It was one of those days today that you just hang onto your hat and go with the flow... 11 of our grade sevens went with Mr. and Mrs. Parker to the Theatre. I took in two grade six students who didn't go and so it was a smaller class with just 20 students.
Homework
No new homework- only three paragraphs still to get (and those students were away today!)
Unit 9 spelling for Thursday
Reminders to...
Please return envelopes and reflection sheets from the report cards so I know that you have seen them
book a parent-teacher interview this Wednesday and Thursday
return the Band forms
check out oue Christmas Bazaar tomorrow evening in the gym
2pm dismissal tomorrow
General Day
Started with most of a full class (a couple of students came late). I made an effort to introduce a multi-level project that is based on a 'virtual adventure'. The students chose a destination for an adventure- somewhere they have always wanted to go but have never seen (or been) and while there they chose an adventure that they have always wanted to go on- say an African safari, scuba diving off the Great Barrier Reef or saving new born turtles and helping them reach the ocean in the Azores. In the project 'virtual $$$' is no object and they are only limited by their imagination (within reason of course!!). The students will eventually be costing the trip and using the web and internet to figure out how much the adventure would cost including their transportation and accommodation.
What I was not prepared for was the number of students whose idea of an adventure was shopping in Save on Foods for tacos (!!!) or eating at a particular eating establishment and , inevitably, because one or two started to play around with the paramenters to suit themselves before long I had to 'back up the bus' and ensure the majority understood that the nature of the activity was an adventure that might have to be thought about and decided upon. Absolutely they can shop for tacos BUT not in any place close to home!!! Costco has chains around the world (so does a certain eating establishment) if they are so inclined to spend a grand adventure in a Costco (or Mickey D's) somewhere exotic (what a waste but that's me talking)!!!
Interesting how something that I thought would capture their imaginations and creativity was difficult to explain and get them started on...is it that the concept is too foreign? (forgive the pun)
Music
Math/Graph/ Art - I found an activity that had the students plot colours on a graph using map type directions and they created pictures of a race-car and checkered flag. The activity is using the skills that we have bee learning in math - plotting points only in this case they used the grid as a 'canvas' for a picture. The majority turned out excellent renditions of the car and looked great- some were unable to complete the task for various reasons- lost interest, off-task or just unable to focus on it (playing drums with pencils!) - it was not because it was too difficult!!
DEAR time was used well by our smaller group today.
I have purchased an MP3 player which is pre-loaded with Rick Riordian's book '39 steps'- it has audio and video capacity at 2GB - by December 17th students in grade seven who have completed November and December's reading logs will be entered into a class draw for this prize.
Library- we visited the library today after DEAR time- I want to encourage my students to read more at their level- again I was not prepared for students to be taking out Geronimo Stilton (Gr 3) or comic books like Garfield or The Simpsons (not that there is anything wrong with that ) BUT in the 15-20 minutes we were there, students changed their minds several times and took books out and then exchanged them for others in a matter of 5 minutes- yes, it is okay to change their minds- go ahead- BUT once again while it looks like they are using the library and taking out lots of books- they are not exactly reading them!!!
A reminder that the school Read Your Face off' contest is about READING- not seeing how many books you can take out of the library!!
Phys Ed. we played a small class version of circle dodge. It is too bad it takes so long for students to follow the directions- what we played was fine but it never seems long enough before the next class is at the gym door. Could physically see some students have an energy 'crash'
To complete the day we listened to our song for the Xmas concert. Some students don't want to be involved in the dance or want to have different 'job'- that's fine- they just have to be honest and let me know so I can find a different role for them. We packed up and played a cooperative game for the last 10 minutes of class until the bell at 3pm.
Have a warm and toasty evening.
Until tomorrow. Mrs. J.
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