May 1-5, 2017

This week the kids really took on the challenge of speaking French in the classroom! The next prize to win on the ladder of prizes was a visit from my 11 year-old son, Oscar. This generated a lot of excitement, and they managed to speak more French and climb higher than ever before! Oscar came and played with the kids during Heure de Jeux, on the Friday.

We continued to tell the Fox and the Walking Stick story, but we put our own spin on it. The kids decided to change the setting to under the sea, and to change the fox to a shark. We had great fun pausing with each new character to decide which sea creature it would be, what gesture would represent them, and what kind of dwelling they would live in. Writer's workshop has excellent momentum, with kids engaged in writing more complex stories, editing them, getting feedback from me, and then writing up the good copy for publication.

The French "sons" this week was -tion which appears at the end of words and has an English equivalent. Kids searched for other words with this ending and we wrote them all down on the board. We also read through all the words on our word wall, all together out loud, over several days. Kids gave examples of words they had found there while writing, and I encouraged everyone to use this resource actively as they write.

We did some more work on patterning, translating patterns into different symbols while maintaining the same structure (i.e. **!&**!& becomes AABCAABC). I introduced a new set of numeracy centres, which we will do weekly until the end of the year. One centre has the kids taking a handful of pennies and estimating how many there are, then counting (by groups of 10) how many there are. Estimation is an important skill for grasping quantity. They are also counting out loud in French, to solidify their French number names.

Another centre has them roll a die twice to create a 2-digit number, and then locate it in the counting sequence by writing the numbers that come before and after it.

Another centre focusses on place value, the significance of the position of a digit in a multi-digit number. Many kids are still grappling with the understanding that the digit on the right represents single units while the digit on the left represents tens, in a 2-digit number. Here kids pull 2 number tiles, put them beside each other to make a 2-digit number, and then represent the amount using Base 10 cubes. Then they switch the position of the tiles and represent the number again.

There is a "Friendly 10" centre which I didn't manage to photograph because it is the most challenging activity and every time I approached I needed to help kids instead of take pictures! Kids add 2 single digit numbers, using 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9. They have 2 10 frames which they use to represent each of the 2 numbers. Then they shift the counters on the 10 frame to "make a 10" and write a new addition problem with 10 in it. This gives them an easier addition problem to solve. For example, 7+8=10+5=15. This "Friendly 10" strategy gives their addition skills a boost. 

The last centre challenges kids with a puzzle, matching the numeral with the amount represented in 10 frames with the name written in French. This was the most popular activity!

We began our new unit Science: Living Things. It is a very broad topic, but we will be finding out about the needs and characteristics first of plants, and then of animals. We began by linking the living world with the idea of energy by learning about the food chain. I asked the kids where we get our energy, and they responded that it came from food. Where does a fox get its energy? I asked a student to stand holding an illustrated card with the word "fox" on it, and another to hold a card with "lapin" (rabbit). Then I gave the 2 students a length of yarn to hold between them, to represent the flow of energy. As the discussion continued, another student came up to represent the grass the rabbit eats, and another came to be the sun that provides the grass with energy. So then we had 4 students representing the links in the food chain, connected by yarn, to make the connections clear. 

April 24-28, 2017

We began the week with a practice session of speaking French to other students in the classroom. There was quite an increase in speaking French this week, and the students won the prize of a trip to the park for Friday's heure de jeux! Our French digraph was "-ien" which comes only at the end of words. The kids began telling the Fox and the Walking Stick story with me, correcting me when I made mistakes. They also enjoyed correcting the many mistakes I made in my morning messages. We had a message this week with no apostrophes, in which all the contractions were written in long form. They quickly caught on to the need for an apostrophe in French when the first word ends in a vowel and the second word begins with a vowel (i.e. je ai becomes j'ai).

We focussed on the silent consonants at the end of words, calling them "ghost letters." After reading a story about a sneaky ghost, we looked at several examples of these. Then each table group tried to collect as many words as they could with various final, silent consonants.

