Wind, Weaving and Walls

Science Experiments 
Grade Two had fun learning to move an object with wind power! No, not that type of wind! They used a small battery operated fan to move a ping pong ball through water. Here is a picture of that experiment as part of the 'Energy from Wind and Water' unit.

Weaving has started...
We finally collected enough foam trays to begin weaving. One of my students wondered if she could make a blanket for her bed. I told her that perhaps we need  to learn to 'weave' first and then can move on to those bigger projects another time. 

Bump it up Wall
During Writer's Workshop we have begun to look at how to write a paragraph. I have modeled for the students how to create a paragraph on a given subject using a 'write aloud' process. This is when the teacher models for students how to write a paragraph on a chart but also thinks out loud to help students understand the process of writing. 
Text Types - When I was in school, we mostly created a lot of narrative writing. Now, we focus on a variety of text types when writing, which include;
Procedural - explaining how to do something e.g., how to build a snowman
Report - information or a news report
Recount - may be personal or factual e.g., My trip to Safety Village
Narrative - usually a made up story e.g., The alien who came to my house
Explanation - explains a process e.g., How the water cycle works

During Writer's Workshop, we have been learning about: 
                                   Persuasive Writing
We used three books to create a debate, 
1)Should children choose their own bedtime? (you will be happy to know that most students felt it was up to their parents) 

2) Three easy steps to getting a pet. 
3) Playground for Lisa
Then we discussed both sides of each argument. The children were very engaged in all of these discussions! Students were then asked to write about their opinions and perspectives using supporting details. They were provided with a checklist to help form the paragraph and were encouraged to use the 'Bump it Up Wall' to help them 'Bump Up' their work to the next level. They met individually with me to look at their work in a critical way and see if there was a way to improve their writing. Some of the students really took the information and worked hard to move it to the next level.

                       Chris Hadfield - Canadian Astronaut
We have had some fun, looking at Chris Hadfield's videos and pictures from space. The students really liked his cooking lesson. Now, you will know why there can be no bread crumbs in space!
Here is the link.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZx0RIV0wss

Valentines, 100's day, Reports...oh my!

Valentine's Day
Thank you to everyone who made sure that all the children received Valentines today. I was most impressed with the homemade cards. Some were quite cute and all were very appreciated. 
Here is a picture of the table, so you can see the chaos , fun!

To add to the day, it was 100's day for the Grade One students in my class. Luckily, they were able to go visit their friends in the other Grade One classes and participate in activity centres such as; stamping on a hat 100 times, drawing a picture of what they think they will look like at 100 (yikes to that one), making 100 day glasses, looking at collections of 100 items (all different!), reading books about 100's day and many more. Getting time to work in other Grade One classrooms, allows students in a split grade to visit their peers in the other classes. During this time, I was able to work with the Grade Two children in a small group setting. Both of the grades in my class love their 'Ms Fink alone time' as they call it! It also allows me to get on the floor and work with small groups and have those little conversations while teaching in a quieter setting. Truth be told, I enjoy this time with both grades.

Report Cards
I have been working through report cards but I also have been looking at creating a brochure to help Grade One parents understand the format of this terms report. I will be sending this information brochure a few days before the reports go home to help you think about how you will share information from this report with your child. Hopefully it will relieve any anxiety that you might feel about the letter grades that will accompany this report. If you are a Grade Two parent and would also like a copy, (even though I know these reports aren't new to you) please just let me know via the agenda and I'll be sure to pop one in for you!

A little bit of fun...
I am always amazed at the aplomb that my students display when using or observing technological advances.
When Neil Armstrong first landed on the moon, I was very little. So young in fact that I think it is my first clear memory. You see, my Dad at the time was a history teacher and he woke me up to explain that 'I was observing history'. Unfortunately, I probably didn't get too excited. So recently when I shared some of the pictures of Chris Hadfield's adventures in space, the students reacted much the same way. They did however enjoy the spinning guitar due to lack of gravity in the following video. If you haven't seen it yet, it's kind of fun!
http://www.cbc.ca/live/intergalactic-collaboration-chris-hadfield-ed-robertson-premiere-iss.html

Have a great week and enjoy the long Family Day weekend!

