Friday, December 17

 Hi parents,

Today was a fantastic way to wrap up the 2021 portion of our school year.

We finished watching A Christmas Carol, had some quality class discussions, and did our spelling quiz. We did some carolling during a virtual assembly.

The students did Gym with Ms. Brown, and somehow, even after all that, we had time for a quick Class Dojo Store.

At the end of the day, we talked about the 'bittersweet' feeling of leaving school.  But Winter Break is the best. I hope everyone has a wonderful time and comes back to school ready for the 'fun half' of Grade 2/3!

Thank you all for your kindness and support this year - it has really been one of the best school years ever, and considering everything else that's going on, I think that speaks volumes about just how special the families in Room 4 are.

Have an excellent Winter Break!

Zac

Thursday, December 16

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today, which marks our last full day of school in 2021!

In the morning, the students worked on math problems, and did some persuasive paragraph writing about their sweaters. The goal this time was to convince their classmates of why their sweater was the ultimate sweater. Students also had the option to write about a fictional sweater, since I did not do a very good job of advertising 'festive sweater day' and many people forgot. In any case, they all did a fantastic job with this work.

I think one of the biggest things I've noticed in moving up from a grade 1/2 class is the students' ability to write non-fiction responses to writing prompts. They've made huge progress from the end of last year!

The students worked on some challenging, Christmas-themed, introductory algebra problems. This was the hardest one:

There are a whole bunch of similar problems on the internet if you search 'math mashup', and they're pretty fun.

In the afternoon, we finished up our Grinch Tree art by adding a portrait of the G-man himself.

We also started to watch "The Muppet Christmas Carol", which I think is actually an exceptionally good film for our Grade 2/3 class as it retells a literary classic in a fun, easy to process way. So far they're really enjoying it. We'll also be discussing characters, significant events, and setting! Just in case you were worried we were slacking.

Speaking of not slacking, tomorrow is also our last spelling quiz of the year! 

Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, December 15

Hi parents,

We had a good day today and it was nice to be back in class. Ms. Jemmott had nothing but kind things to say about the class yesterday, it sounds like it was a great day too. :)

Today, the students completed responses to their choice among these three writing prompts:

1. What is the nicest gift you ever gave?

2. What would each person in your family like to get for Christmas?

3. What are your family's holiday traditions?

Ms. Brown took the class for gym (they stayed inside today), and we also worked on math problems as usual.

In the afternoon, the students completed their "Grinch Verse" writing activity and used tissue paper to create grinch trees to accompany their writing.

I'll be sending those home today and tomorrow, along with the drums!

At the end of the day we had Music.

There are only 2 days left of school until Winter Break - and both of them are spirit days!

Tomorrow is Festive Sweater Day, and Friday is Pajama Day. It's also Spelling Quiz Day!!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday, December 13

Hi parents,

We had a good day today, although it did feel a bit more unruly than it's been lately. I wonder if being down to the last 5 days of school has something to do with it....

This was also a bit of an atypical Monday because we did not do weekend journals for writing today. Instead, we wrote our own verses for the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch". Students had to incorporate descriptive words into their verses, and 'sarcastic similes' for lack of a better word. For example, phrases like "cuddly as a cactus", or "charming as an eel". We talked about how contrasting a nice adjective (cuddly, soft, kind...) with an unpleasant noun (eel, cactus, slug, etc.) can be even more effective than just blatantly saying a character is mean, nasty, gross, or whatever you're trying to convey.

The class went outside with Ms. Brown for Gym.

Ms. Brown has created a brief video to introduce herself and talk a bit about what she has been working on with the students!

In the afternoon, we did some multiplication practice, Daily 5, and Spelling Practice. I've found the 'spelling bee' style of practice has been working well, especially since we've turned our focus to sight words. If you're practicing at home, I recommend asking your child to spell each word out loud from memory. We've talked about how practicing this way can help simulate a quiz situation, and show which words you have mastered and which require more attention.

At the end of the day, the students had Music.

Have a nice day!

Zac

Final Spelling Words of 2021!

 Spelling List A

All	My	Are	Like
Now	They	Went	Some

 

Spelling List B

Again	Any	Could	Because
Found	Use	Or	Just

 

Spelling List C

Snowflake	Holiday	Sleigh	Winter
Season	Vacation	Mountains	Unwrap

More sight words! Woohoo!

