“I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.”
- Albert Einstein IMPORTANT INFORMATION “Please, sir, I want some more…” Oliver stated, holding up his empty craft bucket. He shot a sly look to his left and right, sizing up the crowd. He inhaled sharply. As he slowly exhaled he sighed a quiet, “… yarn.” (I’m pretty sure that’s how Oliver Twist goes.) Thank you to the students who brought in yarn for our Worry Doll Centre. On the weekend, the Grade 3 Teaching Team met, and we planned some more activities, to bring the centers up to an even 20. One station that we added is the Arpilleras, a vibrant quilt that depicts idyllic life in Peru. Students will be creating a version of this quilt, telling the story of their understanding about Peru. They will cut out shapes symbolic of Peru, and wrap yarn around it to create the 3-D effect, which they will then attach to the quilt. Sooooooooo…. with that, we require more brightly coloured yarn for this centre. Jacket Racket Coat Drive Grade 6 Students are collecting warm winter coats, toques, snow pants (why that is not a compound word is beyond me), and mittens for children in the K-Gr 12 age range. Please make sure the items are in gently used condition at most before donating. They are collecting items until November 1st. IMPORTANT DATES November 1: Last day to donate to Jacket Racket. November 7: Photo retakes. November 8: Telus Spark Field Trip. November 8: Fun Lunch (Extreme Pita) - Please note: If you order your child a Fun Lunch, they will receive it when we return to the school at the end of day. November 10: Remembrance Day Assembly at 10:45 am. November 17: PD Day - No School. November 22: Fun Lunch (Opa!) November 29: Elder Shirley Hill OUR DAY 38 days under our belt, 144 days to go! Mwahahahaha! A huge two thumbs up to the children today! Today was “just another day in the office”. The excitement of Halloween, the costumes, and our gathering this afternoon did not stop them from getting some quality work in. We reflected on our goals from yesterday (did we meet them, almost, not quite), did another Wordstorm!, and then had music. Literacy Centres followed music, and the students are coming along swimmingly with getting to task, knowing what the expectations are, and understanding the group plan. I was able to pull some students to my table to provide support with no interruptions. I am sensing our Word Work and Guided Reading groups will be staring very soon. HUZZAH TO THEM! I introduced the students to the 20 different Rocks and Minerals Science Stations. We will dive into them tomorrow. After lunch, students reviewed the feedback on their barking copy (the rough, rough copy) for their Best Part of Me Writing. Once they understood what the feedback was they changed/added/omitted what was necessary to create their rough copy. I will review and tweak, and we can begin our good copies in short order. Students then cleaned up the class for our Halloween Party. Thank-you to those that provided the delightful snacks! They were devoured quickly. Students had the choice to play math games, BAM!, create a collage scene scene with flaps, or a logic problem. Our Grade 5 Buddies also visited us, where students created a shared monster drawing. This was where they drew one element of a monster in their Buddy’s Visual Journal, and then switched back and forth, adding more and more elements. What an amazing collection of monsters!! Students cleaned up at the end of day (they do clean up nicely), and Oldest/Only were sent home with the November calendar. I am off to go by the broccoli for my Halloweenies that show up for treats at my house tonight. Hopefully I don’t run out this year… Please have a safe and exhilarating evening! I can’t wait to hear all about it tomorrow. Cheerios! Ms Lauf IMPORTANT INFORMATION Halloween Halloween is tomorrow!! Students are invited to dress up for the whole day. We will do a quick in-class Halloween Parade for those students who are dressing up. This will hopefully get the Halloween Yayas out before our Amazing Day of Learning. A quick message regarding masks and weaponry: Masks Students may bring in masks to wear for our parade, first thing in the morning. After that, students will put their masks away, so they do not become a distraction, and scare the stuffing out of the teacher, OR get wrecked, lost, maimed, mutilated, shredded, chewed, or licked. Face paint is a-ok. Weaponry Please keep costume knives, broadswords, axes, cannons, catapults, ninja throwing stars, crossbows, battle axes, rapiers, dirks, evil potions, broccoli, slingshots, trebuchets, cows, and other nefarious items at home. We will be getting together with our Buddies during our par-tay. As per CBE regulations, students may bring in a HEALTHY snack (e.g., fruits, veggies, cheese, crackers, …), as I’d like to send them home as relaxed and ready as they can be for the evening. Please let Jodi know if you can send something along. “Please, sir, I want some more…” Oliver stated, holding up his empty craft bucket. He shot a sly look to his left and right, sizing up the crowd. He inhaled sharply. As he slowly exhaled he sighed a quiet, “… yarn.” (I’m pretty sure that’s how Oliver Twist goes.) Thank you to the students who brought in yarn for our Worry Doll Centre. On the weekend, the Grade 3 Teaching Team met, and we planned some more activities, to bring the centers up to an even 20. One station that we added is the Arpilleras, a vibrant quilt that depicts idyllic life in Peru. Students will be creating a version of this quilt, telling the story of their understanding about Peru. They will cut out shapes symbolic of Peru, and wrap yarn around it to create the 3-D effect, which they will then attach to the quilt. Sooooooooo…. with that, we require more brightly coloured yarn for this centre. Jacket Racket Coat Drive Grade 6 Students are collecting warm winter coats, toques, snow pants (why that is not a compound word is beyond me), and mittens for children in the K-Gr 12 age range. Please make sure the items are in gently used condition at most before donating. They are collecting items until November 1st. IMPORTANT DATES October 31: Halloween. November 1: Last day to donate to Jacket Racket. November 7: Photo retakes. November 8: Telus Spark Field Trip. November 8: Fun Lunch (Extreme Pita) - Please note: If you order your child a Fun Lunch, they will receive it when we return to the school at the end of day. November 10: Remembrance Day Assembly at 10:45 am. November 17: PD Day - No School. November 22: Fun Lunch (Opa!) November 29: Elder Shirley Hill OUR DAY 37 days under our belt, 143 days to go! Monday Morning Blahs? NO! Not this class! We got the Monday Morning Blah Blahs instead! Our day started off with a Wordstorm!, a self-competitive (is that a word?) competition where students write words for one minute only. They tally up their total. Extra points given if they wrote the Mystery Word, or wrote any words relating to curriculum. Students were encouraged to write critical words from their weekend to help prime their brain for writing. In future Wordstorms, students will try to beat their previous total. This was followed by goal setting for the week, Weekend/Artifact writing, and finally Literacy Centres. I am now giving them 20 minutes to work on a centre, so they get a sense of time, and understanding that we have a finite time to get things done. (I will continue to support students where needed so they can achieve this goal.) After recess, we had an informative lesson from Ms Purkiss about the Me to We concept which is understanding how our expected and unexpected behaviour affects not only our learning, but the learning of the whole class. I had asked Ms Purkiss to do this lesson based on my observations of classroom behaviour, and how I can best help the students be successful. Concepts we touched on include: expected and unexpected behaviour, keeping our hands to ourselves, pointing our body to the speaker to help us focus, speech bubble vs thought bubble, empathy, and making sure our behaviour is contributing positively to our classroom environment. Here is an example of how unexpected behaviour of one can trigger unexpected behaviour in many, and how it can affect the learning: Expected behaviour is to sit quietly and listen to a story. One student stands up to get a pen and paper to draw. This is unexpected behaviour. A couple students, whose minds may have wandered, sees the movement, and also stands up, because they aren’t sure what the group plan is or if the group plan has changed. The teacher stops reading to redirect the 3 students, but now 2 or 3 other students start talking and moving about, because they think the story is over. Soon, it is Mutiny on the Bounty. This all happens within a minute. I will be referring to this lesson to help reinforce these concepts. Cheerios! Ms Lauf "I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Eistein IMPORTANT INFORMATION Callout for Yams! I mean Yarn! The Grade 3 team is currently getting the Peruvian Centres together. We are asking for brightly coloured wool to be donated to the class for a weaving centre, and a Worry Doll centre. Also, if anyone has wooden beads that are burning a hole in your pocket, we are more than happy to take them off your hands. Halloween Halloween is fast approaching, and here is what we have planned. Students are invited to dress up for the whole day. I will post on Monday rules surrounding weapons, props, and masks. From 1:30 – 2:30, we will be having a wee Halloween do, of strategic