Subtraction, Reports and Absences

                                                Absences

Usually this time of year, I have some families that go on trips to warmer climates. I totally understand the need for sunshine...this was my road last week! I should mention it was totally sunny and snow free in Burlington that day. If your child is going to be absent, I would like to remind you to let the school absent check line know so the automated service (or our school secretaries) don't phone you. As a courtesy, it would be great to let me know in the agenda but you also have to let the absent line know. You can make multiple absences (if you are going to Florida or somewhere tropical for a week or so) on the automated line as well. 

                                        Mathematics again...

Your child may have mentioned that I did a quick money test with each student. This was just a pre-unit skills check to see what each child knows so I can gear my teaching and groupings for maximum learning. No use teaching coin value if everyone knows it! No use learning about the penny....now that it is about to become extinct! Although, I think it will make teaching more interesting now. How will I explain to future students that a nickel is 5 cents if they don't know what 1 cent looks like? I'll have to talk to them using terms like 'long ago in 2013... there were once pennies'. Sort of like when I refer to records, or turntables or any 80's musical references with my younger colleagues...sigh! I did want to share this picture with you to explain what it means on a report when the teacher jargon refers to 'concrete' or 'manipulatives' in math. Essentially in primary grades, it is very important to use 'hands on' counters and organizers to help students visualize mathematical concepts. In this picture you will see that we are learning how to borrow in subtraction by using  
tens and ones as our manipulatives. We use a simple memory chant:
                                                More on top
                                                No need to stop
                                                More on the floor
                                                Go next door
                                                Borrow ten more
This means simply if the number on the bottom is bigger than the number on top, then this is an opportunity to borrow. Using the 10 frames below, we physically exchange 10 for 10 ones and then complete our subtraction. This visual tool is particularly helpful for students who don't fully understand when to borrow.

                                             
Reports - Report cards go home on February 25th. I will be contacting parents in advance if there is an area of concern on your child's report. 
Family Day - Don't forget family day is February 18th this year. Hope you have something wonderful planned!
Valentine's Day - I have made a Valentine list of names for you that I will send home on Monday (11th). However, if you need names right away you can always use the class picture as it is labelled at the bottom. 

Geometry and Reading Biographies

    You may notice there is a theme to my class pictures. When I mention to the children that I want a "picture of that for the blog" they all assume the 'hand pose'. I have told them I will never put their pictures on this blog but they like the idea that someone in China could see their work...so they feel that their hands need to be there too...just to prove they did it. 

                                             Geometry
Learning outcomes for Grade One: -to explore and describe 3D solids; make a picture using 2D figures, use language such as on, in, under, and over to describe where objects are placed.

Learning outcomes for Grade Two: -identify two-dimensional shapes and three dimensional figures  and sort and classify them by their geometric properties 
- identify and describe various polygons (i.e., triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, heptagons, octagons) and sort and classify them by their geometric properties (i.e., number of sides or number of vertices), using concrete materials and pictorial representations (e.g., "I put all the figures with five or more vertices in one group, and all the figures with fewer than five vertices in another group)

As well, students have enjoyed learning how to compose and decompose (love this word!) shapes by folding 'nets' to create the 3D shapes. We will be finishing this unit soon and then moving on to learning about money.  
                                                   

                                                                      Biographies
The students are learning about famous/inspiring people for the month of February. So far we have read about Helen Keller, Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman and many more. The book corner is full of biographies thanks to Mr. Cann our wonderful librarian. Of course we also have a collection of Valentines Day books too...just for fun. 

I've had a suggestion to enlarge my blog font. Hopefully you don't think I'm shouting. Just testing out the larger font for those parents that wish to print out parts of the blog. 
                                       Have a great week!

Did you know....?

