Dear parents,
What a wonderful start of the year we had in division 5! This is a fabulous group of kids and it looks like we will have a fantastic year together. Thank you all for returning my little questionnaire so quickly. It was very interesting to read all your answers and helped me know your child better! Before I tell you more about what we have been learning, I want to invite all of you to come meet me this coming Wednesday, September 19 for Meet the Teacher night. This will take place during the School Picnic. The class will be open from 5:30-6:30.
In our first 7 days together, we have been focusing a lot on establishing our daily routines for literacy and math, as well as creating a strong community of confident learners. A lot of our learning this week was centered on the Career Education curriculum, as well as the Positive Personal and Cultural Identity and Social Responsibility core competencies.
What a wonderful start of the year we had in division 5! This is a fabulous group of kids and it looks like we will have a fantastic year together. Thank you all for returning my little questionnaire so quickly. It was very interesting to read all your answers and helped me know your child better! Before I tell you more about what we have been learning, I want to invite all of you to come meet me this coming Wednesday, September 19 for Meet the Teacher night. This will take place during the School Picnic. The class will be open from 5:30-6:30.
In our first 7 days together, we have been focusing a lot on establishing our daily routines for literacy and math, as well as creating a strong community of confident learners. A lot of our learning this week was centered on the Career Education curriculum, as well as the Positive Personal and Cultural Identity and Social Responsibility core competencies.
All about me cube
Students are creating a Cube, using drawings and sentences, to share what is unique about them. Some of the topics presented in the cube are:
1) My Self-portrait and main qualities;
2) My Family and the things we like to do together;
3) My Strongest Intelligences;
4) My totem animal;
5) and 6) Choice topics such as: My Talents, My Hobbies, My favorite sport, My favorite animal, etc.
We will keep working on our cube over the next couple of weeks and students will take turns presenting their cube to the class.
1) My Self-portrait and main qualities;
2) My Family and the things we like to do together;
3) My Strongest Intelligences;
4) My totem animal;
5) and 6) Choice topics such as: My Talents, My Hobbies, My favorite sport, My favorite animal, etc.
We will keep working on our cube over the next couple of weeks and students will take turns presenting their cube to the class.
Personal and social responsibility
As a class, we discussed what an ideal classroom (where we can be safe & happy, and learn to our maximum potential) looks, sounds and feels like. We are creating a list of class rules and expectations that will guide our actions this year in class and on the playground.
We are working on defining what these levels look like in different situations. Specific behaviour expectations are given before the start of each activity to help students know exactly how they are expected to participate. Starting next week, when a student is at the red or purple level, he or she will be given a warning and reminder of the class rules. If the child doesn't get back to a yellow or green level, he or she will be asked to take a break to reflect on the impact of the behaviour. The child's reflection will be sent home in the agenda for parents to sign (blue sheet). So far, we have a class a very responsible students! Good job everyone!!!
Growth Mindset and Successful Learner Traits
In order to develop attitudes that promote learning, we are learning about the importance of having a Growth mindset and about Successful Learner Traits. Today, we learned that we can “grow our brain” by taking risks, embracing challenges and practicing the things that are hard for us. When we understand this, we have a “Growth Mindset” as opposed to having a “Fixed Mindset” (i.e. thinking that we are either good or bad at something, which can lead us to abandon when faced with a difficult task). Today, we introduced the Growth mindset with a few short videos and participated in a Growth Mindset Drama circle. We will keep learning about this over the next few weeks.
We are also using the Successful Learners Traits Framework to highlight the traits that make people successful throughout their life. The successful learner traits are:
We are also using the Successful Learners Traits Framework to highlight the traits that make people successful throughout their life. The successful learner traits are:
Depending on the activity, I ask students to focus on one of those traits. For example, during the drama circle today, we practiced risk-taking by reading in front of others. During quiet reading, we practiced being industrious and reading for the entire period. We practiced being thoughtful yesterday while I was reading a book to the class: we asked questions about the story, thought about them and made predictions and inferences about the story.