games and a build project. We do not need any volunteers, as I will still be doing curriculum instruction during this time. As per CBE regulations, students may bring in a HEALTHY snack (e.g., fruits, veggies, cheese, crackers, …), as I’d like to send them home as relaxed and ready as they can be for the evening. Peruvian Artifacts We will begin our Peruvian centres shortly. Jacket Racket Coat Drive Grade 6 Students are collecting warm winter coats, toques, snow pants (why that is not a compound word is beyond me), and mittens for children in the K-Gr 12 age range. Please make sure the items are in gently used condition at most before donating. They are collecting items until November 1st. IMPORTANT DATES October 31: Halloween. November 1: Last day to donate to Jacket Racket. November 7: Photo retakes. November 10: Remembrance Day Assembly at 10:45 am. OUR DAY 36 days under our belt, 144 days to go! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… a bird! More specifically, it’s a pigeon! And even more specifically, many pigeons! A father from a student in Ms Parent’s class came in today to share his passion for pigeon racing. He brought his beautiful birds in, answered questions, and then sent the birds flying! Some students were randomly selected to hep launch them into the air. We will address this more on Monday, and tie this in with Science - Animal Life Cycles and Needs. (We all washed our hands before settling in for our Story and Snack.) Our Grade 5 Buddies came in, and they taught the class a place value game called The Trading Game. This was a wonderful introduction to place value, which we will begin next week, along with number lines, numeracy, and how they tie in with addition and subtraction. Following Buddies, I asked the class how they wanted to fill in the last 25 minutes of the day (suggestions had to relate to something we are doing in the classroom), and an overwhelming amount of requests came in for … GUESS MY NUMBER, which is a fabulous activity on the number line. I wrote down a number between 1 and 1000 on a small piece of paper, and students had to ask specific questions to find the answer. (20 Questions style.) We used maths language, such as greater than, lesser than, even, and odd, we used a double t-chart, and talked about strategies to ask intentional questions, not just, “Is it 482?” We got to our number of 916. Spring boarding off of this, and thinking about Monday Morning Blah Blah, I am giving some “homework” for this weekend. Your child has been asked to talk with you about number lines and place value. This is a brief discussion to prime their brains for maths next week. Kind of like pushing that wee button that gets the gas pumped up on the lawn mower three times before starting it. Your child will be either writing about their weekend, writing about an artifact that represents who they are (which thy will be bringing in and sharing with their table group), or any topic they want. To help them with their writing, and to build up their word bank for when they write, please discuss with them their topic. Cheerios! Ms Lauf “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
- Albert Einstein IMPORTANT INFORMATION Family Halloween Dance Tickets have come home today. A reminder that students who are going to the Family Halloween Dance are dressing up only for the evening. We will have our Day of Costumes on the 31st. Callout for Yarn! The Grade 3 team is currently getting the Peruvian Centres together. We are asking for brightly coloured wool to be donated to the class for a weaving centre, and a Worry Doll centre. Also, if anyone has wooden beads that are burning a hole in your pocket, we are more than happy to take them off your hands. Halloween Halloween is fast approaching, and here is what we have planned. Students are invited to dress up for the whole day. From 1:30 – 2:30, we will be having a wee Halloween do, of strategic games and a build project. We do not need any volunteers, as I will still be doing curriculum instruction during this time. As per CBE regulations, students may bring in a HEALTHY snack (e.g., fruits, veggies, cheese, crackers, …), as I’d like to send them home as relaxed and ready as they can be for the evening. Peruvian Artifacts We will begin our Peruvian centres shortly. Jacket Racket Coat Drive Grade 6 Students are collecting warm winter coats, toques, snow pants (why that is not a compound word is beyond me), and mittens for children in the K-Gr 12 age range. Please make sure the items are in gently used condition at most before donating. They are collecting items until November 1st. IMPORTANT DATES October 26: Family Dance (evening). October 31: Halloween. November 1: Last day to donate to Jacket Racket. November 7: Photo retakes. November 