Spelling Words (Week of Feb. 28)

Spelling List A

Bike	Hike	Fine	Wise
Bite	Kite	Tide	Hide

 

Spelling List B

Quite	Invite	Polite	Drive
Shine	Pride	Bride	Slide

 

Spelling List C

Provide	Outside	Website	Online
Shrine	Excite	White	Campsite

Friday, February 26

 Happy Friday!

We had a pretty good day today, although the students were a bit chatty and less attentive than usual. 

We started our day off with the spelling quiz and I was so thrilled by how many students tried all three lists!!! What's even better is that a lot of students ended up getting many of the List C words correct, even if they hadn't practiced them. Being able to sound out words is one of the most valuable skills a student can learn in the early grades.

Ms. Rehill read the class the story "Will You Fill My Bucket?". It is about being kind to others, and 'filling their buckets' through nice words and good deeds. The students brainstormed and sorted ideas of 'bucket fillers' and 'bucket dippers'. For example, playing with someone outside is a 'bucket filler' because it makes them happy. Budging in line is a 'bucket dipper' because you have to wait longer to order McDonalds.

We did a Music-Art-Writing crossover activity in which the students listened to 4 songs, and drew pictures and wrote words about what it made them think of. We listened to some surf rock, some soul, some pop, and even some heavy metal. 

We did a thorough classroom cleanup and read Junie B. Jones. The students have been quite 'complain-y' lately, about things like Music, Body Break, Quiet Reading, Spelling Practice... pretty much anything they don't feel like doing in the moment. So we had several discussions today about how complaining can hurt people's feelings. The students were quick to connect this to discussions they've had at home about how it's important to be thankful to their parents for making dinner, even if it's not their favourite.

I'm hoping that next week the students will approach activities with a more positive attitude. 

Have a nice weekend!

Zac

Thursday, February 25

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today. In the morning, the students had Music class and Work Period, and then we did a research activity using the Ipads. The students learned how to access Pebble Go (which is quite complicated actually), and then went to the section dedicated to Being A Good Citizen. Students worked in partners and chose a topics to research, for example, 'honesty', 'responsibility', 'volunteering', etc... They read through the text and then responded to a writing prompt that asked that to explain why the value they chose was important.

For example, a student may have written: "Volunteering is important because volunteers help people get all of their jobs done."

This was the first time the students have done any independent research this year, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but they did an awesome job all around. We're thinking of doing some follow up activities over the next few days!

In the afternoon, we spent more time reviewing the "Bossy E" (aka Magic E and Silent E). I gave the students a bunch of nonsense words and challenged them to add an 'e' to change the vowel sounds.

For example, the word 'Hik' became 'Hike', 'Bik' became 'Bike', etc. They seemed to think this was pretty cool.

Tomorrow is our spelling quiz! Good luck!

Zac

Wednesday, February 24

 Hi parents,

We had an awesome pink shirt day today!

In the morning, we had a great class discussion about kindness, bullying, and inner feelings. We talked about how unkind behavior can make people feel sad on the inside, and sometimes the "bullies" are just people who have been through a lot of bad things. We did an activity with two apples - a good apple, and a bad apple. We asked the students to say nice things to the good apple, and mean things to the bad one. Then, we cut them open. Sure enough, the bad apple was bruised. Bruised simply by the students' words. And definitely not because it was secretly bruised the day before by the teacher. 

In any case, I think the activity has a powerful message, and I think it really resonated with our exceptionally empathetic classroom. :)

The students wrote step-by-step instructions on how to be a good friend. Their writing followed the format:

First, ______. Then, _______. Next, _________. Finally, _______.

I found this format to be really interesting as it challenged the students to think procedurally about friendship, which is not something we typically do.

In the afternoon, we had Daily 5, and then did one last 'apple' activity. For this one, the students drew a face on a picture of an apple, and then set their apple drawing in front of them at their desks. Then, they circulated the room and wrote nice, friendly, and kind things on every other student's apple. Needless to say it was heartwarming.

Have a nice night!

Zac

Tuesday, February 23

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today!

In the morning, the students learned how to use Number Lines (in the form of rulers) to solve subtraction problems. Basically the same principle as what we did yesterday, but counting backwards instead of forwards. The students answered a series of subtraction problems using this method. Examples included things like:

25 - 6 =

16 - 9 =

21 - 8 =

29 - 3 =

...and so on. I think we did about 12 problems. 

The students had Music, and then we did another lesson about Rights and Responsibilities in the classroom. For this exercise, students were given a piece of paper with a specific 'right' or 'responsibility', and they had to find the right or responsibility that matched whatever was written on their page.

For example, a student's page could say: "The right to learn", and they'd have to match up with whoever's page had "The responsibility to listen attentively". I thought this lesson went over really well and we had some great discussions! However, the cleanup attempt later in the day made me second guess that.

