Licensed to Write!

Traditionally, students in Grade Three are taught how to handwrite.  Since we are a combined Grade 2 and Grade 3 classroom, it makes sense that all the students will be taught this almost dying skill. To ensure that the students take this opportunity seriously, they had to 'apply' for their 'cursive writing permit.'  On the first page they had to print their uppercase and lowercase letters along with their name.

On the second page they copied a promise and then wrote a few sentences about why they deserve this permit.  Their ideas were precious.  This one says:

I am allways willing to thry new things.  And I am vary quite.  I relly whant to lrean how to handwrite.

How could I say 'no'?  Permit granted in January, 2012!

Now in order to take a lesson, each student has to produce their Cursive Learner's Permit and display it on their desk during the lesson!  If they are caught 'speeding' or producing 'sloppy work', their permit might get taken away!

We're having "SNOW" much fun!

Some parents were a little bit curious as to why there was a need for rice at school.  I like to keep a few secrets, but I can let you know now.  What do you think you can make from a white sock and some rice?

A snowman, of course!

This wonderful idea came from Reagan Tunstall.  The rice acts like the little plastic 'beans' in the stuffed toys called "Beanie Babies", allowing the snowman to stand up.  The students had to really listen to the oral directions given, and then follow them, step-by-step.

After filling the bottom with rice, it was time to add some 'stuffing'. (Wish I could figure out how to turn the pictures.  I worked on it but wasn't getting anywhere!)

The body is separated from the head with an elastic!  More fiberfill and another elastic before turning the cuff of the sock down to create a little hat.

The students got to choose the eyes, nose, hat decoration, colour of the ribbon for the scarf, and the buttons for the tummy.  Each one is different (and oh so cute!)

Using these snowmen, the students did a few writing activities to finish off the morning.  In the afternoon, the snowmen became models for an exercise to focus on the perspective taken when sketching.  Everyone had to sketch the snowman, looking directly at it (nose to nose as it were!).

The students could then turn the snowman to any angle and sketch two more little drawings.  Notice how at this angle you can now see that the hat has a yellow pom-pom on the top!

Once all three little drawings were complete, they were 'framed' together, allowing you to view all three perspectives at once.  The 'artists' signed and dated their art work.

Snowmen

First I am sorry that I don't know how to turn these pictures so that you don't have to turn your head to look at them!  We often combine math and language learning to experience real life problems and examples of how to solve them.  This allows the students to experience math as an everyday real life necessity!  Today we wondered how we could find out how many of our students have made a snowman this year.  The students came up with the answer (because we have modeled and tried these ideas earlier in the year).  One said that we needed to ask each student, another said we needed to create a graph and finally another said that tally marks would be useful.  So we used all three!

The students drew a t-chart and labelled it yes and no, which would be the answers given.  They put the students' initials on the side of their paper so they could cross out each child as they asked the question and add a tally mark on the correct side of the t-chart.

They mingled around the room, using their good manners to practise how to appropriately ask a question.  Once completed, each student also made their own graph.

A 'word' form of a graphing activity is known as a GLYPH.  It also gives information like a graph, but a glyph has to be 'read' using a key. (Can you see the connection to reading a map?)  Using the snowman glyph key, each student made their own snowman.  A big thank you to FirstGradeBlueSkies for sharing the idea of using the black and white paper when making a snowman.  The students 'ooohed' and 'ahhed' over the adorable paper that they would be using to create their snowmen. 

What do you know about this snowman?  A boy who has made a snowman before was his creator.  This boy would be happy if we had a snow day and he would make a snow fort in his gloves instead of coming to school!

This mitten loving girl would also be happy to have a snow day, but her activity of choice would be making snow angels.

Aren't they all adorable, and each seems to exude the personality of the darling who made them?

Snowflake Fun

How is it that we know that in God's creative wonder that no two snowflakes are alike?  Using this book we met the young farm boy who showed us that God's power is infinite! 

His parents believed in his wonderings enough to raise money to buy him a special and very expensive camera which he used to show the world that God's power is infinite.  His life was dedicated to taking photographs of individual snowflakes.  Just as there are no two humans exactly the same, he proved that God has made each and every snowflake an individual.  His photos are not copyrighted and are now public domain, so they are easily accesible.