10: Remembrance Day Assembly at 10:45 am. OUR DAY 34 days under our belt, 146 days to go! Things are just ticketed-boo here! Students be-BAM! the day playing, you guessed it, BAM! This is a fun spelling game, focusing specifically on the sight words for different levels. (I also have also made this game for the math facts, which we will dive into next week.) After this, students sang their hearts out in Music. After recess, Mrs Ferrari led the class in an art class of 1-point perspective. All you engineers, draftsmen, architects, interior designers, artists, and comic book illustrators would be so proud of these guys! While it may seem simple to draw squares, and then lines going to one point on the horizon, there are many elements that need to fall into place. First, the teacher needs a good cup of coffee. Wait… First the students need a ruler, patience, a sharp pencil, patience, their Visual Journals, patience, an eraser, and patience. Ask your child to show you what they can do. After the Fun Lunch, I read some more from The One and Only Ivan and write a Feelings Response. I am excited to read how students felt about what they were hearing. Once students wrote their response, they continued working on their Rights of a Child, adding in more details. I like listening to the conversations they are having at their tables as they bring in what they are doing into their conversations. In Gym, we began volleyball, learning the building block skill of serving by using the heel of their hand. In Library, Mrs Cornford read the wonderful, loving, and colourful book, Thunder Boy Jr, by Sherman Alexie, a story about a boy who is figuring out who he is, and how he feels he could go by many different names. Cheerios! Ms Lauf "If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects."
-Albert Einstein IMPORTANT INFORMATION Pyjama Day Tomorrow! The class voted today for Pyjama Day tomorrow! Students may choose to wear their pyjamas tomorrow. Students have been advised that proper footwear is still required in the school, meaning clean and with soles. I have also advised students that stuffies stay at home. In the past, stuffies have gotten wrecked, distracted from learning, and become projectiles whipping past my head, and my poor back can’t handle the deking anymore. Callout for Yarn! The Grade 3 team is currently getting the Peruvian Centres together. We are asking for brightly coloured wool to be donated to the class for a weaving centre, and a Worry Doll centre. Also, if anyone has wooden beads that are burning a hole in your pocket, we are more than happy to take them off your hands. Halloween Halloween is fast approaching, and here is what we have planned. Students are invited to dress up for the whole day. From 1:30 – 2:30, we will be having a wee Halloween do, of strategic games and a build project. We do not need any volunteers, as I will still be doing curriculum instruction during this time. As per CBE regulations, students may bring in a HEALTHY snack (e.g., fruits, veggies, cheese, crackers, …), as I’d like to send them home as relaxed and ready as they can be for the evening. Please let Jodi know if you are able to bring in some snacks. There are 23 students in our class. Jacket Racket Coat Drive Grade 6 Students are collecting warm winter coats, toques, snow pants (why that is not a compound word is beyond me), and mittens for children in the K-Gr 12 age range. Please make sure the items are in gently used condition at most before donating. They are collecting items until November 1st. IMPORTANT DATES October 25: Fun Lunch (Little Caesar) October 26: Family Dance (evening). October 31: Halloween. November 1: Last day to donate to Jacket Racket. November 7: Photo retakes. November 10: Remembrance Day Assembly at 10:45 am. OUR DAY 33 days under our belt, 147 days to go! It’s not everyday that you come home from school excited to brush your teeth! Students went through five different Rocks & Minerals Centres, one of which was making toothpaste. Did you know that toothpaste includes the rock limestone, which has been crushed (and is also an ingredient of Tums®)? Your child is coming home with a small bag of their toothpaste. The ingredients are: calcium carbonate (pulverized Tums®, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), and water. In the afternoon, we came up with a list of when it is appropriate to interrupt the teacher during instructions or discussions. The list includes: Broken Bones, Blood, Barfing, a natural disaster (tornado, earthquake, or tsunami), an alien invasion, Duran Duran has entered the classroom, fisticuffs, a stampede, WWIII, a dinosaur attack, an animal is roaming the hallways, or we are being torpedoed. Students continued to work on their Rights Visual Journal spread. It is interesting to see their choices of what they consider the most important rights, and to hear their reasoning behind it. After gym, I read the story Infinity and Me, by Kate Hosford, and illustrated by Gabi Siatkowska. Hopefully the ideas of infinity are not going to stir up the “swirl of the midnight mind”, from the book The Liszts by, well the book is over there across the room, and I am being too lazy to get it. Oh! Wait! Google! Standby… It’s by Kyo Mclear and Julia Sarda. Cheerios! Ms Lauf “Sharpie—the preferred writing utensil on orbit since you can hold it any which way and it still works.”
