Tests, Golden Eggs, Buddies and Gym

Notices:  Parent Teacher forms have gone home yesterday and some today.  A list of times is shown below on the two forms.  White for Tuesday and Orange for Wednesday.  If you cannot make that time or would like a different time just show up and we will accommodate you.  Yes your child is welcome to come as it is for their benefit as well as yours that we are having the interviews.

We began Friday with a new daily feature.  I am showing them Calvin and Hobbes comics using our document camera and the projector.  Starting the day with a smile and talking about a comic strip starts the day off well.  After that, as we do all Fridays, we had a test.  The test had questions in Social, Science, Math, An Essay and of course the weekly spelling.  Those finished early worked on catching up on work, paper-mache'd, read or drew. 

J & E focused on their tests

After recess we read for 15 min then had payday.  The students get $1.00 a week for being in choir, $1.00 for going to buddies, plus if they have a regular class job they earn an additional $2.00.

Students lined up to receive their pay

J figured out that if he got L to clean his desk he brakes even

After recess we also had our weekly desk clean.  I say the desks are mine and the students are just renting them.  If the desk is messy they owe me $1.00 rent, if the desk is clean and tidy I pay them $1.00.  Some students figured out that if they get someone to clean their desk and pay them $1.00 they break even instead of loosing a dollar.  Shortly after the desk clean we continued with another Friday regular.  I read a story, in this case an Aesop's Fable, and the students have to retell the story in their own words adding a diagram and border and finishing by giving the moral of the story.  I have the Fable's in poetic form.  I read the short story of the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg several times, we talk about what the meaning might be for them then they do a one page report as outlined above.  I think it is great that the students get the experience of hearing story told in rhyme as a poem as later in the year they will be able to create their own.  It is still tricky for some of the students to remember all the important main details in their retelling but with practice they will get better.

After the students had been working on the retelling of the story I showed a 1938 Felix the cat cartoon of the same story.  Except in the story, Felix is not a greedy person rather he is taking the gold from the golden goose and sharing it with the community.  A pirate tries to take the goose and kill it to get all the eggs, but is stopped by Felix who then saves the goose and continues to share the spoils with the whole village.  The story and the movie are very timely as it is about how some rich people are not content with the riches they have and want more and more.

The 1938 Felix the cat and the golden goose movie

After lunch we had buddies.  The goal today was the grade 1 students to see how many books they could read to their big buddy.  The little buddies had to keep track of all the books they read.  Many of the little buddies read over 10 books.  Super job little and big buddies.

After buddies we had a work and computer period.  Those students who had completed enough of their work had time to work on a computer project we started earlier in the week.  Making a personal poster page using clip art to show their interests and cut and paste block letters to spell out their name.  The goal was to teach them how to manipulate graphics in Microsoft Word.

After computers we ended the week with a rip roaring dodge ball like game called bench ball.  The students worked harder and harder with greater focus as the week progressed.  Take care all and see you all next week.   Mr. W