Wednesday Sept 22

Did you know there is a beautiful full moon in the sky? That might explain some things- it's at least something to blame :) I have had a wicked headache for a couple of days now but I am not growing any hair on my hands yet!! lol
Homework
1st spelling test tomorrow morning. The first 12 words on the list that I sent home today so every student can have a list at home and a list in class.
N.B. I have requested of some students to focus only on 5 or 6 words from the list that they can manage and I will adjust results accordingly.
Sent home today
a class daily schedlue for the fridge or homework area
a school newsletter
some students will be bringing a t-shirt order form
Reminder
Thursday night (tomorrow) is our annual pot-luck at 6pm. Look forward to saying hello to as many of you as I can.
Heads Up
a verification form will be sent home tomorrow with some students for updates to our school communication information- if you have a new cell phone number or a new address or if there is something you would like to add to the form just fill it in and send it back to us. Thanks (I missed it today - I put a binder on top of the pile!!)

General Day
Mornings have been fabulous.
We started with a journal writing activity and the students really got into it. Topic: If a genie was to appear from your lunch bag today and grant you three wishes. What would they be and why would you make those specific wishes.

I can't wait to read them the students were so excitied about their wishes it was funny to watch them share their ideas!! As a class we discussed the assessment of the paragraphs and what was being looked for in this activity (FYI 4-5 sentences, punctuation and on topic response).
Math was next. After a homework check, we reviewed the process of rounding, went over half of the correct answers and then connected the activity to Ch 2 in the textbook on working with decimal numbers and the importance of accurate estimation.
FYI  regarding math homework. Math homework is practise. We will always review the paractise together the next day. I code the students homework as C for completed, P for participated (that means they made an effort to try some) or * for no attempt. When student does not attempt assigned work I have no evidence whether or not they understand the skill or need further instruction. Please encourage your children to make an effort with practise work in order that I can make a better decision about their learning needs.

In language Arts today we completed the last section of Chapter 2 of The Giver, our class novel, and completed together a timeline activity of the life 'schedule' of the community they live in. I think the timeline activity brought the restraints of this fictional sect or community into their understanding because they had some very pertinent questions and were shocked at the answers. We are going to listen to chapter three on CD tomorrow.
Before lunch I assigned some spelling study time.

Good job again of DEAR reading - I am asking student to put away their art and other distractions to concentrate on a book for 20 minutes. We are getting there. It is a great start to a very important skill. The skill of being quiet, still and concentrating on a piece of written material is so simple and yet so difficult for many students!!
I was supposed to do French by our timetable BUT I had promised the students some Art time today as they were short changed yesterday. I like to play some music during art- this caused a bit of controversy as the students are not very accepting yet of one another's music preferencces. We'll work on that!!
Computers were next!!
I learned two things 1/ I need to make a seating arrangement for computer time and 2/ I need to go over computer etiquette.
Today I showed the students how to access the on-line resources for their science and math text books at the Mcgraw Hill Ryerson web site. It was a very frustrating class because the students were very chatty and some did not follow the visual step by step on the whiteboard. I made the mistake of blowing my Phys. Ed. whistle to get their attention and nearly deafened us!! It didn't help!
We were supposed to complete the day with Phys. Ed. but by the time we were back into class, completed our agendas and distributed the handouts to go home, it was 2:50pm!!

We are not doing transitions well yet and as we only have 2 hours in the afternoon to fit a number of different activities in we will need to improve our transition time or adjust times and subjects accordingly. I felt quite frustrated for the students who were on-task and waiting for the others to comply. I could just see on their faces they were fed up listening to the instructions. What to do?
So the afternoon ran away with us... I tried a game for the last five minutes and it was just getting going when the dismissal bell sounded!!!
Oh my...
See everyone tomorrow for more transition practice!!
Mrs. J.