May 24-27

We reviewed the rules for hard and soft c and g, and played our nonsense word decoding game again with that focus. The kids worked on their story plans and most made progress with writing those stories.

In math, we spent the week exploring probability. After learning the vocabulary (the French words for impossible, improbable, equally likely, likely and certain) we talked about and illustrated a range of future events in terms of their probability. The kids loved coming up with impossible scenarios, like that a dinosaur would walk into our classroom! Then the kids experienced 3 activities in which they recorded with tally marks how many times a given outcome occurred. For each activity I asked them to predict if the stated outcome was improbable, equally likely or likely. They flipped a 2-sided counter (like flipping a coin) and recorded which colour came up each time (equally likely). They rolled a pair of dice and recorded how often they got doubles vs. non-doubles (doubles being unlikely). And they tossed a coin onto a hundred chart, and recorded how often it landed on a 2-digit number vs. a non-2-digit number (2-digit number being likely). Then we talked about our results and our predictions, and came to the idea that more possibilities for something (like more ways to roll non-doubles or more 2-digit numbers on the hundred chart) made it more probable.

I reviewed our probability vocabulary again mid-week, by showing 5 trays of coloured tiles. I asked, if I closed my eyes, how likely was I to pick a blue tile from each tray? The kids matched the probability word with the corresponding tray.

Our next experiment was with rolling 2 dice, adding the 2 numbers together, and marking that sum on a chart. Everyone gathered data on their own and we compiled everyone's results. The kids were surprised to see a pattern in the graph of the dice sums!

As you know, I sent these images home and asked you parents to talk over with your kids why the middle numbers were more likely to be rolled than the smallest and largest numbers. We had a lively discussion on the following Monday - thanks for all the convos at home!

We began our unit on the Local Community this week. I began with building the vocabulary we need. We read a book that follows someone's journey from the country, through farmland and small towns, and eventually to a big city. We talked about the difference between cities, towns and the country. Then I posted a bunch of labelled images of the things we find on city streets: schools, stores, parks, supermarkets...Each child chose one to illustrate with collage.

We played a game to consolidate the vocabulary, where kids paired up to have the following conversation:

• "Yesterday I went/Today I am going/Tomorrow I will go...to the _____________(one of the places in cities)." 
• "Oh, really?" 
• "Yes, really!" OR "No, not really!" 

After each conversation the kids thanked each other and went off to find another conversation partner. They really enjoyed the element of trickery! 

Then we talked about maps and how they show the view from the sky. To bring that concept home, the kids filled in an outline of their classroom, creating a map with all the furniture and carpets in their proper spots. 

All this lead up prepared them for our field trip to Kensington Market! The kids were divided into 4 groups, and each group had a map with a route marked on it and 3 locations to visit. These were things like a bank, a bakery, a fire station...etc. Each group visited a different trio of locations, and their task was to photograph (with an iPad) each location.

We reassembled in the Kensington parkette, and each group showed their pictures and talked about their route to the class (kids were pretty distracted because they all wanted to play in the playground!). Then we had a great time playing in the park before returning to school. Thank you to the volunteers who made the trip possible!

May 16-20

We started the week with the "Journée d'Energie", a day fully focused on our study of energy. We watched the Magic Schoolbus episode from last week again, and this time I asked the kids to pay attention to the types of energy the kids in the show generated. Afterwards, they explained in words and pictures how one of the energy sources in the show worked.  Then we looked at all the energy sources we have talked about, and identified them as renewable or non-renewable. Each student received images of and labels for the different sources and had to match them. Then they made a poster of energy sources, according to the categories of renewable and non-renewable.

This activity was followed by a broader sorting activity that asked the kids to think about where the energy came from for a wide range of things, from sailboating flying an airplane.

We played a game that illustrates the energy chain from the sun to plants at the bottom of the food chain to animals at the top. Everyone starts out as the sun (making "sun" gestures) and any 2 suns can do rock/paper/scissors together. The winner transfers to the next stage in the chain, in this case grass. The kids who become grass wiggle their fingers, and they can get together and do rock/paper/scissors to become a rabbit who eats the grass. The rabbits hop around and when they compete one becomes a snake (who ate a rabbit). The snakes make snakey motions with their hands and can compete to become the eagle, at the top of the food chain, who eats the snake. Eventually everyone becomes an eagle and the game is played out. 

I asked the kids to show me what they had learned about where energy comes from and what it can do, on a mind map. It was an open-ended exercise to sum up their learning. Then we made pinwheels to take home!

In reading, we read more with the puppet character "Le Conte qui Raconte", to learn better how to retell a story after reading it. The kids practiced retelling stories I read to the class through the puppet. They learned to frame their retell with the words in French for "At the beginning", "then" and "at the end". 

