Norman Foote and the Halloween Howler

What fun to watch our kiddos from the school choir be on stage with

Norman Foote. 

Norman Mervyn Barrington-Foote is a Canadian musician, songwriter, and comedian. Foote is originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He has been nominated for four Juno Awards for Best Children's Album in 1990, 1993, 2001, and won in 2010.

They were so well rehearsed and they sounded wonderful!

Here's a couple of candids of my darlings!

Flashlight Friday...Version 2

The students are really enjoying their Friday reading in the dark, with their flashlights as their light source.  I decided to try having the students do the language learning activity that I had planned, in the dark as well.

I put the words, all of them ending with the suffix -ed, around the tables.

The students moved about and illuminated the word with their flashlight.

When each student read the word, they listened carefully to the sound that -ed was making.

What it /d/ or /t/ or /ed/?  Depending on what he or she heard, the student wrote the word in the column that matched the ending sound.

It put a new 'light' (HA! HA!) on this activity!

Sometimes I see cool ideas and think how wonderful it would be to do with the students.  

Sometimes I don't think this through completely!

This might have been one of those activities.  In the end they did turn out and looked spooky but I had to do the gluing because the sticks needed to be put onto the paper with hot glue.

To be fair, the kiddos did glue the moon and the eyes, but really it wasn't my best idea ever.

They look spooky in the hallway though!

Bugs!

Do you ever think that you pay too much for the field trips that your students get to attend during the school year?  I am not sure what the price of having the entomologist, Camilla, come to our classroom with a container full of interesting small crawling creatures was but I hope your children told you how AMAZING our morning was!

Camilla was so patient with the students and in a very respectful way, encouraged them to allow these tiny creations of God, to be admired and enjoyed.  She started with a roly poly, and kept telling the children that it had the cutest little face!  Its cousin in Alberta would be a woodlouse.

She gushed over this millipede and explained what the difference was between this creature and a centipede.  Does your child remember how to tell the two apart?

I don't remember the proper name of this cockroach, but the children will tell you that it has a face just like Darth Vader and that it smelt like bananas!

The children got to see the shed exoskeleton of the tarantula, which has a special name starting with the letter /e/ that I could not find on the internet.  They got to see a small one that was one and a half years old and then five year old Buttercup was brought out for a little hand holding.  The children were fascinated!

I can't remember the correct name of this special guy!  He is usually found underground and those pinchers in front are actually meant for digging.  The creature is almost blind and those really long feelers detect vibrations to that it can move about.  It is not an insect as it only has two body parts and it would be related to both a scorpion and a spider.

What fun to see the students embrace (well....hold their hands out flat) these wonders of creation!

This scorpion's name is Mr. Grumpy and the students got to watch him move a bit inside of his traveling container.

This is the dark wing beetle....

and this is the pupa of a dark wing beetle.  The students could see the beetle inside moving, as it was going through its metamorphosis.

Wonderful morning.....worth every penny!  Thank you parents for allowing us to bring Camilla and her bucket of friends into our classroom.

We have been exploring another small crawling and flying creature this week, but it is a mammal.

It is the only mammal that flies.  We have been using books, videos and this fictional story to learn new information about bats.

Today, we asked the question about how the main character, the little fruit bat named Stellaluna, changed as the story progressed.

We also looked at the main important points from the story that highlighted the differences between bats and birds....finding and eating bugs, sleeping and flying at night.  We tried to look at the 'point of view' of the important characters in the story.  We want to recognize that the point of view were different but also that it is alright to have a different point of view than others.  For a new concept, the students did very well!

I am so proud of their willingness to try to 'stretch their brain'!

Working on Math

1. Demonstrate if a number (up to 100) is even or odd. 
   
2. Describe order or relative position, using ordinal numbers (up to tenth). 
   
3. Represent and describe numbers to 100, concretely, pictorially and symbolically. 
   
4. Compare and order numbers up to 100. 
   
5. Estimate quantities to 100, using referents. 
   
6. Illustrate, concretely and pictorially, the meaning of place value for numerals to 100. 
   

The above statements are some of our objectives for the second grade in Alberta.  We have been focussing on all of these since the beginning of the school year.  The students need to have a solid understanding of these concepts of place value of numbers so that when they begin to add two digit numbers up to 100 and subtract two digit numbers from 100, they will see if the answer is reasonable.

To demonstrate the use of base ten blocks, the students looked at these manipulatives online.

