October 20 - November 20
Room 202 has been very busy over the past month. Catch up here to find out what we have been up to and what we are doing next!
Reading Strategies:
Our CAFE board (Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Expanding Vocabulary) helps to structure our Read to Self and Read to Someone time. Students choose target goals in a conference with me and work for one to two weeks on those goals. I spoke about these during many parent teacher interviews. If your child does not remember his or her goals, it's probably time to revisit the board, and or to pick a new one! Examples of reading strategies were sent home in your child's Reading Log file folder.
Daily 4:
We have been practicing choosing our own "Daily 4" activities during the morning literacy block, in preparation for guided reading groups. Guided reading allows me to meet individually with several small groups of children each day. With 19 busy 6 and seven year olds, you can imagine the amount of work that goes in to preparing the children to work independently of me, and to also be engaged in meaningful activities. WE ARE READY TO BEGIN!
Students may choose their activities from this list:
Read to Self
Read to Someone
Work on Writing
Word Work
There are set activities for each Daily 4 choice (the one missing is meeting with Ms. Peters)!
As you can imagine, it takes quite a lot of focus and organization to be able to do an activity that your classmates may not be involved with. I am proud of the hard work we have put in this far. Below is a list or responsibilities the class decided was needed in order to make the Daily 4 work. The students are excited to be able to make their own choices.
Printing Power
Several times a week we practice printing skills as a part of the Word Work rotation. In general, Grade one students need to be introduced to lower case letters and how to form those letters properly. I often use the prompt "Pull your letters down". This helps the students print up to down instead of down to up. It's a really important concept! Grade two students are held to a higher standard in terms of the legibility of their work, and using line spaces appropriately. We call this Writing for Readers! Grade ones are working towards this and Grade twos are consolidating. Regardless, the skills are the same.
Work on Writing
I use two structures for writing - Writers Workshop and Work on Writing. For example, now that the Daily 4 is up and running, whatever we are working on during Writer's Workshop, students also do independently during their Work on Writing. When the assigned task is done for the day, students can work on a project of their choice (such as a story, poem, letter, comic book etc). What I am teaching to is the unit we are on.
We are finished Pea Stories! I am so proud of all the students. We went from writing a few basic sentences at the beginning of the year to structures that contain voice, dialogue, meaningful description and a beginning, middle and end. It is a difficult unit coming out of FDK, but I get to know the students so well, and I am able to see voice and personality far sooner than if I asked for a retell of the weekend. Students love to entertain an audience. As adults, we read for meaning and we write for meaning. Children are no different. They want to share their lives in a special way. Pea stories/Small Moments allow us to let the self shine. Yay, Room 202! Your child's stories from this unit have been collected in their special writing portfolio.
A Pea Story from Aston: Fishy, Fishy Dead (edits by Ms. Peters)
I was at home. It was a few years ago. I was going to feed my fish, Dory. He is blue and yellow. I had fish food in my hand and was going upstairs to feed Dory. When I got to my room...
I found that Dory was dead! I said, "oh, no! My fish is dead!" He was at the bottom of the tank. He did not move a bit. I gulped. I put a little bit of fish food in the tank. I was very worried!
I grabbed Dory (in the tank). I mean, who is going to pick up a dead fish with their bare hands? I ran down the stairs and said, "Dad, Dory is dead!" I ran to the kitchen. Dad said to mom, "Dory is dead"! We sadly threw Dory into the garbage.
A Pea Story from Madeleine: Making my own Book (edited by Ms. Peters)
One day I said to myself, I want to make my own book. I picked Rainbow Magic. I started to work. I got colours and pencils and supplies. I got paper!
I sat in the classroom. I worked very seriously and I was laughing. I was happy. I felt good about myself because I was making my own book. I worked with Leah. Leah made a book. I liked my book and I liked Leah's too.
I put down my pencil. It was time to go home. Leah put down her pencil. She said good bye to me and I said good bye to her!
Thank you, Room 202 for your wonderful stories. I enjoyed them all!
Currently, we are in the middle of a research project for science (Living Things, Grade One and Two). During Work on Writing, students have been conducting research on an animal of their choice. We are really enjoying the idea of "jot notes". Full sentences are not required, and we scan for the main idea. We can focus on using lower case letters and neat printing! Students are using books, and online research engines (Pebble go, through the TDSB Virtual Library, San Diego Kids Zoo, and National Geographic Kids) via the I Pad. We came up with the topics for our reports based on what the students already knew about their animal, and what they wanted to find out. When our research is complete, we will write a short report.
