Friday, April 9, 2021

Something strange is happening here. Sorry. Will try to sort it. Happy Friday. We changed up our day last minute, giving the students in attendance their final opportunity to work on their Landforms book using Book Creator. We will begin presentations next week. Students also started their next (short) assignment: Design a theme island and include each of the landforms that you have learned. Example: Bird Island might include Flamingo Mountain, Vulture Volcano, and Birdbath Bay. I hope that they will have fun with this open-style assignment. I decided to introduce the kids to Helen Keller so we watched the 1962 movie: The Miracle Worker with Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft. I am including a link to a brief video about Helen here: Many thanks for the spaghetti lunch that was served today! We truly are spoiled here at Wagalus! Enjoy your weekend. I hear that the sun is coming next week so here's hoping:)

Thursday, April 8, 2021

 Gilakas'la!  Here's a look at our busy day:

First, a reminder about the hot lunch tomorrow: Spaghetti!  If your child does not like spaghetti, please pack their own lunch.  

istockphoto-636746848-612x612.jpg

We added notes about Verbs to our Language Arts Interactive Notebooks this morning.  It looks a bit confusing but the main thing for the kids to know that there are different types of verbs, and that verbs tell us when something happens; we mainly focus on action verbs.  

Remember you can click on these pictures to enlarge them.

We watched a very good video about verbs:https://youtu.be/DH5HzbObnOI

Then I read a beautiful story to the kids, emphasizing the verbs in it. 

During Math, we revisited the Perimeter and Area task cards for more practice.  Students are working to remember which is which, as well as what to do when asked to find the sum or difference (important vocabulary from earlier in the year).  

I read some more from REFUGEE; the kids are really enjoying it. 

The afternoon was spent working on the Book Creator Landforms assignment that is due tomorrow!  Students were given a checklist to use.  

Tuesday and Wednesday, April 6 & 7, 2021

 Hello, all.  I am combining yesterday and today mainly because I forgot to do the blog yesterday.  So here goes:

I started reading REFUGEE by Alan Gratz.  Not only is this an amazing story, but it will lead us into our studies about immigration.   I am adding this first so that the picture shows up in the box. 
*I read while the kids are still eating; this gives the slower eaters more time to relax. 

In Language Arts, students did a practice MAZE  on Tuesday and then "the real McCoy" today.  They are really getting good at these 3-minute timed reading fluency activities where, within sentences, they have to choose the correct word (from a list of three) to correctly use in the sentence.  I hope that makes sense to you. 

We also read and worked through another spelling booklet: "Amazing H" about adding h to certain consonants to change their sound.  

Yesterday, the kids wrote about what they had done over the weekend.  I wanted to see how their writing has developed completely unassisted.  

Today, students had a chance to do some of their Readwell or Reading Mastery program.  

Prior to that, we added some notes about Possessive Nouns to their Interactive Notebooks.  The photos will give you an idea of what that is all about.  

During Math this week, students did drills for the 6X facts.  Everyone improved today's score from yesterday's!!  Next, we continued working on calculating the perimeter and area of rectangles.  Today, the students worked on some "task cards" scattered about the room.  The picture below is an example of the first four cards. 

We are finishing up our Landforms books using Book Creator this week.  Students are using First Voices to add Kwakwala words to name most of the landforms.  We hope to present these books next week to parents et al via Zoom.  We will give notice!

Today, the kids had Kwakwal culture class with Isaiah in the afternoon.  I'm not sure what they did but they had fun!

Enjoy your evening.  Stay warm:)

Thursday, April 1, 2021

 Happy April 1st!  Fortunately, nobody played any tricks on me:)

We had a fun-filled yet productive day.  We did some water colour painting in two stages: the first so that the paint would dry thoroughly, and the second to add in Sharpie our designs.  Here's what the kids produced: some before and after...   *Remember, you can click on a picture to enlarge it.

We also  did some Easter-themed math: patterns and rotations, a MAZE exercise, learned about Alan Turing https://youtu.be/ynTAFPukXBk  and The Easter Story  https://youtu.be/J_E-3BqqeiU.  The latter was intended for educational  purposes, not promoting a religious belief. 

In the afternoon, we played another game of Kahoot! about Polygons and a second game about Growth vs Fixed Mindset to revisit what we had learned yesterday.  The poster that we created as a class yesterday is posted below.  

We had a wonderful hot lunch today: chicken noodle soup and a homemade bun.  The kids also had a brief egg hunt - thanks to Ms Pehgee's chocolate egg donation:)  Lastly, everyone went home with a bag of hard-boiled eggs, egg decorating materials, a new mask, and a new re-useable bag.  Wow!  Students are encouraged to attend the online Zoom tomorrow night for egg decorating and, if they do, will receive a gift certificate for Sporty's.  

Enjoy the long weekend!

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

 Gilakas'la!  

Reminder:  A special hot lunch of soup and bun will be served tomorrow! 

This post will be quick.  The students attend Culture Class on Wednesday afternoons so I just have a few things to share from the morning.  