As a group of ten was moved onto the screen, the tens number increased.  As a single unit block was added, the ones number increased.

There were many different work areas around the class for the students to move to.

 Each student was to manipulate (move around) the base ten blocks to create the two digit number found on the ghost.  Once done, they were to fill in the sheet on their clipboard.  How many tens are there in 39?  How many ones are there in 39?

Some of the students understood this concept and were able to explain the number of tens and ones without using the manipulatives.  Some needed reminders of how to create the number, then count the tens and ones for the answers.  Some were unable to grasp the concept.

Often, the students need many, many chances to work with these numbers to feel comfortable with the concept.  It is so important that they see themselves as working towards understanding, instead of  beginning the negative self talk.  This is why we work on a growth mindset so the student can say "I need to think about this some more" or "I don't know how to do this YET"

I love the talking I hear.  The best comment I heard as they were working today was "I don't know how I got so smart!"

Learning with Great Literature

Kevin Henkes' books are wonderful and the kiddos love the stories.

Lilly is not very patient when her teacher asks her to be considerate and wait her turn.  She doesn't want to wait and then her teacher keeps her items on the desk until the end of the day.

We used this book to practise sharing our predictions (those sticky notes out the side of the book are the two places where the students made their own predictions) in a purple purse.

Predictions should make sense and be possible within the story structure. 

I didn't 'mark' them, just read them to see how the students were thinking about the story.

The story follows a sequence...what happened at the beginning, and then....followed by....and then finally.....  The students used their own words to create the sequence (I am looking for them to remember what they heard) and then to make it so cutesy, they created Lilly, holding the page.

Thanks to Emily from Washington who shared this idea with me.

I really love when the students add a little individuality into the project, so some Lilly heads tilt right and some tilt left!

This week we have introduced some new vocabulary into our long term memory and have been practising using these words in some daily activities.

Here are the anchor charts that we have hanging up in the class,

as a visual that the students can refer to.  They are starting to make great connections!

Our Church Visit

What a lovely morning our class spent at our church today.  Thank you to the volunteers who took our groups to visit the foyer, the nave, the sacristy and the offices.  We got a great 'behind the scenes' look at the people who work for us to ensure that the different aspects of the mass are ready to go for us each and every time.  The children know so much!  Ask them how they know that Jesus is 'home' when they enter the church, how they say hello in a respectful manner, what the bowl and the cup that sit on the altar are called, how the priest knows which colour of vestments to wear, and what Father Jim loves to do when he is not working.

Here we all are!  I hope to see these sweet faces at one of our Reconciliation Retreats before the big day when so many students will be receiving another sacrament.

Happy Thanksgiving

On Tuesday morning, we had an amazing mass with Father Jim and Father Jojo.  The students at the school were so reverent as the Monstrance was carried to our chapel.  We had the opportunity to spend some time with Jesus and the students left their leaves with their gratitude statements  around our little table.

I loved their willingness to share their thoughts.  They said that they felt closer to Jesus and peaceful and loved, as we sat around the table.  It brought goosebumps!

Ever wonder how much the students are enjoying 'Flashlight Friday'?

Here's a few sneak peeks! (They love it!!)

The students have really been enjoying the Arnold Lobel stories of "Frog and Toad" that have led our language learning this past month.  Using the story called "A Swim" in which Toad doesn't want anyone to see him in his bathing suit, the students used the plasticine techniques of Barbara Reid, to create the setting of this story.

They were quite well done!

The students learned that in this type of creation, you need to start with the part of the scene that is the farthest away.  They also learned how to mix the plasticine to create new colours, so the dark blue is the original blue, but the lighter blue is made with the addition of the white plasticine.

They added the river bank, along with the reeds, or cat tails or trees that might be on land.

Carefully following directions, they sculpted Frog and added him to the scene, sitting on the bank.

Finally, each student made toad's head and added it to the scene.  Toad won't get out of the water, so they were trying to show that Toad's body is underwater.  I was so impressed with their

 'stick-with-it-ness"!

The students also worked very hard on creating a Thanksgiving Prayer that is currently on display in the classroom.

They worked on extending their sentences, so that rather than just saying

"I am thankful for my family", the challenge was to say more such as

"I am thankful for my family because we love each other."  I think the students were impressed with how much better their sentences sounded!

I wish you and your family, a Thanksgiving that lives happily in your memories!

God bless.....