Math
We just wrapped up our unit on Representing Numbers. This is an important unit because I use it to either "introduce", or "make sure" that students are comfortable using the following math tools to represent, compare, order, count, compose and decompose numbers:
1. tallies
2. ten frames
3. number lines
4. organized images or drawings
5. base ten
6. hundreds charts
7. addition and subtraction sentences
Being able to use these tools allows for the development of problem solving strategies, which we are also building a bank of in order to draw on throughout the year. Children have been exposed to strategies that include Guess and Check, Acting it Out or Making a Model, Drawing a Diagram, and though they would not call it this yet, Logical Reasoning (using a written explanation to justify, in this context, a mathematical principal).
Our next unit in math will be on 2 and 3-D Geometry. Ms. Millar and I have not quite figured it out yet, but we will be using our Make-do materials to construct some magnificent structures out of prisms and pyramids! This unit will lead into the winter break.
Art
The book, "Giraffe's Can't Dance" let us explore the idea of an author's message as well as a variety of artistic techniques (showing movement when drawing through the use of lines and angles, mixing colours to show depth, placing objects in the foreground and collage). Please visit the Grade 1/2 hallway upstairs to really appreciate our display, but for now, enjoy the pictures. The class voted on the name of the installation, "Giraffes CAN Dance".
Thinking and Learning Time
I have seen many interesting projects throughout the last month during this very precious time of the day. We have an elaborate haunted house on the go, a habitat for insects, suits of armour, stuffie houses, a card collection reminiscent of Pokemon (or something else, I haven't heard the complete explanation), various board game creations, painting creations where taught techniques are being applied, structures out of all sorts of materials and the list goes on....here are a few of MANY artefacts that have been built.
Reading Strategies:
Our CAFE board (Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Expanding Vocabulary) helps to structure our Read to Self and Read to Someone time. Students choose target goals in a conference with me and work for one to two weeks on those goals. I spoke about these during many parent teacher interviews. If your child does not remember his or her goals, it's probably time to revisit the board, and or to pick a new one! Examples of reading strategies were sent home in your child's Reading Log file folder.
Daily 4:
We have been practicing choosing our own "Daily 4" activities during the morning literacy block, in preparation for guided reading groups. Guided reading allows me to meet individually with several small groups of children each day. With 19 busy 6 and seven year olds, you can imagine the amount of work that goes in to preparing the children to work independently of me, and to also be engaged in meaningful activities. WE ARE READY TO BEGIN!
Students may choose their activities from this list:
Read to Self
Read to Someone
Work on Writing
Word Work
There are set activities for each Daily 4 choice (the one missing is meeting with Ms. Peters)!
As you can imagine, it takes quite a lot of focus and organization to be able to do an activity that your classmates may not be involved with. I am proud of the hard work we have put in this far. Below is a list or responsibilities the class decided was needed in order to make the Daily 4 work. The students are excited to be able to make their own choices.
Printing Power
Several times a week we practice printing skills as a part of the Word Work rotation. In general, Grade one students need to be introduced to lower case letters and how to form those letters properly. I often use the prompt "Pull your letters down". This helps the students print up to down instead of down to up. It's a really important concept! Grade two students are held to a higher standard in terms of the legibility of their work, and using line spaces appropriately. We call this Writing for Readers! Grade ones are working towards this and Grade twos are consolidating. Regardless, the skills are the same.
Work on Writing
I use two structures for writing - Writers Workshop and Work on Writing. For example, now that the Daily 4 is up and running, whatever we are working on during Writer's Workshop, students also do independently during their Work on Writing. When the assigned task is done for the day, students can work on a project of their choice (such as a story, poem, letter, comic book etc). What I am teaching to is the unit we are on.
We are finished Pea Stories! I am so proud of all the students. We went from writing a few basic sentences at the beginning of the year to structures that contain voice, dialogue, meaningful description and a beginning, middle and end. It is a difficult unit coming out of FDK, but I get to know the students so well, and I am able to see voice and personality far sooner than if I asked for a retell of the weekend. Students love to entertain an audience. As adults, we read for meaning and we write for meaning. Children are no different. They want to share their lives in a special way. Pea stories/Small Moments allow us to let the self shine. Yay, Room 202! Your child's stories from this unit have been collected in their special writing portfolio.
A Pea Story from Aston: Fishy, Fishy Dead (edits by Ms. Peters)
I was at home. It was a few years ago. I was going to feed my fish, Dory. He is blue and yellow. I had fish food in my hand and was going upstairs to feed Dory. When I got to my room...
I found that Dory was dead! I said, "oh, no! My fish is dead!" He was at the bottom of the tank. He did not move a bit. I gulped. I put a little bit of fish food in the tank. I was very worried!