In the afternoon we did Daily 5 and gym. Ms. Rehill led the class through a fun lesson in which they designed their own Junie B. Jones book covers! The covers had to be bus-themed, and had to include two different adjectives. It also had to include a nice colourful picture. The students worked hard on this task until the end of the day and may still need a bit more time tomorrow.

Remember that Pink Shirt Day is tomorrow, February 25! Pink Shirt Day is a day for talking about kindness, empathy, and inclusion. We have a bunch of fun activities planned. If you can, please help your child choose a pink (or pink-ish) shirt to wear to school tomorrow. Students who don't have anything pink are encouraged to wear their favourite shirt or something that reflects their personality and values.

Have a nice night,

Zac

 

Monday, February 22

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today, a very typical Monday with typical Monday activities.

In the morning, the students learned about the rights and responsibilities of children at school. We talked about how all students have the right to learn at school, but the responsibility to listen respectfully and treat others with kindness. We had a class discussion about other examples of 'responsibilities' children have at school, and at home. We particularly focused on the importance of cleaning up at school! Please feel free to talk with your child at home about 'responsibilities' because I'm sure they can think of a lot of other ideas too.

The students wrote about their weekends in their journals. They paid tribute to the Junie B. Jones book we're reading (The Silly, Smelly Bus), by coming up with two adjectives to describe their weekend. For example, a student could start off by writing: "On the fun, exciting weekend, I..." or "On the bright, sunny weekend, I..."

Lately we've been focusing less on the amount of writing, and more on the quality of the writing. I usually set a timer for about 20 minutes and tell students that they cannot be 'done' their writing until the timer goes off. I encourage them to find new ways to enhance their work, whether it be through adding more sentences, drawing a colourful picture, or editing for neatness and correct spelling.

In Math, the students learned how to solve addition problems using a ruler as a 'number line'. Rulers are a great tool for addition and subtraction problems involving numbers up to 30. When solving a problem like "14 + 7 = ", students can simply put their finger on '14', and then use the ruler to help them count up 7 more times. If you want to try this activity at home, here are a few problems you could try:

23 + 4 =

12 + 7 =

18 + 5 =

10 + 7 =

27 + 2 =

3 + 15 =

I'm sure you get the idea!

We spent most of the afternoon doing Daily 5. I have officially organized the "Read to Teacher" station so I had a great time reading with small groups of students today. The students enjoyed the new "Literacy Games" station too. 

We practiced spelling at the end of the day and watched the videos I posted previously.

I asked the students to draw arrows to show which letter the "Bossy E" affected in each word. For example, in the word "Cake", the bossy e makes the a say its name.

And that was our day! If you have any questions please let me know. :)

Zac

Spelling Words! (Week of February 21)

 Spelling List A

Bake	Cake	Make	Take
Rake	Wake	Fake	Lake

 

Spelling List B

Shake	Snake	Drake	Flake
Awake	Quake	Stake	Brake

 

Spelling List C

Mistake	Cupcake	Pancake	Milkshake
Handshake	Snowflake	Shortcake	Earthquake

Here are some excellent videos, embedded for your convenience!

 

Friday, February 19

 Happy Friday!

We had a great day today and did a bunch of different activities.

In the morning, the students were supposed to write about what they'd do if they had $100, but they informed me that we'd already done that writing prompt this year (and pretty recently too!) so instead they responded to the prompt: "If I had 100...." This gave them the chance to be creative and decide for themselves what they hypothetically had 100 of. Their responses were as creative as ever and I really enjoyed reading them.

We did our spelling quiz and I was blown away by the number of students who challenged themselves to do List C! Some students who had never even practiced it ended up getting quite a few words correct just because they took their time and sounded them out. Building that strong understanding of word families, word parts, and letter blends is the best part of having consistent weekly spelling tasks.

The students reviewed what we'd discussed yesterday about 100-foot whales, and then they drew and measured their own much smaller whales in their sketchbooks.

We did the 100-second challenge, in which students had to do a variety of tasks in 100 seconds and see how many repetitions they could fit in. Tasks included writing their name, doing squats, and hopping on one foot.

Have a nice weekend!

Zac

PS: I had planned to show this video to the class today but ran out of time. It could be interesting to watch at home and have a discussion about! 

Thursday, February 18

 Hi parents,

Happy 100th Day of School!

We had a pretty good day today. In the morning, we learned about the continent of South America. The students were already quite knowledgable about the wildlife, and had lots of stories to share about poisonous frogs.

We had Music class, and then the students responded to the writing prompt: "When I am 100 years old..." They did an amazing job with this one! Once again, multiple students shattered their previous writing records. I had a lot of fun reading their creative and funny responses too. But I did not have fun hearing that I apparently already look like I'm 100 years old.

The students did a math activity where they counted up quantities of animals and recorded data. There were 100 animals in all. 

