Spelling List A (April 29 – May 3)
Spelling List B (April 29 – May 3)
Spelling List C (April 29 – May 3)
Spelling List A (April 29 – May 3)
food | soon | bedroom | pool | tools |
roof | cool | moody | foolish | tooth |
Spelling List B (April 29 – May 3)
monsoon | gloomy | afternoon | broomstick | drooling |
smoothly | choose | poorly | tattoo | balloon |
Spelling List C (April 29 – May 3)
waterproof | toothbrush | classroom | boomerang | Saskatoon |
kangaroo | soothing | mongoose | typhoon | raccoon |
Hi parents,
We had an awesome catch-up day today.
Aside from the spelling quiz, we didn't start anything new today. The students did an awesome job managing their time over the span of 3 hours of work period time, and the results speak for themselves. The India posters and speeches are looking fantastic. And a few students enjoyed the fact families work so much that they decided to do extra!
We were also busy doing wellness surveys throughout the day and unfortunately I did not have a chance to mark the spelling quizzes.
Thank you to everyone who expressed interest in volunteering for our field trips in June! And, to everyone who has already returned their Sound Kreation dance forms.
Have a nice weekend,
Zac
Hi parents,
We had a busy day today. In the morning, we watched a couple more Kids Ted Talks, and discussed what the speakers did well, and what they could've done better. Then, the students started to write their own speeches, about one of the "5 R's". It was a bit of a struggle. We'll spend time revising tomorrow!
In the morning we also learned about the fact families of multiplication and division. For example:
6 x 4 = 24
4 x 6 = 24
24 / 6 = 4
24 / 4 = 6
The students had a bit of trouble with this too, and extra practice at home would probably be helpful!
In the afternoon we had Music and Daily LA, and then the class started working on posters to show their learning about India. I opted to do posters instead of travel journals, because we've had so many other writing-intensive tasks on the go lately and I felt we needed something a little different. I think it was a good call because the posters are actually looking really awesome so far, and I'm quite happy with the broad variety of information they've included. I was worried it'd just end up being 23 Taj Mahals.
Tomorrow is our spelling quiz. Have a nice night!
Zac
Hi parents,
We had a pretty good day today. In the morning, we read two short stories about recycling and water reduction. We read about the adventure of an aluminum can, as it gets mined, transported, changed into a can, drank from, and then recycled into a baseball bat. It was interesting!
Next, we watched this video as an introduction to our next topic in literacy - public speaking and presentations. The students did an amazing job of noticing all of the things the speaker did well to engage the audience, including:
-focusing on one topic
-speaking confidently
-asking rhetorical questions
-using props effectively
-moving arms and hands while speaking
I was actually super impressed by how much they caught. I was sure we'd have to watch the video at least a couple more times before they picked up on everything.
The students don't know this yet, but they're going to be writing and presenting their own speeches, on their choice from one of the "Five R's" we've learned so far. Their speeches won't be nearly as long as the examples we're watching in class, but will still ideally be engaging and persuasive, and probably cheesy too.
We continued working with the division bead boards and practicing basic division facts.
In the afternoon, we went outside with our Buddy Class for Buddy Kickball.
We had Music, and ended the day with some social studies and work period.
Have a nice night,
Zac
Hi parents,
Today we did some more work around dialogue writing - the students are doing great! Today's challenge was to create a conversation between two random characters from books, TV, etc. Think "Shrek has dinner with Batman." I had a great time reading these.
We continued working on division today in math, and the students learned how to use the Division Bead Board material.
In the afternoon, we learned more about India, practiced spelling, and did Daily LA.
Please send back your Sound Kreation Dance forms if you haven't already done so!
Have a nice night,
Zac
Hi parents,
Happy Earth Day!
Today we spent a lot of time talking about ways we can have a positive impact on the earth, through the "5 R's" (they added two more):
Reduce
Reuse
Recycle
Repair
Repurpose
The students brainstormed ways that they could do each of these things - and they came up with pretty impressive lists! We also looked for ways that we already do these things in the classroom, such as using pencils until they're tiny, filling up every page in spelling / math books before getting a new one, keeping half the lights off, and reusing cubbies / chairs even when kids put stickers on them.
We're going to be focusing on how we can take care of the planet all week, so please continue the conversation at home!
Speaking of conversation, in writing, the students wrote about a conversation they had on the weekend. This gave them a chance to put their knowledge of quotation marks, adverbs, and more interesting words for 'said' to the test.
In math, we officially started to learn division, using these great Numberblocks videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_LxqBQ2jVs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf_5K15GqdE
And in the afternoon we also did Daily LA.
