This is how we roll...

For the last few Tuesdays and Thursdays, we've had EQAO workshops with ALL of the Grade 3 students in our classroom. They have been a tremendous success!  We will continue with our workshops right up until the big day in late May. 

Bringing all the children together in our room with so many teachers and support staff really helps us to deliver targeted instruction that prepares and confidence-izes (my word) our students.  

We have reviewed so many important skills and shared all kinds of tips and strategies that we have already seen growth in our students' work.  

What's really super-impressive is that there are close to 60 kids in the room and you'd never know it. The boys and girls are focused, engaged and ready to work hard.  It's such a rewarding experience for everyone involved to see children so excited to be on the path to success!  

Save the date!

Due to circumstances beyond my control, we'll have Morning Message in the AFTERNOON on Tuesday May 5th at 1:15, and we'd love for parents to join us to see how we normally start each day! 

Practice Page #28

Tuesday night's Practice Page is all about finding perimeter. Students are asked to first estimate, and then measure the actual perimeter of a shape. 
They are reminded to include their unit of measurement.  

How can you prepare for EQAO?

Here's a helpful video I prepared to help students get ready for their EQAO booklets.  

This is the link to the practice resources mentioned in the video.  EQAO Practice Resources  

Scroll down the above link and look for this section (it's the fifth section): 

What's ahead this week!

This has always been a sort of goal of mine: to give parents and blog visitors a "heads up" as to the plan for the week in Room 208. 

My hope is that given we have just nine weeks left, I can get into the habit of posting our plan and iron out all the wrinkles in time for the 2015-2016 school year.  

This is just a guide and it's not written in stone, as that's not what good teachers do, but I like the idea of given everyone a preview of what's on deck.

Just click on the photo to see it up close.  

 

How to use quotation marks

We had a ball today learning about how to use quotation marks in just five easy steps!  

By adding just five key "things", we have demonstrated

correct quotation use! 

Here's a video that explains the five parts of correct quotation usage! 

Tuesday's homework

We're learning all about how to use quotation marks (there are five parts you know!). 
For homework tonight, the boys and girls are asked to complete the Practice Page pictured below.

I'm standing in the corner...

On Friday, the boys and girls were given an opportunity to demonstrate their developing cartooning skills!
I asked them to draw a picture of their favourite "scene" from our Poem of the Week. 

As you can see by these photos, the results are going to be hysterical!  

Fractions Quiz #1

We had a fractions quiz today (pictured below) and I want to review the criteria for a Level 4 answer.  

Here's the quiz: 

After the quiz, we took it up as a class and talked about the criteria for a Level 4 response.  

A "4" needed to include/demonstrate: 

• That Lea ate more jelly beans than Carson
• An understanding that they were being asked about two days worth of jelly bean eating, not just one. 
• That Lea ate 14 jelly beans.
• That Carson ate 10 jelly beans.

We also talked about how "explain your thinking" or "EYT" does not mean telling the reader the steps to how you solved the problem, but rather how you know you're right (it's a fine line, that's for sure).  

I find that with repeated exposure to samples of effective EYT-ing and then "process explanations" students begin to see the subtle differences and can self-correct.  

The responses pictured below are great examples of effective EYT-ing.  

A tasty Math lesson!

A bunch of super-smart kids had a very "smart" math lesson yesterday!

Each child received a little Zippy of 12 Smarties. It would have been 16, but I ate the materials! ;) 

Students were asked to record observations about their Smarties using fractions.  They could begin with observations such as 2/12 are red or 3/12 are blue, but then they had to find ways to take it up a notch (e.g. 2/6 are green or 1/2 are brown). 

It was a great way to learn all about how to express fractions in simplest forms.  

I was so pleased to see how the students worked to find new ways to express their observations! 

If you are a teacher and you'd like a copy of the worksheet I created for this, click here.

And then Miss N wanted to share her favourite poem from our Poem of the Week collection.  She presented it to me in the morning and then I asked her to do it again for the class. She has great fluency and plenty of expression! 

Practice Page #24

Here's the Practice Page that's coming home Thursday night. The boys and girls will need to provide a detailed explanation of their thinking/rationale for their answer.   

Friday Funnies...on Monday!

We've had a great bunch of days in our classroom! 
Here are some of my favourite moments from the last week or so.  

One of my students very politely informed me last week that if I were a pioneer teacher, I would have been fired on account of my being married, the polish on my nails and the fact that my ankles were showing.  

This same child also told me that I looked like a spy with my black jacket on...LOL! I think my cover might be blown!  

Then this happened on Thursday.  I am the queen of getting things stuck or looped on to other things. I am beginning to consider a second career in carnival game playing. I really think I could do well at that one game where you toss the ring onto the bottle.  I can't quite explain how it happens, but I manage to constantly get things looped onto other things. 
Last week, I swung my purse over my shoulder and managed to get the little decorative tag looped onto the button on the back of my jacket.  

We all have our special skills and I think this one might be mine.  

How does this happen? Why can't I win the lottery with this
kind of crazy luck!? 

That's the BACK of my jacket people! The BACK!

Then on April Fools Day, we had this moment of hilarity.  

This little note was in a student's agenda this morning and I love it! 

While on duty last week, some of my students were walking with me and we ran into one of their younger siblings. We were joking around and being silly and that younger sibling whispered to his sister, "Your teacher sure is happy."  
And I am...I really am.  


And here we are, week 28 already and I'm sure we'll have all kinds of new and hilarious adventures this week!