I grabbed Dory (in the tank). I mean, who is going to pick up a dead fish with their bare hands? I ran down the stairs and said, "Dad, Dory is dead!" I ran to the kitchen. Dad said to mom, "Dory is dead"! We sadly threw Dory into the garbage.
A Pea Story from Madeleine: Making my own Book (edited by Ms. Peters)
One day I said to myself, I want to make my own book. I picked Rainbow Magic. I started to work. I got colours and pencils and supplies. I got paper!
I sat in the classroom. I worked very seriously and I was laughing. I was happy. I felt good about myself because I was making my own book. I worked with Leah. Leah made a book. I liked my book and I liked Leah's too.
I put down my pencil. It was time to go home. Leah put down her pencil. She said good bye to me and I said good bye to her!
Thank you, Room 202 for your wonderful stories. I enjoyed them all!
Currently, we are in the middle of a research project for science (Living Things, Grade One and Two). During Work on Writing, students have been conducting research on an animal of their choice. We are really enjoying the idea of "jot notes". Full sentences are not required, and we scan for the main idea. We can focus on using lower case letters and neat printing! Students are using books, and online research engines (Pebble go, through the TDSB Virtual Library, San Diego Kids Zoo, and National Geographic Kids) via the I Pad. We came up with the topics for our reports based on what the students already knew about their animal, and what they wanted to find out. When our research is complete, we will write a short report.
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| A guide for How-To write Jot notes. We like leaving out all those pesky sight words! |
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| Liam is using observational skills whilst reading, as well as his background knowledge to explain what he already knows about cheetahs. |
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| Emily's jot notes on St. Bernards. She soon discovered that St. Bernard dogs have an interesting history. Stay tuned for her report... |
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| Brooke is wondering a few things about hummingbirds. Do they have predators? Do they eat worms like other birds? Do they have owners? Can you have a hummingbird as a pet? |
Math
We just wrapped up our unit on Representing Numbers. This is an important unit because I use it to either "introduce", or "make sure" that students are comfortable using the following math tools to represent, compare, order, count, compose and decompose numbers:
1. tallies
2. ten frames
3. number lines
4. organized images or drawings
5. base ten
6. hundreds charts
7. addition and subtraction sentences
Being able to use these tools allows for the development of problem solving strategies, which we are also building a bank of in order to draw on throughout the year. Children have been exposed to strategies that include Guess and Check, Acting it Out or Making a Model, Drawing a Diagram, and though they would not call it this yet, Logical Reasoning (using a written explanation to justify, in this context, a mathematical principal).
 |
| Prompts for Today's Number. Students choose a number and we use the popsicle sticks to formulate a discussion. We talk as a class and also in partners. Note that the discussion of groups is laying the foundation for multiplication and division. |
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| Base ten bingo! David nailed it! |
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| Our unit task - using math tools to explain some set number concepts...I loved the use of two ten frames on the right hand side. With the explanation that 24 is more than 20 because "see it's 20! I haven't gotten to 24 YET. That means 24 is bigger"! Thank you, Kate! Excellent logical reasoning... |
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| Here Adrian is telling us that the side that is "24" has more ten frames. Thus, it is more. Haven't taught them the word "thus", but it's coming soon! |
Our next unit in math will be on 2 and 3-D Geometry. Ms. Millar and I have not quite figured it out yet, but we will be using our Make-do materials to construct some magnificent structures out of prisms and pyramids! This unit will lead into the winter break.
Art
The book, "Giraffe's Can't Dance" let us explore the idea of an author's message as well as a variety of artistic techniques (showing movement when drawing through the use of lines and angles, mixing colours to show depth, placing objects in the foreground and collage). Please visit the Grade 1/2 hallway upstairs to really appreciate our display, but for now, enjoy the pictures. The class voted on the name of the installation, "Giraffes CAN Dance".
Thinking and Learning Time
I have seen many interesting projects throughout the last month during this very precious time of the day. We have an elaborate haunted house on the go, a habitat for insects, suits of armour, stuffie houses, a card collection reminiscent of Pokemon (or something else, I haven't heard the complete explanation), various board game creations, painting creations where taught techniques are being applied, structures out of all sorts of materials and the list goes on....here are a few of MANY artefacts that have been built.
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| Gavin and Ms. Peters took on a popsicle stick and binder clip challenge. Pyper and Gavin pitched in. |
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| David, Liam, Lukas, Grasyin, and Keenan have been working for weeks on this Haunted House. It has many interesting features! Students shared design problems and solutions with each other. |
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| Keenan, David, Lukas, Jackson, Adrian, Grasyin, Gavin, Liam and Aston enjoyed building and testing bey blades over the last month. They built them out of lego and snap cubes. We timed them, measured them, recorded them and even wrote stories about them. |
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