September 6-9, 2016

Welcome to the blog for room 308! If you would like to be notified whenever there's a new post, you can subscribe. I usually post once a week, but I may do shorter posts more frequently this year. This blog is to keep you up to date with what your kids are doing at school. Your kids will enjoy seeing the pictures posted too. Hopefully the blog will help you and your kids talk about school together and follow up on the themes and ideas being discussed, at home. I will also be posting our "words of the week" here for study at home, and offering other suggestions for homework activities.

Our first week was a whirlwind! I took the kids through our various routines and transitions, getting them familiar with the rhythms of the day in grade 1. I familiarized them with the new classroom so they know where to find things. I asked the kids to draw and write about what they're hoping to learn and do in grade 1. The kids presented their pictures and ideas and we compiled a list of what we want to learn. Our read-aloud books were by Dr. Seuss (Green Eggs and Ham, and 1 Fish, 2 Fish), familiar books to most of the kids. We recited nursery rhymes ("comptines") they knew from last year, and I taught them a new one ("Moustique 1, Moustique 2"). 

We began reviewing all the alphabet letters in order. This week we did a, b, c and d. For each letter, we talk about what sound it makes, and brainstorm French words beginning with that letter. I write each word on the board and illustrate it. Then I teach the proper (most efficient) sequence and direction of strokes to form the lower case letter - in grade 1 the kids will be shifting to writing in lower case and learning when to use capital letters. The kids practice writing the letter on whiteboards on the carpet and I give corrective feedback. Then they go to the tables and practice the letter more on a letter practice sheet. Once that's done, they choose one of the words from the board to write and illustrate. We make a poster of all these words to hang on the wall over each letter for the school year.

I will be teaching the gestural phonics system of Borel-Maisonny. This system has a hand gesture for each sound in spoken French, and was introduced to me by Mme Alma. It helps kids isolate the sounds in language (phonemic awareness) before proceeding to choose corresponding letters. The gestures also relate to certain letter shapes. For a quick idea of the system, check out this link:http://ecolereferences.blogspot.ca/2011/10/gestes-borel-maisonny-gestes-bm-tableau.html.

This week we learned the gesture for the sound "ah." We will be learning the vowel sounds first. We talked about what vowels, consonants and syllables are, and began learning this little tune for learning the vowels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXPUmC51wGc. Beware: this tune is very catchy!

We began learning the routines of "Daily 5", the reading program we use at Lord Lansdowne. It's a great approach that promotes choice and independence for the kids, but demands a high level of responsibility in terms of managing themselves. We learned how to do independent reading, which involves choosing books, finding a spot to sit ALONE, reading quietly to yourself the whole time, and then returning to the carpet at the sound of the bell. We practiced this as a class for 3-4 minutes at a time, and next week we will build our stamina to be able to do it well for longer. While the kids were reading, I had a chance to read with some of them and gauge their reading skills. 

In math, we reviewed the number names to 20. We named numbers on the carpet, we played a circle game rolling a ball and naming numbers, and we played number bingo. 

I reviewed "10 frames" with the kids, and we talked about each number in relation to 5 and 10. I flashed the 10 frames quickly and asked the kids how they knew the quantity without counting (subitizing - an important skill to develop). We did an activity where the kids each had a card with a number from 1 to 10, and I flashed a 10 frame and those kids with that number had to quickly stand up. We did the same with numbers to 20, where I projected images of a collection of dots and the kids with that number stood up. At the end of the week we played the card game "war" in partners, which requires the kids to identify which number is the larger of two numbers. 

We had a long discussion about how we want our classroom to be, and the kids agreed that we come to school to learn and that we want a safe and calm classroom. For this discussion, I took the kids into a different classroom and we spoke together in English. I will do this occasionally when we are talking about subjects that are important for everyone to clearly understand. The kids suggested a number of different rules to keep our classroom safe and calm. The next day I suggested we make a book of classroom agreements (a term I prefer to "rules") so that we can remember them and all give each other friendly reminders about them. I had translated the ones we had discussed, so we reviewed them and the kids each chose an agreement to illustrate. These will be pages in a book we can refer to and add to throughout the year, as things come up. 

The week ended with "heure de jeux", an hour of free play time at the end of every Friday. The kids look forward to it all week and it allows for more social bonding to happen among class members. It also gives me some leverage, because that play time must be earned and I take away minutes of play time when people don't follow our agreements! It was lots of fun to see the kids exploring the new-to-them toys and games in the classroom. 

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.

June 13-17

We started writing and illustrating the good copies of the stories the kids wrote based on their story plans.

We started work on a huge map of Toronto (on a bed sheet) that has the homes of all the students marked on it. We looked together at the google map I made with students' homes marked on it, and the kids were very interested to see who they lived close to and to tell about the places near their homes. I explained that I had projected this map onto the bed sheet, and marked in pencil the roads, parks, bodies of water and the subway, as well as their homes. Small groups of students painted these features on the map so that everyone had a turn contributing. The big map will be on display for the night of the concert.