Chris Hadfield, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth IMPORTANT INFORMATION Rocks and Minerals Materials Required for Upcoming Activities We are beginning our Rocks and Minerals Science Centres this week, and we require some materials, as I just don't have enough. We will need:
Mathletics Mathletics forms and fees are due by Friday, October 27th to the office. Peruvian Artifacts WE ARE LOOKING FOR ANYONE THAT HAS TRAVELLED TO PERU THAT WOULD BE WILLING TO SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCE AND/OR ARTIFACTS WITH THE CLASS. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU CAN HELP. We are currently studying the country of Peru. If you have any artifacts related to this unit of study that you would be willing to lend to our classroom it would be greatly appreciated. Artifacts could include pictures, dishes, art, paintings, sculptures, toys, books, clothing, tools, jewelry, etc… Students will sketch these artifacts, try to determine what they were used for, as well as how they are similar/different from artifacts here in Canada. Please send items to school with your child with a brief written explanation. It would be helpful if you did not explain details of the artifact to your child, as they will be taking part in the sketching, observation, and inquiry process of the artifact with their classmates. We promise to take extra special care of your personal items! Jacket Racket Coat Drive Grade 6 Students are collecting warm winter coats, toques, snow pants (why that is not a compound word is beyond me), and mittens for children in the K-Gr 12 age range. Please make sure the items are in gently used condition at most before donating. They are collecting items until November 1st. IMPORTANT DATES October 24: Rocks & Minerals Presentation October 25: Fun Lunch (Little Caesar) October 26: Family Dance (evening). October 31: Halloween. November 1: Last day to donate to Jacket Racket. November 7: Photo retakes. November 10: Remembrance Day Assembly at 10:45 am. OUR DAY 32 days under our belt, 148 days to go! A full day of writing, math, science, social, and playing with intention. Students wrote about their weekend, set their weekly goals and practiced the Literacy Centres some more. We will be wrapping up Math Pattern Bins this week; but this does not mean patterns are done with. No sir, not even close. Patterns will be weaved throughout the rest of the topics in Math. We are putting the finishing touches on our Science Centres (there will be 20 centres!). I will get this started with the class on Wednesday. We have added one more activity, where students require a second rock, the same size as the first one. If your child cannot bring one in, I will see what I can dig up in my backyard. Hopefully there will also be a big bag of cash! Or diamonds. Most likely it will be nails, screws, and roofing paper. *sigh* A girl can dream. We are continuing with our reading of The One and Only Ivan. Today’s response question was, “Why does Bob the Dog say that Westerns are nothing like real life, where the good guys always win?” We discussed what this means, if Ivan and Bob were good or bad/evil characters, how this ties in with quality of life (Are the basic needs being met? Shelter? Food? Friends?), and how does Ivan’s life compare to his life when he was little. This lead to a passionate question of “Are zoos jailing animals?!?!?!!??” Certainly a thoughtful question to ponder, especially as we are going to Zoo School in April. HASHTAGproudteacher I am having the students think about the similarities and differences of Ivan’s life compared to the zoos they know. We will be discussing this, and see where this may lead our driving question for Zoo School. We finished our day tackling a logic problem, which we will finish tomorrow. A reminder that we have Teacher’s Pet in tomorrow. If you have an opportunity to volunteer, please let Jodi our Classroom Coordinator know. I believe we still need one more person. It is from 9:00-11:00ish. Cheerios! Ms Lauf "On Earth, it's just a given that if you put a fork on the table, it will stay there. But remove that one variable, gravity, and everything changes."
