Ms. Fischer’s Class R.O.C.K.S.! | Respect.Ownership.Cooperation.Kindness.Safety.

Kindness

Posted on May 14, 2020 by Ms. Fischer

“I am kind to others, can work or play cooperatively, and can build relationships with people of my choosing.”

Positive Personal & Cultural Identity

Mrs. Lynka told me about a new website called The Character Tree. It has short videos with an emphasis on character traits. Some of these videos link directly to the Core Competencies in our redesigned curriculum. Today our Special Project lesson is focused on Kindness. There is a video that talks about Jane Goodall and her acts of kindness for you to watch. After watching it, I’ve asked the students to either draw themselves during a time they showed kindness, or take photos of themselves showing kindness. Although we are working from home, I am still compiling work for the portfolios–so please send me any examples of kindness you capture!

A reminder: tomorrow is the last day to submit your Room Models to include them on our website.

Categories: Core Competencies | Leave a comment

Growing Project

Posted on May 13, 2020 by Ms. Fischer

This week’s challenge for Games & Choices invites us to use our green thumbs and grow something either inside or outside our homes. (I like the idea that we can grow our own food.) Once again we are able to combine science, math, writing, and maybe even some art.

I know that some of you are already growing a garden at home–so you have a head start for this project! But there are a lot of new things you might try.

Do you have any seed packages laying around in a drawer? Some dirt? Some plastic containers?

Or maybe you have a carrot top in the fridge that you can use or an avocado pit??? So many ideas…I would love to see the progress you are making!

Growing Things

Thanks to the Richmond School District for this project.

Categories: Arts, Core Competencies, Math, Science, Writing | Leave a comment

Build Your Room

Posted on May 12, 2020 by Ms. Fischer

Yesterday for Math you were asked to build a model of your bedroom using the floor plans you had made (or by looking in your room!!). 😉

You could use Lego,or another building medium like Duplo, Keva, wooden blocks, tinker toys…

or choose to build a room inside a shoe or other box

I wonder how you managed to create all the furniture in your room?

I’m sure you had to use your critical thinking skills! I know I did when I made my model. There is still time if you want to build a model of your room…get started today during our Pick a Project time!

Send me your photos when you are done and I’ll post them here on our website.

Categories: Core Competencies, Math | Leave a comment

Epic!

Posted on May 11, 2020 by Ms. Fischer

Welcome back to another week of online learning.

I know we are all wishing we could be back together at school, but unfortunately that is not possible yet. 😢 I know you have all been doing your best work at home–I’m amazed by all the wonderful work you have been sending me–I could not be prouder of you and your families. Parents you are doing a phenomenal job–at a job that you never signed up for–so THANK YOU from all of us!! 💗💗💗

Over the weekend, you likely got an email from

This is another reading resource I thought might be helpful. Raz Kids is like the reading groups I would do in class, while Epic! is more like the reading bags the students have full of ‘treat’ books to read. It is new to me as well and I will not be assigning books on the site–rather it is just for fun reading–or for Read to Self times. I was excited to see that they had a large variety of popular series like ‘Scaredy Squirrel‘ and ‘Diary of a Worm‘.

The ‘For You’ section has new releases as well as any books you started to read, but did not finish.
It has a ‘Read to Me’ section, where you can have books read aloud to you–including ‘Fancy Nancy’ and ‘Curious George‘
In the ‘Videos’ tab you can watch videos of popular stories. (“Giggle, Giggle Quack” is narrated by country singer Randy Travis.)
It also has a selection of Audio Books that you can listen to–like ‘Chicka Chicka 1 2 3′ (and you can follow along with a physical book if you have a copy).

My hope is this resource will expand your access to more books–similar to our visits to the school and public libraries.

Enjoy browsing through the books, and please email me if you are having trouble signing in.

Happy Reading!

Categories: Reading | Leave a comment

Finding Shapes

Posted on May 8, 2020 by Ms. Fischer

I hope you had a good time looking for more shapes after our Zoom call yesterday. I’m sure if you tried you could find so many.

I was thinking about what to write about for today, and I thought it might be fun to have a math read aloud. So I went to Math Tumble Books to see what I could find… (The math section of the resources page will remind you how to sign in.)