We spent the week looking at fractions in math. We read a book that shows the various ways to cut up an apple to share among 2, 3, or 4 people. We talked about how a "half" and a "quarter" come up in our lives all the time, in cooking, in sports, in making art, in talking about time...Then the kids did some exercises that asked them to sort drawings that illustrate a half or a quarter from drawings that don't, mostly to get across the idea that the parts need to be equal.

Our Father's Day art project used the idea of fractions, because we started by folding a long paper into quarters. The kids followed my example, using the dividing lines as reference points to draw the figure of their dad on the paper. Then they used these rough copy drawings as a guide to draw their dad again on a box. They went over the lines with black marker, and then painted over the drawing with light washes of tempura paint.

On Friday morning, we had a very fun time with the "Loose Parts" play session in the school yard. The kids played creatively with all kinds of materials, inventing machines and scenarios together. It was terrific!

June 6-9

This week we played a new drama game, in which one person begins to make a tableau by declaring what they are (i.e. "I am a tree.") Then a second person adds to the scene ("I am a squirrel under the tree.") and then a third person adds to it ("I am a nut the squirrel is eating."). Then the first and second person leave the scene and the tableau is built again starting from the last person ("I am a nut.")

In Daily 5, we talked about blending consonants with the letters s, l and r. We did our martian word game again, with words that contained these blends. We also had a visit from a librarian from Lillian Smith library.

We began a mapping project as part of our exploration of urban communities. The project asks each student to make a map of an imaginary community, with roads, parks, homes and businesses. These components are added as paper cut-outs, and explained in a legend. The collage maps offer a chance to think about how the different places in an urban community relate to one another.

In math we continued to focus on "tens" and "ones". We did individual and partnered problem-solving with questions involving boxes of 10 markers, which asked the students to switch back and forth between groups of ten and single units.

May 30-June 3

We have been playing a fun drama game called "The Wind Blows". We sit in a circle on chairs (one less chair than there are players) and 1 person stands in the middle. That person says "The wind blows for the people who _________________" The statement must be true for them, and the kids have focused mostly on likes and dislikes (the people who love the Raptors, or the people who don't like mushrooms). Everyone for whom that statement is true (i.e. everyone who also loves the Raptors) has to stand up and find another chair to sit in. The person in the middle also tries to sit in a chair, so there is a scramble at the end and one person doesn't get a chair. That person is then in the middle and the game begins again. Lots of fun, and lots of French!

The kids continue to work on the stories they planned earlier. Daily 5 has been going very well, with a lot of focused reading taking place. The kids are motivated because they see me reading individually with every kid to assess their reading level for the end of the school year.

In math we focused on better understanding place value. Place value is the idea that where a digit is located in a given number determines the value that digit represents. For example, the "8" in 18 represents 8 but the "8" in 81 represents 80. We started off with counting a pile of pennies, grouping them into piles of 10. We counted by 10's until we ran out of piles, and then we added on the last remaining pennines 1 by 1. I introduced the vocabulary of "tens" and "ones" (dizaines and unités in French) in relation to our counting. The next day I switched the 64 with the 46 on our hundred chart. I asked the kids if they noticed anything peculiar, and when they did I acted as if it was no big deal because both numbers had a 6 and a 4. I asked them to explain what the difference was if the 4 was in the spot on the right or the spot on the left. Many kids have developed an intuitive understanding of this distinction, but they had trouble articulating it. We finally got around to the idea that when the 4 was on the right, it meant 4 "unités" and when it was on the left it meant 4 "dizaines".

The kids did a partner activity to practise the concept. One partner chose 2 number tiles and put them together. The other partner had to show that number using base 10 blocks, in tens and ones, on a place value mat. Then the first partner switched the numbers around and the first partner had to represent the new number. Then they changed roles.

I also introduced 5 new centres that focus on numeracy, for the last month of school. After explaining each centre through the week, we finally did them all on Friday. The above activity with base 10 blocks is one centre. Another has kids grab a pile of pennies, estimate how many there are, and then put them into groups of 10 to count.

Another centre has 2 card games: one asks kids to match the number with the ten frame and with the number word; the other is a version of "I have...who has" where a kid might read their card saying "Who has 3 tens and 2 ones?" and another would read their card saying "I have 32! Who has 7 tens and 6 ones?"

Another centre has kids using a special balance to write balanced equations:

Since the balance is a 2 person activity, the other 2 people do an activity with dice. They roll 2 dice, and write the numbers as a 2-digit number in the middle box on a sheet. Then they write the number that comes before and the number that comes after in the counting sequence.

The last centre is for practicing the "Friendly 10" strategy for adding (also useful for subtraction). Kids work independently, and fill in the blanks on a worksheet. First they roll 2 numbers from the possibilities of 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9. Say they roll 6 and 6. They write these numbers on the sheet, and fill two adjacent ten frames to represent the numbers. Then they move the counters from one ten frame to fill the other ten frame. This makes a ten with remaining counters. The sheet then asks them to fill in 10 + __ and then asks for the answer, which is now made easy because it is adding a single digit to 10. 

The kids really enjoyed the novelty of the new centres, so hopefully that won't wear off too soon!