We had a very busy week in 3A! The students worked hard and we had a lot of fun too!
Every day of the week all classrooms at RBES will take a 15 minute "Heathy Hearts and Minds" break. This isn't considered a second recess as it curricular time. In 3A our "Healthy Hearts and Minds" will follow a specific schedule.
1. Meeting Monday - We will begin each week with a classroom meeting. The benefits of classroom meetings include:
- allowing the students to discuss classroom issues
- get students involved in constructive decision-making in the classroom
- build a climate of trust and respect between myself and the students, as well as among students
- build self-esteem by getting the students involved in decisions that impact their world in important ways
2. Tech Tuesday - The break on Tuesday will involve technology in some way. Possible activities include GoNoodle, Just Dance or time on the Chromebooks.
3. Walking Wednesday - On Wednesdays we will be walking outside for 15 minutes until the weather gets colder. At this point, we will be walking in the school.
4. Thoughtful Thursday - Our break on Thursday will be focus on mindfulness and relaxation.
5. Fun Friday - On Fridays I will be taking the students outside to have "free" play time. During the colder months we will stay inside and play games.
Language Arts
Making Words - Until our Words Their Way spelling program is underway I will have the students participating in hands-on activities to build their phonemic awareness and spelling skills. This week I introduced "Making Words" in which the students select letters to build short and long words. They were given 7 letters and worked to build as many words as they could with those letters. Some of the students were even able to come up with the "secret" word that used all 7 letters!
Reading Workshop
During our Reading Workshop mini lessons this week we continued to focus on Comprehension. We discussed that "Reading is Thinking." Research has shown that simply having students read more is not enough to improve reading skills. Students need to be engaged in thinking about their reading. I modelled how to ask questions throughout the reading process while reading the book "Fly Away Home" by Eve Bunting. Learning to ask questions during the reading process is an important strategy because it teaches a reader to think aloud.
This week I continued to conference with individual students during Read to Self.
Writing Workshop
"I Am" Art Project
This week we completed our "I Am" art project. First, I read the story "I'm Gonna Like Me" by Jamie Lee Curtis. This is a great book about teaching children that the key to feeling good is liking yourself because you are you.
Then the class brainstormed a list of adjectives that describe themselves. The students then picked their favourite adjectives to write an "I Am" poem. The poems were written on the primary colour paintings that we did last Friday.
On Friday we filled in the first few pages of our "Back and Forth" journal. Please watch for these coming home next week. The students are so excited to share what they did in school during the week and they can't wait for you to write back to them! Thanks in advance for your participation.
Math
This week in math we started our Patterning Unit. The following goals were covered:
- find a number that is more than another number using a given difference
Near the end of the week we began to extend increasing sequences and solve simple problems using increasing sequences. We will continue working on this goal next week.
In addition to working through our Patterning Unit in Math, we are also focusing on mastery of basic facts. The ability to recall math facts fluently, and with automaticity, provides a foundation for math success. Learning specific strategies helps students commit these math facts to memory, resulting in the ability to perform critical mental math tasks.
Here the students are playing a game of "soldier salute." Salute is a great mental math card game to reinforce addition and subtraction facts.
Chromebooks
This week the students were assigned their computers. A label with email addresses and passwords for each student will be put in the front of their agendas on Monday. In math this week, I also introduced the students to a game called Prodigy. I will also include Prodigy usernames and passwords in the front of the students agendas if they would like to play the game at home. Prodigy allows me to assign any math topic for students to work on, and then I can get a detailed report on their progress!
Social Studies
In social studies this week the students had the opportunity to use compasses. Using the compasses, we were able to identify "landmarks" in various directions from the school.
Bus Safety
On Friday our class participated in our annual Bus Safety presentation. They had a great time playing a Jeopardy game to test their Bus Safety Knowledge!
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
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