Terry Fox Run, New Blog feature and Math stories

New Blog Feature
Thank you to everyone who attended our recent Open House. It was great to talk to each of you. I loved how excited the children were to introduce you, be the host/hostess by getting you cider and proudly show their work to you.  Chatting with each of you helped me to gather information about how I can better communicate classroom information. For example, after talking to a parent about how they followed the FM twitter feed, it occurred to me that I could provide that for you on this blog as well. This enables you to not have to navigate back and forth between our school website and this one. Also, it will give you those little daily details that I may not always include with this blog. If you look to the right under the list of dated blog posts you will see the twitter feed. Thanks to Mr. Cann (our wonderful librarian) who helped me figure out something called a 'widget ' and how to embed it onto this blog. As well, I also added google translate should you or a family member prefer to read this blog in another language. I use google translate quite often for my own 'art blog reading' as many of the best weavers are from Sweden. And let's face it, my Swedish is not so great. However, I find that google translates quite well with occasional semantic or meaning errors but you can still get the main points and ideas. 

Terry Fox Run
Tomorrow is the big day. We do a warm up and then the whole school gets out and runs a clearly laid out course around the school. I put in your child's agenda the sticker that says "I'm running for...." and attempted to explain what is appropriate to write on this sticker but you may have to do a little more explaining. I did read the 'Terry Fox' story and the students were very serious and respectful listeners. One student even said, "isn't it sad that we will always remember Terry as young because he can never get old". No truer words.

Math Stories
We are beginning to start our addition and subtraction unit using math stories by way of introduction. Students are learning how to use strategies to assist with quicker computation and number familiarity. 
Example: (Counters, pictures or objects are provided for students to create the following math stories...)
Addition story 
5 +6 = 11 (think 5+5 is 10 and one more is 11)
Subtraction story
11-6 =5   or 11-5=6
For more information, please look back at this previous link I wrote that explains some different strategies we will introduce this year.

Open House Art
Did anyone get my subliminal pun with the children's art? "We hope you leave with a good impression".  So, the children made 'leaf impressions'. 

Raz-kids, Dreambox , Owls and patterns

Raz-kids
Inside your child's agenda is the new teacher log-in passwords for this year. I would encourage you to join the parent portion as you can monitor your child's progress as they go along. I have enabled the 'Bookroom' and the 'Raz-rocket'. I will go over levels this weekend and update those when I get a chance. 
Here is the link: http://www.raz-kids.com/main/Login
If you see students on there who are from my previous class, this simply means their teacher has not updated their class roster yet. 
                                     Happy Reading!

Dreambox
Our school is so lucky to have the opportunity to purchase the computer program 'Dreambox'. I will update soon with more details. However, this is a math program with some of the interactive and engaging features that Raz-kids has for students. I'm really looking forward to starting this soon during computer lab time. It is also going to be another way to do math homework so I'm interested in learning the features and teaching them to my students. 

Owls in the Family
Our chapter book is 'Owls in the Family' by Farley Mowat. We are really enjoying it. Lots of laughing and asking great questions. 

Patterns/ Math
During our morning work, we are reviewing math concepts. In our regular math time we are learning new concepts. It is always interesting to see what students retain from the previous year. Since I have taught many of the students last year, I know what I taught. So they can't say 'I never learned that last year'. Doing the quick review each morning really affirms where I need to go with a lesson and what skills need consolidated before we move on. Here is a patterning chart that we co-created during our review lesson. Many students remembered some aspects of patterning but it was absolutely necessary to review.

Looking forward to seeing many of you at our Open House next week. 

Writing 'Small Moment' stories

We have begun to write personal narratives this week. We are looking forward to sharing the finished products with you at our Open House on September 24th. A focus lesson involved discussing how to break down an idea into a smaller portion and write about it. So, instead of being told to write about your whole entire summer which is a BIG idea (the Lucy Calkin's program calls this a 'Watermelon' idea), students use a graphic organizer to break it down into many 'small moments'.

As you can see from the above picture, this student used her 'seed ideas' to create a multitude of starting points for her next story writing. Each of these seeds is a potential story waiting to happen. Students in my class always like 'Writer's workshop' time. What do I do while students are working? I conference with each student to help them critique their writing and make it better. I also facilitate conversations between peers. Having students hear each others stories helps them improve their own writing. Here is an example of the checklist I use with them when we are having our meeting. Basically if you make learning and your expectations explicit, students aren't left guessing what they have to do to improve their work. 

