Contraction Surgery

This is what greeted each student (I mean surgeon) as they walked into the classroom (OOPS! operating theatre) on Tuesday morning.

The head of the trauma unit thanked the surgeons for coming in to help save the many patients that were on the list for surgery today.

Here are the list of patients who will need to be taken care of.

Do you recognize any of them?  Many were on this week's spelling list.

The surgeons used their scalpels, worn their masks and gloves to ensure that no germs could be passed around and began the long morning of surgery.

Each patient had one or two letters that needed to be removed.

Once the letters were removed, the surgeons needed to add the special bandaid to show where the letters were taken away.  Each bandaid needed to be marked with an apostrophe.

This may have looked easy, but it really was a specialized skill that only trained professionals can perform.

The head of the hospital showed up and made sure that all the surgeons were on the right track.

A lot of lives were saved this day!!

Each surgeon took one of the many patients and completed the special orders to ensure that the patient would be able to recover fully.

It was a job well done!

Thank you to Catherine Reed for sharing this wonderful interactive and memorable activity with me. I think the students had a great time learning how two words are used to make a contraction.

The students have been focusing on what they already knew about reindeer, what information they would like to know more about, and then worked in pairs to search for information.

Here are the questions that guided their search.

The questions had numbers and the cards placed around the room had a corresponding number.

They could read the question on the white cards and then search for the answers on the reading cards.

They practised writing jot notes on their recording sheet....again on the correct numbered section.

They were great little workers who helped each other find and record the information needed.

When they work together they are using co-operative conversation skills, learning to take turns, listen to other's points of view and sharing the reading and writing.

Here is the next math strategy that we are focusing on.  We introduced the 'how to' yesterday and today we worked on many examples together as a practise.  They seemed to catch on and were very quick in adding the number to ten to complete the equation.

Ask your little to explain their thinking.  They are becoming comfortable with telling what their brain does as they try out the many strategies that they are being introduced to.

Sight Words and Spelling begin!

Today we began learning some new words to both read and spell.  The words are often called sight words because we want the students to see them and know them...reading them by sight.  Sometimes they are known as popcorn words because they keep 'popping' up in the books that we will be reading.  I read a statistic that said that about 250 words made up around 80% of what we read.  Knowing these words makes reading so easy!  

This yellow duotang will come home every first day of the week...so on a week where a holiday falls on Monday, the duotang will come home on Tuesday.  It should be returned to school on Friday please.  On Friday, I will ask the students to show me how well they know the words, both reading them and printing them.  It will seem like it is a spelling test, but these words should be remembered all the time...knowing them for Friday is not enough.

Usually there will be 5 words to learn plus a 'challenge' word.....to begin with the challenge words will be colour words.  Each week we will also explore a word family.  I will put in these words at the beginning of the week for the students.  Your job is to practise both reading the words and printing the words.

One of the weekly activities will be to colour the words.  These will be sent home.  Would you kindly have your child cut out the rectangles and add the words to the orange pocket at the back of the doubting?  This allows you to have 'flashcards' to review with and examples to spell the words (and see the size of the letters).

Have fun!

Learning about nouns and adjectives continue

Just a quick update about spelling....

You'll notice that I am trying to save on paper by having more than one week's words on the page.  Yes these are sight words that your child should know how to read with automaticity, and now the goal is to have your child print these words with the same automaticity that they can read them.

Here's one fun way to practise!  There are nine different ways to work with these words.  Have your child choose three ways that will fill in the Tic Tac Toe board.  They could be vertical, horizontal or diagonal lines.

On the back of the page are the three spaces for the practise.  These words are quite easy, but it is better to build up their confidence before they have to settle into really working to learn more difficult words.  The goal is to know the words, of course, but also to recognize that learning new things takes effort, and to build the routine of having to complete school assignments at home.  We're preparing for those bigger grades!

We worked through the differences between 'fact' and 'opinion.'  Some students were challenged by the opinion examples, believing that if they did not say them, then they were facts.  The students need to see that others have opinions, and they may not be the same as theirs!

