Spelling List A (November 19 – 23)
Spelling List B (November 19 – 23)
Spelling List C (November 19 – 23)
Hi parents,
We had a pretty good day today. In the morning, we had a bonus Music class, and then we worked on topic sentences.
Our paragraph writing work is coming along slowly. It's been a challenge for sure. We started to work on compound sentences today, which was also a struggle. So I'm going to assign some homework to hopefully start students off on the right foot for next week!
Blog Homework - Creating a Compound Sentence (+2 Table Points)
Convert the three simple sentences into a single 'compound sentence', that includes all the same information.
1. Calgary is a city.
2. Calgary is in Alberta.
3. Calgary has a population of 1.3 million.
In math, we worked more on Fact families. There was definite improvement in this area from yesterday! This time, I gave the students equations, and asked them to write the corresponding number facts. For example:
340 + 626 = 966
Then the students would write:
626 + 340 = 966
966 - 340 = 626
966 - 626 = 340
We played kickball outside. It was an awesome tie game!
We ended our day by reading A Rover's Story.
Have a nice weekend,
Zac
Hi parents,
We had a pretty good day today. The morning was tough though. The 'missing number' addition and subtraction problems were such a challenge. Spirits were on the brink of being crushed - so we took a few steps back and reviewed the idea of 'fact families'.
We did a few examples of fact families as a class. They look like this:
7 + 13 = 20
13 + 7 = 20
20 - 13 = 7
20 - 7 = 13
I'm hoping that by reviewing basic fact families, students will be able to build a stronger understanding of how addition and subtraction are related, and apply the same understanding to successfully rewrite and solve more complicated problems. On the math quiz, there will be problems like:
1,402 + ___ = 2,105
Same idea, but with bigger numbers. I think we can get there with practice. But because we may need some extra time, the math quiz will be postponed until Tuesday, November 28.
In the afternoon, we started reading A Rover's Story. We learned about Mars, and we learned about Mars Rovers. These videos are interesting!
Hi parents,
I hope everyone enjoyed their November Break. We had a good day back at school today. In the morning, the students revisited the notes they took last week about tanks, and used these notes to write paragraphs with topic sentences, concluding sentences, and plenty of factual information.
In math, we worked on "missing number" addition and subtraction. This has been a sizeable challenge for the class. Its been tough for them to know how and when to 'rewrite' a problem to make it easier to solve - for example, thinking of the problem "36 + __ = 92" as if it were "92 - 36 = ___".
Math Quiz - Addition and Subtraction - Nov. 22
We will be having another math quiz on November 22, focusing on Addition and Subtraction. It will be on content we've covered in class, and I'll post more detailed information soon about what kinds of questions to expect.
In the afternoon, we did Daily LA and Music. We talked about the Montessori value of "Peace Education", and how to have a successful Peace Talk to solve a conflict.
We ended our day by previewing the cover of our upcoming novel study, on "A Rover's Story". The students sketched the cover, paying close attention to subtle details, and wrote three questions they had about the story.
Have a nice night!
Zac
Hi parents,
We had a much better day today. From my experience that's pretty much always how it goes.
In the morning, Mr. Wade (our student teacher) read the class a book called "Greenie the Wheat King". It's a beautifully illustrated simple story that celebrates grain elevators and Alberta's landscape. The students wrote in their journals about whether they felt grain elevators should be preserved, or torn down, now that they're not really useful anymore.
Rooms 7 and 8 put on a perfect Remembrance Day assembly, and the students listened and participated with exceptional respect and compassion. Thank you to everyone who donated to our school's Essential Items drive - look how it turned out!
In math, we revisited the problem from yesterday, about the bag of marbles. The students were much more confident this time around, now that they had a few strategies to try. We talked again about how important perseverance is when solving math problems, and how often our first attempt will be unsuccessful, and that's okay.
To further make this point, I gave the class some "math mash-up" problems. These problems are an awesome way to force students to think outside the box, and they're usually pretty fun too.
In the afternoon, we did some research on tanks. Learning about different vehicles, and wheels in particular, is part of our science curriculum, so our focus was around the question of why tanks have 'tracks' instead of just regular wheels. Students did an awesome just with this one - we're going to write some paragraphs with these notes next week!