Then they counted up how many words they had found, and we made a bar graph to show the final tally.

The kids worked on patterning problems through worksheets.

And then, come Friday, we had a great time at Margaret Fairley Park!

April 18-21, 2017

Our French digraphs (with more than 2 letters) of focus this week were "elle" and "ette." I began telling a new story, The Fox and the Walking Stick. The kids helped me decide on gestures and began learning to tell it themselves. We continued to read books aloud with a puppet friend who models a comprehension strategy. The puppets are more visible now, and the kids are requesting particular puppets. A student can chose a puppet to animate and thus model making connections, asking questions, visualizing the story, predicting or retelling the story after reading it. Each puppet models one of these activities. Their names are Imogène Qui Imagine, Fleur Connecteur, Didi Qui Prédit, Rolande Qui Se Demande, and Le Compte Qui Raconte.

We also began to review all the words on our word. After a writing period, I asked students to tell the class what words they had looked for there and how they found them.

We continued to sing "Notre Planète" all week and we sang it for the Earth Day assembly. The kids kept the rhythm of the song by slapping their thighs.

In math, we began talking about and making patterns. We reviewed the idea (and vocabulary) that a pattern has a repeating core made up of specific elements. The students drew patterns and then circled the core of their neighbour's patterns.

Then with students working in pairs at stations around the classroom, I gave them various challenges: make a pattern with a core that has 3 elements, make a pattern where the elements change their position (not their colour), make a pattern and then show the core on a piece of paper...

We also returned to the subject of energy, reviewing the sources of energy for familiar processes.

April 10-13, 2017

We finished the vases we started to make last week. The kids started by drawing the profile of a vase on a folded piece of paper and then cutting it out. Then they used this cut-out as a stencil to cut out a vase from black construction paper. They applied their patterned strips to the black vase, and then glued it on to the back of the black background.

Then they made flowers out of feathers to fill their vases. The flowers were made by sandwiching the feathers between 2 paper circles. We went over the steps involved first.

Then they cut out stems and glued together all the components.

 They're up in the hall now!

We continued to tell the Rat Princess story, with the kids gradually taking over the telling. They help me remember the gestures! We also learned more new comptines. We talked about our goals in writing and I met with students to establish their personal writing goals. We also addressed the question again of what to do when you're writing and don't know a word in French but the teacher is busy conferencing with a student. We talked about using story ideas from various sources, from movies or books or even the stories of our classmates. Doing so is not "copying" but is a compliment to that other person. Ideas belong to everyone!

Our French digraph was "ai". We played the game again in 2 teams of reading fake French words, syllable by syllable.

We also observed the International day of Pink. The kids discussed and then each drew the things considered "boy" things and "girl" things. Then we came together and I drew 2 boxes with ideas from the kids. We found many exceptions, with boys protesting that they like rainbows and girls protesting that they like dogs. I don't think that denying the existence of gender roles is helpful with kids, because they do exist. But it helps to establish that they are invented by people (our ancestors), they are always changing, and many people don't fit into these boxes. In fact, some girls mostly like boy things and vice versa.

In math, we did another story problem with 2 steps in it, requiring a sequence of equations. They are starting to make good choices about which math tools to use to solve problems.

When the kids shared their solutions, we started using new sentence starters in French to encourage mathematical dialogue. I am teaching the kids to agree or disagree with each other's solutions, and then explain WHY. A bit of controversy in math really gets them engaged!

We also did an Easter math activity. I made a number line to 100 and cut it up into little pieces. I put the pieces into plastic eggs and hid them around the classroom. So we had a big Easter egg hunt, and then the kids had the group challenge of reconstructing the number line. They began by putting together small sections of it, and then the sections kept getting bigger until it was huge! They were very excited when it was done.

We also started learning a new song, Notre Planète, to sing next week at the Earth Day assembly.