April 25-29

We began the week with a special event: we invited Mme Mills to our classroom to read her our Tambour Magique book. Each child read out their own page, and they were very proud to show off their beautiful book. Mme Mills was most complimentary! We also had a special program on Monday to celebrate Asian Heritage month. Storyteller Bernice Hume told Chinese folk tales as well as stories from her own life. It was a great start to the week!

We began playing a new game for Daily 5 word work, in addition to making words with letter tiles. It is a word sorting game, where 2 kids take turns pulling a word from an envelope. They need to both read the word and make the gestures for the sounds in the word. Then the person who picked the word puts it in a category, according to the vowel or "son" in the word. Their partner then picks a word, they both say it and make gestures, and the partner categorizes the word. The fun kicks in when someone gets a word with a vowel or "son" that their partner has already found a word for, because the player gets to steal their partner's word(s) in that category.

We also made thank-you cards for the caretakers and for a teacher who gave some costumes to our class. It's so important to remember to appreciate all that people do for us!

We tackled a story problem to do with measurement, in pairs, with the goal of increasing the collaboration level of the partners. I told the kids that both people had to understand the problem before they began to put anything on their page (more confident kids tend to blaze ahead and leave their partners in the dust). This resulted in more conversation about the problem, with room still for improvement. The kids can be very focused on getting the "right" answer, without taking the time to engage deeply with a math problem. We will keep working on these skills.

In measurement, we moved on to talk about area. In order to understand what area is, we worked with the tangram sets that are already very familiar. The tangram set has 2 large triangles, 1 medium triangle, 2 small triangles, a square and a parallelogram. 

We looked at some of the relationships among the tangram pieces. For example, the 2 small triangles cover the square exactly. They also cover the parallelogram. There are lots of combinations of shapes that cover another shape, and this means that they have the same area. I showed the kids how this could be expressed as a "math sentence" using plus signs and equal signs. I also showed how we could make "greater than/less than" math sentences with shapes that are bigger or smaller in comparison. 

Then the kids set to making their own math sentences with tangram pieces.

Then the kids did a lot of hands on measuring of classroom objects again, but this time using units such as playing cards to cover a surface. They measured a desk, a book, and a chair with playing cards, always estimating first before measuring. They also estimated and measured the area of shapes on a worksheet using interlocking cubes. 

We returned to our questions about energy. Each student chose which question they would like to focus on. Then in small groups they drew and wrote about their question. On another day I asked them to come up with an answer to their question, just their best guess, and we called these their "theories". The kids wrote their theories up on another piece of paper. I asked them to each keep their question in mind and try to find some answers when we were at the Kortright Center. 

Our field trip day was really fun and interesting for the kids. We learned about renewable and non-renewable energy sources - the Kortright Center is fully powered by wind and solar energy! We learned about solar panels and wind turbines, the need to store energy for cloudy days, and how most energy sources ultimately originate from the sun's energy. And we had a blast playing outside after lunch and exploring the wooded trails. The kids played tag on hay bales and rolled down hills until they were too dizzy to stand up!

At the end of the week, students were treated to "A (mini) History of Theatre for Kids",  a performance from Little Goat Theatre Company. 

April 18-22

We began a new project during Daily 5 time, to review the French "sons" (letter combinations that make one sound). The kids are each making a book with a page devoted to a different "son". We work together on the carpet, brainstorming words for a particular "son" and writing the words, as well as drawing illustrations for each word. We follow this up with word work, using the letter tiles, making words with the "son" we just explored.

In writer's workshop, we talked again about adding punctuation and how you can hear the end of a sentence because your voice usually lowers there. I re-told Le Tambour Magique and the students motioned and said "point" at the end of every sentence they heard. I also introduced a tool for those having trouble coming up with story ideas: Story Cubes. These dice have various images on each face to spark ideas for stories, and the kids started using them when they got stuck in their writing.

Continuing with measurement, we talked more about how we estimate, and we identified together some estimation strategies. We then looked at everyone's measurements of classroom objects from last week, and found a range of answers for each. We talked about "l'exactitude" (precision) and how we measure precisely.

Then we went back to measuring those same classroom objects, but this time I switched around the units. Afterward, we could compare the difference, for example, in measuring the carpet with popsicle sticks instead of wooden skewers (which are longer). We talked about how a smaller unit of measure yields a larger number when measuring the same length.

