Math Journal

This week we explored 3D shapes in our Math Journals. I took some pictures to show you since I won't be sending them home until the end of the year. Students write the Learning Goal, lesson notes, and interactive pieces on the left-hand side of the page. On the right-hand side of the page, they restate the Learning Goal in their own words and write what they already know about the topic. After the lesson, they write what they learned, the proof of what they learned, and a reflection explaining how the concept is used in the world around them. 

Writing the name of the solid, the number of faces, edges, vertices, and a sketch 

Close up of Kylee's work

What the interactive piece looks like when folded

Hard at work in the hall

Clearly enjoying this activity ;-)

Thinkers

CyberPigs

I sure took a lot of pictures this week! Here is the class working their way through a game called The 3 Cyber Pigs. It was an introduction to our unit on advertising. More to come on what we'll be learning in the next couple of weeks. 

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Because I wrote all of these blog posts on the weekend, I don't have a specific person per day to appreciate so I would like to give the whole class a star for working hard toward our March goals of transitioning effectively and keeping the floor and desks clean during Nutrition Break. We earned our March reward and we're having a pizza party on Monday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That gives us a 4 day head start on April's Celebration. I wonder what we'll choose...

Mining

We became miners this week. Our lesson started by learning about Child Labour through a book called Breaker Boys, which is about the exposure of awful mining conditions that children worked in from the late 1800s-early 1900s. 

Without the dangerous conditions or terrible pay, each Tribe was given a pan with birdseed and valuable beads. Their job? To extract as many rocks and minerals as they could within 3 minutes. Each pair within the Tribe had two chances to dig. The sunflower seeds were only worth $2 but there were a ton of them in the seed. The beads were valued based on their colour, but there were very few of them and much harder to find. The rest of the seed was invaluable.

A close up of materials

Deciding what's valuable

Counting the seeds

Recording the value of mined goods

Tribe 1 strategizing

Tribe 2 mining and recording

Tribe 3 were our winners

Tribe 4 working together

Tribe 5 helping each other out

Tribe 6 mining

Tribe 7 hard at work

From here, we will look at the pros and cons of mining and where mining occurs in Ontario.

Tangrams

In preparation for the city we will be creating in April, students were working on a tangram challenge. I read them The Warlord's Puzzle which is a story about a blue square that falls and breaks into 7 pieces: 5 triangles, a square, and a parallelogram. People in the land were lining up to solve the mysterious puzzle of how to put them back into a square. 

We made our own tangrams (but in purple of course) and students tried to solve the puzzle themselves. Then they worked with a partner to figure out how to make multiple polygons using different combinations of shapes. 

Web Wednesday

We haven't done this in a long time. We call it Web Wednesday. This time I split the class into two groups and they competed to see who could create and unravel the web before the other group. Afterward we discussed which way we liked better - as a full class or in groups of two. Some students preferred the co-operative nature of doing this activity as a class and others liked the competition working in smaller groups offered. 

Group 2 were the winners

Uh oh...the ball dropped

Drama Drama Drama

Welcome back from March Break...I hope you enjoyed your week off.

Today was a day that made me proud to be your child's teacher.

The last few Drama periods, I have happened to have meetings or was sick but instead of switching the class to something else, I left what I would have done for the supply. The last plan of mine didn't pan out so well for a couple of reasons: I overestimated the class' comfort level and experience in what I wanted them to do and the idea of having students work in larger Tribe groups was too much. So we had a chat about it and we discovered who was comfortable with what type of role: main role, supporting role, minor role, and narrator (thanks Dan) and also what type of Drama students wanted to do. Most students said they'd like an opportunity to write their own skits and to pick their own groups based on role and topic interest. We brainstormed some ideas together and next class we'll narrow our topics, pick our groups, and get started. Those who do not want to create their own skit will be working on Reader's Theatre presentations.

Why am I so proud? I love the way that our class can have these discussions and I can be honest when I make mistakes, they can be honest when they make mistakes, and we work together to create a common ground to find a solution that works for most, if not everyone in the class.

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Thank you to Dalton and Tyler who worked hard to make good choices today and to Tribe 2 and Josh who impressed our Superintendent with their narrative success criteria answers. You should be proud to know that the Superintendent took a copy of OUR criteria with her after our visit to the school. That's how impressed she was with our work. Great job everyone!

Character is...

...how you act when no one is looking.

I was away a lot in February! I really dislike being away. It's a lot of work for me and it's stressful for the kids to have someone new in every time. We had some discussions this week about character education and how to act when I am not here. We have a co-op student (who is going to school to be an Educational Assistant) here with us on Thursdays until the end of April. She happened to be here on Wednesday when I was away and she also goes with the class to their rotary subjects. She was shocked at the difference in how the class treats me (and each other) when in our own classroom in comparison to how they treat other teachers, particularly supply teachers. So I decided that on my preps I would go with the class to their rotary subjects on Thursday and Friday. I got to see Music, Dance, and French. In all 3 classes, the teachers reported a difference in how students acted when I was there in comparison to when I was not. I feel that this shouldn't be the case.

I believe in having high standards for my kids and for my classroom. I want them to learn academically, yes, but I also want them to be the best person that they can be. I want them to have high self-esteem, be effective advocates for their learning needs, and to be proud of who they are. I have received note after note with student names being written down for being disruptive, rude, and producing little work while I am away...and now I am disappointed and frustrated because it is March. This kind of stuff should not be happening this late in the year. As we learn and develop as a class in the Fall, I am more lenient, but by the end of winter, well it seems that we need to get back to basics.

So for the month of March, the whole class has an iGoal of demonstrating character throughout the day no matter who is teaching them and to transition successfully. We came up with 3 ways to transition:
                      1. Go from one activity to another without talking
                      2. Line up and travel to and from rotary classes without talking in the hall
                      3. Get materials without speaking
If everyone does this, then we will not waste time when we could be learning, teachers will be less frustrated, peers who follow the rules consistently will not be annoyed, and we can be proud of ourselves and go back to being known as the class who rarely has problems during nutrition break, who doesn't disrupt other classes when in the hall...the class who used to get compliments from all the other teachers.

I like to approach discussions about poor choices and behaviour and work on next steps based on each child's goals and needs. At this point though, it seems that my approach is not working with some students, so I will be going to a consequence-based approach for this month. If you receive a Book of Doom page home to be signed, that means your child has had a warning and 3 strikes in an area (such as being excessively silly, being rude, talking out, etc.). Book of Doom pages are consequence sheets that describe an inappropriate action, how it effects others, and what should be done next time. Students have to write it out on their own time (not during fitness break) and at home and then get it signed by an adult. If 3 Book of Doom pages are given for the same behaviour, then the student will be sent to see Mrs. Baggs. I hope that it doesn't have to come down to this as I don't like to send kids to the office and only do so if physical aggression or another serious issue has occured.

I recently read an article on education and current research is showing that it's not just 'smarts' that makes a person successful, it's their ability to self-regulate and make good choices. Even when no one is looking.

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I want to thank Cassandra and Christina who took the time to organize our classroom games when they noticed that they weren't put back properly when I was away on Wednesday (2 indoor recesses). Thanks girls...I appreciate your initiative and thoughtfulness!