I looked under the heading of Geometry–and found a perfect book!! I saw a clear connection to yesterday’s lesson.

“Finding Shapes With Sebastian Pig and Friends at the Museum”

After you read (or listen to) the story, you might want to look 👀 around and see if you can find:

a sphere
a cone
a cube
a cylinder
a pyramid

If you’re stuck…you can look at these 3D Shapes Posters for some ideas. Happy Hunting–I loved Sebastian’s notebook! 😉

Categories: Math, Reading | Leave a comment

Poetry Writing

Posted on May 7, 2020 by Ms. Fischer

What is a Poem?

“Poetry is a type of literature, or artistic writing, that attempts to stir a reader’s imagination or emotions. The poet does this by carefully choosing and arranging language for its meaning, sound, and rhythm.” (Kids Britannica)

As we begin our poetry exploration we are not expected to have words that rhyme or perfect patterns. It is after all an exploration! So as new writers, we begin with free verse poetry…”poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm, and does not rhyme with fixed forms.” (literarydevices.net)

Poetry is another form of art–it taps into our creative thinking skills–we want our readers to “see” the words as a vivid picture in their heads–just like a piece of art you would hang on the wall. So let’s use those describing words!

Today during writing you will be creating your own poem based on your directed drawing choice from yesterday.

Your choices were:

Bat Bear Beach

Here is an example of a free verse poem I’ve written.

The Bat

Flying high

With cold clouds.

Searching

For a big bug.

Zip

Yum!

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Try your ideas–you might surprise yourself.

I can’t wait to read some of your poems. Enjoy your poetry exploring!

Categories: Arts Integration, Writing | Leave a comment

We Gather Information…

Posted on May 6, 2020 by Ms. Fischer

I know you have been hard at work on your animal research project, and as you work through it, you are gathering information from a variety of sources:

Internet (Canadian Geographic or other reliable sources)
Non-Fiction Resource Books
Live Video Cams

You are organizing your information into your own Non–Fiction Report. But there are many different ways to organize the information you are gathering. We will be exploring some of those organizers in the next few weeks.

Today we will use a Non-Fiction Book to gather information about Bears or Butterflies ( I won’t know which until we vote!!). You will then use a graphic organizer to record your information.

Here are a few examples of graphic organizers we use in class:

non fiction news (this is the one we will use today)
sticky facts
Generic Pattern T Chart
BrainstormingWeb

Categories: Reading, Science, Writing | Leave a comment

Story Telling Basket

Posted on May 5, 2020 by Ms. Fischer

Yesterday for DRAMA we created our own Story Telling Basket using a variety of toys and items from around our house. Then we set about creating our own stories using some of those items.

We begin this process by choosing characters and a setting for our story. After those decisions are made, we decide on a story problem. “What could ‘go wrong’ in our story??” Our last bit of planning involves a solution to the problem–happy or sad–your choice. “How could the story end?” (You can look here for a story writing think sheet)

As we tell our stories, we have to keep our planning in mind.

In the beginning of the story, we introduce our characters and the setting. The middle of our story introduces the problem we chose. While the end of our story reveals the solution.

We also talked about possible ways to ‘record’ our stories…

Comics
Photographs
Video
A story writing frame
3 events from story frame
Your own idea…???

Have fun creating new stories every day! Or…you could retell a favourite story using items from around the house…

Categories: Arts Integration, Core Competencies, Technology | Leave a comment

Structures

Posted on May 4, 2020 by Ms. Fischer

A Building Project

As we near the end of our measurement unit in math, I looked for a project that would incorporate what we have learned and make some connections to work we have completed.

This project includes opportunities to practice:

Drawing a bird’s eye view of your structure like we did for our room floor plans (Math, Visual Arts & Core Competencies)
Different ways you could measure your structure (Math & Core Competencies)
Creating a background (Visual Arts & Core Competencies)
Using our creative and critical thinking skills (Core Competencies)

It also allows us to try something new:

Create a story about your structure that includes a setting, characters, problem & solution (Language Arts, Core Competencies)
Use technology to record/tell your story

Our challenge this week comes from the Richmond School District…Structures

Can you create a tower, bridge or building using materials you find at home?? I would love to see any work you do on this week-long project.