Sharing Circle

We were busy today putting the finishing touches on our answers to the comprehension questions surrounding the story, The Sharing Circle.  We have been working on being able to identify the elements of a story (characters, setting, plot) etc and so we are showing off what we know!  As an added bonus we use sharing circles in the classroom so your little learner has experience with the concept of a sharing circle.  Ask your little learner how they felt about their work.

Crazy Hair day tomorrow

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Have a great spring break everyone!!

Good Readers

 Good readers make connections while they are reading.  To themselves, to another story, to the world.  

In Masterpiece, Marvin the beetle swims in a bottle cap.  He uses a peanut shell as a float device.  We wrote about ourselves and our experiences swimming.  We ranked ourselves from 0 to 5 and then gave a few important details to back up our rating.  Ask your little reader how they ranked themselves.

We are trying to tie up a few odds and ends in math this week.  We will be reviewing fractions, multiplication, patterns and skip counting.  Grade 4's have a lot of unfinished work that they have been tasked with getting in for marking.

Crazy hair day on Friday

Pillars of Care on Friday

Collecting reading records on Thursday so I can put in our data.

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Sharing Circles

 Here at school we have been using sharing circles to encourage listening skills and problem solving across the grades. Today we read the story, 'Sharing Circle' conducted a sharing circle and then wrote instructions for having a sharing circle.  Since we have been practising the format for instructional writing we used what, what, how to begin our work.  Little learners have the experience and background knowledge to write with authority!

Reading Give it A Shot will end next week and I will collect all the recording sheets on Friday.

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Getting There -

 We are wrapping up our time unit in math.  Grade 3's can relate the passage of time to a common activity ie: do 60 jumping jacks in one minute, watch a TV show for 1 hour and tell how many hours in a day and the number of days in a month.  We have been solving problems and using a calendar.  Meanwhile, the grade 4's are reading and recording time using an analog clock and discussing how much time has gone by.  

We are also wrapping up out two science units.  Grade 3 are just about finished writing How To Be (their choice of animal) and grade 4 are coming to the end of Light and Shadow.  If we stick to the plan we will be done both units next week.

The authors in the classroom were putting the final touches on their instructional writing today.  They have followed the format of what, what, how to give instructions for an alien to do something and written How To Be Me.  I'm looking forward to reading their ideas!  I will be looking for transition words - first, second, then, finally and the use of verbs.

Reading Give it a Shot will wrap up next week.  I have had some very faithful readers who have been recording every day for the last two months!

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Good Readers

Good readers can make predictions before, during and after reading.  A prediction is made based off the clues in the pictures the author leaves for us.  We drew 6 different pictures today of objects from a story we are going to read together.  Everyone then wrote their own prediction of what the story might be about.  Ask your little learner what they are thinking.

Problem solving was done today around the passing of time.  We continue to work on making our thinking visible - so solving with a time line, a T chart, addition or subtraction.

Round 2 Battle of The Books started today -

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Fifth Pillar of Care

 The fifth pillar for the month of March is patience.  In the classroom we are working on doing one thing at a time, to be mindful of that one activity, and to be patient.  One thing thing this pandemic has taught us is to be patient.  Patient with healthcare workers.  Patient waiting in line.  Patient that an end is in sight.  Patient that we can have play dates, birthday parties, and sleep overs soon.  Just not yet.  Patience and these things will come again. Patience.

Our patience anchor chart that we created together.

No school tomorrow.

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Back up and running

 Please excuse my absence from the blog - my computer decided to take a vacation and since I am the least tech savvy around I had to wait for help.  I hope your little learner was keeping you up to date on all our activities.

We have been so busy!!

We are working our way through a unit on time.  Grade 3 need to be able to relate the passage of time to common activities such as a TV show usually lasts 30 minutes and a song about 2 minutes.  Grade 4 are reading and recording time from a 12 hour clock and discussing elapsed time.  We have worked together and independently practising our skills.

Using the What?-What?-How? structure for writing we have been trying our hand at instructional writing.  The important features of instructional text are language and sentence structure.  Little learners wrote instructions for the alien to brush his teeth using transitional words such as first, second, then, next followed by an action word.  They have planned and written their own set of steps for the alien to follow for an activity of their choice.  Today they started a piece of writing, How To Be and their name.  Giving instructions on how to be them. 

Little readers complain most about figuring out unknown words.  We have been working on using fix-up strategies in our reading focusing this week on using context clues.  Reading around the word and using clues to figure out the unknown.

Grade 4 are almost through the Light and Shadow unit - we have one of two activities left. Grade 3 are busy reading and writing about animals.  They are have added a portion to a poem we read, I'd Like To Be A Butterfly.  Now they are writing, How To Be an animal that they have researched.

And finally, we have this going on in our classroom that we are having a great time with.  Ask your little learner about Battle of the Books!

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