Sometimes a conference might be simply to help a student spell a word or ensure the story makes sense. Here is how I help students with difficult words. I have them try it first. (You can often learn so much by how a student is forming words. This can help you create your next mini-lesson. For example...you can tell I need to do some teaching around vowel sounds and word endings but this student has some excellent strategies) 

Homework...and so it begins:

Each week, I will be adding one item of homework to our routine. Rather than give them all at once, I like to introduce the weekly homework one at a time. This week there will be social studies homework (Friday) and next week we begin word wall spelling words (Monday). Please check into the Homework section of this blog as I will update routinely. Generally, homework should only be about 10 minutes times the grade. So Grade Two should have about 20 minutes a night. Of course, some of this time could be reading with you before bedtime, or working on computer reading/ math programs. 

Read Alouds

We have been having fun reading some chapter stories already! Can you believe it, the second week of school and we have done 2 out of these 3 books! Not to mention some of our good, old favourites like 'A Bad Case of Stripes' by David Shannon and Muncha, Muncha, Muncha by Candace Fleming. Friday is our first library day. Mr Cann our librarian always says my class knows their authors! We regularly clear out his Roald Dahl section! Although I think Mike Wade with his 'And then it happened...' books is starting to become a close second with some of my students. 

                                     Have a great week!

A sneak peak of our classroom!

School started very smoothly this Tuesday. I am looking forward to a fabulous year teaching a straight Grade Two! We are off to a wonderful start with learning new routines and expectations. I sent a 'Welcome' note home in your child's agenda today and hope that you will visit this blog to find out 'what's new'! 

Building community
Whenever a new class gathers, it is important for the teacher to build a sense of community. A way to do that is simply to take the time to 'find out' about each other. Our school uses the language of 'Tribes' (a book that provides the foundation for most community building activities) that most Halton District schools use as a basis for teaching learning skills, cooperation and team building. This year we made 'cootie catchers' that I found at 'Scholars choice' (the teacher store) but I also think they could be made quite easily. I'm not sure what the technical term for 'cootie catchers' is and I only remember vaguely running away from anyone who touched me and told me I had cooties as a child so I think pictures are necessary.

 Students answered such questions as "My goals for this year are..." or "A subject I am really good at is..." and then played it with various friends in the room. It worked really well once I modeled how to use it and how to play.

Classroom set up
Desks are set up in groups of 4 in an L formation. This way all students can be facing the direction of the round table so I can assist students as they are working and am quite close to all the action. 

The carpet area with the Smartboard is where I do my focus lessons, read alouds and calendar activities. All our supplies are located there for easy access.

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Our classroom library with books organized by author or subject. Favourite books are on the mini-round table in organized bins for easy access.

Our talking word wall, with our 'Word Wall Words' low enough for easy access using the Smartpen. 
My desk area, with a guided reading table (see the blue, half moon shaped desk). This can be used for mini-lessons. Under the table are small whiteboards and guided reading book sets ready for small groups. 

This is the end of our tour for now. Please visit weekly for updates (I'm usually pretty good at updates...although occasionally life gets in the way). Our first trip will be early October to Safety Village (yes, we get to drive around in those little jeeps!).

Welcome to a new school year!

Welcome
The first few weeks of a new school year is a busy, happy time. I have been in the school numerous times already setting up the classroom. I tried to make it look really different for a particular reason...
As some of you may know or have figured out, I am in a unique situation this year. Since I taught a split grade last year, I have been given the opportunity to take my existing 'Grade One' students on to 'Grade Two'. As well, I am looking forward to meeting some new students which will round out the numbers within the classroom nicely. I have done this before in my previous schools and the notion of 'linking' or 'looping' students on to a second year is not a new concept.There is significant research to support the success of this option and I am pleased to be able to have the opportunity. If you are interested in reading about the positive aspects, here is a good, reputable article to start http://www.edutopia.org/looping-multiage-classroom-grouping-palisades

Classroom set-up and September start-up:
I will post some pictures next week of our new classroom and some of our procedures and learning. Please check in to this blog weekly and I will have updates to help you feel connected to what is happening (as it happens!). You may have noticed that the on-line back pack did not have a materials list this year. If you would like to provide your child with some extra materials for their use only or help out the classroom by sending some items in, then this is entirely up to you. The school does provide for a consumable budget and basic items will always be provided. 

