Tuesday November 1; candy, quiet work and cedar bark

The students began the day writing about their Halloween experiences. They were all eager to talk about them anyway, so it is a natural topic. They had to write 7 sentences minimum and cover what they dressed as, where they went, what they got and why they will remember this Halloween.

Our class authors and their laminated mini-books are a favorite during reading time.

Yes I did ask the students to bring in boxes of smarties for a Math graphing game we will be doing on Friday and packets of rockets for a Social Studies class on the Potlatch and how lack of wealth gave power and respect among First Nations Traditional societies.

The pile of loot given to me by the students for Friday's math, graphing, probablilty lesson.

After Writing the students were given 5 blank pages to fold into a twenty page mini-book... Each page of the book is about an aspect of the monster as carried over from their 'plan a monster' from yesterday. One page about the eyes, ears, tentacles, tails body covering (fur, scales, feathers, etc.) The description is followed by naming and doing a final drawing and statement about their monster. The students will have some class time but most will need extra time at home to work on it. It is due one week from today on Tuesday Nov 8th.


After recess the students had 30 minutes of silent reading. Many enjoy the mini books written by their peers, and many enjoy reading their own books over and over, which is great because it shows ownership and delight in their own work which will make them better writers as the year goes on. Reading was followed up by math. Mrs. Colley's math group went with a sub while the others came with me to the library to do math on the Smartboard. We did some problem solving questions. As the other two groups joined us in the Library, the students wanted to learn Roman Numerals so we had a quick impromptu lesson on how to write and sign Roman Numerals.

"H" writes the Roman numeral for 55

After lunch we had a ripping, rousing, roaring, running P.E. period with Mr. Edwards class. I think we burnt off enough calories to balance off the calories we put on eating candy. Well maybe not, but the students were tired and worked hard on their Socials assignment when we got back to class. We talked about how the Haida gather bark in the spring and made blankets, rope, baskets, napkins, mats and clothing, to name a few things, made from the gathered bark. The students worked on a one page report on the topic.

"E" works on the border to her one page report on the Haida use of Bark.