Thursday October 27th 2016
This morning students wrote: "Pyjama day is tomorrow." in their agendas! The reason for this is because they spoke enough French last week to earn their prize!
In French, we went through our calendar message, where all of the students were able to learn a little bit more about my family (my little sister).
We then began to learn our song "Les douze jours de l'Halloween." The 12 days of Halloween.
We read a little French book about a boy and his pumpkin as well.
Grade 1's continued (Some finished) their writing about what scares them in a haunted house.
Grade 2's also continued (or finished) their Halloween costume writing.
After small recess, we had a classroom discussion about playing with "guns" (pretending to shoot each other with your fingers). It was made clear that, as much as it is a harmless motion, it is not something we want to practice (shooting each other). To get our minds off of the negative subject, we read the book: "Druscilla's Halloween."
In mathematics, we all reviewed odd and even numbers, even figuring out the pattern (grade 1's understood flawlessly!) We then played games-grade 1's practiced their subitizing game; flipping a card with a group of circles on it, then naming the number that is one more, two more, one less, two less than the number of objects on the card.
Grade 2's played a game called "pair/impair" they worked in 2's. Each student had to decide whether they were "pair" or "impair". They would then place a small amount of chips under a piece of paper. Both students would flip their paper, name their number, then both students had to make the sum of their two numbers and determine if it was odd or even. The student who declared they were "pair/impair" at the beginning of the game wins a point if the sum of was pair/impair.
After math, we talked about our classroom family, how we are a family and what makes us a family.
This afternoon, we did a round of read to self. We then talked about the bathroom, and how, YES we are supposed to either go before/after recess, during snack or lunch, but if you're in the classroom and it's an emergency, do not wait to ask until it's too late. We also talked about the bathroom at recess-if the monitors are busy, and you're going to have an accident, just go to the bathroom.
Students enjoyed gym with Mme Harding's sub.
To end our day, we read a book called "Plot chicken's" which talks about the parts of a story, and especially the rules for making your writing "eggsiting". Rule 1- You need a main character. Rule 2-You need to hatch a plot. Rule 3-Give your main character a problem. Rule 4- Develop your plot by asking "What if?". Rule 5-Write what you know. Rule 6-Build Suspense. Rule 7-Make sure your story comes alive by using all five sense. Rule 8-the main character must solve her (os her) own problem.
Understanding that the grade 1's have not yet learned how to write stories yet, they were encouraged to adventure and try. Grade 2's reviewed what they know about story writing.
We then did our own "eggsiting" writers workshop before cleaning up for the end of the day.