We have been so fortunate to have had such nice sunny days - it always makes a difference when the air is getting colder that there is still some sunshine.
I had one of those days that makes me wonder about how the universe knows just what you need and presents opportunities for you (or me) to understand or at least presents an opportunity for us to put new skills or understandings into practice.
For pro-d on Friday I spent some time learning and reading about the MindUp Program and decided that it is a set of lessons for learning and living that I would like to integrate into my program. I started yesterday and today, BAM, I really needed to dig deep and put the concepts of the program into use. Interesting and timely :)
Homework & Reminders
Math 7 complete at least 4 or the 8 practice examples for division of decimals (booklet p3)
Math 6 problem solving
Spelling Unit #5 words Thursday test
Halloween Dance on Friday night grade 4-7
Still a few students with MIA assignments Arsh, Nic, Ethan and Brody - see the poster if you are not sure what is not handed in yet.
General Day
Daily French 5 minutes- we romped through the numbers from one to thirty (and played Dix at the end of the day)
Spelling time 5 words 5 minutes- In my opinion, there is still too much noise in class for this time to be used effectively. I find that quite a few students do not know how to settle to independent work or study!
We will continue to work at that!!
Novel Chapters 11-15
I read Chapters 11-13 and the students read the last two in this set. After the last reader response, I prepared some 'guiding' questions for this one.
I found that some of the responses were a bit stilted and repetitive so I was hoping that providing a set of questions to think about (the students do not have to answer all of them) would assist students to write a more natural response to the novel's story development.
I do need to remember that tis is a new writing activity for the students and that they are learning to appreciate the story parts as a whole instead of answering chapter questions.
We also discussed how the second part of any story includes: the rising action, the events that develop and perhaps split the story into a couple of different plot directions, a crises that rise to a climax (turning point).
The student have story maps in their reader response booklets- we will follow up the writing and thinking for this activity tomorrow.
Math 7
Some drama but we managed to get back on track and down to the important stuff quickly.
Today I followed up the brain recognition lesson (Lesson 1 MindUp) and I said earlier it was very timely as it gave me a real insight into what was actually happening with the 'drama' which we were able to diffuse quite quickly as a class community. Thanks everyone. I apprecitae you understanding how our behaviour can affect the whole class and set us on edge.
Lesson for math was to check homework completion, follow up the whole number division by completing the examples together on the board, and move into instructing the steps for dividing with decimal numbers.
For practice tonight I have asked the students to try the booklet p 3 and do # 21 and 22 and at least 2 or 4 of the six remaining examples on the page (there are 6 altogether) # 27-32.
The trick is to make the decimal divisor a whole number and then move the decimal point accordingly in the dividend so the divisor becomes a whole number.
36/0.06 becomes 3600/6 = 600
Silent Reading
assisted with some extra math tuition
French- les parties de la maison pour les maisons hauntees
the students are working on the Halloween project both art and French recognition of vocabulary together- Halloween and parts of the house. We (as always) need more time!
Physical Education volleyball- nets were up and we awere able to take advantage and practice some game techniques. It is rather difficult to be involved in 'evening' up the student numbers (particpating) and watching the skills of the general class. Still a few wild balls and some silly unnecessary collisions with the net! Thank you to Gurpreet for providing a stretch for the class today- hamstring stretch and balance opening up the hip and glutes.
Back in class we cleaned up and prepared our homework (I always review it at the end of the day and I do notice that some students are not participating- it is truly the most difficult thing in the world getting all those ducks in a row and on the same page at the same time!!)
We tried to extend our P.Ed. session (because I owe the students some activity time from last week!) by doing a trail walk and talk activity of the like we have done at camp BUT alas it was not to be- we nearly made it; however, after ten minutes of trying to get their attention so I could provide the first question for the walk and talk, we turned around and returned to class!!! No point...but I won't give up- I will definitely try again another day.
We played the French number games of Dix which can be a little tricky but everyone was a good sport about it.
Have a great evening.
Mrs. J.
No comments:
Post a Comment