Article posted September 8, 2010 at 03:43 PM GMT0 •
comment (2) • Reads 910
This year my class is using a program called the Daily Five. It is a method of teaching language arts that seeks to help children learn how to become independent learners who take responsibility for their own learning. For the first two weeks of school, we have been working on what it looks like to work by yourself. (I also want them to learn how to collaborate--that is next!) Here is a peek into what it looked like in our classroom yesterday while the students were practicing their independence.
Parents, you should be very proud. I am.
Article posted September 8, 2010 at 03:43 PM GMT0 •
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Article posted August 30, 2010 at 02:36 AM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 7316
We're back at school at last. We're making new friends, practicing new routines, having fun and learning together.
On Friday, we learned from someone the students had never met before. Her name is Ms. Marrinan, and she teaches the 2M Gems in Brisbane, Australia. She got up at 7:00 to answer our questions and to read us a story via Skype. We found out that it is winter in Australia right now, and that it was already Saturday in Australia when we talked to her.
Skype is a tool that allows us to talk to people in other places via the computer. We'll use Skype to connect with and learn from lots of people this year. We can't wait!
Article posted August 30, 2010 at 02:36 AM GMT0 •
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Article posted June 24, 2010 at 03:24 AM GMT0 •
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Recently, while we were reviewing all the things that we had learned this year, we realized that we had not made a video about the letter x to put on our alphabet wiki. We remedied that with the video below, and not only showed our own learning, but made something to help next year's grade one class as well.
Article posted June 24, 2010 at 03:24 AM GMT0 •
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Article posted June 18, 2010 at 04:36 AM GMT0 •
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There are so many things that we want to learn. Recently, we made a list of things that we wanted to know about rocks. Dr. Trish Gregg, a geologist who lives in Oregon, came into our classroom via Skype to answer those questions. Here are the recordings of part of our conversation with her.
Article posted June 18, 2010 at 04:36 AM GMT0 •
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Article posted June 15, 2010 at 10:21 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 3648
It's the time of year when we reflect on all the things we have learned this year. Here is a peek at some of the things we've learned about word families.
Article posted June 15, 2010 at 10:21 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 3648
Article posted June 6, 2010 at 04:56 AM GMT0 •
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After a solemn ceremony, in which we each talked about our favourite thing about the butterflies, we let them fly free near our school. We had talked about the fact that butterflies have a liquid diet of nectar, so the children cleverly picked dandelions to attract them. It was one of those times you never want to forget--and we have a video so that we won't.
Article posted June 6, 2010 at 04:56 AM GMT0 •
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Article posted June 4, 2010 at 05:10 AM GMT0 •
comment (2) • Reads 4109
About three weeks ago, some tiny caterpillars arrived in our classroom. These caterpillars grew at a furious rate (they must have been very hungry), and last week, they each made a chrysalis. This week, to the delight of the children, they have been emerging as butterflies.
In our writing, we have been talking about the trait of "voice". This is a hard concept to understand when you are in high school, and even harder when you are six or seven. To help the children understand that different people say things in a different way, or using a different voice, we read Eric Carle's story called The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Then, we each chose one of the foods that the hungry caterpillar ate to talk about. What would that food say if it wanted the caterpillar eat it? This was so much fun, that the children asked if we could make a video of our caterpillar.
Article posted June 4, 2010 at 05:10 AM GMT0 •
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Article posted May 28, 2010 at 03:10 AM GMT0 •
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For the past while, we have been working on addition, subtraction and story problems. Today the students showed their learning by making up an addition story problem using Storybird and solving it themselves. Check their blogs to see if you can solve the problems, too!
Article posted May 20, 2010 at 02:21 AM GMT0 •
comment (5) • Reads 16154
As you will hear in the video below, there was big excitement in my classroom as these pheasant eggs hatched. It was a tremendous learning opportunity for the students.
I streamed the event on the internet, and at some points there were up to 25 other computers watching along with us. These included other classrooms in our school, a grade one class in Manitoba, and someone in California. Some of the people watching typed in questions, which the students proudly answered as I typed.
I have had pheasants hatching in my classroom for several years, but this is the best "event" we have had. There were two other classes of students in my classroom watching as the first egg in the video hatched, which is a difficult event to predict the timing of. Sometimes the eggs have all hatched outside of school hours!
I want to say a huge thank you to Mr. Dodds and the Wildlife Federation, who brought us the eggs and will look after the pheasants until they are old enough to be released into the wild. Without their efforts, this wouldn't have been possible.
Article posted May 20, 2010 at 02:21 AM GMT0 •
comment (5) • Reads 16154
