Tuesday October 11th: Spelling, art and firedrill

Notices:

Please bring in the entertainment books/envelopes to wrap up our parent fundraiser.

We began the day with our weekly spelling lists. We have two lists, one I call the angel list and the other the demon list, names chosen by the class several years ago to describe the two lists. The angel list is the easier words and the demon list is the harder words. I asked one of the not so bad spellers why they were only doing the simple angel list and they said they couldn't do the harder demon list because they are Christian, so I am accepting name changes for the two lists. The students pre-test along with last weeks marked spelling test is being sent home today.

After Spelling we worked on a story that builds expectation, excitement, anticipation then in the very end there is a surprise ending, a twist in the story that changes the expectation of what is happening. We used the story "A Dark Tale" by Hugh Brown as our inspiration.


After recess we had reading then Talked about the "Tour de Rock"and did a one page report on it. This was followed by math where we divided into two groups to work on more tricks of addition. One group stayed in the class with Mrs. Smith and the second went with me to the library where we had more space and the ability to spread out and to be noisier.


After an indoor rainy lunch the students needed to run off some steam so luckily we had P.E. We did a series of ball and roller relay games. P.E. was followed by Art inspired by the African Nounmouffa musicians and dancers from the Friday presentation. The goal of the art exercise was to see if they could show motion, rhythm and feeling of music in a flat two dimensional piece of art using chalk pastels. The students worked with smearing, streaking and color mixing to try and achieve the feelings contained in music and dance. In the middle of the art lesson we had a Fire Drill in what was one of the few times the rain stopped for 15 min. The moment we were back in the school the rain began to pour down again, not sure if it was good luck or good planning.

Friday October 7: Performances and Field Trips

Reading with Our Buddy Class

Notices:
Monday Thanksgiving No School

We began the day with an amazing, active African dance and drumming performance by Nounmouffa. The group consisted of three drummers/musicians with a variety of drums, stringed instruments and whistles. The group also had an African dancer who had originally been brought to North America to perform with Cirque du Soleil. So as you can Imagine the dance performance was acrobatic and active. We clapped, sang along and some of our students and class mates got to go up and dance with the group.


No sooner had the performance finished and we rushed off to Tillicum Mall to await the eminent arrival of the Tour de Rock police and community riders who took part in the over 1000 km ride from the top of Vancouver island to Victoria to raise money and awareness of cancer in children.

Many of our class who are in choir had the chance to sing two songs for the assembled crowd and riders. It was a very moving experience to be part of such a great event and cause.


After we returned to the school around 1100 the students had their snack and a quick recess. After recess we had just enough time to get through and mark our weekly spelling test, however, I did not have time to get the test marks recorded in time to have them returned to the students today. I will send the marked tests home on Tuesday.

After lunch those students who were finished enough of their weekly work went to buddies to help them with reading, practice tying shoes and math. We followed buddies with a 20 min focused work period then a 20 min computer period before finishing off the day in the Gym with Mrs. Crystal's class.

Today was one of those days where we did a lot of things, had excellent experiences but did not accomplish too much. We will incorporate today's experiences into our writing next week. Have a safe weekend and Thanksgiving Monday and I will see you all on Tuesday.

Lots of pictures were added to our picture archive today. Get to see them by clicking on Picture archive on top right.

Thursday with Mrs. O Connor

Notices:
Friday Nounmouffa performance at 9. Parents welcome to see the exciting show.
After the Performance most of the intermediate students are off to Tillicum Mall to see the arrival of the Tour de Rock Police officers... Join us in greeting them.

The students silent read as I took attendance. We then reviewed the classroom expectation lesson from yesterday (See Wednesday morning blog) and the students continued working on their behavior posters for the classroom. After writing in their journals and a fitness break the students smiled for the camera. You will see the results soon! Mrs. Colley joined us early today to take her math group, as a result we got to work on lots of math strategies until lunch.

After lunch we went to the Library and Mrs. Wilson helped us find lots of great books. We will use some of them during our science lesson on habitats next week. The students are excited about getting books on different habitats. When we returned from the Library, we had a quick fitness break and then started Language Arts.

I am currently working on a series of lessons that gives students a chance to think about how they would handle certain situations. Today’s story was about a boy who started spending time with a group of bullies because he wanted to be “cool”. Unfortunately his new friends, the bullies started doing some inappropriate things. The boy finds himself in a dilemma because he knows what his friends are doing is wrong but he doesn’t want to not be part of the group. His mom is the school secretary and he has to decide if he should tell and risk losing his friends? This story really got the student generating a lot of ideas about how they would handle the situation. Some students said they would tell. Others said they would talk directly to the friends before they would talk to someone else. I had them share with a partner times that they had to make a decision and how they came to a conclusion. After discussion of personal experience and the story they did a writing activity with questions about the story. See you next Wednesday everyone.

Wednesday Morning with Mrs. O'Connor

Notice:
Picture Day tomorrow. Please send in picture forms.