Friday, December 10

Hi parents,

We had a great day today!

The spelling quiz was more challenging than I expected. I think we'll need to review some of the words again next week. But the students gave it their all, and stayed focused, so that was good.

Ms. Brown took the class out for gym once again, and when we got back, we did a really cool writing task. Students wrote "Elf Diary" entries, similar to what we did when the students wrote in their 'bat journals'. They did such an awesome job of this one that we had a sharing session at the end, and many students were excited to read their work aloud in front of the class.

We added the finishing touches to our drums by tying some twine around the top. We did a bit more drumming as a class and talked about how the vibrations of the drum skin allow a drum stick to 'bounce' along the top, a technique that is used in drum rolls. 

Next week is our last week of school before winter break, and we have two School Spirit Days planned:

Thursday, December 16: Ugly / Nice Sweater Day

Friday, December 17: Pajama Day

Stay tuned for next week's spelling words, and have a nice weekend!

Zac

Thursday, December 9

 Hi parents,

We had a really great day today. There were a couple of activities that were so fun we'll need to do them again, I don't want anyone to miss out.

In the morning, we had a long work period with lots of opportunities to work in small groups and check in with students on their math. I think we've made a lot of progress this week - students are using strategies with a lot more accuracy and confidence, and the new 'input / output' problems seem to be a good challenge.

Students wrote 'Top 5 Holiday _____' lists (for example, holiday snacks, songs, etc.), and some chose to write school appropriate parody versions of Christmas songs.

The class worked on more Christmas-themed math worksheets and we talked about different ways to end sentences with punctuation.

The afternoon was probably the highlight of the day for most of the students, as this is when they finally got to play their drums!

We talked about how drums create sounds with vibration, and put a small amount of water on the top of each drum to show how the vibrations create splashes and ripples.

We had a bit of a jam session, in which the students played beats and I played guitar. We talked about the role of a drummer in a band, and how drumming with consistent timing is typically the most important skill a drummer can have. 

The students even attempted to learn the most iconic drum fill of all time. You know the one I mean.

Tomorrow is our spelling quiz! We've practiced hard this week and I think it'll be a good one.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, December 8

 Hi parents,

We had another good day today. In the morning, we upped the difficulty level for morning math, and I was really happy with the results. Morning Math has been a bit repetitive the last few days, and although repetitive practice can be awesome with math, I think the students were ready for something fresh. So, we started doing some input / output problems.

Basically, students are given a series of numbers, in this format (but more aesthetically pleasing):

6 ------- > 18

5 ---------> 15

3 -------->  9

Then they have to determine the 'rule' that can be applied to each 'input' number in order to get the corresponding 'output'. In the example above, the rule is "multiply by 3". These problems are great because they have such a high ceiling. A teacher could hypothetically make a rule as complicated as "subtract 2, multiply by 4, subtract 1" and take the rest of the day off while the students struggle for hours.

We practiced spelling and the students quizzed each other on this week's words. It went much better than practices in previous weeks and I'm quite optimistic for this week's quiz.

The students worked on Christmas themed math worksheets, and went outside for gym with Ms. Brown.

In the afternoon, we had Daily LA, Work Period, and Music.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, December 7

 Hi parents,

We had a good but tiring day today (painting activities tend to do that), and we got a lot of important things done.

In the morning, we finally got to work on our drum project - the one that we gathered all those yogurt containers for. If you happen to have any extra yogurt containers, please continue to send them, we currently have just barely enough and a couple extras couldn't hurt.

The work we did on the drum project today was painting cardstock paper for the outside. The students did some nice Morrisseau-inspired artwork.

We learned a bit about the history of Hip-Hop music (social studies) and watched the video for the greatest hip-hop / holiday crossever ever, "Christmas in Hollis" by Run DMC.

We did Daily LA and Gym in the afternoon, and a very thorough cubby clean-out. We also revisited our temperature activity from yesterday and found that the coldest water at LBS comes from our water-bottle filling station! Which is perfect, because that's the only water source we're supposed to be drinking this year.

Have a nice day,

Zac

Monday, December 6

 Hi parents,

Today was a great Monday, and a bit more interesting than a typical Monday too.

In the morning, the students had gym with Ms. Brown, wrote in their journals, and started to practice this week's spelling words. Mostly we just talked about the words and did a 'pre-assessment' to figure out which ones each student may need to work on. The thing with sight words is once you've got them, you'll never forget, so there are probably a lot of words this week that students have already mastered. 

