Friday, December 17, 2021

 It's the final day before the winter break!! Only 16 students were present today.

Today we: played select literacy and math games, like Wordical, Word Around, Boggle, and Power of Ten face-off in groups of four. 

In P.E. students played an intense game of dodgeball called Snowman Takedown. Even Mr. Scout joined in and threw some vicious curve balls and the kids got him back two-fold by locking him in pylon jail. 

During snack, we watched some of the movie for Bridge to Terabithia so students could have visuals for the story we finished reading yesterday. It was awesome to see students recognize characters and events from memory as they presented in the film. 

For science, we got to make circuits out of conductive and insulating play dough. The students had to make a structure out of green, red and white play dough, and they had to make sure the white went between the two coloured pieces because they couldn't be touching. After they made their structure, we used circuits to test the conductivity of the structure. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and break. See you in the new year! 

Thursday, December 16, 2021

 Today we: worked in partners to explore adding 4-digit numbers with specific rules, such as the sum must have two 1's and the variables cannot have 0's. Students were challenged to come up with their own word problems and write explanations for their equations. 

We also finished our read aloud today and did a Kahoot quiz to wrap it up. Students showed how well they paid attention and competing for first place in the game was extremely engaging. 

In the afternoon we made Play-Doh! In small groups, they worked together to communicate, take turns, mix the ingredients, knead the dough, and clean their stations. This was all preparation for a science experiment tomorrow, which they are all very excited for! (Unfortunately, I was running around with the flour to help everyone that I wasn't able to take any pictures! Sorry...)

Festive socks were shown off this morning with early entry due to the very cold weather. Tomorrow has been adjusted to being both a Jersey day AND a Pyjama Day, so everyone can wear either or both of them. Students and staff should be extra cozy for the last school day of 2021. Stay warm! 

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

 Today we: practiced estimating in the thousands and ten thousands place by reviewing the costs of specific furniture and seeing how much we can fill a house with a budget of $15,000. For example, a bed and dresser would cost $1169 and kitchen appliances would cost $2599. Students were adding extra bedrooms or secondary suites to play with the budget and design a house for a family. They explored the idea of floor plans and got to design their own homes. 

We also introduced a game on the computers called Kahoot. We did two quizzes on estimating and place value with large numbers. Every student got to pick from multiple choice answers from a quiz displayed on the smart board. It allowed me to see at a glance how many students were understanding the material, and who needed more instruction. 

We ended the chromebook time with a quick quiz on social emotional learning via the movie Inside Out. They were able to identify emotions and their causes and effects, such as anger when someone is upset about something going wrong, or joy when something good happens. This was helpful for students to identify their own emotions. 

In the afternoon, we had both music and physical education, and with the little time left in the day, we all created a beautiful goodbye card for Cameron as he will be leaving Northern Lights School during the winter break. 

Festive hat day was cozy as most people were wearing Santa hats and Reindeer Horns. Looking forward to seeing the festive socks tomorrow! 

Only 2 more days until the break!!! 

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

 Today we: continued the social studies research on the Cordillera Region. This time the groups were shuffled so that new group members could share what they learned yesterday. Students who believed they had completed the task got to take on the role of leadership to help others, and those who were not done were given a second chance with different group members that were more supportive of their learning. The ones who were done also received insight on things they may have missed, such as the Sonoran Desert as an unlikely geographical feature in a landscape of rainy mountains. 

We also explored the language used to write word problems and made a chart of words that could be used for addition and subtraction problems, such as "difference" and "sum." Students were told to write problems of their own to demonstrate the use of math vocabulary, and then practice mental math strategies with their problems, such as friendly numbers or rounding. 

For example, Billy had 54 strawberries and picked 11 more. What was his total? Students added the 1 from 11 to the 54 to make 55, making the equation 55+10=65 which was much easier to solve once broken down. 

We also went to the learning commons today and took out some new books. Students are allowed to keep them over the holidays and I saw many chapter books being signed out! There was a wonderful variety of festive sweaters today and I can't wait to see the Festive hats tomorrow!

Monday, December 13, 2021

 Today we: wrote a response to our Read Aloud book, "Bridge to Terabithia," checking the reading comprehension for Chapter 6. Copies of the book were passed around table groups so they could refresh their memories as the weekend seemed to erase some of their memory on the events. It was nice to see some students were eager to help others to fill in the gaps and help out. 

In math, we discussed mental strategies to add large numbers by breaking them down into easier-to-add numbers. For example, the numbers 342 + 54 could be broken into 300 + 40 + 50 + 2 and they were encouraged to share their strategies with their table groups. Placing numbers in the correct place value  when not lining up the numbers was a common error that was highlighted. It was important for some to see that when you do mental math, you don't always have the numbers written vertically to line them up.

In Social, we did some research on the Cordillera region. Due to technical difficulties, the Chromebooks were down, so we improvised and used textbooks in small groups. They were able to share the research responsibility and practice extracting information based on key words from the checklist of topics on the board such as climate, landscape, and geographical features. 

Since we did not have physical education today, I played a festive challenge to The Grinch Who Stole Christmas on the Smartboard. Students were encouraged to jump, dodge, freeze and throw to the video and it was a spirit-lifter for the Monday madness. 

Today was Dress to Impress Day and I saw some amazing outfits! Excited to see everyone's festive sweaters tomorrow. 

Friday, December 10, 2021

 Today we: rotated the Literacy Block groups so everyone could work on a new task. Reading Responses were done to our Read Aloud book, "Bridge to Terabithia," and Partner Readers went to the prairie room so they didn't disturb those who were doing Read to Self. 

In Phys Ed, Mr. Newton has been adding some mindful meditations at the end to bring the high energies back down to focus. It has been very successful as the students came back for snack as quiet as mice! 

After snack we had time with the chromebooks to finish research on food chains. Those who finished early were allowed to go onto Prodigy where I have set up assignments based on the Whole Numbers unit we are currently working on. They can access this at home as well with the code 9B0831A. 

We finished the day with math and literacy games. It was Pyjama day, and everyone was extra cozy spread around the room engaging in fun activities that strengthen their skills while keeping them engaged. Boggle, Wordical, Power of Ten Face-off, and dice games that employ subtraction and addition. Half day Fridays mixed with pyjamas and stuffies makes for an extra wiggly group of kids, so they really enjoyed being able to work off some energy with education games! 

Hoping everyone has a wonderful weekend and we will be back Monday with the next Spirit Week! It will be Dress To Impress Day where we dress in our best family event clothing. Time to Suit Up!

Thursday, December 9, 2021

 

Today we: wrote wishes for everyone in the world on snowflake ornaments and hung them on NLS's Wish Tree. Some wishes were "I hope everyone has clean drinking water" and "I wish for everyone to be warm and safe this season" and I was very impressed with the class's compassion and kindness for others. 

We also had some math mini-conferences to discuss specific common errors in estimation to further reach the students with some confusion. 

In science, we perfected our checklist for the food chains and students got the chance to edit their work and find more specific research on decomposers, consumers, and producers. 

Word work is getting more seamless as the students get more familiar with the routine. I'm seeing improvements in their word sense already! Written responses were used in Math as well to discuss the differences between their estimates and the real data for the population of the Canada's provinces. I was happy to see the class pick up on the available resources as being a factor to the population size. 

Fitness tests in P.E. are helping the students get some energy out! Some students still need to practice the proper form of a push-up, but effort was high and smiles were spreading.