Writing a good sentence means that the students need to know 'who did what.'  They are continuing to learn that nouns are the 'who' and that verbs are the 'did what' or the action.  Adjectives are the words that describe the nouns.  Together we brainstormed ideas about what witches are, what they can do,  and what they have.  Once they students had their list, they then used their highlighters to find the describing words, the adjectives.  As much as possible, the lessons have their 'roots' in the curriculum, but I try to add an interesting or an engaging element so that the students are excited to work.  Making the witch's lower half with choosing the fancy paper, and cutting out those cool curly shoes, was just the right way to keep the students busy!

We read a short little story about a new kid at school, named Frankie!

Together, we labelled (those are the nouns) Frankie and then recognized that we could describe (those are the adjectives) all of his parts as well.

We made Frankie's head using directed cutting.  That means that the students must listen to how the papers are going to be cut, and then try to follow those directions to create the shapes.  The shapes are then pasted down  and the features are added.  They were all so proud of their creations.

The list of Frankie's parts was also created.  Can your child identify the adjectives?

Week of November 14 - 18

The sound that we are focusing on is the short vowel sound of o this week.  Words such as ox, clock, mop, and got all have the sound.  The students noticed that when they make the short sound of o, their mouths made quite a large o shape, but when they tried the long sound of o, their mouths could not be opened as widely.  They were surprised at the way that the 'Bossy R' changes the sound of o, so that you almost don't hear it at all.  All you can hear is that 'Bossy R'!

You'll notice that in the spelling duotang there is a list that also includes words that the Grade Two students will be focusing on, and a different list for Grade Three students that are words relating to their study of Hearing and Sound in science class.  The words for the Grade Two students are already on the Word Wall, so after this week, they will be expected to print them in their everyday work without error.

Week of October 17

This week we are focused on the short vowel sound of e.  The specific rimes that we will be looking at in the classroom are -est, -ed, -en, and another one that I just can't remember tonight, but it is in the Spelling duotang.  The purpose of the practise is to get the students to see what words they can spell.  Some may be able to spell west, but others may be ready for the challenge of the word blest.  By working with your children at home, their areas of weakness should be noticed and through your support, those weak areas will be eliminated.  It's a win-win situation!  They get your attention and you get to be so very proud of their accomplishments!

Spelling for Week of Oct. 3 - 7

This week our focus will be on the sound that the vowel a makes when it is 'short'.  This would be the sound heard in words like and, ham, cap, splat or ran.  There are so very many words that have this sound that the list is endless.  When I completed the assessment of the alphabet with the entire class, including Grade 3 students, I discovered that some students are still learning to distinguish the various sound made by the vowels and not all could share the long or the short vowel sound for all five vowels.  By focusing on the vowels now, reading and spelling longer and more complicated words will be less intimidating later.

This week I am asking the students to look at creating rhyming words using the short vowel a rimes.  Those that are ready for a challenge might like to create words that begin with blends or diagraphs (such as spl- or wh-) and those that are still remembering how to create a rhyming word will stick with basics.

Remember that there is no 'test', just learning that will move into their everyday writing.

Spelling for Week of Sept. 26-30

This week we will begin our first practicing of words at home that we need to be able to spell in everyday use.  We are starting with words that are familiar and that we should all be successful with.  Last week a duo-tang was sent home to get the families ready for this new adventure.  Each week the home practise will be on a Tic Tac Toe board.  The middle square is to be done by each child, but then the next 3 choices are to be made by the child.  The sheets that the student uses should be put into the duo-tang and returned to school on Friday.  If the choices do not actually create a 'line', that's OK.  The point is to have the student working on learning words in a positive manner, and be able to apply that learning in the classroom.  Next week the words will be on the Word Wall and the child will be expected to be able to spell them on their own.  Here's another chance for you to be an active participant in your child's learning, demonstrating that learning is important to you too!

Words for this week are:  red blue green yellow black brown orange purple pink white grey silver gold


Grade Three students should review these words as well as learn the following:
castle   prince   princess   king   queen   make believe   fairy tale

Hope you had an amazing weekend in that beautiful record breaking sunshine!