Change

Change can be really hard. There are some people who thrive on it and others, like myself, who like things to stay status quo. As I'm sure you've heard, we will be changing from a Grade 5 class to a Grade 4/5 class after next week. The kids had mixed reviews on this announcement Friday. The one consensus was that no one wanted to be in a split, no matter where it was or who was teaching it.

When I went to school we had straight classes with about 30 kids in each and somehow I got through without being in a split. But there are advantages to having multi-aged students together. The younger ones have older mature role models, and the older ones can help the younger ones while developing their leadership skills. We all learn differently and at different paces. The older students who need extra review will get it. The younger ones who are ready for the next challenge will get it. It's a win-win. I have taught a Grade 5/6 split before and although it was tricky scheduling and planning wise for me, the kids all made it through and they had a fabulous year. Splits actually lend themselves nicely to the new philosophy of teaching. There will be some overlap, particularly in Science and Social Studies, but the rest of the subjects build on the previous year's curriculum and will contain old and new information that students can access at their level.

Friday was a whirlwind of activities. We finished up our How We Learn unit and we now know our learning styles, what kind of smart we are, what part of the brain we use the most, and our personality colours. I took pictures of the kids so that we can make our Who Are You? placemats on Monday. I appreciated how patient our class was filling in all of these surveys for me - all of it is important information to me to know as their teacher. I think they learned a lot about themselves though and I am interested in seeing how they apply their areas of expertise next week when we begin group work.

The kids did really well on their Spelling Inventory assessments, I was really impressed with their knowledge of spelling patterns. French was fantastique! Everyone is caught up on their Diary of a ___________ Kid entries. We had Phys Ed with Miss Rutherford's class outside and it turns out that I need to get back to my gym because those kids are WAY faster than I am and I am not very good at this Manhunt game.

Here are the pictures I promised:

Our Tweets

Coloured section is our 'account'/name handles.
White portion is our thought on respect.
Red ink is our hashtag for respect to create a trend.

Our Name Glyphs

I would like to recognize the whole class for clapping for Kylee when she won 3 draws in a row AND got one of the Mind Trap questions correct. I honestly have an amazing group of kids!

Don't forget to sign the weekly report (which I almost forgot to send home - yikes!) and return it on Monday. Have a fantastic weekend.

We Survived Day 3

Today's title courtesy of Colby!

Ah what did we do today?

Community Circle
We found out our True Colour and discovered if we were left, middle or right brained

The class tackled their first rotary classes today and did very well. Another proud moment!

In the afternoon I gave the kids a book pass and they learned how the class library is set up. Ask your child which books he/she rated as a 5 (must read). Scholastic orders went home today and are due on September 28th for those who are interested. The kids chose a book and completed a reading interest survey.

We wrote another diary page, took a 3-minute 'test' that only 3 people passed (it's my favourite test to give as it is really funny), and answered our first Mind Trap puzzle. Comment below if you were a winner!

I am exhausted, how about you? This heat is really doing me in. Don't forget to bring a water bottle to stay hydrated and indoor shoes because you have Phys Ed tomorrow. I actually remembered to bring my camera in to take pictures of our Twitter board. And I did take pictures. Without the memory card in my camera! Ugh.

My shining star today was Tyler. I am at a loss for words about how he humbly showed patience and gave his forgiveness. What an incredible model he is for the class. My hat is off to you young man.

Couldn't Have Been Prouder

We started Tribes today, which is a co-operative learning program that will set the stage for the rest of the year. It is based on 4 agreements: Attentive Listening, Appreciation/No Put Downs, Right to Pass, and my favourite...Mutual Respect. I am hoping to have a Community Circle at least once a day. I introduced the Tribbles and we played one of the get-to-know you games. To learn more about the philosophy of the program, click here.

We had a big discussion about fidgets during Community Circle. As mentioned in my parent letter, self-regulation is an important factor of success in school. Children need to be able to regulate their bodies and their minds in order to focus on lessons and task completion. That can be difficult to do when you're 10 and a kinesthetic learner! I call sensory objects fidgets, and when taught how and when to use them appropriately, they can be very beneficial for any type of learner. In the beginning they are often distracting and used as toys, but the novelty wears off and in the end, only those who truly need them will use them. I purchase many of my fidgets from the Dollar Store and I encouraged the kids to bring in their own. For some children who are chatty or like to chew on pencils, I find gum and mints reduce these behaviours. I allow gum chewing in my room (and my class only) as well as sucking on or chewing mints. A note will go home about this by the end of the week.