We know that we couldn't make snow, but we tried to see what a snowflake was like, and what it was made of.  As we explore liquids, one of the big ideas that we want to understand is tht we can make a solution.

Using a crystal based laundry booster we dissolved the powder in boiling water.

We used pipecleaners twisted together in a star shape, and suspended the object in the cup with string wrapped around the pencil.

When we returned to school, we were excited to see that the crystals of the solution had attached themselves to the pipecleaner.  We noted that the new 'snowflake' was much heavier than the pipecleaner alone.  We took a really close look through magnifying glasses and could see the crystals.

We also noticed that the crystals in some cases, attached themselves above the pipecleaner and created a different design.

We are practising our skills as 'new scientists', and we took the time to make and record observations.

As silent as the snow when it falls, that was how silent the young scientists were as they looked in wonder at their creations.  There was new appreciation for the gift of snow that God provides.

Crazy Cold

BRRRR!  Cold doesn't describe the weather outside.  I think the words to the song that go "Oh! The weather outside is frightful!" might be the best to describe our -43 degrees Celsius (with wind chill) days.

There is always a silver lining and it was my 'builder girls" who built an amazing town during the indoor lunch hour.  I need to bring in some trains, as they informed me that the building on the lid was a train station.  Co-operation makes my heart sing!

A HUGE thank you to two of my darlings who were kind enough to choose a Christmas gift that our whole class can use.  I was given two gift certificates to "Education Station" and along with a $10 off coupon from the website, I was able to use very little money of my own to purchase five new "Hot Dots" pens.  I already have boxes of addition and subtraction flash cards, but only had one pen.  Now at any one time, six students can practise their facts.

The pen uses batteries and when the student pushes the button down on the dot next to the correct answer, the top lights up green and a little voice praises the student.

I tried over and over to catch a picture of the light, but was never actually quick enough.  If the answer is wrong the light is red and the voice suggests that the student "try again."  Just what our class needs!

Thanks for your generousity 'E' and 'M'!

Dream Snow

Good literature makes amazing lessons!  Eric Carle is a stand by author for primary classrooms because of his unique art, and easy to follow stories with patterns, and ideas that children can relate to.  The students have already looked at the stories "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" and "The very Hungry Caterpillar" this year.

In the story, a farmer dreams that the snow covers his animals and there is a sheet that covers the page, so that the reader can make a guess as to which animal is under the snow.

Each student thought of an animal that they would like to give clues about.  They wrote four clues without giving away which animal was being covered by the snow.  To add to the excitement, the animal's name was hidden by a little flap.

The animal was hidden under a pile of snow, which was painted onto an acetate sheet.  Snow was also added.

Here's a peek at what was hiding underneath!  Could you figure it out from the clues?

In case you didn't guess correctly above, here's another chance!

Again a big thank you to Christine Bainbridge for sharing this idea through her blog.  My children are richer for this experience!  I loved watching as they hid their work from their friends so that they could see if their clues would give their animals away!

The perfect ending to an amazing week!

I think that when you can do activities that do double duty, then you are really using class and learning time wisely.  This activity certainly did that!  I do not claim that the original idea was mine.  I was lucky enough to have another teacher share it through her blog.  Christine Bainbridge is a master teacher and really inspirational.  She  inspired this amazing writing activity.

The students and I used a circle map and filled it with our 'brainstormed' ideas of what activities we do in the winter ( leaving out the ones that we could do in the summer, so swimming was not included, because we don't do that outside in the winter!).  The students have been focusing their attention on their new 'writing targets', one of which is to write sentences that vary in structure, which means that all the sentences do not follow the same pattern.  The students know what nouns, verbs and adjectives are and they were required to write a minimum of five sentences that used 'strong' words in them.  They wrote about their favourite winter activity.

As they wrote, I took each student out into the hallway to put on their winter finery, then pose as if they were doing their favourite winter activity.  I took a photo of each, printed them that night and then cut them out.  The next day, each student was able to choose from one of seven winter backgrounds.  They pasted their cutout onto the background, added the details (like a snowmobile, a snowboard, a hockey stick, a snowman, etc.) to the picture and then using brown construction paper strips, they framed the picture.  The pictures and the writing were put up in the hallway.

I always know that the activity was a hit when former students come down the hallway and stop and stare, often saying"Wow!  They're lucky!  Wish I could have done that!"