Summer
I hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable summer. Each summer I always take on one new project. Here is a picture of the pond that was built in my backyard. I am very lucky to have talented family members to help out. The sound of water trickling and frogs croaking is very relaxing. Here is a picture of my happy place :) 

One of my Uncles is a potter and made the amazing pottery fish so that they spout water.

If you build it, they will come. I have now counted well over 5 or 6 frogs! Can you see him?

Hope all of you are enjoying this long weekend and I will see you all on Tuesday. 

Father's Day pics and Summer is almost here!

Blog...
This year, I decided to try blogging as a means to communicate with parents in a more up to date way. Instead of the monthly newsletter, I thought that perhaps weekly updates with pictures may be a more interesting way to let parents know what was happening. Thank you to those who provided feedback (especially positive or constructive)! I heard from parents who are separated that it is a nice way to get the same message and not feel that somehow a newsletter did not make it to both homes. I also enjoyed the feedback from parents about something I wrote and that they enjoyed reading about it. Another bonus was students themselves reading it during reading time and looking at pictures of us, as it actually happened. In a very real way it is a bit like a yearbook, an opportunity to look at all that happened and see events in their entirety.  It is a bit scary to venture out into the world with your educational thoughts/ideas but I knew that after many years of teaching that maybe, just maybe I had something to say that others might find interesting. At the very least, I hope my sense of humour and care for the children in my class shines through in what I write. I may blog a bit in the summer, but really I don't expect much of an audience as I hope that everyone is off exploring, travelling and enjoying family time (as I hope to do).

Father's day art

I'll leave you with some of the magnificent pictures from Father's day! The watercolour artwork turned out so well. Using salt on the watercolour paper is what created those magnificent effects. To make the animals, I borrowed doodles from this amazing site   Doodle art link and had the children use markers to great effect.

This student created owls!

The symbolism of a Dad and baby was particularly poignant and I hope you appreciated it much more than a paper tie or macaroni necklace ...although those are quite stylish I hear (I did, accidently wear a macaroni necklace out shopping one day...long story...ends with shoppers pointing at me and laughing). On that note...have a wonderful, safe and happy summer! What will I be doing this summer....just building a pond ...shouldn't be too hard :)

Notes:
Wednesday(June 26)is when reports come home. Sign and return please. This is also the Cambridge Butterfly conservatory trip (remember lunch is provided)

Thursday (June 27) is a shortened day and students will be dismissed at 1:40 p.m. 

Friday (June 28) P.A. Day for teachers (no school for students)
             Schools out for summer/ see you in September
Here are my sister's alpacas with their new summer coats...just to make you smile.

Probability, End of year, Father's day

Probability
Our last math unit of the year is 'Probability'. I like to save this unit until the end as it is kind of fun. You can play probability games and do some creative writing as well. Today we read the book, Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett (yes, before the movie there was a book). We used probability language: Likely, unlikely, never, impossible and discussed what each means. Then we did a follow up activity that you might find amusing. Here are some results:

End of Year stuff
I am slowly sending home items that we have completed. I usually write on the books that this is 'complete' so you know not to send it back to school. A locker and desk clean up will happen soon so I'm hoping to send home any old winter items or belongings that have been trapped in the lockers for a few months (bet you can't wait!). Today, I reached into a child's locker and pulled out a very scary, old banana. It wasn't going to be long before the fruit flies carried it out for me. 

Next week is the last week for Home Reading. I'd like to get back all the books and any carrying portfolios for inventory. Mr. Cann is stopping book exchange next week for inventory as well. However, on-line books (Bookflix, Raz-kinds, Tumblebooks) are available all summer!

Burlington Firehall
Grade One students walked to the Burlington Firehall on Berwick and Walker's Line. A big shout out to the firemen who were so patient, fun and informative with the students. They showed them all their rescue tools and explained the difference between a pumper truck and a rescue vehicle. Each child was able to sit in the truck and it was all very organized. Just as we finished the fireman got a real rescue call. We were able to see them jump into action and they waved to us as they drove away, sirens blazing. Quite exciting! Then we came back to school for 'Jump Rope for Heart'. It was a very active day! 

Father's Day
We have been busy making super, secret gifts. I will post pictures next week once the surprise is over! I don't normally share too much personally but here is a picture of my Dad and I at the Hubbard Glacier in Alaska. I'm very lucky to still have him in my life! The two things I remember about this picture is that the glacier was breathtaking. The other thing I remember is they had mosquitoes there that were the biggest I've ever seen...could have been used as the national bird...you could actually hear them arriving :)

                        Hope everyone has a great weekend!