First, we re-visited the Growth vs Fixed Mindset statements from yesterday, pasting them onto one large poster.  I forgot to take a photo before leaving school; will add that tomorrow.  We watched a 30-second commercial by Michael Jordan - related to Growth Mindset. https://youtu.be/45mMioJ5szc

Next, we watched a video about Goal Setting.  Then we made folded booklets and started our Goal Setting booklet.  We got as far as Long-term Goals, with students listing some things that they would like to be good at or become as adults.  So far, we are just making lists; later we will expand on one of goal. 

Setting Goals (McMaster UTV)  https://youtu.be/FFT6uP1fIFI  This video explains SMART Goals.

After recess, it is our math time so we did a timed 5X (B) drill and graphed the results.  Most students felt a great deal of success with these multiplication facts.  

Following that, we marked / reviewed our quadrilaterals worksheet from yesterday, working together to find missing angles within triangles (180 degrees) and quadrilaterals (360 degrees).  

Then I surprised the kids with a Kahoot! game about Polygons that I had made up.  We will play again tomorrow:) 

Finally, before and after language class, I read from an old book by Monroe Leaf (c) 1946 entitled How to Behave and Why.   Ask your child what the four most important things to live by are.  I'll tell you 
tomorrow:) 

That's it.  One more day before Easter break! 

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

 Greetings!  First off: a reminder that a hot lunch will be served on Thursday: chicken noodle soup & bun! 

We started our day checking out a short video about the Mars Rover being sent to and landing on Mars. This video is truly amazing! https://youtu.be/XRCIzZHpFtY

Next, we continued reading about and discussed Famous Failures: Oprah Winfrey, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, and Albert Einstein.  

Later on I showed a short 4 minute video about 15 Famous Failures Before Success. 

https://youtu.be/hNihl8oGA7A

Related to this, students worked in pairs to distinguish between Fixed versus Growth Mindset statements. Tomorrow we will look to see what they came up with and, as a review, put them onto a larger poster for the classroom. 

After recess, students continued their 4X drills, noting an improvement from yesterday's results.

Then we marked /reviewed the Polygons worksheets from yesterday before watching another MathAntics video about classifying Quadrilaterals.  We did some pages together while we sorted them out.  Some challenges came up when we named some Triangles and had to find missing angles.  The key is to remember that the inside angles of triangles always add up to 180 degrees. Grade 3s are not expected to know this but those who like to challenge themselves appreciate it:)

After lunch, we followed step by step instructions about how to draw a bunny head.  We did this with pencil, then went outside for some fresh air on the play ground.  Upon our return, we experimented with chalk pastels.  We were supposed to do bunnies but they turned out looking like dogs and other animals - mine included:)  

Some people gave up altogether (So much for growth mindset!) while others created more than one.  

We learned a lot about working with chalk pastels and blending with our fingers.  

Here's what we came up with:

Monday, March 29, 2021

 Welcome back after Spring Break! We had a good turn out today and it was sure wonderful seeing everyone.  

We started off talking about the gigantic ship that was stuck in the Suez Canal and held up traffic for almost a week!  It was freed this morning after much effort and expense.  We learned a bit about the history of the Suez Canal, looked up its geographical location, and discussed several related issues.  Just the shear size of the ship Ever Live was amazing to see. 

Later, after lunch, we also looked at the Panama Canal: its history, location, how it was constructed, and how the locks work.  There are several videos about both these canals and the event described above for you to check out.

We started reading about Famous Failures, starting with Michael Jordan and Steve Jobs. 

We discussed their characteristics and mindset as we begin to get into Fixed versus Growth Mindset tomorrow. 

In Math, after a 4X drill, we watched the MathAntics video about Polygons. Students worked quickly through a short package, then we began putting some notes into our Kim Sutton "Polygons" booklet.  Today we named triangles based on the lengths of their sides. 

Lastly, academically anyway, students worked on their Landforms books on Book Creator. 

All in all, it was a very pleasant and fulfilling day.  It flew by and the kids learned a lot of new things:)

Friday, March 12, 2021

 Wow!  What a day!  The kids were kept busy but they are sure ready for a break:)

We started with a short St. Patrick's Day story on Youtube, with most students remembering to wear green today.  Then, I showed them the following making / recording of the theme song from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly". It's worth a watch and listen to. 

St. Patrick's Day Book Read Aloud:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQyvfYho9Ns

 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Danish National Symphony Orchestra   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enuOArEfqGo

We also finished adding the 'spelling rules' notes we started yesterday to our Interactive Notebooks.  [change the "y" to an "i" and add "-es";  adding just -s or -es to words ending with an "o".  Example: pianos, tomatoes, heroes.]

Next, we sorted out our Working Binders and cleaned out cubbies before the break.  

Finally, students had some time to work on their Landforms project on Book Creator.  When we come back from break, we will finish them up.

After snack and recess, students returned and did eight questions about perimeter; they did this independently so that I can assess their understanding thus far. 

Following that, they finished their pastel landscapes while I finished reading My Side of the Mountain. 

Pat's class made tacos for those students who wanted one, and then it was time to collect the compost and sort the recycling.  

At 1:30, Isaiah and Latisha walked us down to the stream to release the young fry.  Lyam joined us, and the two sang a prayer, the salmon song, and a song of gratitude.  The following photos and a video hopefully captured this special event. 

Have a wonderful spring break, everyone!