Chris Hadfield, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth IMPORTANT INFORMATION Rocks and Minerals Materials Required for Upcoming Activities We are beginning our Rocks and Minerals Science Centres next week, and we require some materials, as I just don't have enough. For next week Monday, October 23, we need:
Monday Morning Blah Blah A reminder to students to be ready to share with their table group what they did on the weekend, or an artifact that has meaning to them. This can be a picture or the artifact. They will then write, feedback, write feedback, write, feedback, and write some more. Halloween Family Dance Ticket orders are due this coming Monday, October 23rd. A reminder that your child must be accompanied by an adult. Mathletics Mathletics forms and fees are due by Friday, October 27th to the office. Peruvian Artifacts WE ARE LOOKING FOR ANYONE THAT HAS TRAVELLED TO PERU THAT WOULD BE WILLING TO SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCE AND/OR ARTIFACTS WITH THE CLASS. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU CAN HELP. We are currently studying the country of Peru. If you have any artifacts related to this unit of study that you would be willing to lend to our classroom it would be greatly appreciated. Artifacts could include pictures, dishes, art, paintings, sculptures, toys, books, clothing, tools, jewelry, etc… Students will sketch these artifacts, try to determine what they were used for, as well as how they are similar/different from artifacts here in Canada. Please send items to school with your child with a brief written explanation. It would be helpful if you did not explain details of the artifact to your child, as they will be taking part in the sketching, observation, and inquiry process of the artifact with their classmates. We promise to take extra special care of your personal items! Jacket Racket Coat Drive Grade 6 Students are collecting warm winter coats, toques, snow pants (why that is not a compound word is beyond me), and mittens for children in the K-Gr 12 age range. Please make sure the items are in gently used condition at most before donating. They are collecting items until November 1st. IMPORTANT DATES October 23: Halloween Family Dance Ticket Order Forms are due. October 25: Fun Lunch (Little Caesar) October 26: Halloween Family Dance (evening). October 31: Halloween. November 1: Last day to donate to Jacket Racket. November 7: Photo retakes. November 10: Remembrance Day Assembly at 10:45 am. OUR DAY 31 days under our belt, 149 days to go! KETCHUP DAY! I love the classroom on Ketchup days. Students have a checklist of things they need to finish, which includes task expectations. They work together, check out each other’s work, and laugh. I can roam around, help students, and laugh. Today’s Ketchup included:
We had Music in the middle, followed up with a bite to eat and a fun little discussion about nothing in particular. Next week, we begin our Rocks and Minerals Science Stations. We will also have a teacher from Teacher’s Pet coming in with some more Rocks and Minerals experiments and tasks, including making toothpaste. Minty fresh! Cheerios! Ms Lauf “No matter how competent or how seasoned, every astronaut is essentially a perpetual student, forever cramming for the next test. It's not how I envisioned things when I was 9 years old. Then I dreamed of blasting off in a blaze of glory to explore the universe, not sitting in a classroom studying orbital mechanics. In Russian.”