We started the day talking about class expectations. We brainstormed together what we want the classroom environment to look, sound and feel like everyday. The students then split into groups and made posters to put on the wall.

It was then time for Science. Today the students learned what a Biome is, how it is different from an ecosystem and how to identify the different Biome's animals live in. I was very impressed with their knowledge and how quickly they could apply it during the activity.

After the lesson I gave the students a picture of a tundra, forest, grassland, rain forest, dessert and ocean and a dish of animal crackers. The assignment was to identify the animal's Biome using the facts we learned. I had to remind them not to eat all the animals!

Then it was time for math with Mrs. Colley and Mrs. M. We split into three groups and continued to work on our math strategies.

It was a great day everyone, see you tomorrow.

Wednesday afternoon with Mr. W: Computers and music

We started the afternoon in the computer lab where the students began or continued to work on a Power-point presentation on a creature, animal of their choice. Students tend to start their first Powerpoint presentations like reports that they have been doing in school. I want brilliance and flash but will wait until they have completed their basic Power-point presentations before showing them all the magic that they can add to their presentations. We just got everyone up and running on their presentation when it was time for music.

In music the students learned, practiced and polished a percussion singing song that they already want to perform at the next school assembly or gathering. Be sure to check out the class music photo's under our Picture Gallery at the top right. As well keep watching the blog for when we will be performing as parents you are always welcome to come along and celebrate your children with us.

After Music we went back to the computer lab to continue working on our Power-point presentations. Sometimes it is good to have the computer teacher as your classroom teacher.

Tuesday Oct 10: TV debate and leaf art

Leaf art design project at the end of the day

Notices:

Picture day Thursday bring in forms

Spelling: Each week the students have a spelling pretest on Monday. There is a double sided page of spelling activities using the spelling words to be completed each week. Some time is given at school to work on this sheet, however, it may also be done at home to give practice with the spelling words. The spelling is in a dark blue or black duo-tang. On Friday there is the real spelling test which is marked, recorded and sent home.

The two debate groups
(Click picture to see it larger)

We started the day with 15 min to work on the Spelling activity sheet. Our Tuesday debate, thinking, oral language topic today is... Should students be allowed to have a TV and game system in their rooms? The students worked on their own for five minutes to come up with ideas for and against having a TV in their room. They then broke into 2 teams one team that supported the idea and one opposed. The students will be given time to write out their ideas and we may have the debate on Friday.

Computer lab doing Power-point

After recess we had a work period in the library. Those students finished all their Socials were given time on a computer doing power-point on a topic of their choice, the others worked at the tables in the library to finish their missing Socials. At the end of the period all students were given ten min of computer time.

After computers we broke into two math groups to continue working on addition with regrouping and strategies for addition.





After lunch we had a rip roaring game of Slimers Island with Mr. Edwards grade 4/5 class. This was followed by a reading or work on your mini-book period. We ended the day working on a fall art project using fine pen markers. The students drew a leaf then filled it in with patterns. We will cut the leaves out and put them on our bulletin board.



All in all a hard work, creative day.

Monday Oct 3rd: Mini-books and Bach

Three students pose with finished "ABC of Me" mini-books.

Notices:

Thursday is picture day, dress nice, bring back forms

We started the day with the practice pre-test for this weeks spelling words. All students were told to take their practice spelling test and the full spelling list of words home. I did not get time to update the spelling words on the blog but will do it tomorrow.

This weeks mini book is part vocabulary part learning about synonyms (words that mean the same thing) to make their writing more interesting. The book is called "I am Big"
The students were given the following list of synonyms for big:

Definition:
large, great
Synonyms:
a whale of a, ample, awash, brimming, bulky, *, burly, capacious, chock-full, colossal, commodious, considerable, copious, crowded, enormous, extensive, fat, full, gigantic, heavy-duty, heavyweight, hefty, huge, hulking, humongous*, husky, immense, jumbo, mammoth, massive, mondo, monster*, oversize, packed, ponderous, prodigious, roomy, sizable, spacious, strapping, stuffed, substantial, super colossal, thundering, tremendous, vast, voluminous, walloping, whopper, whopping
Antonyms:
itsy, little, small, tiny

We talked about which ones were appropriate synonyms for describing a person or thing rather than a space or lots of power. The students have to write a mini-book using many of the synonyms of big. This is as much a vocabulary builder as a lesson in writing stories.

After recess the students had music with Mrs. Awalt .... then we divided into two math groups to continue practicing addition with regrouping.

After lunch the students not in choir listened to the amazing music of Johan Sebastian Bach and completed a one page report on Him.

This was followed by Socials where we continued our study of North American Native homes. Through a study of the types of homes and dwellings used by a people we can tell many things about how the people lived and the environments that they lived in... Today we studied the Pueblo, large multi-family dwellings made of piled rocks, clay and straw bricks. This form of dwelling was used by the Navajo, the Hopi and the Zuni Nations. So far we have looked at the wigwam of the Algonquin, the tepee of the prairies nations, the long house of the West coast and the igloo of the Inuit.