What a busy week we are having! Each and every day, the students are being exposed to new routines, new activities and new learning.
The students are working on building their stamina for each of the five areas of Daily Five. They were introduced to Word Work, and practised working with others on recognizing colours. They will be expected to be able to spell all of the colour words in their writing, no excuse, for the rest of the school year.
Being able to stay focused on an activity even when working with others is another of their goals.
Tuesday, September 15th, is International Dot Day. The reason for this wonderful day, in which students are encouraged to "make your mark" is found in this story written and illustrated by Peter Reynolds.
Using watercolour paints, watercolour paper, q tips and their own creativity, the students made their marks in the form of dots.
They are currently on display just outside of our classroom.
Pete the Cat, a favourite of all children, has come into our class to assist in new ideas.
The students have been helping with sorting. In this activity, the students sorted letters, words and sentences. They found it very challenging to explain what makes a word or a sentence. Being able to explain your thinking is an important goal that the children will be working on all year long.
With our 'teacher's pet' as our model, we also learned what a label is.
If something can be touched and labelled, the words that we use for a label, are nouns.
The students labeled two pictures of Pete the Cat using nouns. There is now an anchor chart up in the class to assist us in remembering that a noun is a person, place or thing.
The students also had two pages of pictures that showed Pete the Cat doing something.
Usually a 'doing word' ends with -ing, such as eating, skipping or driving.
The word that the students heard action words called was verbs.
This is the first exposure to the terms for some new concepts. These concepts will be worked on throughout the year. Learning doesn't stick with everyone the first time. Practise is so very, very important. Don't get too frustrated if your child takes many, many times before that new learning is truly understood and the child can use it independently. That's our job, to keep working to help them!
That is also why it is almost impossible to replicate lessons when a child is away. So much of what we do happens in the moment, in sharing, in discussing and in a variety of ways. The paper part is rarely the most important part. It helps with practise and it helps with assessment, but it is not the 'teaching' or the 'learning.'
The 'puppies' got a chance to hear the students retell the story of Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes
once the students recreated the story in the correct sequence.