We ended our day with the spelling quiz. I didn't have a chance to mark them yet unfortunately.
I don't think we'll do spelling words for next week, it's just too short.
Enjoy the November Break - until next Wednesday!
Zac
Hi parents,
Today was a bit of a rough day for Room 6. In the morning, we revisited the idea of topic sentences, and 'hooks' in paragraph writing. For some reason this concept is really stumping the class. They seem to be stuck in a rut where they just hooked on whatever our last example was, and then just alter it very slightly, but not in a way that necessarily makes sense with their topic. So for example, if the example we brainstormed together was "Mmmmmm, do you smell cookies baking in the oven?" they might write, "Mmmm, school is fun."
We've talked about how asking questions, using sound effect words, and descriptive language is a good way to make your topic sentence engaging, but they seem to be struggling with applying those concepts to their own writing in a way that is natural and not forced. I think all we can do at this point is keep practicing and studying examples of good writing. I'm sure in time it will come, but the kids won't be too happy about having to keep working away at the same thing.
We encountered even more struggles in math today, with the classic word problem: "There are 92 red and blue marbles in a bag. At least 70 are blue. What combinations of red and blue marbles could there be?"
Only about 3 students were able to solve this problem. I was disappointed because it's not really that complicated of a problem, and I know the class is more than capable of doing the necessary adding or subtracting to solve it, but for some reason most of them just kind of gave up and sat there rather than trying different approaches. We eventually went over how to solve it, and tried an alternate version at the end of the day, which went a little bit better, but I don't want the class to only feel like they can do 'familiar' math. I want them to be creative problem solvers!
We had a talk about trying different things when your initial strategy doesn't work. Maybe tomorrow we'll teach strategies more explicitly. I hope the class takes it to heart.
Tomorrow is also our review spelling quiz! Have a nice night,
Zac
Hi parents,
Today we started to talk about Remembrance Day. We had an awesome class discussion about peace, and war, and the students asked thoughtful questions about why war happens, and what it would take to achieve world peace. We studied the song "Ridin' With Private Malone" and had a great discussion about that too.
For this week's journal writing, we tried to incorporate elements of paragraph writing. Students tried to begin their weekend journal writing with an engaging topic sentence, and end with a conclusion. Unfortunately this was easier said than done. I think because they're so used to starting with "On the weekend..." they had a hard time breaking away from that, so most "hooks" ended up just being "On the cold weekend..." or "On my weekend..." or "On Sunday..."
In math, we looked at subtraction problems with missing numbers. For some reason these problems always confuse students. We used the golden beads to show how you can solve a problem like "100 - ___ = 45" simply by rewriting it as "100 - 45 = ___". We talked about how both 45 and 55 are 'parts' of 100, so you can always find one by subtracting the other.
We did Daily LA and practiced this week's review spelling words.
Have a nice night!
Zac
Spelling List A (Nov. 5 - 8)
Spelling List B (Nov. 5 - 8)
Hi parents,
We wrapped up our week on a high note. We had a spelling quiz, and then did a collaborative paragraph writing activity. We talked about the idea of 'flow' in writing. I was thinking a lot about my earlier attempts at teaching paragraph wring this week, and I came to the conclusion that it was just too structured. So we're taking a more flexible approach.
We wrote this one together as a class. Then, they students read it aloud, over and over, to see if it 'flowed'. We talked about how reading aloud multiple time is important, because often the first time students proof read something, they read it in a choppy, robotic way, and it's hard to tell how it's really supposed to sound.
Hi parents,
We had a great day today. In the morning, we reviewed the concepts of 'topics sentences' and 'concluding sentences' in paragraphs. I gave the students pre-written 'detail sentences', and it was their job to read through them determine the 'main idea', and write an appropriate topic and concluding sentence. This was a really challenging task for the class. It's tough because I feel like they often do their best writing with less direction, and when presented with a very structured task like this one, they end up writing kind of robotically...
In math, we worked on mixed addition and subtraction equations, with and without regrouping. This exercise was a perfect way to test whether students really understood the algorithms, and when to use them, and I'm happy to report that the answer is a resounding 'mostly yes.' They might even be ready for a math quiz next week!
On that note - our spelling quiz is tomorrow.
Have a nice night,
Zac
