Monday

Hello families,

We had a pretty good first day back today. It mostly followed the pattern of a 'typical Monday' but there were a few tings we did a bit differently. Instead of writing only about their weekends, I encouraged the students to respond to a picture prompt from this website: http://www.pobble365.com/. I just found out about it today. There are tons of different thought-provoking pictures which work really well as writing prompts!

In Math this week, I've given the students some word problems. Word problems are, in my opinion, the best way to see whether or not students really understand the math concepts we're covering, particularly in terms of addition and subtraction. It is so important that students can determine whether a questions is asking them to add, or to subtract. I gave them some 'key words' to look for that they can use as clues. For instance, if a question uses the words "left" or "left over", it is almost always a subtraction problem, since it implies that the total quantity has been reduced. If a question uses the words "altogether" or "in total", it is almost always an addition problem, since addition basically asks students to group everything together and count it all up.

Blog Homework:

Create and solve two addition or subtraction word problems involving numbers up to 20. For an added challenge, use numbers up to 100. 

In the afternoon, the students practiced writing sentences using their spelling words. We also had gym, and when we got back, we started our Community Project, which is now called "Settlers of Kanata". It is kind of like a giant, long-term game of Settlers of Catan!

The students must use the natural resources found in their community's landscape to build structures and trade with other communities. The objective of the game is to create a well rounded community with a wide variety of services and developments, while also being respectful of the environment and the First Nations who also make their homes nearby. Our first effort went quite well today! I was impressed by how well the students traded with other groups, and surprised by some of the choices they made. For example, the first building that the students of Cornshine (a prairie community) built was an igloo. Imagine that. An igloo on the prairies. In order to build an igloo, they had to first trade to acquire ice blocks from the Arctic Community, "Snowy Mountains".

Anyway - it seems like it's going to be a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to trying it out again. :)

Have a nice night,

Zac