March 18th Update

What a fantastic week in 3C!

LITERACY

Our read aloud time with Wonder is going very well! The students are participating in some great conversations, making thoughtful predictions and making several connections to the book! There are so many times in reading this book each year that students engage in some higher level thinking...it really pushes them. One of the occasions that offers this opportunity is when Mr. Browne's precepts are introduced. Mr. Browne is the fifth grade English teacher and he introduces a new precept each month to his students. A precept is a quote or saying that is important in shaping who we are. The September precept was:

When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind.

The students and I discussed examples of when we are put in the situation to make this choice and how we can or should handle it. One example that came up that is relevant for student life was a student claiming to be the fastest runner in the school. We talked about how if that person is not the fastest runner, you could tell them that they are wrong and maybe engage in an argument with them. That would be choosing being right. On the other hand, you could ask yourself, "Does it really matter that they think that they are the fastest, even though I know that they aren't?" Asking yourself this question might lead you to reply with, "You sure are a fast runner!" and letting it go. That would be choosing to be kind.

The October precept was:

Your deeds are your monuments.

This was a tricky one...we had to take apart the words first to figure out what it meant. I asked the students was a deed was. Many of them mentioned the phrase, "doing a good deed," and from this we figured out that a deed was an action/thing that someone does. Then we started discussing monuments. We talked about the monument for the four RCMP in Mayerthorpe and a Terry Fox monument in Thunder Bay. We figured out that a monument was something that people remember you by. From this discussion we decided that Your deeds are your monuments means that people remember you by your actions towards them. This lead to an amazing discussion about how you want people to remember you. What actions do you want to be remembered for?

These mindful discussions are EXACTLY why I feel the need to share this book with my class each year! They are at the perfect age to start thinking more deeply about what they read. We are at the time in their literacy development that they can start reading to learn instead of just focusing on learning to read. 

The students are also making some strong connections to the different characters in the book. They have strong feelings about Jack, Summer, Julian, Charlotte and August. I ask them to consider who they would want to be more like? What character traits do you value in each character?

Writing time is also very exciting right now! We are diving into the wonderful world of JoAnne Moore's sentence writing! I love this time of year! The students really start seeing the power of word choice and how they can be the authors of the most amazing sentences! JoAnne Moore focuses on two main components with sentence writing:

1) Specific Verbs - using the perfect verb to describe an action

• Instead of just plunking in went into a sentence, students have brainstormed specific verbs for how a specific noun moves. For example, a bear may have trudged, charged or lumbered, while a mouse may have zipped, pitter pattered or scrambled.

2) Question Word Sentence Starters - what, where, when, how (ly), how (ing), who

• (What) The young mouse zoomed behind the fridge to get away from the cat!
• (Where) Behind the fridge the mouse zoomed to get away from the cat!
• (When) In a flash the mouse zoomed behind the fridge to get away from the cat!
• (How - ly) Quickly the mouse zoomed behind the fridge to get away from the cat!
• (How - ing) Sprinting, the mouse zoomed behind the fridge to get away from the cat!
• (Who) Benjamin the mouse zoomed behind the fridge to get away from the cat!

The students have been super eager to share their sentences each day! Here are a few samples of the fantastic writing that has been happening in 3C this week!

During our Working with Words time this week, we tried out a new activity called What Looks Right?  During this activity, I offer two spelling patterns to make the same sound. When spelling a word, we try both spelling patterns and circle the one that looks right. Sometimes, both of them end up being right so we end up discussing the definitions behind each spelling of the word. The students really have enjoyed this activity! It's a great spelling strategy to use during their writing! Try spelling it one way...if it doesn't look right, try a different spelling pattern.

NUMERACY

This week we focused on two main concepts in math. First, we examined the tricky world of problem solving. Problem solving is quite challenging for most students. They struggle to figure out what the question is asking of them. What do they need to do to find the answer? We discussed certain key words that pop up in most problem solving questions and how if you find the key word, you will know what to do to answer the question.

