Friday September 28th

 Was it just me...or did this feel like a longer week than normal?

Thank goodness it's Friday.  

Here is the plan for today.  

Period 1 and 2 is Language.  We'll talk a little bit about reconciliation, watch this CBC kids video and discuss 'Orange Shirt Day'. What is Reconciliation? | CBC Kids.

Then the kids will have some time to work in partners for Reader's/writer's workshop.  I'll also introduce the kids to English Prodigy.  We'll talk a little about nouns and homophones.

Period 3 is math.  We'll play a cool dice rolling game where the kids practise making 10.  

Period 4 is gym with Mr. D.

Period 5 and 6 we'll discuss 'Orange Shirt Day' a little more.  Then we'll collaborate to make our own giant 'Orange Shirt' poster.  ​​What is Orange Shirt Day? | Articles | CBC Kids

We might even get to watch an episode of Wayside while we work....

Have a great weekend everyone.

Thursday September 28th

 Here is the plan for today:

Period 1 is reader's workshop.  After we read some BFG, we'll talk about how visualizing helps us to keep focus.

Period 2 is writer's workshop.  We had some pretty successful writing yesterday when we set 'dot goals'. We'll keep that going with the addition of just trying to keep a pencil in our paper.

Period 3 is gym with Mr. D.

Period 4 is math.  We'll be looking at Mental Math strategies for adding.  Today we'll be looking at 'counting on' and 'making 10's'. 

Counting on https://www.splashlearn.com/math-vocabulary/counting-and-comparison/count-on

Making tens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9h4skGoWJ8&themeRefresh=1

Period 5 We'll do a bit of science, learning a little more about what exactly a force is.

Period 6 is Library.  If we have some time at the end of the day we'll try and do some math prodigy problems.

Wednesday September 27th

 Here is the plan for today.

Period 1 we'll finish up our 'cubist autumn' trees for Red light.  Then we'll read some more form the BFG.   For reader's workshop we'll continue to focus on 'choosing engagement' and we'll talk about finding 'just right books'. 

Period 2 is writer's workshop.  We'll set 'dot goals' and see if we can write enough to reach our goals.  

Period 3 and 4 is math .  We'll do an estimation mystery.  Then we'll talk about how we can use estimation/rounding to add approximate numbers.  The work will be sort of like this: Estimating Sums & Differences Worksheets

Period 5 is Music with Mrs. Haynes.  

Period 6 is possibly science...possibly just a finish up periods...I like to see what kind of shape the kids are in last period before I decide with how to proceed! 

Tuesday September 26th

 Happy Tuesday.

Here is what is coming up today.

Periods 1 and 2 -we spent a lot of time trying to solve this impossible magic square.   https://www.transum.org/software/SW/magic_square/magic_square.asp.  It was a great lesson in just getting the kids to 'try' instead of giving up.  Our mantra this year is 'It's okay not to know...but it's NOT okay NOT to try'.  Then we started 'The BFG' as our class read aloud (please don't (re)watch the movie until we've finished the book).  Then we did reader's workshop...focusing on consciously choosing to stay engaged in our books.  The class was so good that I took them outside for a little bit before lunch.  

Period 3 we're having our special presentation about Violence in Video games.  

Period 4 we have the chromebooks.  We'll be practising our skip counting on math prodigy.

Period 5 is Science, we'll do a little experiment about pushing and pulling.

Period 6 is 'the arts' with Mrs. Haynes.

Monday September 25th

 Happy Monday everyone!

Here is the plan for today:

Period 1 we have a special guest coming in...Muhammad Anwar.  He's an engineer for Canada Post.  He'll be working with our class throughout the year, talking about his experiences as an engineer and hopefully inspiring some of our kids.

Period 2 we'll do 'weekend round up' and share the highlights of our weekend, plus we'll do reader's/writer's workshop, focusing on staying quiet, and focused.

Period 3 and 4 is math.  We'll be looking at skip counting by 50's, 100's and 200's.  

Period 5 is French with Mme. O'Neil.

Period 6 will either be Science or 'finish up' depending on our energy levels.  

Friday September 21st

 Here is the plan for today:

Period 1 we'll do a little Terry Fox work.  Then we'll do some prep. work for Tuesday's workshop on Violence in Video games.

Period 2 is student choice 'reader's/writer's workshop'.  They're allowed to work in partners on Friday if they wish.

Period 3 is math.  I'm hoping to finish our scavenger hunt from yesterday.  Those who are finished early will be able to play prodigy. 

Period 4 is gym, and Mr. D is taking them for the Terry Fox run.

Period 5 and 6 is art.  We'll be making 'cubist trees' in the style of Picasso.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Thursday September 21st

 Here is the plan for today:

Period 1 reader's workshop. Our mini lesson will focus on 'waking up our brain' by asking questions to make sure we're still engaged in our books.

Period 2 is writer's workshop.  We'll focus on 'silencing the "it's no good" voice in our head when we're writing.

Period 3 is gym with Mr. D.  We'll continue to work with Dan from the Toronto Rock to develop our lacrosse skills.

Period 4 is math.  We're continuing to work on rounding (to the nearest 10 and 100).  I've set up a scavenger hunt around the room.

Period 5 we'll do some of the science we started earlier this week.  Looking for different uses of forces (push and pulls).

Period 6 we have library.  We'll find some books and read and relax at the end of the day.

NOTE: tomorrow is the Terry Fox run!