House league assembly

Blogging live from our house league assembly!!! Wow!! The energy is just overwhelming. Have to have some fun every once in a while.

SCHOOL / HOME COMMUNICATION

I think it's critical that we develop a consistent line of communication between home and school. It's my job to keep you informed on your child's progress and development. With that in mind, I will be sending reading response journals and math journals home for parents to look over and sign. The signature is just my way to make sure that kids are actually bringing these items home.

What do I expect?
Well, as a parent of school aged children I understand how harried and stressful our lives can be. Between sports, homework, family and of course work-we are always on the go. I think it's very important that parents take an active role in their kids education. I would strongly recommend that you take a few minutes with your child to review the work being sent home. Look at the comments, ask them what they think about the work. This will take less than ten minutes but it will make a tremendous impact. Students quickly pick up on the fact that the teacher and parent are on the 'same page' and are in constant communication.  

Gym safety

We are working on  small area cooperative games in physical education. The focus is to get kids communicating and working together to play and create interactive games. As part of this unit we discuss how we have to work together to play safely. Unfortunately, we had a collision during our opening warm-up game and a child received a bloody nose.  We took care of him and made sure he was okay. It was comforting to see the kids step up and help with taking care of our injured student. They helped with keeping him calm and making sure he was okay. A few volunteered to go to the office and get the custodian to help clean up. I was really proud of them, especially how they welcomed him back to class. We went over our safety procedures and the kids came up with suggestions how to avoid similar incidents in the future. 

MEDIA IS ALL AROUND US!

Our kids are growing up in a digital world. Everywhere they turn they are inundated with images. More and more they are the focus of marketers that want them to 'try this', 'buy this' -- 'look like this'. Media literacy is our attempt to teach them the conventions and techniques these media outlets use to attract them. We are looking at book covers in grade 5 and movie posters in grade 6. What techniques are used to separate people from their money. COMING SOON! Our own versions of book covers and movie posters. Once finished we will posted several of them on the blog. Talk to your kids tonight about how their work is going--what are they working on-what's their idea for the book cover or movie poster.

Colour Wheel'n and Dealing

We started our first art lesson yesterday. The grade 5's are learning to blend primary and secondary colours from the 3 primary colours. The grade 6's will take it one step further and blend tertiary colours. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the work and most were very productive. As I told the students, effort and desire go a long way, we are not looking for perfection but an honest effort and willingness to work.

HOPE TO SEE EVERYONE TONIGHT AT MEET THE TEACHER NIGHT!!

"THOSE WERE THE DAYS"

Wondering how to help your son or daughter at night?

Asking where are your spelling words?  Thinking school just isn't the same....
Well you are right. And it shouldn't be.

We are preparing children for the future- their future  -and many of the jobs or careers they will be in have not yet been created.  But we do know one thing- they need to read and there is only one way to get better at reading and that is to read more.  So reading with your child, talking about reading and modeling reading is the best way to start.
When your child is reading at night-snuggle up and chat.

Ask them:

Fiction  
About the character, setting, problem and how the problem was solved.
Look at the similarities and differences between their own lives and the character in the story
Push them to predict, infer, compare, synthesize, and evaluate
Make connections to the text and the characters within the story
What the author's message was?              

Non-fiction
Identify the main topic
Look at the table of contents and talk about how you can find specific information
Discuss things like the habitat, predictors, extinction, environmental impact, materials used ( natural and man made )
Notice time sequences, talk about how illustrations and graphics provide information

Read a wide variety of things - newspapers, novels online, brochures, maps, lyrics to music, how to books, comic books or graphic texts, short stories, poetry and novels just to name a few.
If you can follow this reading with meaningful talk to support comprehension and increase retention  - you have spent time on 'good homework'.  Research also tells us some things about the benefit of reading- children who read have more sophisticated vocabulary, are better writers and will score 10% higher in tests and course grades.

Ideally, we need teachers and families working together as partners to support students' developing literacy.
Children learn from everything in their environment in which they live and work every day.  Be a part of it!

For more tips and information on helping your child with reading and writing, download Reading and Writing with Your Child, Kindergarten to Grade 6 – A Parent Guide. Also, visit our class website for more helpful links to help your child.

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/abc123/eng/tips/


                                       

Nicene Creed

Kids working on turning the Nicene Creed into more kid friendly language. We profess it in church but do we really know what we are saying?? Kids working hard on turning the Creed into something that has meaning for them.