The kids also measured parts of their bodies (fingers, feet, ears, forearms...) in partners. As before, they started off by estimating after reviewing our estimation strategies. They all used interlocking cubes, and they had a lot of fun!

Before the week's dictée, I reviewed the 3 strategies we came up with for dealing with negative thoughts about one's abilities. The dictée can be pretty challenging, so it was a good example for how we can learn to deal with the thought "I can't do it!" by ignoring that thought, taking a break and coming back to the task refreshed, or talking back to that thought with "yes, I can do it!"

We began out unit on Energy by brainstorming all that we know already about energy. The kids knew a lot! As they gave their ideas, I wrote and drew them on chart paper. Then I asked them what they wanted to find out about energy. We came up with a list of questions to explore.

Lastly, I got a thermometer installed in the playground (thanks to Mr. Giovanelli, head caretaker!) so that we could record the temperature each morning. This task has been added to the moniteur/monitrice's duties. 

We did a follow-up activity about "les lettres fantomes" (ghost letters), the silent consonants at the end of many French words. The kids searched the word wall and through books to find all the words they could with final ghost letters. They wrote each word they found on a separate piece of paper. Then we sorted the words according to what silent letter was at the end, and noticed some common final silent consonants (t, s, x...). The kids then wrote their own lists of words with ghost letters.

We returned to measurement, and I gave the kids 5 objects in the classroom to first estimate the length of in different "units". We talked about estimation and how we do it. They had to guess the length of the carpet in wooden skewers, the height of a chair in chain links, the width of another carpet in pencils, the circumference of a round table in dominoes, and the length of a green tape snake in popsicle sticks. They were given only 1 measuring unit each in order to estimate. The next day they had enough of each measuring unit to lay them along the different lengths being measured.

The hard work of estimating:

The satisfying work of measuring:

For Day of Pink, we read a funny book about the taboo of dressing up in the clothes of the opposite gender, and talked together about boys' clothes and girls' clothes. Many kids asserted that there was no such thing and that everyone can wear anything. I responded by saying that even if we think that, many people feel that there are certain ways for boys and girls to be that are different. I gave the kids a paper with 2 boxes on it, a girl box and a boy box. I asked them to draw girl things in the girl box and boy things in the boy box, from what they know of the world and what people think. 

Then I called the class back together and kids offered me things to draw in the 2 boxes I had put on the board. We talked about the fact that these were all just people's ideas and that really girls and boys can do all of it. We also talked about how life can be hard for a girl who likes boy things or a boy who likes girl things because people can be mean about that. I told the story behind Day of Pink and explained that it was an opportunity to support people who cross those gender lines and might be bullied for it.

We had a number of conflicts this week, and in response I held a circle in English in the classroom across the hall (our "English" room). We re-visited our agreements and our purpose at school (to learn together). I put on a little puppet show with a pesky monkey who teases a dragon and won't stop when the dragon says "Stop!". The dragon ends up hitting the monkey. I asked the kids what each character might be feeling and needing. I talked about how we can each be leaders and help other kids in our class learn to get along better. Then we went around the circle and each student said one thing they would do to make our classroom a safer and friendlier place.

The reward this week for speaking French was the chance to make Pokemon cards during "heure de jeux" (hour of play) on Friday. There was great enthusiasm for this activity, which the kids did online with the iPads. Here is the website we used in case anyone wants to try it again from home: http://www.mypokecard.com/en/  I only noticed now that the site works in French too...this might be a writing project in the future!

This week we worked a lot with the story Le Tambour Magique (The Magic Drum). We told it together on the carpet several times, with gestures, so that kids could begin to learn to tell the story themselves. I drew a line on the whiteboard and put 19 spots on it, and together we identified 19 scenes in the story in order. I drew kids' names randomly, and each student chose which part they would illustrate and write about.

The kids started by making a rough draft, drawing their story scene and writing about what was happening. Then I put them into pairs and they did some editing, using the editing checklist. After fixing a few things, they wrote and drew a good copy in pencil. Then they painted on fields of colour with tempera paints, and finally traced over their pencil outlines with black marker for contrast. Here are some examples of the 3 stages their work went through:

The exciting final product was a book that I read to the class on Friday!

