A Peek at Last Week

We started our new read aloud this week - Because of Mr. Terupt, written by Rob Buyea.  This book came highly recommended by a few of my followers at the beginning of the year, so I scooped it up.  SO glad I did - my students are LOVING it!  (There's a sequel, too).  We're still studying summarizing as our comprehension strategy, so I've had the students working on summaries in various ways - through turn and talks with a partner, sticky note summaries, written reader responses, and different kinds of organizers.  One of my favourites this week as a 30 word summary I asked my students to write - exactly 30 words, no more, no less.  There was a lot of great thinking going on as they worked to add or eliminate words to hit the number target.  We've also used the book to start a lot of great discussions on characterization, as the book is written from the point of view of 7 different characters.  I think we'll move on to Making Connections as our next comprehension strategy as I'm pretty sure my students will relate and connect to some of the characters and situations/problems in the novel.

Also inspired by the book, we've added "Dollar Words" into our daily number talks.  The characters in the book had a math project to find as many dollar words as they could (words that add up to $1.00 or 100 - a=1, b=2, c=3 and so on).  I made a quick template page for our smartboard, and give the students 3 or 4 minutes at the beginning of each number talk to try to find a dollar word.  Students that find one can share at the smartboard when they are done.

We've also been working on our Remembrance Day tribute this week.  Every year my students participate in our Legion's annual Literary and Poster Contest.  My students have been working on their posters (colour or black and white) and poems (at least 4 quatrains with a rhyme scheme) throughout the week.  We've also been working on our Poppy Craftivity, but we won't finish these up until Monday.  I'm going to use the poppies and copies of their poems for our November bulletin board display.  I can't wait until we are all finished - they are doing such a great job!

Yesterday we finished our slideshow for our Remembrance Day assembly at the school - made with Windows Live Movie Maker.  I used the students' posters in the slideshow, and had them each write one word on their hands that made them think about veterans.  (Please ignore all the spelling mistakes on the posters - although I checked and proofed all the rough copies before they started their good copies, many of my students apparently can't transfer the correct spelling.  Ugh.)  I posted our video below - you may have to click through to youtube to watch it (it's doing something funny on my computer).

Happy Saturday!  It's a rainy day, and my oldest and my hubby are feeling under the weather.  Hoping for a quiet rest of the day, already back from dancing lessons with my youngest two, and new winter boots, hats, and mitts bought for all the kiddos.  Now if I could only convince the cleaning fairy to visit my house.  ;)

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A Peek At Last Week

I'm totally procrastinating working on my report cards, so I thought a new blog post would be in order.  Here is a peek into last week in my classroom.

We're working on summarizing as our comprehension strategy right now.  We've added it on our CRAFT board and written about it in our CRAFT books and reader response books.  Next week we are going to start our new literature circles, so we've been practising this strategy orally through the week.  When my students have finished their daily independent reading (about 20 minutes a day), they get together with a partner for a "pair share".  During this pair share, they each read a page from their books, and then ask their partners some questions related to our current reading strategy.  To aid with this, I use my Comprehension Question Fans.  One or two groups will get the printed out fans on the ring to use, and for the rest, I project the checklist sheet over the computer onto the smartboard so everybody has access.  They must pick at least 2 questions, and the partners can't choose the same question.  After about 5 - 10 minutes, students come back to their desks and I choose 4 volunteers to share with the class.  They must share a summary of what their partner read to them, and then share how their partners answered the questions they asked.  A quick and easy daily formative assessment for oral language. 

In writing we're working on our fictional narratives beginning from a Halloween prompt.  We've been using the story map planning sheet from my new Story Elements Concept Posters.  When students had finished their planning graphic organizers, they met with a partner to share.  After they read through what they had, partners had to give them "a wish and a star".  Following this, they had to make revisions to their planning sheet based on the feedback from their partner.  They LOVE sharing their work with their peers in the class, and it's so beneficial for both students.  Students are almost finished with their rough drafts right now, and after some guided editing and revising lessons planned for this week, we'll be publishing them for our writing wall.

Wednesday was our big science day.  Students had been working on their independent inquiry projects for Space for about a week and a half, and Wednesday was presentation day.  They had to present their findings through a physical project and an oral presentation.  They did such a great job!  We had poster boards, science fair boards, slideshows, movies, powerpoints, and plasticine dioramas.   Here are a few pics - I took a picture of each student presenting so I could send home a pic with the rubric.

On Thursday, I kept the students busy in the morning with our Halloween mad libs (at their request).  When they were finished I had them complete a comprehension exit slip (give an example of a noun, verb, adjective, and adverb) and post it on our traffic light exit slip board (red circle for some difficulties, yellow circle for a few questions, and green circle for good understanding).  Accountability - love it! 

Yesterday I combatted (well, tried at least) the sugar highs with a data management activity.  We finished up our patterning unit this week, so for our data management diagnostic I asked the students how many (and what kinds of) candies they had in their lunch bags that day.  We made a tally chart with the results.  Students then had to take the data we compiled and represent it in two different ways (their choice).  I was more than a little horrified to find out that my 24 students present that day had a total of 277 pieces of candy in their lunches ... thank goodness we had a presentation for the last block of the day that kept the students engaged ... and the teachers sane.  

Last weekend I added a new resource to my TPT store - a poppy craftivity we'll be working on for our Remembrance Day assembly.  There are two versions in the resource - one with general questions about veterans and the day, and another that has students studying and answering questions about the poem, "In Flanders Fields" (that's the version we'll be doing in the class).  You can click HERE or on the picture to the right to take a peek at it.  

So, there it is ... a peek at last week.  I have successfully procrastinated for a bit now, so I guess it's time to tackle those report cards.  Sigh.  Happy Weekend!!!

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Lest We Forget

I wanted to share some of our Remembrance Day activities with you.  We had our school assembly on Friday, but our remembrance activities have continued into this week.  Our school annually participates in the Royal Canadian Legion's Remembrance Contest.  My students have been working very hard on their posters and poems (last year one of my fabulous little writers placed 2nd in Ontario for his poem - what a great moment for him!).  My students have done such an amazing job with their poems this year, I wanted to display them in a way that did the poems justice - and I think I achieved this.  Each year I get a set of "Canada Remembers Times" from Veterans Affairs Canada, and we use these newspapers for various literacy activities throughout the weeks leading up to Remembrance Day.  I've kept all my sets, and now as a result, have a rather LARGE stack in one of my cupboards.  I used an older set to create frames for our poems - and LOVE how they turned out.  For a finishing touch, the students used pastels to add a poppy to the frames.  I posted these on the wall outside our library, where our librarian had set up a small display of books and media for Remembrance Day.  (I'm still waiting for a few more to finish up, but I couldn't wait to put them up!)

I also wanted to share a beautiful display one of my coworkers made for Remembrance Day.  She gave out doves to the students in the school.  On each dove, the students wrote about PEACE (what is sounds like, feels like, smells like, etc.).  The small doves were all cut out and she arranged them all into a large dove shape.  This was the breathtaking display we first saw when we entered the gym for our Remembrance Day assembly.  So beautiful ... so perfect ... so peaceful.

How does your school honour Remembrance Day or Veterans Day?

Happy Tuesday!

Jen

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