Category: Language Arts

Welcome to Pringle, the Penguin!

In January we had a delivery from the Antarctica.  It was a penguin (named Pringle), the novel Mr. Popper’s Penguins, and a letter from Admiral Drake – a character from the novel.  We have been reading this novel over the past few weeks and we will finish it up this week.  Pringle has been making home visits with students in the classroom.  The students have been making journal entries about their experiences with Pringle.  Each morning the students read these journal entries to the class and share their pictures.  Pringle has also been adorned with a variety of necklaces, bracelets, and ribbons as a result of these visits.

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Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Last week we finished our read-aloud of this wonderful book by J.K. Rowling.  Students learned a lot of new vocabulary and seemed to really enjoy meeting the characters in this book.  We enjoyed the many adventures that Harry, Ron, and Hermione experienced.  As a finale to reading the story we used our new video monitor and computer set-up to enjoy the movie.

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It was a wonderful treat!

New Video Monitor!!

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To go along with our new computer we have a new video monitor and speakers which we connect to our new computer to show video clips.  We are still awaiting having our screen moved into place but for now we are showing the clips onto our bulletin board.

We gave this system an inaugural run on Friday afternoon by viewing part of the movie, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.  This treat is a follow-up to our having completed the oral reading of the book on Thursday.  Students have enjoyed hearing the book being read – and improving their vocabulary – and are now doing a comparison of the book and the movie.  We will finish up the movie in two more installments next week.

Updated Schedule / Spelling Programme

Our daily schedule has been slightly altered.  We have added another PE block on Tuesdays during Mr. Phelps’ time in the room (between Recess and Lunch).

There is also a change with our weekly spelling lists/tests.  Mr. Phelps will now be doing the Words Their Way programme with the class – also during his time slot.  This week he is doing assessments on the students to determine their spelling groups.  Beginning next week the students will have a spelling list glued into their Planners.  They will do activities with these words throughout the week and will have their spelling tests on Fridays.  Mr. Phelps will mark these and then they will be sent home.

If you have any questions about Words Their Way, or PE, please feel free to contact Mr. Phelps.

 

Reading Groups / Spelling / Soccer

Today you will have received a letter from me telling you which Reading group your child has been placed in.  As previously stated, these groups will normally meet on Tuesdays through Fridays from 9:45 – 10:30 a.m.  We will not have Reading groups tomorrow, however, as Class Reviews are taking place with the Resource team.  We will re-commence the groups on Thursday.

You also should have received a note from me about our Spelling programme.  Students will get their weekly list on Mondays (these will be in their Planners) and will have their Spelling tests on Thursdays.  Please help your child practise their words before their weekly tests.  These tests will be sent home each week – for your information.

Students have enjoyed two sessions with the PASS soccer coaches so far this week.  We look forward to three more days this week and our last lesson next Monday.

The Polar Express

This afternoon I read the story, “The Polar Express” by Chris Van Allsburg, to the students.  Many were already familiar with this story.  Over the next week or so we will be exploring this book through a variety of activities including: class and small group discussions, sequencing the events, and illustrations.  We hope to watch the movie as a wrap up to our ‘mini-unit’.

Class Assignment Expectations

When students are doing their ‘seatwork’ assignments there is a wide variety in the final outcome of what each student will produce.  There are, of course, different learning outcomes for different subject areas; just as there are different levels of expectations for each grade.  I use this visual to explain the difference between a minimal effort and one that has met all the expected criteria.  This idea is used for all areas of our curriculum – not just their artwork – and visually demonstrates what is meant by including ‘details’.  For artwork they can see what is meant by ‘details’ through the gradually more developed pictures.  In their written work, students are reminded that ‘details’ are the way their writing has answered the reader’s questions of ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘why’, and ‘how’.

Phoebe Gilman

We have been reading and enjoying the books by a great Canadian author – Phoebe Gilman.  We began with the original “Jillian Jiggs” and worked our way through additional stories about this delightful girl, along with other of this author’s stories such as: Something from Nothing; Pirate Pearl; The Gypsy Princess; and Little Blue.

Students had many opportunities to respond to these books by: renaming one book; adding another page to the end of another book; describing their favourite part or character in other books; and designing a map to show the travels of characters – to name a few.  They have created quite an interesting collection of responses in their booklets.