Winter Concert Practice!

Today was our first day to practice our upcoming winter concert with all the other classrooms that are participating!  Wow was the Music room crowded!  Hopefully there will be more space on the stage for all of us!

Remember our concerts are on Thursday, December 12.  Please come see us at 1:00 pm or 6:00 pm.  

Rock, Paper. Scissors!

Over the past week, students at Heritage School have been bringing in boxes of cereal to be included in Christmas hampers.  Each time they brought in a cereal box, they received a life for our classroom rock, paper, scissors contest.  

This morning we hosted our classroom contest.  We had a lot of fun!  Our two winners were Shylo and Kiera.  

This afternoon, they competed in the school contest at our November assembly.  They were up against some pretty tough competition, and they both did very well!  Kiera even made it down to the top two, but in the end her paper was beaten by a pair of scissors.  

What a fun way to end our hectic week!

Daily 5 and Math Games!

Daily 5 is an important part of our classroom routines.  Each day students sign up at least once for an activity they would like to do.  They can choose from:

Read to Self

Read to Someone

Writing

Word Work

Listening Center

Students really enjoy this time.  They get to choose what they would like to do and often, who they are working with.  This time is also used for guided reading, and Mrs. Deyoe will work with individual students or with a small group.

At the beginning of the year, we spent time as a class practicing each of the activities on their own before we began choosing them.  We also created anchor charts reminding us what student jobs are during Daily 5 time and what Mrs. Deyoe's job is.

Most of the activities have similar expectations.  

Students are expected to:

~Use a whisper or quiet voice.

~Stay in one spot

~Read or write the whole time.

~Not chatting with friends.

~Get started right away.

This is a picture showing you what our Daily 5 bulletin board looks like.  

Here are some pictures showing what Daily 5 looks like in our classroom.  If you click on them, they will enlarge.

 Just like Daily 5, we often spend some time playing Math games.  Lately we have been working on our doubles facts and learning how they can assist us with subtraction too.  Two of the games we've been playing are Slides and Ladders and Walk the Plank.  We have two versions of Walk the Plank, an addition one and a subtraction one.  Both are equally fun!  You will get a chance to play one of the games at our Student Led Conferences later this week!

Catching Snowflakes!

Today we had Art!

Since our first snowfall was this week, there was no better time for our "Catching Snowflakes" Art project.  

Before we began, we all had a conversation about pastels and the difference between chalk and oil.  We also talked about technique and how best to colour with the oil pastels.

Then it was time to create!

Here are a select few.  They turned out great!

  

Ready...Set...Dive!

Today was our second time visiting the Civic Centre pool!  Since the students had been last week, everyone was ready to go and knew what was expected of them when they arrived at the pool.

We had a lot of fun!

Please take a few minutes and check out our pictures.  If you click on them, they will enlarge.

Working with Numbers

We have been busy learning about numbers to 100.

We've been looking at a variety of ways that you can represent a number.  Together, students created a list for us to use as a resource in our classroom.  We were able to brainstorm a variety of ways including:

~fingers

~number sentence

~a picture

~tallies

~words

~money

~odd or even

~ten frame

~base ten blocks

~number line

~make a personal connection

Today, students worked in a small group to order a set of numbers from smallest to largest.  They then moved the numbers so they represented how they would look on a number line.

It can be kind of tricky to figure out spacing between numbers, but after a little bit of effort, all groups were successful!

Working With Words

Once a cycle, students receive new words that they sort according to the spelling pattern they are learning.  Most days we spend some of our Daily 5 time practicing our word sorts.  

Students are placed into groups with their classmates who are working on the same patterns as them.  

Students are encouraged to work on sorting their words at home as well.  We tried writing all our words in our agendas after we got them, but that took too much time.  Instead, we now receive a strip of paper containing our words that we glue into our agenda.  Now if students want to work on their sort at home, they have all their words ready to go!

This week, because of hockey and the Rememberance Day ceremony, we will not be receiving new word sorts.  You know what that means...extra practice time!