March 23rd - March 27th
Welcome to my first weekly Blog where I will look to highlight some of the things that we got up to this week in Room 003. Upon talking to many of you, the common answer when you ask your child “What did you do at school today honey?” is often “nothing”. I remember very clearly saying the same thing to my parents when I was little...well, until I was 16 and headed into sixth form ;) So, in an attempt to keep you a little more updated about what we are up to in the classroom it is my plan to keep you informed via this this little weekly review. Enjoy.
We had a good week this week with Didget, Mika’s mom, volunteering on Monday morning to help get us back into the swing of things after March Break. We introduced a new dice game called “Tenzies” which students enjoyed playing. The object of the game is to collect ten dice of the same number. This is the “Tenzie” number and agreed upon before the roll of the first dice. A great game for practicing counting and number recognition. Be sure to check out the rules on my resources page here and play at home. Some students also launched an investigation into the origin of the wood chips around the playscape. Could they have come from the trees nearby? Comparisons were made and some thoughtful questions asked and answered.
The “Pupils of the Week” this week were Daisy and Ethan and we got to learn a little more about them in their presentations that they made to the class. Way to go!
As you probably remember, our weekly Show and Tell has been replaced by our Anticipation Box. Open to Pupils of the Week first and then other students who are interested. It has begun to get some traction with the class who are invited to bring in an item from home that they wish to share with the class. This is placed in the box at the beginning of the day so that that class can "anticipate" what is in the box. This is a great way for students to learn to "wait and see" and builds up an excitement throughout the day. Some contributors this week were Jaylen who spoke about Camp Wabikon and Brandon who presented a special Pokemon card.
The highlight however must be the visit of author Michael Duhmel on Wednesday morning to read his new book “Benjamin” all about the adventures of a pigeon who lives in Toronto. Find out more at his website www.bejaminthepigeon.com The class seemed to enjoy his visit very much and demonstrated some wonderful JW hospitality.
For those of you on Twitter, you would have seen we welcomed a new “addition” to the classroom. A lovely plant to brighten up the Reading Centre and we all had the opportunity to name it as the week progressed. On Friday we had narrowed it down to 16 potential names and held knock out rounds of voting to set up a final between the names “Sparkle” and “Phoebe the Blueberry”. Phoebe took the vote with more than half of the class and we also took this opportunity to explore the concept of “more than” and “less than” while voting. Phoebe is looking forward to being watered next week by the new students of the week. Who will they be? Find out on Monday via Twitter :)
Students completed their Rainbow Wall Writing this week with the focus being on what they did over their March Break and our monthly paintings were also completed. We focused on using our fingers to create different lines, patterns or images and students came up with some very interesting images. Check them out in out gallery that will soon be up and running.
Until next time, I hope you all found this little blog interesting and I look forward to catching you during the week. Plus 8 tomorrow TGI Spring J
Welcome to my first weekly Blog where I will look to highlight some of the things that we got up to this week in Room 003. Upon talking to many of you, the common answer when you ask your child “What did you do at school today honey?” is often “nothing”. I remember very clearly saying the same thing to my parents when I was little...well, until I was 16 and headed into sixth form ;) So, in an attempt to keep you a little more updated about what we are up to in the classroom it is my plan to keep you informed via this this little weekly review. Enjoy.
We had a good week this week with Didget, Mika’s mom, volunteering on Monday morning to help get us back into the swing of things after March Break. We introduced a new dice game called “Tenzies” which students enjoyed playing. The object of the game is to collect ten dice of the same number. This is the “Tenzie” number and agreed upon before the roll of the first dice. A great game for practicing counting and number recognition. Be sure to check out the rules on my resources page here and play at home. Some students also launched an investigation into the origin of the wood chips around the playscape. Could they have come from the trees nearby? Comparisons were made and some thoughtful questions asked and answered.
The “Pupils of the Week” this week were Daisy and Ethan and we got to learn a little more about them in their presentations that they made to the class. Way to go!
As you probably remember, our weekly Show and Tell has been replaced by our Anticipation Box. Open to Pupils of the Week first and then other students who are interested. It has begun to get some traction with the class who are invited to bring in an item from home that they wish to share with the class. This is placed in the box at the beginning of the day so that that class can "anticipate" what is in the box. This is a great way for students to learn to "wait and see" and builds up an excitement throughout the day. Some contributors this week were Jaylen who spoke about Camp Wabikon and Brandon who presented a special Pokemon card.
The highlight however must be the visit of author Michael Duhmel on Wednesday morning to read his new book “Benjamin” all about the adventures of a pigeon who lives in Toronto. Find out more at his website www.bejaminthepigeon.com The class seemed to enjoy his visit very much and demonstrated some wonderful JW hospitality.
For those of you on Twitter, you would have seen we welcomed a new “addition” to the classroom. A lovely plant to brighten up the Reading Centre and we all had the opportunity to name it as the week progressed. On Friday we had narrowed it down to 16 potential names and held knock out rounds of voting to set up a final between the names “Sparkle” and “Phoebe the Blueberry”. Phoebe took the vote with more than half of the class and we also took this opportunity to explore the concept of “more than” and “less than” while voting. Phoebe is looking forward to being watered next week by the new students of the week. Who will they be? Find out on Monday via Twitter :)
Students completed their Rainbow Wall Writing this week with the focus being on what they did over their March Break and our monthly paintings were also completed. We focused on using our fingers to create different lines, patterns or images and students came up with some very interesting images. Check them out in out gallery that will soon be up and running.
Until next time, I hope you all found this little blog interesting and I look forward to catching you during the week. Plus 8 tomorrow TGI Spring J