LITERACY
Students have been doing an amazing job utilizing the skills introduced through JoAnne Moore's writing program! As a pre-story writing activity, students wrote their animal paragraphs and did a fantastic job!
After a long cold winter the fox wanted for the snow and ice to melt. Onto the pile of fluffy snow he went. Easily the fox fell asleep and dreamed about spring. One little fox woke up happily and it was spring. Spring is here! The fox ran up and through the grassy field.
By Sammy
Two black bears,the mom and baby were walking in the forest. Timmy, the baby climbed up the tree to get a better view of the photographer. In one minute he looked at his mom and saw her angry scowl. Down on the ground the mom roared at her baby to come. Storming, the baby climbed down and walked away with his mother.
By Payton
The baby fox needed a kiss from his mom. Tiptoeing he moseyed over to her. Softly he gave his mom a kiss. At that moment he felt pure love. On a pile of leaves they curled up together for a nap.
By Liam M
The black wolf woke up hungry and energised. Luckily he quickly spotted some deer. Suddenly he started stocking them. Zooming he chased the deer. Behind the mountain he swiftly caught his prey and devoured it.
By Aiden
After completing our animal paragraphs, we started studying Stuck Stories. We read a variety of Stuck Stories and noticed how each author had used the same "recipe" to plan their stories. The "recipe" for a Stuck Story is:
- Setting - where and when the story is taking place
- Characters
- Motive - what the character wants or doesn't want
- Stuck - how the character is kept from immediately getting what they want
- Failed attempts - attempts that do not work
- Success - an attempt that helps the character satisfy their motive
- Motive carried out - show the character carry out their motive
After taking apart a variety of stories into the parts, we took on the challenge of planning our own story as a class. The students worked together and planned a fantastic story! Now, we are writing the story one part at a time. Each component of the story gets its own paragraph, with the exception of character and motive...they are combined into one paragraph. Each paragraph takes one day to write and it "good copy" ready by the end of the day. Breaking down the task of story writing this way has many benefits, such as:
- decreasing the pressure on students to sit down and write a story from start to finish --> which often leads to student burn out and a shortened, quick ending
- reduces the chance of being overwhelmed by the task of editing an entire story. As we edit each paragraph, students learn from mistakes in one paragraph and tend to not repeat the same mistakes throughout the story (which leads to so much frustration).
- allows me to model each step of the story writing process and gives the students the opportunity to practice these skills immediately after instruction
- no one gets left behind!
For the next week and a bit we will be super focused on our story writing project!
During read alouds, students continue to enjoy Wonder. We have met a August's sister Via now and have had the chance to hear Summer's side of the story. The students are so excited to meet Jack next week!
NUMERACY
In math, we've been working on multiplication. The students are seeing the relationship between repeated addition and multiplication. They are able to:
- draw a picture to match a multiplication sentence
- draw a picture to match a repeated addition sentence
- write a multiplication sentence to match a repeated addition sentence
- write a repeated addition sentence to match a multiplication sentence
- use skip counting and repeated addition to figure out the answer to a multiplication sentence
The students are LOVING this math unit!
SOCIAL STUDIES
The students in 3C are falling in love with Tunisia! They have focused on what houses are like in the different geographical regions of Tunisia and what services are available to the citizens of Tunisia. The students have been absolutely blown away by the issue surrounding getting water for all Tunisians. We have had so many amazing discussions about the water crisis in countries like Tunisia! Miss Strawson even shared that in Canada we have communities that struggle to provide their citizens with clean water. The comments and questions that have been coming out of your childrens' mouths have blown us away!
"Why don't people stop turning off the news and pay attention to this water crisis! There are people that need our help!"
"If Canada is such a water rich nation, why don't we export our clean water to other countries to help them?"
"Why don't the governments of the other countries use their money and power to make sure that all of their people have water that is safe to drink and bath in? They need their help!"
It has been such a great experience for Miss Strawson to see the passion that she has struck in the students about this global and Canadian issue!
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