Literacy
We've started a couple of new activities during our Working with Words blocks over the past two weeks!
Using Words You Know is a fantastic word study activity where students are given four heading words that follow a particular spelling/phonetic rule. We discuss these four words at the beginning of the lesson. Students are then given words visually, to start, and need to determine which heading they belong under. I have students volunteer to tell me how to read the word and where it belongs. After 10-12 of these visual words, I start giving the students words orally. They need to determine which column it belongs in and how to spell it. Here is a picture of a completed Using Words You Know lesson:
The Using Words You Know strategy is very useful in both writing and reading. When a student is trying to write a word that they aren't sure of, they can think if they know how to spell any words that are similar/that rhyme. In reading, if a student is stuck on a tricky word, they can look at it and ask themselves if they know any words that look like the tricky word.
During the Using Words You Know lessons, we also review the difference between blends and digraphs. A blend is when you put two or more consonants together and you blend their sound. A digraph is when two consonants come together to create a new sound and you can't hear their original sounds.
We have also started our Word Wall Words this past week. Each week, students will be given ten frequently misspelled words to learn. They will be written in your child's agenda on the lines in the bottom right hand corner. The number one priority is that your child can read the words. If they can't, please focus on practicing reading them for the week. The students have personal word walls at their desks that they can use to look up the word to copy it down. If they can read the word, they can find it on the wall and then they can practice writing it properly. If your child can read the words, their job for the week is to make sure that they can spell them independently. Again, they will have their word walls to double check their work if they are unsure.
I spoke to the students about the old saying, "Practice makes perfect." I told them that I don't necessarily agree with that statement. I personally believe that "Perfect practice makes perfect." Students very quickly get used to spelling words the wrong way. They write them down every day without hesitation thinking that it's right because it's how they've always written it. Cuz, wuz, peepl, sed...I see it all the time. I'm encouraging the students to make sure that they are writing their word wall words perfectly every time by checking their word walls. Perfect practice makes perfect.
During the week, we practice the word wall words daily in a kinesthetic (movement), visual and oral way. On Fridays, we will have our spelling test. I will give the students their ten words to spell. I do allow students to have their word walls out at this time. Students do not have to use their word walls if they don't want to when originally spelling their words but I do encourage them to double check their word walls to make sure that they spelled the words correctly. I know that this isn't the "traditional" way to give a spelling test but many studies show that traditional spelling tests do little to nothing to improve student spelling accuracy within writing. I am really trying to encourage good habits that will cross over into improving student spelling within writing. Some students wanted me to know whether or not they looked at their word walls so I told them that they could write a little note beside the word if they wanted to. The last portion of the test on Friday is the dictation sentences. This is an excellent activity to improve the students' working memories. Working memory is a cognitive system with limited capacity that is responsible for temporarily holding information available for processing. It's like a mental sticky note that we use to keep track of information until we need to use it. Working memory is important for reasoning and the guidance of decision making and behaviour. Hearing a sentence repeated a few times and then holding it in their memory, while writing the words down is a very active process for the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Dictation sentences are also a great way for us to keep track of student use of conventions like punctuation, capitalization and proper spelling within writing. Students are given a mark for the following:
- capital letter to start the sentence
- proper punctuation to end the sentence
- each word wall word spelled correctly
- sentence makes sense (written down properly and completely)
In writing, we have continued to work on organization within writing. This past week, we focused on using order words to help organize our writing. Using words like first, then, next and finally helped student keep things in the proper order.
Our read alouds this week focused on non-fiction books. We were reading out of Brian Keating's Going Wild series. We focused on text features, using a glossary, asking questions and overall comprehension during our reading. The students loved hearing about Brian's adventures and were thrilled when we received a reply to a message that I sent Brian. I was lucky enough to spend an entire day with Brian Keating last year as we traveled from Calgary to Churchill to spend the day on the tundra with the Polar Bears. I have been fortunate enough to hear Brian speak many times at Teacher's Convention and he has become one of my favourite people. The students really like him now too! Little do they know, that I have another message from Brian to share with them tomorrow morning. You can hear Brian share his adventures on The Homestretch on CBC Radio.
Numeracy
We have continued our study of numbers over the past couple of weeks. We have been working on writing numbers in words with proper spelling and have started looking at comparing numbers. The students are all doing a fantastic job with the concepts introduced so far. Your child should have brought home a mini quiz on the first six lessons on Friday.
Science
We have continued our exploration of hearing and sound. We have been studying the science behind sound waves, frequency, pitch, volume and echos. The students are starting to understand how the shape of the sound wave indicates the pitch and volume of the sound.
This week, we will be doing an experiment where students will have an opportunity to see sound waves in action!
Global Citizenship - Social Studies
On Friday at the assembly, we kicked off our food drive for the Devon Christmas Elves. We told the school about the contest that we are starting. The class that collects the most items for the food drive will win an ice cream float party! Students are encouraged to bring in donations until December 7th. At the assembly on December 8th, we will be presenting our donations to the Devon Christmas Elves. After the assembly, we will be packing up the groceries and taking a bus over to the depot to deliver and help sort our donations. A permission slip will be popping up soon on PowerSchool for this field trip. We will write it in the agendas when it is live.
While reading Brian Keating's book about his animal adventures in rivers, we learned a lot about elephants and hippos. The topics brought up in the book are especially relevant right now with conservation of elephants and the ivory trade along with President Trumps decision to lift the ban on importing elephant parts into the USA (which is thankfully on hold at this time). The timing seemed perfect, as the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is celebrating their 40th anniversary and just release a special video this week. We watched the video together and had a very thoughtful discussion. We talked about our own elephant Malkia and how I will be renewing my adoption of her in the next week or two. The students asked about adopting their own elephant and I shared with them that I have had students in the past that have asked for an elephant for Christmas! They all became very excited by this possibility! They had many questions so I answered them and showed them how to pick their own elephant, rhino or even giraffe on the DSWT website. Don't be surprised if your child has an elephant on their Christmas list!
Here is the 40th anniversary video that I shared with the students:
For information on fostering with the DSWT, see the link below:
We spent Friday afternoon focusing on some citizenship work closer to home. One of Devon's RCMP officers, Cst. Garnier, was involved in a serious head on collision early in the morning on Thursday. He is recovering from serious, but thankfully not life threatening, injuries in the hospital. We decided to make Cst. Garnier get well cards to lift his spirits while he recovers from this horrible accident. The students were incredibly focused and hardworking with their cards. I was super proud of them! I took the cards over to the RCMP station. One of Cst. Garnier's colleagues was excited to take the cards to him. Mr A did an amazing job writing inside his card. Mrs. Horrocks loved it so much that she videoed it and posted it on the school's Facebook page! I included the link to the video under the picture.
I'm going to have to stop things there for tonight. I will finish the Star Student, Student of the Week and Art updates tomorrow!
Take care and have a great week!
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