A  fun fact you may or may not know...
While  fumbling,  procrastinating, thinking about what to write about this week I came across a wonderful resource which is free! I know many of my students have access to iPads or tablets and seem quite adept at using them. A good life skill for students is to learn to use this technology to access free library materials. A virtual way of visiting the library! So, did you know about Zinio? Here is the link for the Hamilton Public Library https://rbdg.envionsoftware.com/hamiltonon/zinio/ but I'm sure there is a similar link to the Burlington Library. I found many free children's magazines available to download instantly! I located these age appropriate magazines... Owl, Chick a Dee, Chirp, and National Geographic (you might need to peruse this one first...you know why). The magazines change monthly and the downloads are for 2 weeks or more. I found some well known magazines for grown ups as well (Canadian Living, a knitting magazine,Yoga, Weight watchers and many more). I like that you can take screenshots of recipes or patterns to save for later. I guess it is the virutal way of cutting out a recipe without the little bits of paper lying around the house that you can never find when you need them. I still like the feel of a magazine but I like the portable, lightweight quality of downloading magazines too.
                                                             Happy reading everyone!
Here are a few examples...
         

                                                                                                                                         

We love our IPEVO

                                                       Technology Moment
Today I introduced a new piece of technology...an IPEVO. This is a fairly simple document camera with a USB port that lends itself well to the classroom. It is very lightweight and easy for teachers and students to use. In our primary classroom we can use it for projecting a book onto the Smartboard which then creates a 'big book' for all of us to read and see the words. Today we used the IPEVO to take up our math work. I was able to use actual student work, project it on the screen, show and discuss the thought process of the student and change the work if necessary....all while everyone was able to watch on the Smartboard. Using our own work as an example provides the engagement and interest necessary to create meaningful discussion. Sometimes a student may have a math strategy that no one else (including me) has thought of and is able to stand up and explain it. I can even take pictures of the work and upload it to keep for assessment purposes.

Making Words/ Spelling/Word Wall Words

Have you ever wondered where I get the word wall words? No, I don't make them up! I use a really fabulous resource by Patricia Cunningham called 'Making Words'. This is a really great program that focuses on the four blocks of learning. We will be doing lots of  'Working with Words' this term as we learn the process of spelling and not merely memorization.

The letters students use to spell new words!

Vowels are pink, capitals are on one side and small letters on the other

Students are given a clue e.g. Spell the 3 letter word 'sea' that means the water. Then I will use it in a sentence while students are moving their letters around to spell the word. Notice there are 6 letters but they can be combined to spell a multitude of simple and increasingly complex words as indicated on the envelope. Ultimately it ends with the students using all the letters to spell the big word. A big challenge but this provides the kinesthetic learning that some students need. Much more fun than just writing it out all the time. Students will have greater success since you have narrowed the possibilities from the 26 letters of the alphabet to a possible 6. I don't remember ever cheering when I was doing spelling in school. However, it is quite common to hear excitement and giggles as we do 'Making Words' together!

Happy Little Grade One moment!

All our Christmas sheep ornaments at play! 

Welcome 2013!

                                                      Hello to the New Year
Welcome back everyone! Hope the holiday season was restful and that you are looking forward to 2013. I always find that after Christmas the children look a little taller and some skills begin to consolidate much more quickly now. Thank you to everyone who had a chance to look through pencil cases and replace those little things that have gone missing, dried out or just needed to be labelled. Also thank you for the kind notes or wee gifties that were bestowed to me in December. I did send thank you cards in the mail but if your child did not get one, please let me know. I think modelling sending 'thank you' cards is a good skill for students to see. As well, I really did feel spoiled. Will be wearing a few of my 'purple' items in the next few days.

                                                         Author of the Month: Jan Brett
                                     
This month we will be enjoying the author and illustrator Jan Brett. You may have read some of her more well known books such as 'Gingerbread Baby' or 'The Hat' but she is really such a prolific author that there are enough fabulous books to last us the whole month of January. I love the Scandinavian designs in her illustrations and students love that the books have such a wide range of animals in all of them.

                                                                    Weaving

I would like to do some weaving with the class using paper, wool or found materials. If you have a chance, I would really appreciate some styrofoam trays (largest possible but smaller ones are fine too). Although I have some of my own materials to contribute, it would be great if anyone has a family member that knits who might be able to send in some wool. Any thickness or colour is fine...we aren't picky! Over the holidays I managed to make a few woven items myself which I will share with the class. Wish I could bring them to my house to show them the large counterbalance looms. Oh to be Ms Frizzle and be able to travel by Magic school bus!

        Will be sending more information about 'Guided Reading', 'Math' and 'Writer's Workshop' soon.
                                   Have to get myself back into the swing of things too!