Persuasive Writing

Today I introduced the boys and girls to a new writing form called persuasive writing. When I announced that this would be our writing focus over the next two weeks all I heard was "yessssssss!" in the crowd. I love when their reactions are so enthusiastic! Today we just talked about the text form and read an adorable book called "I Wanna New Room." In this story a young kid, named Alex, tries to convince his mom and dad that he should not have to share a bedroom with his younger brother. The book is full of voice and is a great model for this text form. I look forward to lots of fun with writing over the next two weeks!

Mechanical Pencils

It's funny how little things can bring such enthusiasm to a child's life. Today a gave each chickadee a mechanical pencil to write with for the remainder of the year. They were tickled pink! These tools make our printing look even smarter than it already is... meaning happy kids and happy teacher!

Symmetry

Today we learned a very sophisticated word for what we found to be a simple concept! The word is symmetry. In grade three symmetry is when you cut a shape in half and both sides are the exact same shape and size (we call this congruent). The line that divides the shape into equal parts is called "the line of symmetry." Some shapes have more lines of symmetry than others (example: a square has 4 while a rectangle has only 2).
Boys and girls, today in class we printed our first names in all capital letters and found which letters were symmetrical. Tonight, try writing your last name in all capitals and do the same activity!

A Helpful Link

Today was one of our "formal" EQAO prep days. On Wednesdays I give very direct and explicit teaching on past EQAO questions. We learn very useful strategies and apply them to tests from previous years. Attached is a link to the EQAO website. If you scroll down the page you will find a heading that says "Student Assessment Booklets and Scoring Guides (test questions and examples of student answers)." This is where you can find these sample questions.

EQAO

Geometry

Our next math unit is on transformational geometry. It is a very short unit that will only probably last about a week. Just like our mini-money unit, this short unit will also not have a final test, rather, just some quizes along the way. Last week during morning message I introduced the boys and girls to translations (slides), rotations (turns) and reflections (flips). Tomorrow we wil learn all about moving along a gid and near the end of the week the focus will be on symmetry. This tends to be an easier unit enjoyed by most of the kiddies!

Earth Day Activity

On Friday we had a wonderful afternoon doing an Earth Day activity. We created super cute art pieces and wrote helpful tips for how we can save the earth.

Enjoy a video of our "pre" earth day fun!

Remember Monday is Earth day. If you wish,
wear green and bring a dollar for an ice-cream sandwich (fundraising for eco initiatives).

Earth Day 2013

A Day in the Life of a Pioneer Kid

As a final assignment for our Pioneer Unit, I asked the boys and girls to imagine that they are a pioneer child. They were to spend a few minutes imagining what a day would be like back in time. They then wrote a recount (journal type entry) from a pioneer child's perspective. The kids loved this activity. I have never seen us all so keen to write! Everyone is doing a great job of demonstrating their learning from the unit and making wonderful connections. I am thinking that this will have to be collated into one of our class-famous books!

A solution for opening documents

Mrs. Mihalides has solved the mystery for opening documents in Internet Explorer! If you're getting an error message that looks like the one below and opening in a new window as suggested doesn't work, please see the video below for instructions.

Thank you Mrs. M for solving the mystery and making this helpful video!

Document Video
   

Super Hero Day!

Tomorrow is "Super Hero Day" at school. This year our year book will have a super hero theme. The  enthusiastic year book committee has asked for us to dress like a super hero. This can be an existant one (spider man, super man etc.) or one that's self-created (one chickadee said that she's coming as "fashion star hero"...too cute).

Reading Responses

Over the last few weeks we have been reading texts and responding to them with evidence from the text. We call this type of question "Reading Response With Evidence." We have learned how to go back to a text, highlight the proof we are looking for and then include this is our response. We are now ready for the next type of reading response. Students will now be asked to include what we call "a plus." A plus is our own information. It can either be a connection or a fact that is already in your schema. We call this type of question a "Reading Response With Evidence Plus."

