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.