It’s been a while since I
last blogged about what we’ve been doing in our classroom, so here are a few
snippets showing what we have been up to.
Two of the expectations in
the Grade Four curriculum are:
Identify the
characteristics of healthy relationships; and
Identify the challenges
and responsibilities in their relationships with family and friends
I wanted a good read aloud
and stumbled upon Because of Mr. Terupt.
My class LOVED this book.
Every day they would ask me if we were going to read the book, and when I
finished reading for the day, they would beg for just a few more pages.
The story is about a class
of fifth graders who have an amazing and inspiring teacher named Mr. Terupt.
The kids in the class are very archetypal; there’s the mean girl, the brainiac,
the class clown, the kid that hates school, the overweight girl that gets
picked on, the bookworm, and so on. The kids in the story were so easy for my
students to relate to and we had some great conversations about how to handle
various conflicts with family and friends.
A word of caution: this
book may not be suitable for all classroom communities. For example, there is
one character who comes from a very religious family. She often prays when she
is upset or in need of some guidance. My class had a good talk about how some
people have different beliefs and it’s important to respect that.
Also, there is a girl in
the story whose mother was ostracized because she was a teen mom. Again, we had
a good talk about what matters most when it comes to family. As one girl so
perfectly put it, “It doesn’t matter how old Anna’s mom is, it matters how much
she loves Anna!”
One of the characters
mentions having a worry doll to help her deal with anxiety. Social-emotional
health is a big area of focus in our school community, so we had a whole class
conversation on the things that make us anxious; fighting with friends, math
tests, etc. Then, using little foam doll kits I got from Dollarama, we made our
own worry dolls. Some of them were very creative!
One of my gymnastics girls made this headstand worry doll
I’m really not sure what’s
happening here but hey, it’s definitely one of a kind!
Because of Mr. Terupt is emotional but authentic and like I said, it was
a real hit with my class.
Here are some other fun
things we’ve been up to…
Mexican Tin Art
One afternoon, I was
looking through an OWL magazine that was delivered to the classroom and I saw
this craft idea. We haven’t really painted all year so I thought the kids would
enjoy it…and they did!
You'll need:
-small cardboard squares (we used cereal boxes)
-tinfoil
-paint
Math
We finished our unit on
fractions and we started a mini unit on time and temperature. To make it more
interesting, we are pretending we are going on a vacation to Disney World (and
now I really just want to hop on a plane and go to Florida).
Grade Threes have to be
able to read and record time to the nearest five minutes, and Grade Fours need
to do the same to the minute. To help them out, I made this beautiful (?)
flower clock. Click HERE for the
link on Teachers Pay Teachers.
The petals are actually
supposed to be applied to your classroom clock but my clock was too large
Each day we estimate the
current temperature, record the actual temperature on our thermometer, and
record the time we looked up this data.
The Dress
One more thing…was anyone
else shamefully obsessed with “The Dress”? I discovered this trending topic one
Friday afternoon and was baffled by it all weekend. So when we got back to
school on the Monday morning, I used it for a morning math question. I put up
the picture and we graphed how many kids saw either white and gold or black and
blue. Some kids had seen it themselves over the weekend and some were just
blown away. I think I’m over my obsession now.
That’s it for now! I hope
everyone is enjoying their March Breaks!