After reading Do Unto Otters, we created our own Twitter accounts (on paper, not on the internet) and we 'tweeted' our views on respect and created the hashtag #respect so that we could trend. It took me an hour of researching to figure out how to 'Twitter' and what a hashtag was...is that a sign that I'm getting old?! If I can remember to bring in my camera I'll take a picture of our tweets and post it tomorrow.

.............

This is where the proud moment came...on our first trip as a class down the hallway to the other side of the school, not one single person had to be spoken to. All students were quiet. That was pretty cool...but it gets better. We've been talking about self-regulation A LOT in the past two days so I decided to give them their first challenge: sit where you want in the computer lab, beside whoever you want, and be able to follow my lesson and complete your work. And THEY DID IT. On day 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I discovered that many students needed to brush up on their recycling skills so in Computers they created a table in Microsoft Word and researched how the Niagara Region sorts their garbage. Each student had to find 5 things that went into the blue bin, the grey bin, the garbage and the compost. We'll be adding graphics to our files and creating posters to help educate the rest of the school on how to make Cherrywood become more eco-friendly.

Many of the students were eager to learn about the classroom Minister jobs and worked diligently on filling out their applications. Other students asked if they could "just not have a job". Ask your child about my answer and my reasoning.

All agendas were signed this morning...thank you! I'm looking forward to reading over the parent surveys this weekend.

Your child found out if they were an auditory, visual, or kinesthetic learner today. If all goes as planned they will know their True Colour tomorrow.

Challenge #2: self-regulation in their first rotary subjects (French with Madame Rocca and Music with Mrs. Illich). I hope they make me as proud tomorrow as they did today!

My shout out tonight goes to Katie-Lynn who worked hard to make improvements in self-regulation. She led by example and made our classroom a better place with her maturity and dedication to her goal. Great job!

Thank you also to Nathan who yesterday afternoon took the time to come back and tell me to have a good night (and I did).

Our First Day

Well our first day came and went so fast we didn't even realize the time. We were sharing our summer stories and looking at my pictures when the bell rang for lunch and we were all like, "What? It's lunch? Already?"

Seriously.

We had a hot, humid, but fun first day. The kids learned a lot about me and I have started to learn a bit about them. In case you were given the "it was okay" answer (with a pre-teen shrug) when you asked how the first day of school was, here's what we did:

First, we had breakfast. The kids used their manners and cleaned up well after themselves. I showed them where things were in the room and talked about independence. After that we did an agenda scavenger hunt. Did you know that strawberries have more Vitamin C in them than oranges? Ask your child if elephants can jump...

The kids learned about Caught Ya tickets and we decided on our Celebration plans. The first one we're working toward is ______________________. The kids know :)

We worked on our Diary of a _______________ Kid project. We had some pretty neat verbs and adjectives.

This is when the day started to fly. We tried watching my old-school summer slide show on the Smart Board and discovered just how slow computers can be when programs aren't compatible and jpg images are large. The kids were patient though and in between picture loading and program restarting we threw the football around while talking about the best summer memory. Then BAM the bell rang.

Following second break we made our name glyphs in Art, finished our diary entries and then did paperwork. Lots of paperwork and agenda information and forms...Please sign your child's agenda each night so that I know you are seeing it.

All in all I think the kids had a good time. I know I did. I feel fortunate to have such a great group of kids to learn with each day.

If your child came away with anything today, I hope it was that I am big on RESPECT. It's my number one expectation. Respect for themselves, respect for others, respect for property, respect for differences. The rest will all fall into place once we are cohesive group who respects each other in and out of the class. I also like them to clean up after themselves and push in their chairs :-)

When I make my blog posts (which I am hoping to do each day, if not every other), I will try to spotlight a student who went out of their way to make our classroom a better place. Today that was Matthew. He was always offering to help and swept up other people's messes for them without being asked. We don't even have a broom yet so that was impressive! Thanks to you.

And also thanks to Josh whose end of the day comment will never be forgotten: "This was the best first day I've ever had!"

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Welcome back everyone! In just 2 short days school will be back in and we will be starting a whole new year. For you it's Grade 5. For me it's year 9 of teaching. 

Here's what I've been working on this summer: 

Our Word Wall

Our Reading Centre

All of our books are sorted by genre or author and are labeled to help students with their independence in returning them. This also saves Miss Hall a huge headache!

Student supply area

Our Smart Board!!!!!!!!! It just needs a visit from the computer technician and it will be ready to rock.

Our Math Wall will be used for a Multiple Intelligences Board for the first week. We will be learning about how 'smart' we are.

Student desks are in an L shape but will hopefully be in groups by October.

I hope you had a great summer. I sure did!