Addition: in all, all together

Subtraction: difference, how many more

We will continue to revisit this topic until the end of the year to build students' confidence with this concept.

After problem solving, I introduced the concept of rounding to the students. Jump Math does a fantastic job introducing this concept to students. We first examine numbers on the number line and determine which multiple of ten (0, 10, 20, 30, 40...) comes right before and right after the number.

Once the students understand that concept, I introduce the rounding rule that we learned when we were kids. Five and up, round up. One to four, round down. Students then practice rounding numbers to the nearest ten. 

This week coming up, we are going to apply our new rounding skills to the concept of estimating. Students will learn how to round two addends to the nearest ten and then add them up to get an estimate of the original sum.

Thank you to all of the families that came out for Student Led Conferences! If you missed it and would like the package sent home, just email me and I'll send it home with your child.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS FOR THIS WEEK

• Spell-A-Thon pledge money is due on Tuesday
• Library - Tuesday
• Crazy Sock Day - Wednesday
• Family Dance and Cake Walk - Thursday
• PD Day - Friday

March 11th Update

Bridge Building Workshop

Building Bridges with Mr. Caron was a HUGE hit with the students! A big thank you goes out to the parents and grandparents that were able to join us! Students learned about the different shapes and structures within bridges that make them strong.

Building Bridges Photos - All Classes

Strengths and Stretches

A couple of weeks ago, the students and I worked through an activity inspired by my time with Shelley Moore. Shelley Moore is a well known speaker that advocates for inclusive education. One of the topics that she discussed at my first session with her was the idea of having students identifying strengths and stretches of themselves individually or of their class team. Strengths are things that they see that the class does well together and stretches are things that they feel that the class needs to improve on. We discussed these concepts over a couple of days and then I had students complete a worksheet that allowed them to voice their ideas for our strengths and stretches as a class. On the back of the worksheet, I had the students write down the things that they need to learn. I compiled the lists that were thoughtfully completed by all of the students and inputted them into a Google Sheets document so that I could create graphs to share with the students. The students were amazed with the results! Shelley Moore had discussed the ownership that the students take over the results of this activity and she was right! The discussion that followed me presenting the results was amazingly thoughtful and mindful! I was so proud of the students! The discussion was focused around problem solving as a team and taking ownership for the growth that we all wanted to see for our class family.  If you'd like to see the data and charts, click on the link below.

Our Strengths and Stretches

To sum it up, the students all agreed that our class is too chatty...something I've been trying to deal with all year. They were quick to make the connection between the fact that they feel that they are too chatty but that they also all agree that they need quiet to learn...and that this is a big problem. It was amazing how much ownership they took over this issue considering the number of times that I have mentioned the same issue to them in the past. 

We discussed different ideas for solving this problem. They broke into small groups to brainstorm a few ideas. We came back into a large group and discussed each groups' ideas. I gave the students some more time to process the discussions and we came back together to fine tune our ideas after a couple of days. We came up with a new checkmark system...students were supposed to tell you about it last week. This is how it works:

If a student is being disruptive during quiet class time, they get a verbal warning and their name is written on the board. If they are disruptive again, they get a checkmark beside their name. Each checkmark counts as one minute of time that they owe me, from recess, gym or some other fun activity. They will also be writing the number of checkmarks that they receive in their agendas at the end of the day so that you can see it. The students all agreed that this was a fair plan. It has already drastically reduced the amount of disruptive noise during quiet class time and the students all seem proud of this improvement. This was my first time doing an activity like this and I was super proud to share 3Cs work at the last session with Shelley Moore this past Monday. If you have any questions about this process or our checkmark plan, please let me know.

3C and 1A Assembly Performance!

The students did an amazing job performing at the assembly this morning! If you weren't able to join us, you can see the performance here! A big thank you to a 1A parent for capturing the video for us!

Kindness is a Muscle!