Chris Hadfield, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth IMPORTANT INFORMATION Rocks and Minerals Materials Required for Upcoming Activities We are beginning our Rocks and Minerals Science Centres next week, and we require some materials, as I just don't have enough. For next week Monday, October 23, we need:
Peruvian Artifacts WE ARE LOOKING FOR ANYONE THAT HAS TRAVELLED TO PERU THAT WOULD BE WILLING TO SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCE AND/OR ARTIFACTS WITH THE CLASS. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU CAN HELP. We are currently studying the country of Peru. If you have any artifacts related to this unit of study that you would be willing to lend to our classroom it would be greatly appreciated. Artifacts could include pictures, dishes, art, paintings, sculptures, toys, books, clothing, tools, jewelry, etc… Students will sketch these artifacts, try to determine what they were used for, as well as how they are similar/different from artifacts here in Canada. Please send items to school with your child with a brief written explanation. It would be helpful if you did not explain details of the artifact to your child, as they will be taking part in the sketching, observation, and inquiry process of the artifact with their classmates. We promise to take extra special care of your personal items! Jacket Racket Coat Drive Grade 6 Students are collecting warm winter coats, toques, snow pants (why that is not a compound word is beyond me), and mittens for children in the K-Gr 12 age range. Please make sure the items are in gently used condition at most before donating. They are collecting items until November 1st. IMPORTANT DATES October 25: Fun Lunch (Little Caesar) October 26: Family Dance (evening). October 31: Halloween. November 1: Last day to donate to Jacket Racket. November 7: Photo retakes. November 10: Remembrance Day Assembly at 10:45 am. OUR DAY 30 days under our belt, 150 days to go! We had Circle today. Our prompt was, “I am happy when…” and then the reason. I love these shares, because I love finding out more about who each student is, as well as knowing the students are finding out more about their classmates. We continued on with Literacy Centres. You know they are enjoying it when they ask to keep going. Two thumbs up! Students wrote out the barking copy (the rough rough rough copy). I will go over them tonight, write some initial feedback, and conference with them. This process will cycle through until they have a solid piece, ready for publishing. Today’s Read Aloud was a Frog and Toad story, called The Story. Ask your child to give you a summary of it. We continued on with Math Pattern Bins. We will be wrapping up direct patterns within the week, and then we will be moving on to Place Value and Numeracy. I sat with some students today, working through some problems wth them, and I just love that “A-ha!” moment, where they get it. First there face is all scrunched up, and then eyebrows shoot up, a big smile hits their face, and then ownership. Ownership sounds like this: “Okayokayokay Ms Lauf. I get it. I can do this on my own.” Again, two thumbs up! This afternoon, we had PoWer Hour, followed by Gym, where we were attacked by Aliens. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh………….. Heeeeeeellllllpppppppppp!!!!!!!!! Just kidding. It’s a superfine game that gets everyone moving and laughing. After we got our hearts beating, we had an oh-so-brief recap about Needs and Rights, and now students are creating a 2-page spread in their Visual Journals, identifying their Top 8 Rights. I showed them a couple different layouts and how to create them. Once they had their layouts, they began their illustrations and labelling. My, how the time flies. As always, I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings. Cheerios! Ms Lauf Dear Parents,
This email was sent home today to families. I will be addressing digital citizenship, again, with students tomorrow. As stated previously, our blog is closed for comments. I will, instead, have the students share their comments in class. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me. Ms Lauf _____________________________________________________________ Dear Parents and Families of Grade 3 students, Unfortunately there have been a couple of incidents recently of an unknown individual who has posted inappropriate words and comments on our blogs under another student’s name. We removed the comments as quickly as possible, and now have set up our blogs as such that all comments are subject to approval by homeroom teachers before they are posted to the blogs. We are using these incidents as a learning opportunity for students. We have spoken to our classes about how physical actions and words greatly affect other people. This is an opportunity to talk about our responsibility in digital citizenship and online safety. One way you can help, is by viewing and responding to the classroom blog with your child. Thank you for your support as we learn and collaborate together. Sincerely, Jennifer England Karin Lauf Tammy Parent “Anticipating problems and figuring out how to solve them is actually the opposite of worrying: it’s productive.”