Have a nice night,
Zac
Spelling List A (Adverbs!) (April 19 – 26)
badly | newly | only | lastly | weekly |
really | simply | mostly | kindly | nicely |
Spelling List B (Adverbs!) (April 19 – 26)
nearly | easily | majorly | slightly | vividly |
timidly | rigidly | rapidly | angrily | utterly |
Spelling List C (Adverbs!) (April 19 – 26)
urgently | scarcely | gingerly | promptly | covertly |
gravely | carefully | foolishly | prudently | naturally |
Hi parents,
Today we continued on our quest to write better dialogue, by brainstorming "Other Ways To Say 'Said'".
Students looked through chapter books, or just used their imaginations to come up with words like "whispered", "yelled", "thundered", "mumbled", "growled", "squeaked", and more!
Because there is no school tomorrow, we had our spelling quiz today, and unfortunately it was another rough one. I thought the words this week were easier (not list C) but I guess they were still pretty tough.
In math, we did yet another Multiplication Check-In. I know we've done a lot lately. They're really helpful for me as its easy to see which students might need extra support. Sometimes with morning math, and our less-formal math tasks, students end up collaborating to find answers and its difficult to determine how much they can do fully independently. I haven't marked this one yet, but I did send home a couple from the last two weeks, in case anyone was confused by which one's which.
In the afternoon, we continued learning about India, and talked about the idea of culture. This was another great discussion that revealed that the students in Room 6 have wisdom beyond their years.
Stay tuned for next week's spelling words, and have a lovely weekend!
Zac
Hi parents,
We had another good day today. In the morning we continued our work around 'dialogue', by revisiting the talk we had yesterday about adverbs. Today we discussed how adverbs are not only great at enhancing dialogue in writing, but also at enhancing any verb and making it more descriptive. We're in the process of compiling a list of adverbs, which, once it is completed, can be glued into everyone's writing books for easy access. Here's what we have so far:
Aggressively
Anxiously
Badly
Bravely
Cautiously
Cheerfully
Cowardly
Creatively
Creepily
Deeply
Efficiently
Enthusiastically
Fastly
Finally
Futuristically
Gracefully
Gullibly
Hastily
Hauntingly
Hungrily
Importantly
Kindly
Mindedly
Mockingly
Nightmarishly
Noisily
Overcautiously
Peacefully
Physically
Proudly
Recently
Roughly
Safely
Scarcely
Senselessly
Slowly
Smoothly
In social studies, we continued learning about India, and turned our attention to the concept of Quality of Life. We spent a long time discussing this concept, and the factors that contribute to it. The students were quite insightful. We debated the importance of 'wants', and what 'really matters' in life, which led to some really interesting points.
In math, we relearned how to play the Math game "Dungeon Dice", which involves multiplication and division and is basically a simplified Dungeons and Dragons.
We had Music, and more students gave their novel study presentations.
Since we don't have school on Friday, the spelling quiz will be tomorrow. Good luck!
Zac
Hi parents,
We had a pretty good day today. In the morning, we learned about writing dialogue, using quotation marks. We also talked about using adverbs to describe the way characters in a story deliver their dialogue.
Students wrote 5-6 sentences of their own hypothetical dialogue, using adverbs to spice things up. For example,
"I've asked you to clean up your lego a hundred times," said the parent hopelessly.
In math we did some multiplication word problems. They went pretty well. We'll move on to division by next week I'm sure, but multiplication is one of those concepts that you can never fully move on from. We'll keep up the daily practice till the end of the year.
In Social Studies, we continued learning about India, and the class did more sketch-noting. Today we learned about the three seasons (Winter, Summer, and Monsoon), and also about a village in India that is the wettest place on earth. It was really interesting!
More students presented their novel studies. I'm so proud of them.
Have a nice night,
Zac
Hi parents,
Today we started a new topic in social studies - communities and cultures around the world. We will be studying India, Peru, Tunisia, and Ukraine, and learning about the geography, language, traditions, food, and landmarks in each place. We will spend one week learning about each place, and then at the end of the week, students will write a 'travel journal' entry, as though they had visited there themselves. They will incorporate specific examples from their learning into their writing.
Today we looked at an overview of India, and then focused on the Taj Mahal, India's most famous landmark.
In math, we did 2-digit by 1-digit multiplication using the Golden Beads material. The class saw how regrouping in a multiplication problem is very similar to an addition problem - which makes sense, because multiplication is just repeated addition.
In the afternoon, we talked about the -oy word family, and the class practiced spelling.
We had Music, and ended our day with some Novel Study Presentations.
Have a nice night,
Zac
Spelling List A (April 29 – May 3) food soon bedroom pool tools roof cool moody foolish tooth Spelling List B (April 29 – May 3) monsoon ...