Math
In math, we have been reviewing how to say big numbers in French and how to write them with numbers and letters. We have learned two games that use place value, logic and strategic thinking. We have been gathering data on our class and practiced reading and making bar graphs with some of this data. We have also started our Height and Measuring project that we will work on at different times during the year. Students were busy measuring themselves, the class and their desk. We have ordered all the students' heights from shortest to tallest. Our next step will be to calculate the average height of students in the class and to create a histogram illustrating the data.
We have also started to discuss some of the mental math strategies that we use for addition and subtraction. Students assessed which addition and subtraction facts they knew already or could find using mental math strategies, and which ones they needed to develop strategies for. Students who knew all the basic facts for addition or subtraction were given a certificate today, showing that they can move on to the next math facts. Some students will already be working on multiplication facts, while others will keep working on adding and subtracting until they show mastery. I am encouraging students to use mental math strategies rather than learning all the facts by heart or counting on their fingers. For example, if a child knows that 7+7=14, they can use the "double+1" strategy to find the answer to 7+8=15. Or they can change 7+8=? to 7+10-2=15. Research shows that students who can mentally manipulate numbers in this way are more successful in math than students who can't.
Today, we challenged the class to use operations creatively. We used only the number 4 and the various operations to make equations for all the numbers from 0 to 20. The class found at least 2 ways to get to each number, as as many as 7 ways for some numbers! Ask your child for an example, and try to see if your family can figure out more ways to get to the numbers 0-20 using only 4s! Here are all the details if you want to try!
We have also started to discuss some of the mental math strategies that we use for addition and subtraction. Students assessed which addition and subtraction facts they knew already or could find using mental math strategies, and which ones they needed to develop strategies for. Students who knew all the basic facts for addition or subtraction were given a certificate today, showing that they can move on to the next math facts. Some students will already be working on multiplication facts, while others will keep working on adding and subtracting until they show mastery. I am encouraging students to use mental math strategies rather than learning all the facts by heart or counting on their fingers. For example, if a child knows that 7+7=14, they can use the "double+1" strategy to find the answer to 7+8=15. Or they can change 7+8=? to 7+10-2=15. Research shows that students who can mentally manipulate numbers in this way are more successful in math than students who can't.
Today, we challenged the class to use operations creatively. We used only the number 4 and the various operations to make equations for all the numbers from 0 to 20. The class found at least 2 ways to get to each number, as as many as 7 ways for some numbers! Ask your child for an example, and try to see if your family can figure out more ways to get to the numbers 0-20 using only 4s! Here are all the details if you want to try!
English
I have assessed which English spelling patterns each student knows and I will be creating spelling groups this weekend so that students can work at the appropriate level. Next week, we will start a program called Words Their Way that uses word sorts in order to learn spelling patterns. A new word sort will be given each week with a spelling test on Friday. Students will practice the program in class for the beginning of the year and can also take their words home for extra practice.
Homework and Agenda
We have not yet received our agendas but we are hoping that they will arrive next week. In the meantime, I will start giving a little bit of homework next week:
That was a long update... There is so much to communicate in September! You can use the comments to ask for questions that I might not have answered yet, or send me an email if you prefer!
I hope to meet you this Wednesday for Meet the Teacher Night!
Sincerely,
Nathalie
- The most important homework is to spend 20-30 minutes reading everyday. Reading out loud for some of the time is recommended in order improve fluency and expression.
- Working on basic math facts for 10 minutes everyday is also expected. Students can work on this in different ways. I will keep teaching them engaging ways to practice that help them develop mental math strategies. I have posted resources for Multiplication in the Math Resources section and I will be adding resources for adding and subtracting as soon as possible.
- In addition to reading and math fact practice, there will be a homework duotang that goes home everyday. Students will receive their homework for the week on Monday, work on it throughout the week and hand in their duotang on Fridays. The type of work will vary from week to week.
- When students get behind in class and do not finish important work, it will be sent home to catch-up.
That was a long update... There is so much to communicate in September! You can use the comments to ask for questions that I might not have answered yet, or send me an email if you prefer!
I hope to meet you this Wednesday for Meet the Teacher Night!
Sincerely,
Nathalie