Bake Shop Practice

The bake shop is almost coming to a close! This week we will wrap up our mini money unit.
The following skills should continually be practiced at home to keep our money skills sharp:

- counting coins to $10
- know coin names and their value
- adding money amounts
- making change

Attached is a practice bake shop problem (called "Portal Problem 2") that combines all four of the above skills.

Bake Shop Problem

Idiom Tales

After a few weeks of learning about idioms we created our own classroom "Idiom Tales."
We chose our favourite idiom, illustrated what it literally sounds like and then wrote what it really means. I have put together a video of these favourite expressions and what they literally sound like. We truly "had a ball" with this activity!

Idiom Tales

Making Change

After some "counting coins" warm up this afternoon we learned all about making change. We learned that whenever you make change, the simple strategy to use is subtraction. Just like when we did subtraction strategies in October, the big number goes on top and the smaller on the bottom. The only difference with money, is the decimal point! Practicing making change at home would be helpful too.

Counting Coins

Our mini math unit is moving along quite nicely. Each day we are becoming more and more comfortable with counting coins. Next week we will be doing a lot of problem solving with money. Some skills we should practice this weekend are:

- counting coins up to $10
- adding money amounts
- showing coins different ways (example: 2 quarters is $0.50, how else can I show $0.50)
- next week we will learn how to make change, some of us could even try this if we feel ready

This will be fun!

Next week as part of our comparative writing unit, we will compare and contrast Sesame Street's lovable characters, Bert and Ernie.
As a kid I was a huge Sesame Street fan, so for me this is a lot of fun! We watched a clip from an "old school" Sesame Street episode today to help us compare the two. I think we are all excited to begin this task!

Games from long ago

What...no T.V., no iPod and not even a video game?!?! These were many of our thoughts this afternoon during social studies. We had a great lesson on the games that pioneer children played. We learned that with a combination of a great imagination and a few simple objects, pioneer children were able to have many hours of fun! We even tested out a few of their games today like charades, 20 questions, cup and ball, spelling bee and my favourite - "buzz."
Boys and girls... why not teaching mom and dad your favourite one?

Bake Shop

In math we have begun solving what Mrs. M and I call "bake shop" problems. These problems are often multi step and require us to apply our knowledge and understanding of money to higher level questions. The great thing about these questions is that they are very authentic too. They are problems that will arise in the real world. In fact, just yesterday at Walmart, I had $20 in my wallet and needed three items. I had to calculate whether I had enough money or would need to use my debit card. This was exactly what todays lesson was all about.
I have attached an example of a bake shop problem...that may also be similar to a pop quiz (wink wink)

Bake Shop Problem

Let's Make Comparisons

Our writing workshop for the next few weeks will be on comparative writing. As a group we wrote a short paragraph comparing apples and bananas. Believe it or not we had A LOT of fun doing it too! Who new that such a simple topic could bring out so many belly laughs. I can't really remember exactly what made us chuckle, but I know there was a ton of it going on!
We also took a look at this (Pinterest) pic and had a great discussion of the similarities and differences between the two.

 On a side note... I am sure that if I attempted this recipe mine would look like the bottom picture...sigh!

Counting Money

Today we kicked off a mini math unit in money. Our lesson focus was to review the names of the different coins and how much each are worth. We also practiced counting coins. Knowing how to count coins is a crucial part of this unit. Solving problems will get increasingly difficult if the boys and girls cannot count a handful of change. I encourage us to practice counting coins each night. So kiddies... start searching between the couch cushions!
Here is a link to Mrs. Mihalides' famous video on counting coins the easy way!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y84rcTspXUU

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! Mrs. Mihalides has been using one this year and it has appeared to be much easier (and attractive) than the portal system. After 6 months of her testing it out (and loving it), I thought I too would give it a whirl. I promise that as I learn and get more comfortable with it, it will get more dynamic (and prettier too). I really am excited to try this out and look forward to taking you on this new adventure with me!