The afternoon was when things got especially interesting. Students were tasked with using thermometers to measure the water temperature at each sink / water station at the school. They recorded their findings in tables. I really enjoyed this activity because it was so cool to watch the kids delegating responsibilities within a group, working together, gathering data, and being excited to learn. Maria Montessori would've been proud of Room 4 today!

We watched and quickly discussed this video about why we shiver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzl7NwprVVE

And we ended the day with Music class.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words! Week of Dec. 5

Spelling List A

All	Am	Are	Like
Now	They	Our	Out

 

Spelling List B

After	From	How	Them
Walk	Were	When	Of

 

Spelling List C

About	Laugh	Carry	Better
Brother	Squirrel	Water	Money

This week we're going back to the Dolch Words List and focusing on Sight Words! It is my dream for everyone to be able to spell (at least) all the words on List A and B by Winter Break. 

Good luck!

Friday, December 3

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today.

In the morning, the students worked on math problems. Our Morning Math has lately consisted of a mixture of addition, subtraction, and multiplication problems, and I've noticed more students seem to be struggling with concepts they'd previously felt quite comfortable with. I think this is because we now have so many strategies at our disposal and it's tough to remember when to do each one. I think the best way to overcome this is to just keep on persevering and practicing! Practicing a wide range of different problems helps students stay on their toes and not just fall into a habit of doing the same calculations over and over again. 

If you're practicing math at home, I encourage you to try switching up the operations as well. 

We had our spelling quiz, and just like the morning math, it was a bit of a challenge. I think we may need to review the expectations of independent practicing next week. But that's okay, I'd rather the work be challenging rather than too easy.

We had a great Daily LA session, and the students got to go outside with Ms. Brown for gym. 

We learned about thermometers, and how to measure and read temperature. The students coloured in four paper thermometers to show 4 different temperatures, and wrote about what each temperature feels like.  We talked about how 0 degrees and 100 degrees are both especially significant temperatures, as they represent the freezing and boiling points of water. We also talked about how to protect yourself from very warm temperatures, like 30+ degrees, and very cold temperatures, -10 and lower. 

Next week we'll start using real thermometers to measure real temperatures.

Stay tuned for spelling words, and have a nice weekend!

Zac

PS: If you're looking for something fun to do this weekend, the Canyon Meadows Cinema is showing some awesome Christmas classics including Elf and Arthur Christmas :)

Thursday, December 2

 Hi parents,

We had an awesome day today, the morning was especially productive and the students earned 3 Dojo points just for working so hard. They kept the noise level incredibly low and remained focused for much longer than I would've ever thought possible.

This morning, we worked on Math problems, and then added the finishing touches to our Norval Morrisseau-inspired art. The students also write brief paragraphs about the animal depicted by their artwork, and that's where they really impressed me with their work - typically a paragraph writing task like that would take at least a couple of days, but they somehow blasted through both rough and good copies in just over an hour. The paragraphs accompany the artwork really nicely, as you can see below!

In the afternoon, we watched an episode of Bill Nye about Heat. We're going to start a Hot and Cold Temperatures unit in science next week and Bill always provides a great overview.

We did Daily LA and worked with the Montessori multiplication materials in the afternoon.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, December 1

 Hi parents,

Can you believe it's already December? We did a bit of work with December calendars today and it suddenly dawned on me that there are only 12 days of school until Winter Break. Pretty crazy.

The students spent most of the morning working on their good copies of their Norval Morrisseau-inspired artwork. All around they are looking pretty awesome. Tomorrow we will add the finishing touches, and then I'll put some more pictures on the blog.

The students had more time this morning to finish up their paragraphs from yesterday. We also worked on some math problems. We're continuing to work on addition and subtraction problems as well. I realize that there are a lot of different 'tricks' and strategies the students are currently juggling, and it can be tough to always remember when to use each one. Any additional (and subtractional) practice at home will always go a long way!

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, worked on the calendars mentioned above, and had Music and Gym.

Tomorrow is "Holiday Character Day" at LBS! 

Students are encouraged to dress up as one of their favourite 'holiday characters'. I think the idea is to focus on wintery-holiday characters, like Frosty, Rudolph, Buddy the Elf, John McClain etc. But 'holiday character' is a pretty broad term so feel free to get creative with it.

Have a nice night,

Zac