Moments from week 17

It certainly took no time to get back into the swing of things! And I must warn you: time flies from now until June.  Don't blink, because it's over before you know it. Even though we're not quite at the halfway point in the year, we are over a hump, so to speak. Now that routines and expectations are well-established, the classroom quite literally runs itself. It's still a tight ship, but there's SO much more time for fun and adventure. It goes without saying that students are continuing to learn and of course, I'm teaching, but there's a lot more room for creativity because we're not quite so focused on "getting used to grade three".  So buckle up!  

This week, we were all about conferencing.  I met with students to discuss their "What does Mrs. Claus do on Christmas Eve" assignment. They were marked over the holidays and students received their feedback. We talk a lot in class about the importance of implementing that feedback right away, so my expectation is that students were listening during our chat and then will keep their new goals in mind when working on future assignments, including homework.  

In Math, we're learning about attributes as part of our geometry unit. You'll recall students have their test on Tuesday.  There's a study guide (it's pink) that went home last week, but if you scroll back a few posts, you'll find it there too.  

I was thrilled when a student, let's call him "Mr. P" shared an observation with us this week. He noticed as part of one of his video games (Donkey Kong or Pac-man I'm sure 😉) that the word to describe the features of the character he creates for the game was "attributes".  Thank you to his mother for emailing that pic to me. We were able to discuss it as part of Morning Message.  Students are learning that attributes are just another way to say "trait" or "feature".  

I've encouraged the kids to ask you to send along any photos that you think might relate to what we're learning in class. Especially the ones the kids find themselves. Send them to mrs.mihalides@gmail.com. 

So that's where we are in Math. In Language, students are writing all about their goals for the new year.  Most students have finished up this little craftivity that I created called, "2017 is gonna rock!". It's an opportunity for them to reflect on the year ahead, use their feedback from their Mrs. Claus activity and create a nifty little rock-character.  

Next week, it's back to procedural writing, where we'll be writing about how you get ready for winter play.  I'll be expecting ALL KINDS of feedback implementation there! The goal will be to make this their best writing piece yet by engaging the reader with humor AND effective instructions!  

In Social Studies, we're talking about some of the reasons people moved to Canada back in the day. This week, we talked about the Irish potato famine and there were many, many questions. I think we'll carry on our discussion next week.  

At evening meeting on Friday, we finished our novel "Swindle" (Woo-hoo!) and we're on to a new one on Monday. I won't reveal the title here, but it's a true story and it's about a gorilla.  It's a real good one.  

We had Talent Time today.  We'll do this every other Friday. We were getting a little slowed down with requests to share various dances and presentations before the holidays, so we decided that we needed to come up with a system.  So this is what we agreed to: every other Friday, if you have a special talent (that you've rehearsed) and you want to share it, there will be time set aside to do so. As a class, the boys and girls understand that this means we will not have our brag tag ceremony on those Fridays. Ya can't have it all and everyone agreed this was a fair solution.  

So there you have it! Week 17!  No photos this week. Editing and posting pics can really add to the time it takes to prepare a blog post, and it's fun to write to you while it's all fresh in my mind.  Sure, I'll have more time on Saturday or Sunday, but who knows what I'll remember about our week by then! LOL!