Long time, No write

 

As per usual, I have been composing blog posts on the bus, while walking the dog, during my workouts, in my sleep (you get the idea!) and never in front of the computer!

So, here goes...

I am so happy to be back at work and to have the parent/ student/teacher goal setting conferences behind me. To have two VERY long days in the first week back was very, very tiring! I was so pleased that, for the most part, the students have a good understanding of what they want to improve in both their academic performance and behavioural choices. And, I am glad, too, that the class is starting to work together more and help each other to work on turning their goals into reality.

I love this time of year. It is when I do book studies on winter and snow. (Even though the snow seems to have disappeared, thank goodness!!!!) We started our week making folders to store all of the work we will be doing. They turned out great!

 

They were based on a picture I found (where else?) on pinterest! The site that had the original is Artsonia.

 

We watched the video of the classic book The Snowman by Raymond Briggs and then wrote a reader's response about our favourite part.

I love this story. I love that it is a wordless book and makes the reader infer and make connections about the events happening. And, bonus, the beginning is introduced by a young David Bowie which gave me great memories of my childhood (His was the first concert I ever attended. It was also the very first concert at BC Place. If you know when that was, you have an idea of how old I am!)

Then we started studying Jan Brett's book The Mitten.

 

 

We have read it and re-read it and re-read it some more. We did sequencing activities, retelling activities and learned some mitten poems as well.

 

This coming week we will read a different version of The Mitten and compare/contrast the two. (More on that to come...)

 

Then it will be on to Snowmen at Night and some art activities to go with it. This is one of my favourite stories and we will be doing some art kind of like this...

 

from here

We will also start working on some non-fiction activities to compliment the science unit the class has started on whales with Mrs. V. I headed off to the library today to borrow a bunch of books because the non-fiction in our library is still packed! Wish those shelving units would get here already!!!!

 

Anywho, I promise to try to write these posts more often at the computer (and not everywhere else!)

 

Ms. Hughes

 

 



Fun Friday

or maybe I should say Finally Friday?!?! I've been teaching with a cold all week and the coughing every night is not making for very relaxing sleeps. As a result, my patience has not been as high as I would like. Plus, I can say for sure that the "honeymoon" phase in our class is definitely over!!!!! We are all getting very comfortable with the classroom, each other and the routines. Perhaps a little too comfortable! Nothing that a good weekend's worth of sleep and some review of classroom expectations won't fix!

I wanted to share something really awesome that happened today at choosing time. Choosing time in our class means exactly what it sounds like - the students get to choose what they would like to do. They go to lego or other construction activities (marble run, train set etc) or read books or draw or write a story or create art or....you get the idea! Making choosing time happen is a philosophical decision for me. There is so much in the curriculum that I could easily spend every single second of the day having the class doing worksheets and teacher driven activities BUT I believe that children need the free choice time to play and explore - they need student driven activities. It is during these times that they are able to consolidate other learning and it is during choosing that I get to see aspects of the class that I can't see during other activities. To me it is an invaluable part of the school day.

Today one of the students brought in a book she wanted me to read to the class. I read it during Daily 5 time and loved it! This is one book I will be buying this weekend at Kidsbooks. It is called The Rough Face Girl and is an Algonquin version of Cinderella.

It was written by Rafe Martin and David Shannon did the illustrations. The writing, the pictures, everything was just right. You know when you read a book that just makes your heart feel a little more full? That just adds a little something good to your soul? This is one of those books. I loved how this Cinderella story does not completely follow the traditional one. The main character does not just sit around waiting for a fairy god mother to appear and help her escape her life of drudgery. This character takes action - she makes her own outfit, jewelry and footwear before heading out to meet the Invisible Being to whom she ends up married. He doesn't marry her because of her outer beauty though. He marries her because he has the ability to see into a person's heart to see their true personality. He falls in love with who she is NOT what she looks like. This is my kind of book.

After reading this book, the class went to choosing. A little while later I noticed three students looking at the book. They had found fabric in the art zone and went to work. One of them headed to the library to ask Conan the Librarian for books about First Nations people. What were they doing you ask? Well, they were building a wigwam. How cool is that? These are the "leather" sides to the wigwam being decorated in symbols just like in the story. I can't wait to see what they use for the logs!

It is still in process but don't you think it is going to be awesome? Now the question is: If I had taught a lesson on First Nations people and assigned the task of creating and building a wigwam, would these students have created something like this? I don't think so. Hearing the story, having a small spark flare inside them at the listening, being given the time to collaborate and the freedom to choose materials, all of these things worked together to create this learning opportunity. And that is the reason that I will never, ever, ever drop choosing time from my weekly schedule.

Ms. Hughes

All About Us Glyph and other stuff

September 12, 2011

Today was our first full day as a class. We had a great day! So far, the class is all getting along together well. I know that we are in what is called the "honeymoon" period but I can't help but hope that it lasts!

We did a class glyph about ourselves. It will be up in the hall tomorrow. I'll take a pic to post if I remember. Don't know what a glyph is? Well, it is a picture that contains data about any given subject. It has a key to read and try to figure out which glyph belongs to which student based on how they answered a series of questions. I love doing glyphs and so expect to see a few this year! It is a great way to practice data collection and analysis. Today we also decorated our book boxes, made our Poetry book covers, worked at a number of choosing centres, read stories, practiced lining up and much more.

I told the kids that the number one thing to know about me is that "I say what I mean and mean what I say". So, for example, if I ask a student to get a drink of water and then come sit at the carpet, it DOES NOT mean "get a drink of water, run around the classroom, check out the Lego and then come sit at the carpet"! (and, yes, this is a true example of something that happened today!) I really try to be very clear in my expectations. I find this helps students to do their best work. We also started brainstorming rules that we feel are important to help our classroom community work well together. We will be solidifying these rules and creating a class pledge later this week.

Tomorrow is our first day of Music with Ms. Der. We will be going from 9:00 - 9:45 every Tuesday morning. And, on Thursday we have our first Library day with Mr. Raikes. Our gym days are going to be Wednesday and Friday. Mr. Langille, Ms. Opatovsky and I are working together to schedule our Science and Social Studies lessons which we will be team teaching. I can't wait! It is so much fun and so rewarding to work closely with other teachers. The teachers learn from each other and all the kids learn from more than one person. Win-win!

Ms. Hughes