The Pioneer School House

On Thursday, the boys and girls learned all about the pioneer school house. It's one of my favourite lessons of the year. 
I started the lesson by asking students to record any questions they had about life as a student back then. 

After that, we were off! The boys and girls really enjoyed learning about what school was like for children over 150 years ago!  

Some of their most favourite facts were: 

• teachers were not allowed to marry, wear jewelry or lipstick!
• the teacher taught all the grades in one room!
• boys and girls entered through separate doors
• the reason we still have July and August off is thanks to the pioneers! 
• the teacher would sometimes live with a student's family for months at a time if she could not afford a home of her own

On Friday, I gave the kids a follow-up challenge. They were asked to write about something they want to know more about based on what was covered on Thursday. I was very impressed with the quality of the questions! 

Here are the (edited-for-the-blog) photos I shared during our lesson on Thursday!

The One and Only Ivan

We're about to start reading The One and Only Ivan at our Evening Meeting. We just finished Elvis and the Underdogs by Jenny Lee and the boys and girls loved it!  

I'm excited to read this new novel to the class. It's one of my all-time favourites. It's such a special book that I suggested to my mother that she read it a few summers ago.  She happily obliged and agreed that this is a story to be savored. 

I hope the boys and girls enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoy reading it.  We're about to embark on a very special journey. 

Here's the book trailer for The One and Only Ivan.  

Book Trailer

Happy Friday!

We were very busy today! 
First, we solved those Math mysteries this morning. I *thought* they were hard...honest I did! But those students of mine, they picked up their mystery and then off they went to solve their cases with no trouble at all!  It was really exciting to see them work together and use all kinds of strategies to solve problems. The boys and girls needed to draw from a number of numeracy skills to solve the problems which made this a really rich experience. 

My favorite line from this morning was, "Oooh, fancy
envelopes Mrs. M!"  

Here are some of the cases the kids had to solve: 

This was the sample case I showed the
class on the Smartboard. 

This afternoon, the boys and girls enjoyed another visit with Dr. Peter Angerilli. Dr. A came in to chat with the kids about how our body is powered by food. Students learned about cells, macro-nutrients and the way our organs interact with the foods we eat. 

It was a very informative presentation! And look out kids, I'm making us a Kahoot quiz based on Dr. A's presentation, so you can look forward to testing your skills next week!  

We love to Kahoot!

Do you know Kahoot? 
We've had so much fun this week kicking off our Math lessons with a Kahoot quiz! You can create your own Kahoot quizzes here:  Create a Kahoot!

I created a quiz that was all about quarters to support our Quarter Files (which look awesome by the way!). 

Each pair of kids gets an i-Pad and finds the Kahoot website. They enter the pin that is specific to my quiz and off we go! The questions appear up on the Smartboard, and the kids use the i-Pads to respond to them. It's the funnest thing ever! 

Everyone is engaged and on task and because we do each quiz twice, they have an opportunity to "correct" any mistakes or miscalculations they made.  

It was not Monday.

I wish I could blame this one on Monday, but I can't can I?  It was Tuesday today. 
This morning, just like every morning, the kids come in the classroom, copy their agenda and move on to their Morning Work. 
Well, this morning, my intention was to explain one particular agenda item right away: read the poem of the week aloud to two pieces of furniture.  
But then the pancakes arrived. 
So then I decided to explain that agenda item after the pancakes. 
But then by the time we had eaten and cleaned up, Mrs. Hill arrived to teach the kids their Music lesson. 
So then I figured I'd explain it after Science with Mrs. C. 
But then Mrs. Dawson arrived for her weekly friendship lesson.   
Surely there would be time after lunch to explain this very odd agenda item. 
Nope. 
We moved on to Math in the afternoon where the kids enjoyed a really fun lesson/activity with the i-Pads.  

You know when I finally remembered I needed to tell the kids what I meant by "Read the poem of the week aloud to two pieces of furniture"?  
Just now!!! It's 8:00 pm!!! 

So there you have it. My students went home today with absolutely no idea as to what their crazy teacher meant when she asked them to read a poem to the couch.

I have written three Post-it notes and set one alarm on my phone to remind me to do this tomorrow. 

This was almost, but not quite as bad as the day I couldn't figure out why I wasn't able to unlock the door to my house.   

It took more than a few tries to realize I was trying to use my classroom key.  

Read to me for homework! 

My Lenten Promise

My students will write and draw about their Lenten promise tomorrow.  I've created this page for them to complete after we attend the Ash Wednesday Liturgy.

Parents, would you please discuss an appropriate-to-your-family Lenten promise with your child tonight? If you are a teacher or parent and you'd like a copy to share with your own child or students, you can download it here.  

Shrove Tuesday!

Tuesday is Pancake Tuesday and students are asked to bring a $2.00 donation to the Holy Childhood Association. 

While the note from the school that came home this week asked students to bring their own plate/fork, they won't need to as we have those already in our classroom.  

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had SO much fun today! 
We had Valentine's Day in the morning and then in the afternoon, we celebrated the 100th Day of School with all kids of "Minute-to-Win-it" games that we extended to 100 seconds!

As you'll see by the photos over at smugmug, it was a great day! Thank you so much to all the parents for supporting our 100th Day T-shirt project! The shirts were amazing and the kids really enjoyed showing off their designs to one another! 
Click here for all the photos from our day! 

Valentine Fun!

We had so much fun this afternoon making our Love-bug Valentine mailboxes!  I've also included some photos from our Math lesson where students were working on their Quarter Folders. Today they learned about how even the clock is divided into quarters! 

This guy cracks me right up! He looks like he's up to something doesn't he? 

This photo was taken during our 2:00 presentation by the Student
of the Day! We look forward to them everyday!