We reviewed the elements of a story by watching the video of "Le Tambour Magique" and discussing the characters, the setting, problem/solution and the beginning, middle and ending of the story. Then I told the kids that we were going to write our next story by first making a plan. As a class, we planned a story by deciding on these elements. Then we began writing the story, and found that it was a richer story for the planning. The kids began to plan the characters, setting, problem/solution and beginning, middle, and ending of their next story. 

In math we finished up with patterning with a fun activity. The kids were in pairs and had a card with various letter patterns. One partner made a pattern following one of those given on the card, and the other partner had to figure out which letter pattern corresponded to the pattern they had made. 

We also did more problem-solving, with the kids in partners working to explain why a given answer was true. I find this approach helpful when the kids get too focused on finding the "right" answer, often from other classmates, without understanding why it is correct. 

After working on the problem, we looked at everyone's solutions and talked about the different strategies we saw in evidence.

May 9-13

We finally made the video of our book, Le Tambour Magique, and I will soon make it available for you to view. The kids did a great job of reading their writing and keeping quiet for the recording. We had a lot of students read their writing this week (author's chair) in order to catch up a bit - so many kids want to read to the class and they can find the wait frustrating. We also continued to work on our "son" book and the other Daily 5 activities.

We spent the week exploring patterns. We talked about patterns in our lives, from daily routines to astronomical patterns to life cycles. In partners, each student created a pattern with various materials. When I gave the signal, they switched and began working on their partner's pattern, extending it. We had a couple of hands-on pattern building sessions like this.

Then we added a new wrinkle: one person made the pattern, then the other person had to label it with letters (A, B, C) to identify the structure of the pattern. Another task was to build a pattern from a given structure (eg. ABAC) and then have the partner figure out the structure.

We also spent a period outside on a warm day and made clapping patterns, and person patterns (eg. striped shirt, solid shirt) to repeat and guess. The important concepts for the kids to gain through all this experience are that a pattern has elements that repeat, and the core that repeats can be analyzed and labelled in order to identify families of patterns. 

We also did a story problem in math. It was a complex problem, but I provided the answer and just asked the kids to explain why. They have been doing these problems in pairs, and I provided them with a series of steps to the problem-solving process to help them collaborate better. I have been seeing math partners working in parallel, each doing their own thing and not interacting very much. So now my emphasis is on talking together, using math manipulatives to figure out a problem together, and communicating their thinking. 

Continuing our exploration of energy, we watched an episode of the Magic Schoolbus in French about energy. We discussed the events of the show and we will watch it again next week. The kids need to see it more than once to really understand what is being communicated. We will be having a full day focused on Energy on Monday, and that will wrap up our unit!

May 2-6

In Daily 5 we began a new activity on the carpet. It is a game for practicing decoding words. I wrote 19 "words" on the board, but none was actually a word in French. They were nonsense words like "tipoma", so that the kids would have to read them by decoding rather than as a sight word. The turn passed around the circle, with each student reading a word, then the whole class repeating the word with phonic gestures, and then everyone repeating the word and clapping the syllables. It turned out to be quite engaging - I told the kids that it was an Alien language that used French pronunciation!

We continued making pages for our book of French "sons", and we learned a new rhyme together with gestures.

We have been singing the tune "Nous sommes tous comme les fleurs" by Charlotte Diamond. There isn't a good free recording online that I can find (it is available on Itunes), but here is a link to a video of a kindergarten class performing it on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGl_IqEpKGQ

In math, we continued to explore the measurement of area. I read the Ukrainian folk tale "The Mitten" in which a mitten is lost and becomes a home for more and more animals. The mitten gets stretched larger and larger, and then is found again by the boy who lost it.

Then the kids worked on a sheet, finding the area of the flat mitten at different sizes. At each table they used a different material to fill the area of the mittens, and then counted how many units it took to fill the area. They estimated each time before measuring. We talked again about how larger units produce a smaller number and smaller units produce a larger number in measurement. We also talked about how some units, because of their shape, could not be placed without gaps in between, and whether or not this allowed accuracy.

We moved on to patterning at the end of the week. After some practice drawing different kinds of patterns, we made strips of patterns to decorate cardboard vases for Mother's Day. The kids chose the coloured strips and I encouraged them to think about contrast when choosing the colour to draw with. They also drew the silhouette of a vase on a folded piece of paper, and cut it out to produce a symmetrical vase form. I cut these forms out of cardboard for them, and then they glued the strips onto the vase and I added a cardboard roll to hold dried flowers.

A special event we had this week was a presentation about the Syrian refugee family being sponsored by Lord Lansdowne.  Noura Kevorkian, a Lord Lansdowne parent, is a documentary filmmaker and has visited the family in their Refugee camp in Lebanon. She showed us footage of the mom, dad and 2 sisters, their home and the refugee camp environment. The kids asked lots of questions and saw close up how people live with so much less than what we have in Toronto. They are excited to meet the family when they get to Canada.