Art and Gym

Hey there! It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about Grade 3/4 life because life has been nothing but busy these last few weeks. I’m still figuring out where my students are at and seeing where I want to go (aka making my long range plans) with the two curriculums this year. As you know, I’ve put a big focus on community building so that we have a safe and comfortable learning environment. We’ve spent a lot of time in the past two weeks talking about the 6 learning goals (responsibility, independent work, collaboration, initiative, organization, and self-regulation). For some of these lessons, we just had discussions. For some, I did a read aloud. For organization, we had a much needed desk clean out. Did I mention I’m a neat freak?

(Collaboration)

(Self-Regulation)

Art

I like to start the school year off with an easy element of art: line. We made our name posters using a technique I found HERE. I don’t have pictures, but they turned out great!

Then we explored dot art because September 15^th was International Dot Day. YouTube has The Dot online so we watched the story before we made our dot art.

In another art lesson, I read this book. It’s illustrated by students who use the same line to make a totally different picture.

My Grade threes and fours then had to take two different lines and make a different picture out of each. They got really creative!

Gym

We are continuing  play cooperative games. Have you ever played Chuck the Chicken? If not, you should. It’s fun and hilarious. I first played myself a few years ago when I was doing a team building session with some coworkers. It’s a little confusing to describe (especially to kids) so I showed my class the video before we went out to play. Click the picture to go to the link.

Looks like fun, right? My class had a blast. We talked about how the same person couldn’t always be the last one in line to chuck the chicken for the other team, so it was interesting to see who was able to take turns easily, who was a leader, and who was able to follow instructions.

And the best part of all…the kids thought the chicken’s name was Chuck; they didn’t quite realize that “Chuck” is more of a verb in this case. Oh well.

Currently September

For once I’m not doing this at the end of the month! Okay, here goes.

Listening: I can hear hammering because Rob is assembling me a new writing desk to put in the kitchen. Even though I have my own desk up in the office, I never seem to work up there because I prefer to work at the kitchen counter so that I can multitask. He got tired of my laptop and binders sitting on the counter so he went out and bought me a desk to put in the corner of the kitchen.

Loving: As you can see from my previous blog post, I LOVE my new class. They’re all really nice kids and they’re so engaged in their learning. I know we’re going to have a fun year together.

Thinking: I have the greatest man. Please see above ;)

Wanting: I would really like to go to bed but the laundry isn’t done, and let’s face it, neither is the hammering.

Needing: I really need to go out and start running. I’m doing the Colours of Hope run in 2 weeks and I should really start “training”. But for now, I will continue to mentally prepare. That counts, right?

3 Trips: I’ve been lucky enough to do some travelling and I’ve been to some amazing places. It was hard to pick new ones to visit and vacation in because I would go back to so many places in a heartbeat. However, if I were to try somewhere new based on what I know about it, I would a) go to Italy. Imagine all the pasta I could consume?! b) go to Belize. I’m so amazed by the Blue Hole that it makes me want to go there and see it for myself. c) I’d go to Tahiti. I don’t know much about it, but I know it’s hot, beautiful, and pretty exotic.

Back to School 2014

After being in Grade One for a few years, I was excited but admittedly apprehensive about going into Grade 3/4. I had taught this age group before in my pre-teaching service years, but it had been so long that I forgot what this age group was like. I pictured them to be way older than they actually are. At the end of the first day on Tuesday, I knew I was going to love this year with my new class.

I dedicated this week to community and team building, and developing routines. Here’s a glimpse at what Back to School looked like for us in Grade 3/4.

Community and Team Building

I read The Name Jar on the first day of school and we talked about being unique and accepting yourself. It also led into a discussion about welcoming others who don’t feel like they fit in. Basically, it’s about a little girl from Korea who learns to accept her unique Korean name after wanting to change it to fit in with her American classmates. So from there, we played an Introduce Your Partner name game. Each student got a card with someone else’s name on it (the pairs matched) and they had two minutes to tell each other their name and what they did during the summer. They had to introduce their partner to the class and share what their friend did in the summer. It was a great get-to-know-you activity and it reinforced the importance of listening carefully when someone is speaking. We also played Name Bingo which got them up and moving. They loved it.

We share one of our gym periods with the straight Grade 3 class so the plan is to teach our classes together rather than split the gym in half and teach separately. We focused on teamwork and cooperation and played some fun games like linking arms and trying to stand up, and a game where they had to order themselves from tallest to shortest. It was a great way to see who was a leader and who was a good teammate. I also made sure to read this cute and fun book called Howard B Wigglebottom Learns About Sportsmanship during class.

After lunch on the first day I read Hooray for Diffendoofer Day by Dr. Seuss (because who doesn’t love Dr. Seuss?). It led into a discussion about what a school and classroom needs to be a good, fun place to be. From there, we built our Tribes classroom agreements (sorry, no pictures).

We did a little lesson on multiple intelligences, but I referred to them as “Smarts”. We talked about each kind of smart and the kids reflected on which ones matched them. I asked them to choose the one they identify with the most and had them create a little poster. They turned out great. As you can see, I have a lot of Art Smart kids!

 You can get your copy of the You're a Smart Kid poster set HERE

Literacy

As you know, I’m trying out the Daily Café program for the first time this year and right away I began to introduce reading strategies that good readers use, and I modelled them in the read alouds I mentioned above. I focused on Checking for Understanding and Cross Checking. I also began pulling kids individually to get an idea of their reading abilities.

I did a quick lesson on how to choose a Good Fit Book and showed them this poster, courtesy of somewhere on Pinterest.

Then I let them choose their own books from our little classroom library. They were so excited! Up until now, most of them were still receiving the levelled readers to take home and read and they felt so grown up being allowed to choose their own books. I took some time to wander around and listen to them read and determine if everyone had in fact chosen a good fit book. I'd say about 97% of them had.

The next day I planned to gently ease them into writing in their reading response journals. I anticipated they would struggle with writing enough; but to my surprise, they were once again vey eager and asked if they could write more! Of course I said yes. When I looked at their writing later that day, I was so pleased to see that the majority of them were able to retell what happened and tell me if they liked their book or not.

Even though weekly spelling tests are deemed “old school”, I know the kids in my class really need to improve their spelling. My grade partners and I have included word work into our daily literacy routine. Each morning the kids come in and work with a set of words for the week. We start with writing them in a list on the first day. The following days might have them using them in a sentence, fixing spelling mistakes, etc. It’s done first thing in the morning and then they go right into independent reading. It also teaches them how to write the date at the top of their page and make a neat entry. They’re small things, but they’re skills that will come in handy in years to come. And no test! Just lots of practice. 

Math

I did a lot of diagnostic activities with the kids during math because I wanted to get an idea about their number sense abilities. My grade partner gave me a fun activity called Personal Numbers. I showed the class 5 numbers that meant something to me and they had to guess what they meant (age, height, etc.). It was a good way to see who was able to make a reasonable guess. They got to make their own and work with a partner to guess what their numbers meant. It was lots of fun, and another way to learn more about each other. By the end of the week I had started into graphing because Data Management will be our first math unit. I have something fun up my sleeve for them…

We ended Friday afternoon with a fun reflection on their first week. I had them write/draw 3 things they love about Grade 3 or 4 (whichever applied). Once again, I forgot to take pictures.

It was a wonderful first week back. I have an amazing class, and I also get to see my little guys from last year quite a bit on the schoolyard. They always make sure to come give me a hug. It makes my day.

Now…to watch Suits or mark all this math. Hmmm….