Wednesday, December 9

 Hi parents,

Today was a great day for the class! This morning, we went outside and built things with snow instead of doing Explore and Play. I don't think anyone had any objections to it. The students made some pretty amazing forts and snow people too! 

The students wrote in their journals about what they would do if they were suddenly given $100. This was a fun writing prompt that was very entertaining for me to read. The students perception of the value of money is quite hilarious. I couldn't break the news to them that in today's housing market, $100 won't quite get you a mansion. 

We went outside again to record more observations of the egg shelters. The snow definitely put the shelters to the test, and a lot of students noticed that the eggs got fairly wet despite being sheltered. Still, none of the eggs are cracked yet, so I think everyone is feeling pretty successful. 

In the afternoon, the students practiced their spelling words by using them in sentences. Writing sentences is, in my opinion, the ultimate form of spelling practice, because it also helps kids practice writing short, simple sentences. Often, when students complete writing tasks, they'll use one lengthy, run-on sentence, and then they have to go back and split it into smaller ones. Practicing writing short sentences is a good way to prevent this from happening.

We did the letter B for Animated Literacy, and met "Baby Barnaby". Due to some technical difficulties, I wasn't able to print out the colouring sheet for him, so I challenged the students to invent their own "B" character. They had some fantastic ideas - I was really impressed, especially considering it was the end of the day!

'Listening Club' had a few less members today than yesterday. I think the students are starting to focus a bit more on following expectations, and hopefully realizing that school can still be fun when they're following the rules and working hard. In fact it is probably more fun because the teacher is less grouchy.

Have a nice night,

Zac