Probably the oddest post of the year!

May I respectfully ask parents and those loved ones who prepare school lunches to make sure that when items are packed, the lids and what-nots are secure? 

About two times a week, I have a leaky lunch that needs to be mopped up/cleaned up/replaced in my classroom. This takes away from our all-too-precious instructional time.  

Any efforts you can make to ensure that lunches, water bottles, etc. do not leak is greatly appreciated. 

Please also avoid packing fruit juice as a water bottle refreshment. These bottles often leak and due to the sugary nature of the juice, clean up is that much more time-consuming and inconvenient.  

Juice boxes or factory sealed bottles are fine.   

Features of Non-Fiction Texts: Part 3

Well here it is! 

The third video of my "Features of Non-Fiction Texts" unit.  

The boys and girls have watched this video already. It's all about how to organize the information you gather from your non-fiction texts. This is especially important when students are working on reports and projects.  

Organizing your information from non-fiction texts

We have a lot on the go right now!

It's time for another one of those "lists". 

It helps me keep track of all that we have going on in our classroom. Ask any Grade Three teacher this time of year and they'll tell you they feel like they have all the balls up in the air all at once. It's a bit of a juggling act, this here month of May, that's for sure. 

So here we go:

• we're working on Unit 9 (Area, Length and Perimeter) in Math
• we're trying hard to keep up with the intensive EQAO prep activities we do each Wednesday at our "Wednesday Workshop"  
• some of these activities must come home for homework if they're not completed in the designated time provided 
• we've finished comparative and procedural writing 
• we're moving on to story writing in the next day or two
• we're collecting a 60 cm stack of newspapers for a Science activity (Mrs. Renton-teacher) to be completed after EQAO 
• we have learned about the features of non-fiction texts 
• we're reviewing skills daily (both Math and Language Arts) in our Morning Message
• we're looking at having our Unit 9 Math test next week -date hasn't been determined yet 
• and EQAO is in three or so weeks! 

Whew! 

That's a lot!  

But now that I've typed it all out and organized my own thinking, I think it really comes down to three main things: 

• We will be wrapping up Unit 9 in a week or so 
• We are beginning story writing 
• We will continue our Wednesday workshops right up until EQAO and some of that work will come home if it's not completed in the time provided in class. 

I hope this post helps you as much as it does me. This time of year, it's important for this gal to write it all down and since I can type faster than I can write, I figured, hey, why not make a blog post out of it. Perhaps there's a reader out there who loves lists as much as I do! 

Thanks for reading! 

Funniest Moment of the Week

The boys and girls moved their desks around this afternoon. As everyone was getting settled in and saying hello to their new elbow partner, I noticed one little Girl Classmate writing very quickly and with some serious intention.  

She was writing a contract. 

She was writing a list of rules for her and her partner to follow.  

The rules said: 

• bring a healthy snack
• don't loose points
• be quiet

She then asked Boy Classmate to sign it.  Then she told him to wait because she needed to "add flowers to it". 

So after Boy and Girl Classmate sign the contract, they decide they need to exchange fun facts about each other. Girl Classmate is growing her hair long and Boy Classmate loves soccer.  

This Lady Classmate would also like to share a fun fact with you all: teaching really is the greatest (and funnest) job in the world.  

Happy Friday!