We learned that the largest whale ever was 100 feet long, and then measured 100 feet in our hallway - it was all the way from our classroom to the Lost & Found bins!

Tomorrow is our spelling quiz, and we haven't practiced as much this week as we usually do, so last minute studying is not a bad idea. It is also School Shirt day.

Here is some footage from a recent Explore and Play experiment:

Have a nice night!

Zac

Wednesday, February 17

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today!

In the morning, the class had a great discussion about Europe, wrote about buses, and learned how to measure themselves using various materials found around the classroom. We did Buddy Reading and creative writing for Daily 5. 

Blog Homework (optional) (worth 2 Dojo points): Use one of your favourite toys or stuffies to measure the length of your kitchen table. Record your findings using appropriate units - for example, "my kitchen table is 18 'action figures' long.

The students seem to really be enjoying Junie B Jones so far! 

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, Feb. 16

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today - sort of a Tuesday that felt like a Monday.

The students met their new pre-service teacher, Ms. Rehill, which they were all quite excited about, and then we did our usual Monday jobs.

The students wrote about their long weekends, practiced spelling words, and reviewed the 'Th' letter blend. We read about the Thick, Thorny Thing, our Animated Literacy Character of the day.

Today the students had Music class too, which made it an especially fun way to start our week.

We started reading a new book series - Junie B. Jones! This series was one of my absolute favourites when I was younger and I hope the kids love it as much as I do. Ms. Rehill has graciously volunteered to read aloud to the class, and she did an excellent job.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, February 10

 Hi parents,

We had a great Valentines day today in spite of not being able to do things the usual way. Our "Secret Cupid" Valentines exchange actually went really well. Each student worked so hard on a card for one other person in the class. They wrote kind messages to each other and included colourful pictures too.

We read the story "Roses are Pink, Your Feet Stink", and then the students wrote their own Valentines poems. 

In the afternoon, the Valentines were distributed, and we had Film Studies class. Today we explored the classic film "Gnomeo and Juliet", the tragic tale of two star-crossed gnomes with different coloured hats who race lawnmowers. The soundtrack was exclusively Elton John which was a plus. 

Even though I had previously said that this week's spelling words would 'show no mercy', I decided against having the quiz today because we just haven't had enough time to practice. Also, next week is only 4 days, so it seems to make more sense to just have the quiz next Friday.

Have a wonderful long weekend!

Zac

This is not a good weekend for lying on the ground.

Tuesday, Feb. 9

 Hi parents,

We had a great morning and a tough afternoon today. I'm pretty sure it has a lot to do with the fact that we've been unable to go outside for recess. 

In the morning, the students learned how to use rulers to measure. This is also a more challenging skill than you'd expect! Students often get mixed up and use the inches side of the ruler, or measure starting at the wrong end without noticing. I think we made some great progress today though!

The students also had Music class. With Valentines right around the corner, I thought it would be fun to get the students to write about 'love'. They wrote sentences using the prompts: "Love is..." and "Love isn't...". 

We read a Valentines Poem aloud as a class. We practiced spelling using hearts for o's. We did some very peaceful, very quiet reading. The end of the day was loud and a bit crazy. The students are struggling quite a bit with cleanups, which seems to be a recurring theme with my classes so I think I am at least partially responsible.

Tomorrow is our school "Valentines Day". Unfortunately, we are not allowed to do a traditional Valentines exchange because of Covid rules. I think the idea is that we want to avoid things being sent to and from school, in case those things have germs on them. Of course, the kids will still be going back and forth between home and school, so who knows.

In any case, we are still allowed to make Valentines at school and send them home, so the plan is to do a 'Secret Santa' (secret cupid?) type of Valentines Day tomorrow. It won't be our usual Valentines Day rager, but it will still be fun. :)

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday, February 8

 Hi parents,

We had a good day today, although it was a very typical Monday. I have to get going pretty quickly so I'm just going to summarize what we did and hopefully that will help to prompt some discussions at home!

-Weekend Journals (Self explanatory)

-Fill in the Blanks Math.  (for example, _ + _ = 9.    _ + _ - 4 = 42) These problems give students an opportunity to be creative with math and see that there are many ways to reach an answer!

-Measurement Snakes (Students drew snakes that corresponded in length to various classroom objects)

-Spelling Practice (EMOJI O's. Students wrote their spelling words and turned the o's into emojis)

-Quiet Reading

-Gym (noodle tag)

We had to stay inside all day due to the freezing cold weather, and that took a bit of a toll on student morale. Grumpiness was up at least 30% in the afternoon, although the kids did do an excellent job working in the morning. We all miss Ms. Thaxter too.

Have a nice night!

