More about empathy

Back in the Fall, the boys and girls learned all about empathy. Last week, we continued that discussion after students learned about the five steps to using quotation marks.  

I thought about how combining the two could bring about some great writing around what we can say to one another when facing challenges.  The big question was: what can we say to one another that demonstrates empathy in a variety of situations? 

For this reason, I created an "Empathy Poster".  Students have learned about the important features of an effective poster and we reviewed whether or not mine met the requirements (Whew, it did!). I asked the boys and girls to use quotation marks to write about what they would say in each situation.  

To kick off our lesson, and remind students about what empathy is and how it differs from sympathy, we read "The Invisible Boy" by Trudy Ludwig. From there, we moved on to our posters. Students are still working on them, but I'm thrilled that I've been able to teach my students about so many different topics all in one activity. 

The boys and girls are off to a great start and I have to say, their responses to the three different situations posed in the poster are very touching. It is a pleasure to spend my day with such kind and thoughtful people. 

Can I quote you?

The boys and girls are learning how to use quotation marks this week. They're learning that there are five key parts to correct usage. I made this quick video for students to watch to review their skills and assist with any related homework assignments.  

We saved Fred! (well, at least we tried to!)

We had an extra-fun Fun Friday last week! We've been talking a lot lately about what it means to be an effective communicator. Sometimes this means  "picking our battles" and working collaboratively with folks we don't know all that well or maybe we've even had differences with in the past. We've reviewed what needs to be reported to teachers (I saw someone steal something out of a locker)  and what can be solved on our own (I found a pencil on the floor, what do I do with it?).  

Saving Fred is a great way to build a variety of things: a positive community, effective listening (to the teacher's instructions and to each other) along with problem solving (after all, we need to rescue this guy!). 

Here's Fred's story:  

Everyone worked together to try and save little Fred and it was so much fun! I loved listening to their laughter and strategies and you will too in this video below! It was especially heartwarming to hear them speak with such kindness and consideration to one another as they tried to work together on this task.  

There was lots of talking, lots of strategizing and plenty of attempts to rescue poor Fred! Some groups were successful, some not so much, but there was no denying the activity was a hit! Everyone worked together and our afternoon flew by! And what a nice surprise to find that there were lots of gummy Lifesavers leftover to share! 

What's a Wednesday Workshop?

The countdown is on!  
We're going to take it up a notch with respect to our ongoing EQAO prep each Wednesday starting this week.  Moving forward, every Wednesday, students will receive actual EQAO stories/articles and a set of questions.

Not only do these workshops show the boys and girls what to expect from their EQAO booklets, they give us a wonderful opportunity to have really rich discussions about our writing in both Math and Language.
  
By using the Smartboard/Document Camera, we're able to work together through the article/story and questions. We can think out-loud and talk about different approaches to the questions and explore what works and doesn't work in terms of suitable responses. 

I like that our discussions aren't just about "EQAO", but rather about what good writers do.  When you only have five lines to respond to a question that asks for evidence from the text, you have to choose your words carefully. I'm so pleased that my students see how we have to think about our writing on a higher level. 

We have to consider not only the correct response to the question, but our word choice, actual letter size and other important factors. It's a lot of critical thinking that goes into responding to these very thick questions!    

This week,  we looked an article/presentation about the Venus Flytrap plant.  The boys and girls are writing a paragraph about why this is a unique plant using evidence from the text and their own ideas.  

You can read more about this article at an older blog post found here:  Venus Flytrap 2017

Next week, the boys and girls will read a story about a class that goes on a field trip. The story is called "Where's Ms.Mitra".  They will have to use their knowledge of irony to answer one of the questions and then consider if someone did their job well or not.  

They will also complete a set of multiple-choice questions based on the story. The irony question has been a tough one in previous years, but now that students have an understanding of how irony works (this year is only the third time I've attempted to teach it), they can better articulate their thoughts.  

I'm looking forward to seeing how the students take what they've learned about irony and apply it to this writing opportunity. 

We've started work stations!

We're having a great week in room 208! It's work station week, where a whole lotta learning happens in different places and spaces! For this set of stations, students are looking at social studies topics, parts of speech (nouns, verbs, etc.) and problem solving in math.  These stations are designed to be engaging and purposeful, all while reinforcing skills students have learned. 

With respect to the social studies stations, students are using their research skills to learn about the tools of the First Nations peoples and the average school day of a pioneer child.  

It's the perfect time of year to begin this new chapter in learning for a number of reasons: 

• the routines and procedures are well established and followed 
• students are working very well independently 
• I know my students well and can create stations that support their learning needs  

Each Work Station is about 15 minutes long. After each Station, we meet back at the carpet to share new learning, any problems that came up and then determine where everyone goes next.
  

They're a super-fun way to learn and our goal is to have Work Stations about once a week.
  

New year, new goals!

We've been talking about what we do really well in Room 208 and where we'd like to improve.  Like so many do, we are setting new goals this month.  

Through our discussions, we have found that as a class we do many things very well:  

• we're great readers
• our problem solving skills in Math continue to improve
• we ask very insightful questions that demonstrate we're listening and thinking about what we're learning 
• we have excellent manners 
• we're AMAZING at getting our agendas signed each night 
• we are very responsible when it comes to changing into our indoor shoes 
• we can stay focused, even if there are distractions in the hallway or classroom 
• we've gotten very good at determining problems we can solve on our own and those that require adult intervention 
• we continue to do the big things and little things that earn us brag tags each day 

Some areas where we are hoping to improve

• it's super-duper important that we memorize the spelling of our no-excuse words (found on the list on our desk) Get a printable version here: No Excuse List 
• we want memorize the math songs found at the top right area of the blog to help improve our number sense skills 
• we want to make sure we are following all classroom expectations whether the teacher is watching or not -everyone wins when we do the right thing because it's the right thing to do, not because someone is watching us (This is our most important goal). Working with fewer teacher reminders to stay on task and do what's in accordance with our class policies really optimizes our learning environment. 
• we want to participate more in class discussions and lessons. Everyone in room 208 has great contributions to make and it's essential that we all develop this skill and do our part
• we want to reduce the humming and mouth noises that can be distracting to others when they are working 
• we want more brag tags! 😍

I think we are more than capable of achieving these goals. With a support from home and consistency at school, parents, you're going to need to rent a trailer to bring home all the brag tags these kids earn! 

This year is gonna rock!

Annnnd...we're back!
Just like that!
The kids looked so happy to be back at school and ready to go this morning! We have had a nice "soft start" to our week so far: nothing too heavy, and lots of fun and chatting about food and favourite presents!  

We got started on a "Have a Rockin' New Year" booklet that I created for us to use during the first few days of the new year. It's great because it incorporates a bit of everything. It's perfect for getting us all back on track. 
Please note that we're going to use this resource as our "Practice Pages" for homework this week as well.  

This week in Math, we'll review all of our geometry unit to date.  We'll talk about attributes, parallel lines, hatch marks, angles and three dimensional shapes.  We're finished that part of the unit, but this week, we'll look at one final area of the unit we haven't covered: we'll take a more intense look at attributes by creating a folder that will support my students' learning. 

We're also going to look at the two cookies pictured below and talked about their different attributes.  Last year, we made these charts to help us (chart A). Then, we took each cookie attribute and determined which attribute category it would fall under (chart B) and we'll do that again this year.

Chart A

Chart B

We will also start working on a little craftivity called, "This year is going to rock!". Students are asked to write about the exciting things that the year holds for them, using prior feedback and a checklist to make sure their work is on track.