June 27-29

Last week of school! And still more birthdays to celebrate! And more math story problems to do in order for every student to be in a math problem by the end of the year! Again, it all got done. And we fit in a nice treat with a visit from a Core French DaVinci class who came and presented their French play to us.

We finally put together all the French "sons" pages we have been making this spring into a book.

And we bound the copies of the class storybook, which the kids had time to read and colour.

And we organized and tidied and put away our classroom together! I also got help from the kids sorting and filing everyone's work into folders. The kids really enjoyed this work. I made lists of jobs to do on the board and they signed up for the ones they wanted. Kids emptied the pencil boxes, removed the taped circles on boxes and tables, took down work from bulletin boards, removed the words from the word wall, organized math materials, sorted their classmates' work...it was a great help, and the kids carried out their tasks very responsibly.

During snack, I asked them what their favourite things were that we did this year, and what things they thought could be improved for next year. I ask my students for this feedback every year, and I explained to them that it helps me get better and better as a teacher.

On the last day of school, (most of) the kids had a chance to visit the classroom they will be in next year. Since some of the teachers for next year still need to be hired, some kids just got to see who will be in their class next year. We hosted a visit to our classroom from the current kindergarteners who will be in my class next year. Usually these visits all happen at the same time, but this year the kindergarteners visited and sat on the carpet with my students in the room, sitting at the tables. It was really interesting, because after making introductions I invited questions from the kindies about grade 1 (in English), and then my students raised their hands to answer in French! It was so rewarding for me to see how far my students have come in their ability to express themselves in French. And also it was interesting to hear what my students thought were the important things to tell about being in this classroom (they talked a lot about recess, heure de jeux, and the prizes for speaking French!).

The day ended with a farewell assembly with the whole school in the gym, but just beforehand we had a closing circle in our classroom. I congratulated the kids on all the amazing hard work they had done this year, and I thanked them for being my students. I told them that I had a gift for each of them, a little pebble made out of clay with the word "merci" stamped on it. I explained that I had carved the word "merci" into a stiff piece of clay, and made my own stamp that way. I said that if they wanted they could just keep it, but that if they ever really wanted to thank someone, later on in their lives, they could pass it on to that person, and that person might pass it on too. Then I went around the circle and thanked each student individually and gave them their pebble, a token of thanks.

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU PARENTS FOR A WONDERFUL YEAR!

June 20-24

We were busy finishing up projects in this second last week of school. The kids were each making a collage map of an "imaginary neighbourhood", complete with a legend. This project had them applying all they had learned about mapping from our Kensington field trip and our large-scale map of Toronto.

We also finished that large-scale map by adding the homes of the students. Each kid made a representation of their home with their name displayed on it, and we hung these onto the map. We got this done in time for the Spring Concert! I hope parents had a chance to look over the large map, which was hanging beside our classroom door.

Another deadline loomed for finishing all the good copies of the students' stories, for publication in our end-of-year storybook. It all got done! We also were celebrating a birthday every day and making cards for each student, to include those children with summer birthdays.

In math, we did more story problems, because I had promised that every student would be in a math problem by the end of the year! The problems involved grouping by 10, which we've been working on lately.

We also did more work with fractions. The kids each got 2 paper circles and 2 paper rectangles, and their challenge was, through folding and cutting, to make a half and a quarter piece for each. Then they used these pieces to make a reference page with whole, half and quarter labelled for both circle and rectangle.

Our trip to High Park was super fun! The travel time was extended due to construction on College, but the kids still had a good long playtime in the castle playground. We paused before entering the playground to read a book about a dog who writes a story, which reminded many of the kids of all they had gone through to produce their story for the class storybook.

In the playground, we had watermelon and lots of laughter. I was so busy having fun with the kids that I forgot to take any pictures! Thanks to the parent volunteers who made the trip possible.