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of Feb. 7)

 Spelling List A

 

Boo	Too	Moo	Food
Moon	Loop	Hoot	Noon

 

Spelling List B

 

Shoot	Swoop	Groom	Broom
Spook	Spoon	Gloom	Scoop

 

Spelling List C

 

Noodle	Baboon	Cocoon	Maroon
Moonlight	Scooter	Monsoon	Bassoon

 

It's a short week, but the spelling words know no mercy.

Alphablocks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XozoxMjLmQ4

M-o-o-n, that spells moon

Friday, February 5

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today, but it was so sad to say goodbye to Ms. Thaxter at the end of the day.

Ms. Thaxter planned fun, educational stations for the students to engage in throughout the day, and they had a blast. There was an Uno station, a bracelet making station, a technology learning station, a building / kinetic sand station, and a guided drawing station. The students spent 15 minutes at each one.

We also played a math jeopardy game as a whole class, which challenged students to apply their addition, subtraction, and word problem skills to solve more than 25 problems!

At the end of the day, we the students presented Ms. Thaxter with a painting they collaborated on, and a book of 'reference letters'. We had lots of time for heartfelt goodbyes. It was a very emotional time. 

Unfortunately, in all the emotional chaos, we completely ran out of time for the spelling quiz. I'm sure the students were even more devastated about that.

Have a nice weekend,

Zac

Thursday, Feb. 4

 Hi parents, 

We had a great day today!

In the morning, the students learned about friendship after reading "The Rainbow Fish". We had an engaging class discussion where students talked about the qualities of a good friend, and the importance of having positive relationships in our lives.

The class continued working on their 'spirit animal' writing. Today, the responded to the prompt: "The animal I chose can teach me how to..." The students did some awesome work on this project and I'm really impressed with how they turned out! I'll take a picture once they're all up on the wall.

In the afternoon we had Music, and did a fun spelling practice activity in which the students had to extend their spelling words by adding some extra 'eeeeeee's'. The students had fun reading words like 'beeeeeeee' and 'feeeeeeeeeeel' out loud - it also really helped solidify their understanding of the 'ee' blend!

Our spelling quiz is tomorrow, and tomorrow is also Ms. Thaxter's last day. :(

The kids have been working on a mysterious special project to give her tomorrow, but if anyone would like to make an extra card at home, I'm sure she'd really appreciate it.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, Feb. 3

 Hi parents,

We had an okay day today! In the morning, the students learned more about the significance of animals in Indigenous stories and artwork. Each student coloured in an animal of their choice, cut it out, and mounted it on paper. The students are working on writing sentences to explain why the animal they chose is significant to them.

There has been a resurgence of unusually defiant behaviour this week, and today about half of the class ended up having to join the Listening Club at recess. It looks like we'll have to spend more time relearning classroom expectations again.

Also - since the start of the year, I have been reminding the students to wear their shoes in the classroom. I feel like this is something that comes up multiple times each day. They keep falling down on our classroom's slippery floor but they aren't learning from it. Today we had a practice fire drill and about 8 kids had to go out in the snow without shoes on. So if your child comes home with soaking wet feet, that is probably why!

We did a fun measurement activity today where the students used 'steps' to measure various distances around the school. They also used their hands, and 'cubits' to measure objects in our classroom.

Have a nice night!

Zac

Mindfulness Webinar (for parents!)

 

 

*This presentation is intended for an adult audience and will be about 1 hr long. We will also share a recording of the presentation for parents who are unable to attend. 

Amber will be hosting the meeting on Zoom: 

 https://zoom.us/j/95663706186?pwd=NzdJc3l2dnExQkZxK05aK0JrdGRsZz09

Tuesday, Feb. 2

 Hi parents,

Today was a good day for our class, although it's been pretty loud lately. We might need to do some lessons on 'quiet talking' as I've noticed students have this tendency to unknowingly yell throughout entire conversations. They would do very well in theatre.

We had Music this morning, and then the students did a really cool art project in which they made their own miniature totem poles! Students first learned a bit about the history and meaning of totem poles. They chose which animals to include in their own creations. Students were encouraged to choose animals that represented them in some way.

We practiced spelling words, did some quiet reading, worked on 'counting on' addition and subtraction, and did work period. 

Have a nice night!

Zac

Monday, Feb. 1

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today! We did typical Monday things like weekend journal writing, spelling practice, and Daily 5. 

We had an interesting discussion about 'symbolism', and how animals can represent different traits. Sometimes we can even learn from animals! Canada's indigenous people learned often took inspiration from animals in their traditional hunting methods, artwork, songs, and dance.

We spent a fair bit of time playing outside this morning on the big playground. A new student joined our class and I thought this would be a great way to help everyone get to know them! 

We practiced the new spelling words with "Bee Writing". Students drew pictures of bumblebees and then put the letters of the words in the bee's stripes. I was excited to see how many students chose to challenge themselves to try List C!

Have a nice night,

Zac