was one of two classes in the school that was chosen for a Science/Math Kite making activity by students from Camosun collage. The activity began about 11:30 and we worked on them through the regular lunch time until about 1:30. The activity was fun and quite challenging for many as it involved lots of tying of small knots. In the end, however, almost all of the students were successful in making their kite. We did not have time to fly them today as we were off to buddies with Mrs. Dagg's class. In buddies the students worked on math addition with their little buddies. Mrs. Dagg has a counting system she uses that helps the students conceptualize the written numbers with the abstract concept of the number. I think it was good for some of my students as well as the grade one's.




With the last 30 min of the day we said good-bye to Mrs. M who has been in the class working with many of our students on math, language arts or whatever other help they needed. She is well liked, talented, positive and cheerful and has helped many of the students in a very patient and supportive way. Mrs. M. is going to James Bay Elementary into a permanent position so, although we will miss her, we wish her well at her new assignment. Thank you Mrs. M. for everything and the treats...




See you all Monday, hope you manage to fly those kites in the storms they are promising this weekend.

Wednesday Afternoon: Chickens, Music and Catchup

As the computer lab is down for this week while new windows are being installed so, instead of going to the computer lab, for the first period in the afternoon we stayed in the class and took part in a school wide activity sponsored by 'Veterinarians Without Borders." Their project is to provide a live chicken for poor families in villages in Laos. For every chicken a student in our school draws, a live chicken is given to a needy family in Laos. As 'C' said, "Our drawings magically come to life." I liked that image and the class really seemed to enjoy the idea and working on a worthy cause.

Second period in the afternoon the students went to Mrs. Awalt for Music. Her classes are always fun and inspirational and I hope many students make music a life long learning goal and skill.

Last period the students worked on catching up and finishing off assignments that were handed out yesterday and last week.

Great afternoon everyone. See you Friday morning when our class is being moved to the computer lab for a week while the School District replaces our old windows and floor. We may have to spend a week in the computer lab and library... sounds like a great 21 century way to spend a week in school. I am looking forward to starting some very exciting computer based learning and projects while we have the opportunity. Be sure and drop in on us when we are in our temp classroom in the lab if you can.

Tuesday November 22: Scrambled Spelling, Kayaks and Arts reach

We started the week with our weekly spelling words. Instead of dictating the words I gave them the words in scrambled form.

With these scrambled words the last two letters of the word are in the correct order. (rohn et = hornet) After the students had been trying to unscramble the words for awhile we talked about how in English there can only be two consonants before a vowel in needed and if there are three letters there is probably a consonant a vowel then a consonant. We also talked about how spelling words follow patterns for example most of the easy word list is focused on the ai or ay words. The scrambled words allowed the students to think about how words are constructed. I am not sure if they figured out the analytical approach yet so we will have to try this another time.

The scrambled words are:

hosrt niromng rpoch tenvinor rohnet reofst oprt tcodor robfid rotch tosrm poexrt droer nartodo otsry ronth gorfot cotafry fosnartrm robit norcer coerrd nosrt perort

(short morning porch inventor hornet forest port doctor forbid torch storm export order tornado story north forgot factory transform orbit corner record snort report)

ital iamd iajl yda aMy arin aimn iasl ayh rya iwat biat dia sya yla ima pian pial apy ywa

(tail maid jail day May rain main sail hay ray wait bait aid say lay aim pain pail pay way)

After spelling we watched a video on YouTube showing part of the 1922 film on the life of the Inuit focused specifically on the family of Nanook, entitled "Nanook of the North". Go to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cob7rVk02dA to watch the amazing kayak scene from the movie.

For the next few weeks we are exploring the different means of transportation used by different First Nations people around Canada. We watched video's of the Inuit, how to navigate and control a kayak and worked on the kayak one page report.

After lunch we were one of two classes chosen by "Arts Reach" to take part in a special art program in the gym. We worked with painting one half of a sheet of paper, folding it together to see what design emerged and then added detail and embellishments with oil pastel. Many of the designs turned out interesting and nothing like we planned.

After "Art Reach" we returned to the class and had silent reading for half an hour until the end of the day. See you all tomorrow afternoon.

Friday November 18: Spelling, Masks, Parents, Buddies and Gym

Notice:
No school Monday for Students, Teachers are at workshops.

Those students who achieved all right, one wrong or two wrong. Well done!

We started the day with the weekly spelling test. 'Y' and 'N' dictated the words, and did the corrections.

After spelling we talked about the the different ways masks are used today. In sports, by Knights of old, as burial masks in Egypt and Asia, in Japanese theater and for ceremony and healing by the First nations peoples in our region. After recess be began a mask project where the students had to make a raven, eagle or a thunder-bird mask using tissue paper to create the feathers. The students were focused and engaged with making these masks so it kept them busy from recess until lunch.


After lunch many of our students went to Buddies. They worked on math, making small books, reading and coloring. I uploaded lots of pictures of the students with those little buddies to the flickr account that can be accessed from the Photo Gallery on the upper right side of the blog.

'A' and her little buddy

'Y' and her little buddy working on math.

'N' works on her math with Mrs. Colley

Many parents helped out with the parent fundraiser Food-4-Fun. 'J's' mom came to our class to help her daughter hand out the food.





After Buddies we had a rousing game of bench ball to finish off the day.


Have a great weekend everyone... see you Tuesday.