Chris Hadfield, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth IMPORTANT INFORMATION Peruvian Artifacts WE ARE LOOKING FOR ANYONE THAT HAS TRAVELLED TO PERU THAT WOULD BE WILLING TO SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCE AND/OR ARTIFACTS WITH THE CLASS. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU CAN HELP. We are currently studying the country of Peru. If you have any artifacts related to this unit of study that you would be willing to lend to our classroom it would be greatly appreciated. Artifacts could include pictures, dishes, art, paintings, sculptures, toys, books, clothing, tools, jewelry, etc… Students will sketch these artifacts, try to determine what they were used for, as well as how they are similar/different from artifacts here in Canada. Please send items to school with your child with a brief written explanation. It would be helpful if you did not explain details of the artifact to your child, as they will be taking part in the sketching, observation, and inquiry process of the artifact with their classmates. We promise to take extra special care of your personal items! Jacket Racket Coat Drive Grade 6 Students are collecting warm winter coats, toques, snow pants (why that is not a compound word is beyond me), and mittens for children in the K-Gr 12 age range. Please make sure the items are in gently used condition at most before donating. They are collecting items until November 1st. IMPORTANT DATES October 25: Fun Lunch (Little Caesar) October 26: Family Dance (evening). October 31: Halloween. November 1: Last day to donate to Jacket Racket. November 7: Photo retakes. November 10: Remembrance Day Assembly at 10:45 am. OUR DAY 29 days under our belt, 151 days to go! Today, we began with Circle, where students shared something they are excited about. Such a variety of comments! Halloween! Christmas! Going on a trip with family! A hockey tournament! I love doing Circle with the students, as this just builds up those relationships, right across the board. We went over the Poetry Pause Literacy Centre poem. During our discussion, we talked about strategies for figuring out words we don’t know (re-reading, guessing what it might mean based on what the author is telling us, and then asking, “Does it make sense?”. We also looked the function and placement of quotation marks, and visualizing in our heads. I will continue working and supporting students as we dive into the deep and rich hallways of poetry. We continued working with the math pattern bins, specifically dealing with increasing and decreasing patterns. As part of the Grade 3 Social Studies curriculum, we explore quality of life, wants and needs, and rights that we have here and around the world. We are currently looking at the United Nations Rights of a Child, in order to build up the base of understanding for when we critically look at Peru, Tunisia, Ukraine, and India. I will not address all the Articles in the UN Rights of a Child due to subject matter. The ones we looked at today are:
As you can imagine, the discussion was a heavy one. There were some misunderstandings, such as the belief that your parents own you like they own a chair. This led to discussion about belonging versus owning, and how we belong to our family, because they love us and they want the best for us. Some students identified that they were not feeling good in knowing that some kids don’t have these, to which we discussed empathy and what we can do to help others. The students were thoughtful in their participation, making connections to things that they knew. Some of these things might come up at home, as one student said, when they think at night. At the end of our conversation, I had the students do a mindful reflection, thinking about their family that loves them, something that they are grateful for, and how they feel when they remember they are loved. These are emotional ideas, and I will continue to support them as they develop empathy and see themselves as part of this big, beautiful world, that sometimes needs extra love or help. I will also continue to guide all our conversations towards our class beliefs of “You are valued. You are loved. You are safe. I hear you and I see you.” We finished the day with the sunshine on our faces, the wind in our hair, and the fresh air in our lungs. I wish you all a peaceful evening. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring. Cheerios! Ms Lauf |
AuthorMs Lauf Archives
June 2018
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