In Daily 5 time, we began a new word work activity in which the kids use letter tiles to spell words with a target sound. This week we began with the vowels.

There is also the opportunity to study this week's dictée words during word work time. We had our first weekly dictée on Friday, and the kids did well.

We also used the iPads in a new way. I recently learned how to enable them to voice type in French, so the kids tried it out. They read their stories from writer's workshop into the microphone of an iPad, to have the words typed up. The results were mixed, less successful than what I've seen with first language English voice typing (not surprising). I was hoping the kids could all type their stories this way for inclusion in a class book of stories, but seeing it in action has made me reconsider this.

The kids presented their Skitch structures presentations to the class. We kept it short and snappy to keep everyone's interest, they just read their sentences from their slides to the class.

We returned to our discussions about growth mindset. In discussion, the kids came up with 3 strategies to counter negative messages they tell themselves (which we called an "unfriendly voice" in your head): 1) Ignore it, 2) Take a break from the activity, and 3) Talk back to the voice and tell yourself "I can do it!". We also talked about the friendly and unfriendly voices being our thoughts, and we debated about whether or not we can decide to change our thoughts. Throughout the week, kids had a chance to present a short skit with their 2 puppets: one friendly puppet who gives messages of encouragement, and one unfriendly puppet who gives negative messages. We used the student's continuum of activities made previously (things I do with confidence vs. things I have difficulty doing) as a starting point to chose the difficult activity that would bring up the negative "voice". Students acted out doing their difficult activity, and had a friend animate their 2 puppets, starting off with negative messages. Then the student tried one of our strategies, and often had a dialogue with the unfriendly puppet until the friendly puppet replaced it.

We wrapped up our geometry unit and moved on to measurement. We will be learning about length and then area in the next while. I introduced the basic vocabulary, and then challenged the kids to find 3 objects in the classroom, one longer than a popsicle stick, one the same length as a popsicle stick, and one shorter than a popsicle stick. They brought these 3 items to the carpet, and in a circle we held up each group of objects. Then we went around the circle, and each student compared one of their objects to one of their neighbour's objects. They needed to say in French "Mine is longer/shorter than yours." 

After the excitement of Francofête, we settled back into our routines last week. We began the week with an Easter egg hunt. Each student found 1 plastic egg, with a number of dried beans inside (no candy!). We gathered together to count out how many beans each child got, and then we talked about the best way to add together so many numbers. We eventually settled on making groups of 10. We used manipulatives to represent the groups of 10 that we made, and added them up to make 123 beans.

In math we reviewed positional language and the names and attributes of 2D and 3D shapes. We also did a shape sorting activity that involved identifying attributes of unusual shapes in order to group them. We practiced together on the carpet and then the table groups each began with a set of shapes. They needed to start with one shape, and then find others that were similar in some way. From this, they needed to articulate their "sorting rule" (what the shapes chosen had in common). Then I asked them to draw a new shape that followed their sorting rule, and write their sorting rule on the paper.

Our writing this week was in the preparation of the final projects for our structures unit. Each child worked with the 3 photos they took of the construction of their structure (beginning, middle and end). On the iPads, they used an app called Skitch to add text and arrows, telling the story of how they built their structure. They used their new vocabulary of materials and positional language to explain. It was a very challenging task because the app is a bit tricky to use, but the kids showed amazing stamina for seeing through this project!

     We also learned to tell a new story in French, Le Tambour Magique (The Magic Drum), with gestures to help with the memorization.

I talked with the kids about spelling and asked them how we might learn to spell a few words correctly by the end of grade 1, to get ready for grade 2. The Spelling Bee the previous week set the stage for this. After some discussion, we decided that we will have a dictée every Friday, but that I won't send home the words to study at home. The kids wanted to keep their time at home for playing and being with family, and I agreed that those things were very important. Instead, the kids will use "word study" time during Daily 5 time to study the dictée words. We will start with the words from the Francofête Spelling Bee, just 5 words each week. I am adding a few longer, bonus words for those who want a greater challenge.

We talked about behaviour on the carpet ( a perenial topic!) and I introduced some new visual reminders. I am asking kids to go and look these posters over when they are forgetting our agreements for behaviour.

We finished the week with a very fun music session with musician Michael Anderson, celebrating a student's birthday. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful experience with the class! And of course being in pyjamas makes everything more fun!