The Courage To Try

This is a short novel written by a teacher from Ontario Shawna Potje Today I introduced the book to my student only showing them the cover. We did a "write, pair, share." I gave them a few minutes to write about their wonderings and predictions then pair and share. This was a perfect opportunity to discuss "Schema" because the students all knew the book was going to have something to do with Terry Fox, having a dream, and not giving up. They used the clues on the cover...e.g. red maple leaves, the word courage in the title...and a little girl holding a sign "Good Luck Terry." We talked about the fact that not all children on earth would be able to make these predictions or inferences from the cover page clues because their background knowledge may be different. Next we set ourselves up for the activity "Novel in An Hour". Small groups of students were assigned to a chapter. After partner reading their assigned chapter students discussed the "who and what" about their chapter. Finally the students chose from a list of ways to present a summary of their chapters. (interview, telephone call, skit, song, rap, story map, news broadcast etc.) I like this as an early in the year read for many reasons: reviewing making connections, the theme

of Courage, and of course the connection to our Terry Fox Walk.

This Week in Reading

We are well into our read-aloud "Wonder". I'm finding it a great beginning of the year book to model and introduce reading strategies that the students will be encouraged to use all year long. I am integrating reading Wonder and my Language Mini Lessons with The Daily Cafe and Strategies that Work.

Friday Math Rocks

I'm a mother, a teacher, and a girl with a history of getting down on myself and feeling "Dumb". In fact in Grade 6 our teacher had our desks arranged in rows by the "academic" leveled groups that he had placed us in. The lowest group of students happened to complete a single row of desks....and was thus labelled by the other students "The Dumb Row". I was one of two girls that had a permanent spot in that row. Since I have had some terribly negative experiences in school I am much more sensitive to simply assessing students by giving them a unit test at the end of each Mathematics strand. I've felt a great deal of conflict about how I assess my students because my teaching partner loves to barrel through every expectation and then test her students. I feel my own insecurities and anxieties begin to escape just thinking about it! I hope to support individual students in a way that enables them to understand where they are at in relation to the success criteria we have listed as a class in Mathematics. Each student will self-reflect based on my feedback, and set learning goals for themselves. I don't want my students who are only in Grade Five to ever experience feelings of inadequacy, or to think that they are terrible at math, or just plain stupid. At the same time however...I feel I must be more accountable to my parents in how I communicate the strengths and areas of growth needed for my students. My Friday "Math Rocks" folders are meant to communicate what we have been working on for the week. Inside parents will find a letter outlining the purpose of the folder, the success criteria, and some homework for review. It could be a game to play, a website to visit, or a math problem that has been solved in class that the children will explain to their parents. I'd love to hear your thoughts about testing young children.

The Mess of Science!

We've been exploring the properties of matter with great hands on fun! Visit MY STORE at Teacher's Pay Teacher's for a free Smart notebook resource!

Wonder

My students are loving the incredibly well written "Wonder"! They groan when it's time to move onto the next topic of the day! They applaud August the main character, laugh, and make insightful connections to the text. This story is allowing me a magnitude of opportunities to model aloud my thinking as I read, and through it I've been able to review reading strategies like connecting, visualizing, questioning, researching (songs....for example "Wonder" By Natalie Merchant), and inferring. As I read my students are jotting down thoughts on sticky notes and adding them to their Reader's Notebooks. The author RJ Palacia is slowly revealing details of the appearance of August and so tomorrow we will create portraits of The Character We Are Meeting (August) from these clues and our visualizations. The students will add around their portraits character qualities of August. Later they will share with a partner and defend their ideas with information from the text, and their own life experiences.

What in the World Is Matter?

This coming week we will begin our first Science Unit. An inquiry question to ask will be "How do we classify something as being a solid, liquid, or a gas?" We will conduct a few experiments to investigate this question. I thought we would make root beer floats to connect to this concept again. I'm sure many of my students will remember from Grade 2 at least some information about Matter. We will also explore some Oobleck. I think I will have the students predict first whether it can be called a liquid or a solid. (It's actually neither. It is a pressure dependant substance called a non Newtonian, similar to quick sand.) After some exploration and recording of our observations we will have a debate as to what kind of matter it is. I've included a template for a flip booklet that the students will use to record their understandings. They will label the front tabs "Liquids, Solids, Gases" with an illustration to match the way the atoms are combined for each state. Under the flaps the students will make some jot notes about the shape, volume, molecules and examples. Photos to come!

The Pig of Happiness

Here is a great book to begin your year. "The Pig of Happiness"! Have your students brainstorm ways they could be "pigs of happiness" at school. Click HERE for some incentive cards that you can hand out to students who spread happiness at school.

Community Building and Active Listening = Fun

My main goal is that my students leave me with a love for learning and a desire to continue to be a life long learner.  I remind myself that it is important to take time to build community the first week by getting to know my students.  Who are the overt leaders?  Who are the quiet, but capable leaders?  Who needs to be shown that their voice is valued too?! 

After our lesson on active listening the next few activities will provide for opportunities to practice.

Two Blankets ~ Life Raft
Talk to the students about how when things get tough this year we will have to get creative and that we need to be able to lean on each other to find solutions.  Divide the class in half.  Place two blankets on the floor.  Begin with everyone on the blanket.  Have each group fold the blanket in half and fit everyone back on it.  (They may fold it any which way they like). Repeat folding until each group can't fit everyone on the raft. Play music from "Jaws" to enhance the fun.  While figuring out the folding no music, when the music plays everyone must quickly pile onto the raft.

The Pig of Happiness

Have students stand behind their desks and reveal a screen picture of the page where the pigs are saying "fat bum" and laughing.  Invite the students to share with their partners what they see and what they think the accompanying story might be about.  Ask a couple of students to share.  Have students thank their partners and move to the carpet for the story.  Before reading discuss who buys picture books?  Discuss how picture books are wonderful because they often have 2 messages.  One for children and also the implied adult message.  Read.  Have the children take turns with their elbow partners (remind about Active Listening) about how this story relates to us as a class.  Talk about what the author's purpose is?  P I E (persuade, inform, entertain)?  (How negativity spawns negativity). Split class into 6 groups.  (Another opportunity for A.L. but this time in a larger group). Have chart paper already hanging in 6 different locations around the class.  Have the students brainstorm and list ideas on how we can spread happiness in our room and in other classrooms in the school.  Have a gallery walk.  Note similarities and differences in the lists.  On another day compile the lists with the ideas...and devise a plan for some!

Take Your Pick

Students choose a set number of candies from the bowl at their table group.  When choosing the students are not aware but each different type of candy will have a category attached to it for discussion.  (e.g. caramels = dream job).When music plays walk around the room...as the music fades find a partner and practice PVF & attentive listening.



I can't wait until tomorrow! Wish me luck on my first day! Happy "New Year" to everyone!